Feds change policy to ensure women giving birth away from reserve aren’t alone
OTTAWA — Health Minister Jane Philpott says Ottawa will now pay for someone to travel with indigenous women who need to leave their communities to give birth — a change to what she called an “extremely unhelpful” policy.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Philpott said she heard a “cry loud and clear” from indigenous health experts who were urging the federal government to allow pregnant aboriginal women to leave home with an escort.
“It is a major policy change for us,” Philpott said. “It requires significant resources in order to be able to do that, but it is absolutely a wise investment.”
Health Canada said Sunday that it’s difficult to provide a precise cost estimate for the change because it is a demand-based program but it estimates $22-million will be spent on the measure in the 2017-2018 budget year.