Cowessess First Nation providing digital maps to first responders
Partnership with Sask. Polytechnic intended to help improve response times
On average, it takes an ambulance an hour and 10 minutes to arrive on Cowessess First Nation after a 911 call is made.
That response time wasn’t acceptable to Chief Cadmus Delorme, which prompted discussions with Saskatchewan Polytechnic to find a way of ensuring residents on the First Nation get the help they need in an emergency.
Cowessess First Nation has now partnered with Sask. Polytechnic on a new digital mapping project that is intended to help emergency responders reach locations on the reserve more quickly.
A digital map containing a geodatabase of roads and homes on the First Nation has been completed by faculty members at Sask. Polytechnic’s geomatics and surveying engineering technology department.
Cowessess takes up 32,000 acres of land, which sits north of Broadview and south of Grayson.
For those not from the area, that land can be hard to navigate. Google Maps isn’t an option, as the local roads in the reserve are not mapped.
Delorme said Google Maps sometimes can’t even provide visitors with proper navigation to the band office, much less some of the remote homes in the community.
Cowessess has its own fire department, but receives ambulance services from the town of Grenfell, which is located approximately 45 kilometres away. Delorme said responders are currently using outdated physical maps to navigate the reserve.
In recent years, the reserve has had three medical emergencies where first responders were slow to arrive, or went to the wrong area. In one of those events there was a death. In another, the patient was saved but died the week after.
A year ago when STARS air ambulance responded to a medical emergency on the reserve, the helicopter landed in the wrong location. STARS was eventually successful in transporting the patient back to Regina, and that person did recover.
In the case of the two ambulance responses, Cadmus said it’s not possible to state the deaths were because of the wait times. Both were cases where an elderly person was suffering from a natural medical condition. But the slow response times were noted.
“Those are life and death situations,” said Delorme.
The mapping project came about during discussions between the reserve and Sask. Polytechnic to bring a remote campus to Cowessess.
In order for a digital map of the reserve to be created, Cowessess needed to name all of its roads and have street signs created, something Delorme said is an uncommon feature on Saskatchewan reserves.
Through a community engagement campaign, and help from students
… Cowessess reached out for assistance and Sask. Polytechnic, without even hesitating, they jumped on board.
at Cowessess’ local school, roads on Cowessess now all have names.
In a news release, Sask. Polytechnic said it hopes to use the same mapping technology to assist other reserves and rural municipalities, and that it could also be used for future planning and development projects.
Delorme described the co-operation between Cowessess and Polytechnic as an example of the partnerships that are happening between First Nation and nonfirst Nation communities in the spirit of reconciliation.
“First Nations definitely have their own jurisdiction, but Cowessess reached out for assistance and Sask. Polytechnic, without even hesitating, they jumped on board,” said Delorme.