SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Working with populations affected by severe droughts in Africa, experiencing postponed freeze-ups in the Arctic and breathing in the smoke-filled air following last summer's wildfires, Dr. Courtney Howard saw first-hand the connection between health and the environment.

Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo Dr. Courtney Howard says the impact of environmental change on health is particularly evident in the North. -

"With the forest fires last year, there were two months where our air quality was really terrible here. It put our air quality on the map on a national scale," Howard said.

"It is just becoming clearer and clearer that there are real health effects associated with this."

Representing the Northwest Territories Medical Association, Howard brought this point forward in a resolution for the national body at the Canadian Medical Association's (CMA) General Council from Aug. 23 to 26. As well as Howard, NWT delegates supporting the motion included doctors Ewan Affleck, Anna Reid, Hannah Shoichet, Sarah Cooke, Suraiya Naidoo and Steve Kraus.

"The motions I presented were around CMA divestment and CMA reinvestment in renewable energy, as well as asking CMA to promote the health benefits of carbon pricing," Howard said.

Through MD Financial ­ the financial management arm of the CMA ­ association members invest their own money and the association has $29 million invested. Of that sum, six per cent, or approximately $1.7 million, is invested in the energy sector.

"They basically act like investment advisors for doctors. It's a free service with CMA dues and a high proportion of doctors invest with them," said Howard.

"They just weren't offering anything in their standard products that were low carbon options."

Three years ago, former NWT Medical Association president Dave Pontin made the original motion for MD Financial to develop a low-carbon portfolio for doctors to invest in, though it gained little traction at the time.

This year, that low-carbon option was favoured and passed easily, said Howard. Membership also voted on the motion to move association investments away from fossil fuels and into renewables, but it wasn't without controversy ­ to the extent that keypads were used to maintain anonymity, rather than the usual method of a show of hands.

"Every physician's job is to advocate for their patients. I hosted a sharing circle during the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Conference and heard from people all over the territory about how climate change is affecting health and wellness. You hear this all over the North and that's why there is such broad support from doctors in the NWT," Howard said.

"Physicians from resource extraction parts of Canada Š they felt like it was voting against their patients because some (of their patients) have just lost their jobs and, they didn't really know much about climate change literature, but they've certainly seen the impact on patients of losing their job."

The messaging and information-sharing around fossil fuels, Howard said, varies widely in different parts of the country.

There has been successful uptake of renewable energies in the NWT ­ biomass in particular, pointed out Louie Azzolini, executive director of the Arctic Energy Alliance.

"I think part of the reason we as a society are prepared to accelerate or move ahead faster is because in our Northern communities, the people that live in the North place a high value on the environment. We have 42,000 people spread out over a huge land mass ­ up until the 1960s people earned their livelihood on the land, and today people still do that," he said. "Our connection to the environment is closer to our living memory and that influences the choices we make when living in the North."

In more industrialized places in the south, he said that sense of closeness to the land is more distant and the political will toward the environment is taking longer to develop.

In the end, the resolution saw 56 votes in favour of moving CMA energy investments toward renewables, and 44 votes against.

"Really, what we need Canada to know is that climate change is a health issue and Canada's doctors think we need treatment now," Howard said.

"And the CMA committed to move forward with it."

Highlighting the connection between health and environment is important, said Azzolini, as is asking questions and thinking critically.

"I'd love to know the briefing notes and the background material that the board considered at arriving at that conclusion," Azzolini said. "As a medical community, they've made a choice Š they made a decision, but the sharing of information is ultimately the most important thing because it empowers others to make that decision as well."