"They would go down to Montreal or Toronto or even Hamilton to be in hospital for a year or even two years, or for myself I was down in Toronto for three years when I had TB back in the early '60s," said Enuaraq.

"A lot of those patients would go down and a lot of them would not come back because they died in hospital," he added.

Enuaraq got legislative researchers last summer to track down a graveyard attendant in Quebec who oversaw the burial of some Inuit.

The researchers reported the attendant identified one unmarked site in which 30 Inuit from the Baffin or Northern Quebec were buried.

"A lot (of) us people in Baffin region are thankful we had help from federal government when we had TB, but we'd be even more thankful if the federal or territorial government could do something about this situation that's been going on for a very long time," said Enuaraq.

Ng said that while his department hasn't had a lot of requests for assistance in locating these people, the department could possibly get involved.

"I can say, on a case-by-case basis, if individuals are needing assistance to try to locate a deceased relative, then we will try to identify, certainly the area where the service was provided, where their medical treatment was provided and try to assist them," said Ng.

However, when Enuaraq specifically asked Ng for funding to pay the transportation costs of families wanting to visit southern grave sites, Ng said the department has no set programs to provide funding of that nature.