Canadian Healthcare Technology Magazine
Year: 2021
Maple Maskawâhtik, a joint venture by telemedicine provider Maple and Saa Dene Group, a collective of Indigenous-owned companies, is another virtual platform working to expand access to essential services where they’re needed most across Canada.
Saa Dene president and co-founder Jim Boucher, a First Nations chief for more than three decades and Saa Dene CEO Jauvonne Kitto, a former First Nations health director, bring firsthand experience and knowledge of healthcare access issues to the venture. Maple brings the virtual care platform and the expertise to tailor the technology to support community-based models of care.
The approach includes training and socializing providers in the Maple Maskawâhtik network to foster cultural sensitivity, as well as broadening provider types available on the platform to include healers, medicine men, sacred knowledge keepers, elders and others, depending on community-specific needs. Maple Maskawâhtik is currently working with several communities across Canada and is also partnering with leading 5G telecommunications providers to address connectivity concerns in remote areas.
Recently, the venture partnered with the Alberta government to launch an alternative relationship plan (ARP) program, allowing them to offer virtual care on a publicly funded basis to all Albertans.
In her former role as health director, Kitto witnessed healthcare inequity firsthand. Doctor services were only provided a few days per week in her community and when specialty services were required, people had to travel six hours or more.
“I believe that an individual should have a choice of who they wish to see, when they wish to see them and where, and virtual care enables that,” said Kitto, noting that Maple Maskawâhtik will offer specialized cultural healing as well. At the same time, she recognizes that the inequity issue is not only affecting Indigenous peoples but all people living in rural and remote Canadian communities.
“Maple Maskawâhtik is a true form of collaboration and continuity of care,” Kitto added. “It is diversly owned and led, so we understand the culturally appropriate care model, but we also don’t want to limit it to one demographic of people.”
Canadian Healthcare Technology Magazine
Year: 2021
Partnership brings virtual care to Indigenous communities
Now, an organization called Saa Dene Group has partnered with Canadian telehealth leader Maple, creating a new corporation that will bring more virtual care right into the homes, communities and workplaces of Indigenous people. Called Maple Maskawâhtik, the partnership was first announced late last year and started providing services to a First Nations community in Alberta in February.
“We can treat a large number of people right across the country,” said Dr. Brett Belchetz, CEO and co-founder of Toronto-based Maple. “In Alberta, we have access to hundreds of practitioners, including mental health specialists, who will be available to treat Indigenous patients on an equal basis. We can bring high-level care to Indigenous patients that is otherwise only available in urban centres like downtown Calgary, Edmonton or Toronto.”
Dr. Belchetz noted that because Maple has been scaling up over the past few years, it is already serving over 2 million patients across the country and has many doctors ready to take calls within minutes.
Not only has Maple developed a platform that enables patients to access a doctor quickly; afterwards, the doctor can use the system to arrange lab tests or the delivery of prescribed medications. Maple has a close relationship with Shoppers Drug Mart – Canada’s largest pharmacy chain – and has links to drug stores across the country that can fill prescriptions for patients in remote communities.
“There’s a doctor shortage here, and we have trouble recruiting doctors,” Boucher said. Maple Maskawâhtik could provide the region with good quality medical care, he asserted.
“Telehealth isn’t new to First Nations, but in the past, it hasn’t met the service needs of communities,” said Jauvonne Kitto, CEO of Saa Dene Group. “The services provided offered a small network and very little mental healthcare supports.”
She explained that it isn’t much help to a patient if a practitioner is only available in 2-4 weeks. In contrast, Maple Maskawâhtik will be providing “on-demand care”, with less than a couple minute waiting period, 24/7, 365 days a year.
“The Maple Maskawâhtik team has made it a priority to provide culturally appropriate training to the care providers, led by the appropriate stakeholders,” said Kitto. “Maple has agreed to make it part of their strategy.” She noted that this is unique among groups providing care in Canada.
