SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife MLA says motorists are rolling the dice every time they take to the highway in the NWT.

A collision on Highway 3 south of Fort Providence left two men dead and a third seriously injured last year. Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny said a helicopter crew was initially tasked with flying to the scene and then told to stand down. One year later, the GNWT does not appear to have a policy in place for emergency highway extractions. - photo courtesy of Alden Vogt

That's because the territorial government has air ambulance helicopters and planes at its disposal but it remains uncertain whether they will come should people get into an accident on some remote stretch of road.

"Any time people drive on one of our highways, it's like Vegas," said Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny, who raised questions about the GNWT's highway emergency extraction policy shortly after an accident on Highway 3 one year ago left two men dead and another seriously injured.

"It's blind luck that we're not facing these sorts of questions on a regular basis."

Despite requests for information to various levels of government, the GNWT has yet to explain why a rescue helicopter crew in Yellowknife was told to stay parked on the airport tarmac after news of the accident reached them.

Instead, Yellowknifer received seven pages of mostly redacted documents from the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority, which sent an ambulance from Fort Providence 80 km to the crash site to retrieve the sole survivor. The severely injured driver of a semi-trailer truck was driven back to Fort Providence and then loaded onto a medevac plane to Yellowknife, before being rushed on another flight to Edmonton.

What is known is that on the morning of Feb. 19, 2013, four men were driving from Yellowknife to Fort Smith when they came across a horrifying scene - a Super-B fuel tanker truck in flames, and a second truck with its cargo of explosive dynamite strewn across the highway - between 10 and 10:30 a.m.

As a result of the accident, two men - Lawrence Ambler of Gwynne, Alta., and Leroy Alfred Conner of Oklahoma - were killed.

What caused the accident is still unknown. A report is still forthcoming, according to the investigating officer, Const. Clifton Richards, an RCMP officer with the Fort Providence detachment. The investigation is open, but not ongoing, he said.

Shortly after the accident, Dolynny told Yellowknifer that he had been told an air ambulance helicopter that was initially supposed to fly to the scene was told to stand down, with a ground ambulance from Fort Providence to be sent instead.

Based on confidential briefings given to MLAs at the time, Dolynny called for an inquiry into the territory's policy on emergency roadside services.

To search for answers as to what happened that day, an access to information request was mailed by Yellowknifer to the Department of Health and Social Services last year, which resulted in the return of documents that were nearly all blacked out.

The request - which was later transferred by the department to the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority in November - does show that the accident was discussed during at least two meetings on Feb. 25 and 28. The names of those in attendance at the meeting - and even the name of the person who took notes at the meeting - are redacted.

Carsen Hardisty, the director of quality and risk management with the Dehcho health authority, said he would not be able to say how much of the redacted information dealt with the accident specifically, citing the territory's access to information laws (ATIPP).

Even then, Hardisty said it wasn't up to the regional health authority to decide whether or not an emergency vehicle would be sent to the scene of an accident.

"We don't provide emergency response in the community," said Hardisty. "It's up to (the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs) and their emergency response protocol."

This contradicts information provided by Health and Social Services.

"The decision is made by the nurse in charge with consultation from the emergency room physician (at Stanton Territorial Hospital)," said Damien Healy, communications director for the health department.

Feb. 19 was a day like any other for Richards, an RCMP officer posted in Fort Providence. That is, until a call came in at 10:56 a.m. from Yellowknife dispatch about the accident on Highway 3.

Richards said he, his partner and a nurse were on the scene of the accident within 30 minutes of the initial call.

"Myself, my partner and the health centre nurse ran right in," Richards said, adding that when they arrived on scene, drivers that had come across the incident had already pulled the injured driver - Brian Conner, Leroy's son - from the wreckage and had placed him on makeshift stretcher - a piece of plywood.

The officer said one of the trucks had burned down "to ash," leading he and his partner to conclude that its occupant - Ambler - was dead.

The occupant of the other truck - Leroy - was not moving and not responding to verbal commands, Richards said, adding he was unable to check the man's pulse.

"Before we could get into the vehicle to extract (the man), we would have to have a tow truck come in to move the vehicle, which wouldn't happen for a while later," he said.

Richards said Conner was already on the way to a medical facility in Fort Providence when they received a call from the main dispatch in Yellowknife.

"There was dynamite on scene," Richards said. "We had to back off and set up a perimeter before going back in to set up an investigation."

He said the perimeter was set up 1.5 km away.

Richards said a medevac helicopter, in his opinion, would have been useful on that day. He said if a helicopter had been requested he was unaware of it.

"I do think the helicopter would have been an asset. The injured party would have been taken to a major health facility," Richards said. "However, given the amount of dynamite that was in the debris, I don't know if a helicopter could be brought in or not."

Richards added that given the circumstances, he, his partner and the nurse did the best they could.

"It was handled to the best of our abilities being in an isolated area such as this," he said. "From what we could do, the response was as quick and effective as possible."

Last year, Dolynny pressed then Health Minister Tom Beaulieu in the legislative assembly in regards to the territory's highway emergency response policy, to which the Tu Nedhe MLA admitted the NWT had no clear protocols that speak to air rescue services by a helicopter or floatplane in the territory, or for performing rescues on a highway outside the jurisdiction of community governments.

Beaulieu did say that within extreme circumstances, a decision would be made on a case-by-case basis by the health department, the regional health authority or police.

There remains no policy.

"We have helicopters, and we have the ability. What stops us from having a policy on emergency extractions? I don't think (Health and Social Services) is taking this seriously," Dolynny said to Yellowknifer. "It doesn't happen frequently, but when it does, we need a clear direction on who makes the call. Not having a policy is just not right."

Doloynny said the current annual budget for highway emergency extractions is $350,000 for all of the NWT, spread across all communities - a figure he said is too low.

"We're a year later, and I'm not even sure we even have the right answer on extraction policy," Dolynny said. "How do you put a dollar (value) on human life? This is ridiculous."

Hardisty said he was unable to discuss how much of the meetings following the accident dealt with it specifically.

He went on to explain that the blacked out sections were redacted in accordance with section 14 1A of the NWT's access to information law, which permits the head of a public body to "refuse to disclose information to an applicant where the disclosure could reasonably be expected to reveal advice, proposals, recommendations, analyses or policy options developed by or for a public body or a member of the executive council," and section 14 1F, which permits the head to "refuse to disclose information to an applicant where the disclosure could reasonably be expected to reveal the contents of agendas or minutes of meetings of any agency, board, commission, corporation, office or other body that is a public body."

Dolynny said even he as an MLA has had frustrating

run-ins with the territory's ATIPP laws. For example, he said, he filed a request to learn about a new building

being constructed for the devolution office in April of last year.

When he received a response, it came seven months later in November, and parts of it was redacted.

"It can take months, and many times, people have to pay substantially out of pocket to get this information," Dolynny said.

- with files from NNSL archives

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