FORT ALBANY - “Mom, I did it.”
The four simple words hold a lot of meaning for Candice Martin.
Her mother, Margie Plante, had a dream for better healthcare in remote Indigenous communities. Seven years after Plante’s death, Martin spent six weeks working as a doctor in Ontario’s Far North.
Martin honoured Plante – a former nurse in Fort Albany who died in 2017 – on Facebook, expressing her achievement of working as a doctor there and her commitment to bringing more doctors to the community.
Her path to medicine was profoundly influenced by her mother, who always encouraged a healthcare career.
When Plante died, Martin and her siblings created a Facebook page to share updates about their lives with her. It’s where Martin shared the news about travelling to the community over 400 kilometres north of Timmins.
“The reason why it was important was because I wanted her to know it was her idea for me to go to medical school,” Martin said.
Before pursuing a career as a doctor, Martin served eight years in the Canadian Armed Forces as a medic. During her deployments, she learned through her phone calls with Plante about the dire need for medical professionals in Indigenous communities across Northern Ontario.
“She told me how they barely have doctors there, and it’s hard to get access to them,” Martin said.
The Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) is the healthcare network serving the communities on the coast of James and Hudson Bay. It faces significant challenges in staffing, currently needing 10 full-time physicians to meet the healthcare demands.
WAHA serves over 12,000 people in six communities, but attracting and retaining physicians in remote areas is a challenge, said president and CEO Lynne Innes.
With funding for 18 full-time positions but only five part-time and eight full-time doctors, until WAHA is fully staffed, locum physicians make up the difference.
Innes emphasized the need for more doctors in northern, remote Indigenous communities, noting that many contracts last only one to three years.
She expressed hopes for better recruitment incentives and plans to train local physicians with a return-of-service commitment to strengthen their workforce.
“We know that there is a physician shortage not only provincially, but nationally,” Innes said.
As a newly trained nurse, Plante sought opportunities to grow in her role and was particularly attracted to northern communities for their smaller, close-knit populations.
In the early 2000s, Plante fell in love with Fort Albany, even changing her band status to reflect her connection to the community.
“It’s a big deal to change the band on status cards. You have to really want to and be accepted into the new one. A lot of paperwork and meetings go into it. It’s like a citizenship,” Martin said.
Martin’s mom valued her interactions with the elders and their knowledge. Coming from a family with deep Indigenous roots and a history of trapping, Plante cherished traditional skills and a close connection to nature.
Because of Plante, Martin shifted her focus to medicine. A few months after starting her undergraduate studies at Laurentian University in 2017, Plante fell ill with bacterial meningitis.
“We didn’t get to say goodbye,” Martin said, emphasizing how the Facebook page became a way to communicate milestones and achievements that she wished Plante could witness.
Martin pressed on, gaining admission to Queen’s University’s medical program in 2021.
Wanting to serve the communities that Plante loved, she worked in Northern Ontario as part of her med school training. For six weeks this year, she cared for patients in Moosonee, Moose Factory and Fort Albany.
“It healed my soul a little bit to be able to be there,” she said.
She also connected with people who knew Plante.
“I took pictures in the same areas where my mom worked, and it felt like I was carrying her spirit with me,” she said.
While up north, she also mentored aspiring medical students.
“When you come from smaller communities, it’s harder because you don’t have access to resources. I don’t want it to be so hard for everybody else,” she said.
Addressing systemic issues impacting healthcare access in rural and Indigenous communities is crucial, Martin said, pointing out the challenges, including the geographical isolation, limited medical resources and the need for continuity of care.
“Most of these locations are fly-in communities, and they often have locums who provide care for only short periods,” she said.
SEE: New animated film gets to the heart of Far North health challenges
The inconsistency can lead to patients repeating their medical histories to different doctors, complicating their care and contributing to poorer health outcomes.
Limited access to food, clean water and mental health resources are also concerns, Martin said.
“Isolation makes it difficult for people to get consistent help for chronic conditions,” she said.
“There are also many systemic barriers that create serious mental health challenges, which are tough to tackle without sufficient resources.”
Moving to be closer to more accessible healthcare would mean losing their rights as Indigenous people, Martin explained.
“Living on a reserve allows them to hunt, fish, and gather food, which isn’t possible in places like Toronto or Kingston due to different regulations,” she said.
“To maintain their culture, sense of community, and sovereign rights, it's required that they stay within their community. Unfortunately, the way that the medical system has been set up, they don’t have the same resources, which has been detrimental to their health and well-being on many levels.”
On Oct. 4, WAHA announced that Pomerleau Healthcare Partners received a $1.8 billion contract to design, build, and finance a new healthcare campus in Moosonee and an ambulatory care centre in Moose Factory. Construction has started, with the facility expected to open by 2030.
This project has been in development for over 15 years and the facility will replace the oldest unrenovated hospital in Canada, originally built in 1950. The new campus will include a 36-bed acute care hospital, a 32-bed long-term elder lodge, staff residences, a patient hostel, and an outpatient clinic. The total redevelopment cost is projected to reach around $3 billion.
SEE: 'Absolutely critical': $1.8B contract awarded for Moosonee health centre
Now back at Queen’s University for her final year, Martin is focused on specializing in family medicine and plans to return to Northern Ontario after completing her residency.
She is negotiating a return of service agreement with WAHA to continue her work in these communities.
“I’m trying to raise awareness and help out in every way I can, but it'll have to be a combined effort to make progress there,” Martin said.