In the case of the Alberta Indigenous communities directly working with Maple Maskawâhtik, the communities have seen value in a more collaborative way of delivering and receiving care, said Kitto. For its part, Saa Dene Group took the initiative in contacting Maple to jointly develop better virtual care in remote and rural communities. “We did our research,” said Kitto. “We looked at who offers solutions for the entire continuum of virtual care. A Canadian company called Maple stood out, and we reached out to them.”
Pathways
by Syncrude Canada
Year: 2020/21
A conversation with Jim Boucher l Vision, Hard Work & Success in creating inclusive & sustainable economic opportunities for the Saa Dene Group.
Pathways
by Syncrude Canada
Year: 2018
A partnership between Fort McKay and Syncrude, contributing to species, environment and cultural preservation.
Pathways
by Syncrude Canada
Year: 2015
There’s almost nothing that Fort McKay Logistics can’t handle. What started as a mail delivery and shuttle service at Syncrude in 1997 has grown to include accepting and transporting anything less than 20,000 pounds destined for Syncrude from its new warehouse in Edmonton.
Fraser Institute
by Tom Flanagan
Year: 2018
The Community Capitalism of the Fort McKay First Nation: A Case Study
Community capitalism” is the term used here to describe a politico-economic system in which a First Nation uses its assets (land, location, natural resources, and money) to generate income and provide social services for its members. The Fort McKay First Nation (FMFN) furnishes an important case study of community capitalism
“Fort McKay has never produced a drop of oil or earned a dollar from resource royalties even though it’s located in the heart of the oil sands. The band council’s success at improving living standards by seizing economic opportunities—without owning natural resources—could serve as an example for other First Nations, no matter their size or location.” Flanagan said.
Other First Nations, no matter their size and location, may benefit from studying the principles of FMFN’s community capitalism and adapting them to their own unique situation.
Fort McKay First Nation score on the Community Well-Being Index—a measurement of living standards using income, employment, housing and education data from Statistics Canada—has increased from 57 in 1996 to 76 in 2011.
That’s well above the average score for First Nations communities (59) and just three points below the average for non-Indigenous communities across Canada.
The average after-tax income for Fort McKay First Nation citizen in 2015 was $73,571—significantly higher than Alberta’s ($50,683) and Canada’s ($38,977).
Publications & Film
National Geographic
by Tim Appenzeller
Year: 2016
Oil, Oil Reserves, Energy, Alternative Energy
Unlike some neighboring leaders who strictly opposed development, Chief Jim Boucher led Fort McKay First Nation to become a business powerhouse. He established the Fort McKay Group of Companies, which provided services to the very oil giants (like Syncrude and Suncor) mining their land.
Chief Boucher’s philosophy was that since the development was inevitable, the community should benefit from it rather than remain in poverty. Under his leadership, the First Nation achieved near-zero unemployment and a significantly higher standard of living.
Energy Exchange
by Thomas Hall
Year: 2016
In the Middle of it All
"Before that, the Cree, Métis and Dene of Fort McKay lived off the land. We had everything we needed — material to build houses, food — and we made money by selling fur. As a 10-year-old, I was very content with how we lived. We worked hard, and when things needed to get done, we worked together as a family. That changed when the Great Canadian Oil Sands company first appeared in 1966.
The trick is patience. It’s not about how fast you can get somewhere; it’s about how good you are when you get there. "
Arctic
by Bruce Parry and BBC
Year: 2011
A conversation with Jim Boucher l Vision, Hard Work & Success in creating inclusive & sustainable economic opportunities for the Saa Dene Group.
Publications & Film
National Geographic
by Robert Kunzig
Year: 2009
Scrapping Bottom - Canadian Oilsands
Chief Jim Boucher is featured as a pragmatic, visionary leader who faced a profound dilemma: how to protect his people’s traditional way of life when their territory was situated at the epicenter of the oil boom.