How to Make a Personal Directive in the Northwest Territories

What a Personal Directive Actually Controls

A personal directive in the Northwest Territories is governed by the Personal Directives Act. It covers everything that a power of attorney does not: medical treatments, surgical consents, long-term care admissions, residential placement, social activities, and end-of-life care. Think of it as your parent's written instructions for every non-financial decision that matters when they can no longer speak for themselves.

Your parent (the "director") names an agent — the person who will make these decisions on their behalf. The directive can include specific instructions ("I do not want to be placed in a facility outside the NWT") or leave decisions to the agent's judgement, or both.

A personal directive only activates when the director is formally assessed as lacking the cognitive capacity to make the specific decision at hand. This assessment is decision-specific: your parent might retain the capacity to choose what to eat for dinner but lack the capacity to consent to a complex surgery or a long-term care placement.

The Signing Requirements

The director must be at least 19 years old and mentally capable at the time of signing. The witnessing rules under the Personal Directives Act are stricter than for a power of attorney:

• The witness cannot be the designated agent
• The witness cannot be the agent's spouse
• The witness cannot be the director's spouse
• If someone signs on behalf of a physically disabled director (a subrogated signature), the signer and the signer's spouse are also disqualified

The agent must sign a declaration of acceptance — this is a mandatory requirement under NWT law that is often missed. Without the agent's signed declaration, the directive may not be recognized by healthcare providers when it matters most.

Why This Document Is Critical in the NWT

The Northwest Territories has no comprehensive automatic statutory family consent hierarchy for general, non-emergency healthcare decisions. If your parent loses capacity without a personal directive, there is no law that automatically gives you — the adult child — the right to consent to a surgery, approve a long-term care admission, or access their medical records under the Health Information Act.

Your only path at that point is applying for a court-ordered guardianship through the Supreme Court of the NWT, which takes a minimum of five months and costs $3,000 to $7,000 in legal fees.

The one narrow exception is under the Mental Health Act: if a patient is subject to a Treatment Decision Certificate during a psychiatric crisis, a clinical practitioner can temporarily designate a substitute decision maker from a statutory hierarchy (spouse first, then adult children by age, then parents, then siblings). This is strictly limited to psychiatric treatment under an active certificate — it does not extend to general medical decisions, residential placements, or long-term care.

What to Do After Signing

Once the directive is properly signed and witnessed:

1. Distribute certified copies to your parent's primary care physician, the local Home and Community Care coordinator, and the NTHSSA regional office. Ask that the directive be integrated into your parent's electronic medical records.
2. Give a copy to Stanton Territorial Hospital if your parent is likely to receive care there. The admissions team needs the directive on file before a crisis, not during one.
3. Keep the original in an accessible location — not a safety deposit box that requires a court order to open in an emergency.
4. Notify family members who might interact with healthcare providers. If siblings are involved in your parent's care, everyone should know who the designated agent is and where the directive is stored.

Pairing It with a Power of Attorney

A personal directive handles healthcare; a power of attorney handles finances. Your parent needs both. The two documents work as a pair — the POA lets you manage the financial side of care (paying facility fees, handling medical travel expenses), while the personal directive lets you consent to the care itself.

The NWT Power of Attorney & Personal Directive Kit includes templates and step-by-step instructions for both instruments, along with the agent's declaration form and a witnessing checklist that covers the stricter personal directive rules.

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