{"id":108068,"date":"2026-08-21T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=108068"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T18:10:11","slug":"northern-patients-call-for-overhaul-of-ontario-travel-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/northern-patients-call-for-overhaul-of-ontario-travel-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern patients call for overhaul of Ontario travel grant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Pam Fedack, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner &amp; News For many people in northwestern Ontario, seeing a specialist begins with a road trip. It can mean hundreds of kilometres behind the wheel, an overnight hotel stay and meals away from home \u2014 sometimes while the patient is undergoing cancer treatment or dealing with a different life-threatening illness. A group of northern patient advocates says Ontario&#8217;s Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) helps but too often leaves patients paying costs the program doesn&#8217;t cover, while also navigating a complicated application process despite being sick. Now, the Community Patient Advisory Council of the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team is calling for changes to the program, beginning with reimbursement rates, and eventually giving patients a formal voice in how the&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Fnorthern-patients-call-for-overhaul-of-ontario-travel-grant%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Pam Fedack, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner &amp; News For many people in northwestern Ontario, seeing a specialist begins with a road trip. It can mean hundreds of kilometres behind the wheel, an overnight hotel stay and meals away from home \u2014 sometimes while the patient is undergoing cancer treatment or dealing with a different life-threatening illness. A group of northern patient advocates says Ontario&#8217;s Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) helps but too often leaves patients paying costs the program doesn&#8217;t cover, while also navigating a complicated application process despite being sick. Now, the Community Patient Advisory Council of the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team is calling for changes to the program, beginning with reimbursement rates, and eventually giving patients a formal voice in how the... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Fnorthern-patients-call-for-overhaul-of-ontario-travel-grant%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Northern patients call for overhaul of Ontario travel grant - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/northern-patients-call-for-overhaul-of-ontario-travel-grant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northern patients call for overhaul of Ontario travel grant - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Pam Fedack, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner &amp; News For many people in northwestern Ontario, seeing a specialist begins with a road trip. It can mean hundreds of kilometres behind the wheel, an overnight hotel stay and meals away from home \u2014 sometimes while the patient is undergoing cancer treatment or dealing with a different life-threatening illness. A group of northern patient advocates says Ontario&#8217;s Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) helps but too often leaves patients paying costs the program doesn&#8217;t cover, while also navigating a complicated application process despite being sick. 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