Dr. Alika Lafontaine, photo courtesy CMA

By Erika Rolling

Health

Grande Prairie anesthesiologist becomes first Indigenous president of CMA

Aug 26, 2022 | 8:30 AM

On August 22, 2022, Dr. Alika Lafontaine, an anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, was inducted as the first Indigenous president in the 155 years of the Canadian Medical Associations’ history.

He was born on Treaty 4 and the Métis homelands of southern Saskatchewan with mixed ancestry of Métis, Cree, Anishinaabe, and Pacific Islander.

Dr. Lafontaine has been practicing in the City since 2011 and says he’s stayed this long because he fell in love with the community.

He was also the medical lead of the Indigenous Health Alliance from 2013 to 2017, drafting and co-led a national strategy with territorial organizations that represents 150 First Nations and several national health organizations, which led to a commitment by the federal government of $68 million over three years to advance Indigenous-led health transformation in Canada.

“It’s been a life-changing experience to practice in a smaller center and really give service to people within the area of Grande Prairie and further. Northern Alberta, northern B.C., and the Northwest Territories… hearing their stories, seeing the impacts of the pandemic, and the current healthcare crisis on access to care,” he said in an interview with Everything GP following his induction of presidency to the CMA.

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He says connecting with patients is the solution to repairing the healthcare system and he wants to advocate for the broken systems in Canada after surviving the pandemic.

” The reality is there has been parts of the system that have collapsed. Not the entire system at the same time, but there are parts…”

“Systems are simply made up of people. We have to take the time to pause, rebuild a stabilize those people.”

Dr. Lafontaine says for physician retention and attraction in communities, it comes down to work environment.

“Making sure people enjoy coming to their place of work. The truth is physicians are just like anyone else, we wanna come to our jobs with reasonable expectations.”

He adds the workload, stress, lack of downtime and meaningful connections are a few downfalls to why the system is failing and why physicians aren’t staying in rural communities.

“My rural experiences in Grande Prairie provided me an opportunity to grow as a physician, that I don’t think I would’ve in a city. Being able to see firsthand the stresses of people that don’t have access to healthcare that you may have in a larger center, recognizing when people are asked to be transferred elsewhere… it’s not a light decision, people have to rearrange their lives, arrange transport, they may not be around their family… all these things you don’t see unless you work in a rural community,” he says to physicians should consider working in places other than bigger cities.

Dr. Lafontaine is a nationally-recognized advocate for Indigenous health and says we can learn a lot the individuals at the middle of certain issues being addressed.

“When I’m sitting around tables and providing advice to Canadians or other leaders within the health system, I’m aware of the voices that might be excluded and I can see the people who might not be around the table.. and that’s really valuable as we try and charter our way towards rebuilding a healthcare system for the future,” he noted.

He is also involved in a Guiding Circle created by the CMA, which is working towards reconciliation and allyship with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples.

Dr. Lafontaine will be president of the CMA for one year until his term is completed.