Getting adequate medical services, particularly a doctor in-residence, is just one of the many challenges that face some small mining communities in remoter areas of Canada, especially in the northern regions such as the Yukon Territory, and the Northwest Territories.
The problem has surfaced just in the past short while, for instance, in the little Yukon community of Faro, where Curragh Resources has done remarkable work getting the former Cyprus Anvil lead-zinc mine back into production. When Curragh re-started the mine about two years ago, after a 4-year shutdown, Faro was a literal ghost town, home for just a handful of people. Now, the community has over 1,200 people and many needs have resurfaced.
Just a few days ago, the community ran a fairly large advertisement in a Toronto daily newspaper seeking a doctor who, among other things, would have annual income of over $150,000, a free 1,600-square-foot home with free utilities, a free fully-equipped medical clinic and free nursing/secretarial support. Clifford Frame, chairman of Curragh, which has done a great deal to support the community (though is assiduously avoiding making it a “company town”), hopes the ad will work.
You would think in fact that it would, considering the rewards for any doctor who pursued it. Nevertheless, the president of another fairly large mining operation also in a somewhat remote area of the Yukon, is dubious. He’s tried the same thing, with no real success.
As Frame says, getting doctors is not just a problem these days in the far north, but is a difficulty in rural or remote areas almost anywhere in Canada. There is really not much the mining industry itself can do about it, except to hope for a new definition of service amongst members of the medical profession.
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