Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Iglulik (June 10/02) - There is something to be said for tenacity.

Daniel Qanatsiaq was a carpenter. He went to work one ordinary day. But when he tumbled seven feet from some scaffolding his life was changed forever. At 55 years old, the Iglulik man became a quadriplegic.

"He had a very active lifestyle. To go from that to what happened to him after the accident -- that's what pushed me to finding all different ways that we could help him," said WCB case worker Margaret Bagg.

Before the accident five years ago, Qanatsiaq was as a hunter, guide, carpenter and seasonal worker.

"He's a Northerner and that's part of why we tried so hard to get him back home."

Qanatsiaq's workplace accident left him in a Montreal hospital for nearly half a year - far away from the family home and his six children. From the beginning, he and his wife were very clear that they wanted to go home to Iglulik.

But there were problems. Iglulik wasn't set up for disabled people. The home Qanatsiaq had built himself wasn't wheelchair accessible. Even the community's health care centre didn't have a ramp. So Bagg set into action and changes were made.

"I can go anywhere in this house. Before that I couldn't go to some of the rooms. The hallways are wider." said Qanatsiaq referring to his specially-built Iglulik home. The house was partly paid for by the WCB. They also cover costs of a full-time attendant, medical equipment, financial assistance and a link to the outside world via computer.

"The amount of teamwork involved in bringing him back into his community and functioning there was incredible. There were a lot of people involved in this effort," said the WCB's Donna Allen explaining that even though the NWT-Nunavut board is the smallest in Canada, it won a National Award of Excellence in Disability Management in the category of public service initiative by a government or statutory agency. "WCB provided the co-ordination and we paid the bills."

Paying the bills

And the bills rang up. WCB paid one-third of the approximately $400,000 home and the $4,000 attendant fees as well a multitude of other expenses.

The board was involved right from the beginning. The injury insurance agency paid for childcare during Qanatsiaq's Montreal hospital stay and accommodations for his wife. "But it soon became apparent within the next year that his house would not do," said Allen.

So the WCB contacted the territorial housing corporation with a proposal. The two agencies came to an agreement and the new home arrived the next year by sealift. The award recognizes innovation and teamwork to fight obstacles. "There are probably a lot of people who would have said 'a quadriplegic can not go to Iglulik. It can't be done,'" said Allen. But it was Bagg who had the tenacity. She understood that despite Iglulik's isolation and inaccessibility, the Qanatsiaqs needed to be home.