'It’s scary': Western University medical student watches as wildfires tear through N.W.T.

A medical student at London, Ont.’s Western University has been watching in horror as wildfires burn her home of the Northwest Territories, and she believes the natural disaster highlights the holes in Canada’s rural healthcare system.

Laney Beaulieu is a medical student at Western University and recently arrived back in London for the fall semester. Hailing from the Northwest Territories, Beaulieu left prior to wildfire evacuations, but she is concerned as most of her family remains in Fort Resolution.

‘It’s scary,” she said. “They send me pictures and it will be the middle of the day and it’s completely blacked out because there is so much smoke covering the entire sun.”

Beaulieu said there is currently “a lot of fear and uncertainty” for people left in communities up north as residents hope for favourable winds so they don’t need to evacuate.

She said it’s hard to make an escape plan when living in a rural area.

“A lot of the roads are shut down, so if we had to evacuate from my community I don’t think we would be able to drive out. We would have to be airlifted or go by boat, and you know there’s been so many problems with getting air lifted out because of all the thick smoke is hard to fly through,” Beaulieu explained.

Weeks ago, a wildfire wiped out internet and phone services in the Northwest Territories.

“With global warming here and affecting out communities, I mean we need to have a more robust contingency plan and back up plans in place for when things like this happen,” she said. “I mean, we shouldn’t lose all telecommunications for medicine in [the] Northwest Territories for one day.”

As a soon-to-be doctor, Beaulieu believes this highlights the holes in Canada’s rural healthcare system. Even on a good day, she said healthcare is hard to access with hospitals few and far between.

Her grandmother is undergoing chemotherapy and is unable to get local treatment.

“They said, ‘Well, call Edmonton and set it up yourself,’ so my grandmother who is old and sick has to drive 13 hours to go to Edmonton instead of [going] to her appointment at the Cross Cancer [Institute], or pay for her own plane ticket from High Level [Alberta], which still includes driving four hours through flames,” she said.