Advocates call on N.W.T to stop partnering with Alberta on gender-affirming care after province tables Bill 9

Advocates are calling on the Northwest Territories to stop referring transgender patients to Alberta for gender-affirming care after the province tabled a bill to shield laws impacting trans youth from human rights challenges.

The Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services has a commitment to provide gender-affirming health care to N.W.T. patients. If a patient can’t get the care they need from a local provider, they are typically referred to a specialist in Alberta.

N.W.T. MLA Kate Reid, who represents Great Slave, wants to see that change — now.

“I’m calling on the [N.W.T. government] yet again to start moving the trans health-care needs of N.W.T. away from Alberta, because it's very clear that Alberta doesn’t want to treat trans youth,” Reid told CBC.

Bill 9 was tabled in the Alberta legislature last week. If passed, it would prevent — for five years — any Charter challenges to a previous bill (Bill 26) that would ban doctors from prescribing hormone therapy or puberty blockers to patients 15 and under. Alberta legislators say the passing of Bill 9 would also end a court-ordered injunction that temporarily blocked the implementation of Bill 26.

Bill 9 would also prevent Charter challenges to two other bills affecting trans youth — one that restricts membership on girls sports teams to kids born female and another that requires students under 16 to get permission from their families before using their preferred pronouns at schools.

Reid said this bill should be a “red alert” moment for the government of Northwest Territories that Alberta is not a safe partner for gender-affirming care for youth or adults.

A recent report on how the N.W.T. can improve gender-affirming care also recommends transgender patients be given options to receive healthcare — gender-affirming or otherwise — outside of Alberta.

The report is called Patient and Provider Perspectives on the 2020 Health Care for Transgender, Non-binary, And gender non-conforming People: Guidelines for the Northwest Territories. It was written by N.W.T. advocacy organization Northern Mosaic Network, in partnership with researchers from the University of Manitoba.

Chelsea Thacker is the executive director of the Northern Mosaic Network. 

They said one reason for the recommendation was that the trans patients they spoke to reported feeling “an increase in lack of safety” in Alberta when accessing both gender-affirming care and other forms of health care.

“Alberta has become increasingly vitriolic towards trans people,” Thacker said.

Thacker said patients also had other reasons for wanting more choice in where to access care, including long waitlists and limited provider choice for gender-affirming surgeries in Alberta. 

But giving N.W.T. patients the option to access gender-affirming care outside of Alberta is still only a “band-aid solution,” Thacker said.