Community Response

The 155

Supporting communities in Northwest Saskatchewan 

The 155 is the communications arm of the Northwest’s Incident Command Centre (ICC), which is coordinating the Northwest region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 155 includes twenty four communities in the remote, primarily-Indigenous northwestern region of Saskatchewan, along Highway 155.

The ICC was established in April 2020, by First Nations, Metis and municipal leaders to coordinate pandemic planning, maximize limited resources and fill in gaps left by the provincial emergency response.

The ICC acts as a regional hub to coordinate and support the region’s emergency teams. The ICC hosts daily conference call briefings for community leaders across the North West. These calls enable member communities to voice their concerns, share information about needed capacity, and discuss possible solutions from across the region and beyond. These daily briefings include provincial and federal specialists, health authority representatives, agency supports, and elected leaders. 

The 155 has created training and support for COVID-19 response in Indigenous communities in Northwest Saskatchewan, specifically protecting and caring for Elders. The ICC have developed a three-month intervention that involves multiple levels of support for communities, the supply of additional PPE, and the critical creation of training videos, recorded in each Cree, Dene, and Michif, for care-givers, that are focused on the specific context facing small communities in the north. 

See how northern communities came together and notions of resilience emerging in communities.

The Division of Social Accountability has been able to support the ICC through a Community Reciprocity Fund grant to ensure that important work in protecting our Indigenous communities of the Northwest continues.