GNWT releases Cancer Care Vision to guide cancer care across the Northwest Territories
Press Release
June 2, 2026
The Government of the Northwest Territories has released the Cancer Care Vision: A Living Framework for Quality and Priorities in the Northwest Territories (the Vision). It is a guide that sets shared direction for how cancer care will be planned, coordinated, and improved over time.
Cancer affects individuals, families, and communities across the NWT. Many residents share similar challenges during their cancer journey, including long travel for care, navigating complex systems, and accessing care that is respectful, culturally safe, and responsive to their needs.
The Vision builds on the 2015-2025 NWT Cancer Strategy (Charting Our Course: Northwest Territories Cancer Strategy 2015-2025), which recently concluded. An evaluation of that strategy showed progress in areas such as prevention, screening, navigation, and collaboration, and identified continued gaps in access, equity, survivorship, and palliative and end-of-life care.
Rather than setting out a fixed list of actions, the Vision provides a flexible framework grounded in guiding principles, shared goals, and continuous learning. It looks at the full cancer journey, from prevention and screening through diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life care. It recognizes that people often move between communities, regions, and jurisdictions to receive care. This approach supports clearer accountability and ongoing improvement in a complex and changing health system. The Vision represents a commitment to understanding how residents experience the health care system with a goal of supporting their wellness, community connections, access to care, interactions with the health system and life beyond cancer.
The Vision is shaped by engagement with communities, including Cancer Sharing Circles, and reflects the importance of cultural safety, partnership with Indigenous governments and organizations, and learning from lived experience. It does not introduce new programs or change current services. Instead, it explains how cancer care will continue to be guided, monitored, and improved over time.
Quote:
“This Vision is intended to be an evolving, responsive framework for cancer care and reflects valuable information that people across the Northwest Territories have shared about their cancer experiences over the last decade. It builds on what we have learned and provides direction for how cancer care will continue to improve in ways that are equitable, culturally safe, and responsive to community needs. I want to thank everyone who provided these personal lived experiences to help inform the future of cancer care in the territory and help us improve in quality, equity and support for healing.”
– Lesa Semmler, Minister of Health and Social Services
Quick facts
- The Charting Our Course: Northwest Territories Cancer Strategy 2015-2025 was the territory’s first comprehensive approach to cancer care.
- An evaluation showed progress along with ongoing challenges related to access, equity, and coordination.
- The Cancer Care Vision provides shared direction through guiding principles, five system-level goals, and a focus on continuous learning and improvement.
Related Links
For media requests, please contact:
Andrew Wind
Manager, Communications
Health and Social Services
Government of the Northwest Territories
HSSmedia@gov.nt.ca
Backgrounder:
backgrounder_-_cancer_care_vision_for_the_northwest_territories.pdf
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