{"id":1685,"date":"2025-10-01T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:58:18","slug":"phd-success-sarah-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/2025\/phd-success-sarah-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD Success: Sarah Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n PhD Success: Sarah Jones\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Evaluating the impacts of the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway on food security and other determinants of health in What\u00ec, NWT.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Jones, PhD<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many Indigenous populations across Canada experience inequalities in the determinants of health and well-being and health outcomes compared to non-Indigenous populations. These inequalities are related to historic and contemporary structural and systemic inequities linked to processes of colonization. In Canada, inequities are compounded in isolated and remote communities by large geographic distances to the nearest administrative and service centres and, in many cases, socio-economic marginalization. The development of new transportation infrastructure is often used as an instrument for government policy to bridge this distance and improve determinants of health and well-being for isolated communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb community of What\u00ec in northern Canada was fundamentally transformed by one such development, the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway, which connected the isolated community of What\u00ec to other communities in Northwest Territories (NWT) and to southern Canada. The objective of this research was to investigate the ways in which the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway has changed the community of What\u00ec. Through a community-based participatory research methodological approach in partnership with T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Government (TG) Department of Culture and Lands Protection (DCLP), this research investigated the impacts of the highway on food security and food sovereignty, mobility, and economic, social, and cultural determinants of health and well-being for community members in What\u00ec. It also investigated how impacts may be experienced differently across sub-populations in the community and identified programs and initiatives that could address negative impacts of the highway and improve determinants of health and well-being for community members in What\u00ec. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using dirt research as a research method, the researcher took up research residence in What\u00ec for several months in 2023, and conducted follow-up visits throughout 2024 and 2025. Together with two community research coordinators from What\u00ec, the researcher conducted a total of 50 semi-structured interviews with 55 community members, a focus group, and a workshop with high school students in 2023. This research also employed an analysis of documents submitted to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) for the environmental assessment review process of the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway to compare predicted and post-construction impacts of the highway specific to the market food system in What\u00ec. The methods used to conduct this research then shifted from observational to action-oriented to facilitate conversations between key stakeholders regarding the eligibility of the What\u00ec Community Store to receive a retail subsidy through the Nutrition North Canada (NNC) program, which depends on lack of year-round surface transportation to a community. This shift was grounded in t community-based participatory research methodology and driven by the researcher\u2019s commitment to reciprocity and responsibility for ethical community engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This thesis presents a scoping review to map the extent, nature, and distribution of studies on the impacts of transportation infrastructure development on the determinants of health and well-being for remote communities in the circumpolar north, Australia, and New Zealand. It also presents the results of community-based participatory research, document analysis, and engagement with key stakeholders. Key findings of community-based participatory research illustrate the importance of situating food security in place and, that while the highway has improved dimensions of food security at the individual and household levels, it has negatively impacted food sovereignty at the community level in What\u00ec. The highway has provided marked increases in the mobility of community members in What\u00ec, limited short-term economic benefits, and the potential for medium- and long-term economic development and employment opportunities. However, increased connectivity has also resulted in a substantial increase in substance use in the community and changes to community safety, and has the potential to contribute to the erosion of T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb N\u00e0owo, or way of life, in What\u00ec. These impacts were assessed alongside efforts to mitigate food insecurity of community members and negative impacts of the highway, and to improve food sovereignty and the determinants of health and well-being in What\u00ec.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results of document analysis found that the environmental assessment review process for the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway lacked discussion on the predicted impacts of the highway on the What\u00ec Community Store in relation to the NNC retail subsidy. As a result of engagement with key stakeholders, the What\u00ec Community Store received an extension of the retail subsidy and contingency funding from the NNC Community Food Programs Fund to support its transition to a road-based supply chain using the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway. Results of the investigation into the interactions between the environmental assessment review process and institutional supports or barriers for the market food system also yielded four policy recommendations. These, along with the results of community-based participatory research, can inform environmental assessment review processes for proposed new roads to isolated communities in Canada including mitigative strategies specific to sub\u2011populations that may be disproportionately impacted by this infrastructure. Results of community-based participatory research support TG\u2019s regulatory reporting requirements for the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway to the MVEIRB. Lastly, this thesis contributes to critical population health praxis and community-based participatory research as a methodological approach to research with communities, discussing the relationship between research and advocacy for researchers external to, but partnering with, communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the Dissertation:<\/strong> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.22215\/etd\/2025-16782<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Jones S. Evaluating the Impacts of the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway on Food Security and other Determinants of Health and Well-Being in What\u00ec, NWT [dissertation on the Internet]. Ottawa (ON): Carleton University; 2025 [cited 2025 Oct 1]. Available from: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.22215\/etd\/2025-16782<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Evaluating the impacts of the T\u0142\u0131\u0328ch\u01eb Highway on food security and other determinants of health in What\u00ec, NWT. Sarah Jones, PhD Abstract Many Indigenous populations across Canada experience inequalities in the determinants of health and well-being and health outcomes compared to non-Indigenous populations. These inequalities are related to historic and contemporary structural and systemic inequities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":1687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[59,76,90,27],"tags":[60,165],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dirt-research","category-free-range","category-rural-health","category-social-determinants-2","tag-dirt-research","tag-phd-dissertation"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}