Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 19/99) - The powers-that-be in the health and business realms of Nunavut have called for Health Minister Ed Picco to leap into action and break ground on the development of new health-care facilities.

Following a conference call between Nunavut's three regional health boards and the birthright development corporations earlier this month, the parties urged Picco to continue work on establishing the new centres in Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Sharon Ehaloak, of the Kitikmeot Health and Social Services Board, said now that the government of Nunavut had been elected and sworn in, it was time for work on the projects to resume.

"We don't want it to wait and become a side issue. We want it to move ahead in a timely manner," said Ehaloak, reached at the Banff Centre for Management in Alberta where she was delivering a workshop on aboriginal health.

"We believe that it is still a major issue and it's been on the table for a long time. We want to go ahead and get things on track," said Ehaloak.

Her counterpart in the Baffin region, Dennis Patterson, said the projects had been in the works for about the last two years and significant work had been done to date.

Along with developing the capital planning process, the functional programs of the three facilities have been set, sites have been selected and pre-design work has begun in two of the three regions and is set to go ahead in the Baffin.

Patterson said this puts Picco and the cabinet in an excellent position to pick up the ball and continue on with developing the facilities.

"The timing is good because the preliminary drawings are under way and that is the penultimate stage to awarding the building contract," said Patterson.

In each region, the birthright corporation will act as the developer, but will put the building of the facilities out for tender. In total, the overall construction costs will likely push $60 million and in order to offset some of those expenses, the idea of public-private partnerships (P3) has been thrown around.

Until last week however, it was still unclear whether or not the new government would support such funding initiatives. But following a three-day cabinet meeting in Kimmirut, it was announced it had, in fact, agreed in principle to explore P3 financing for the centres.

Picco was unavailable for comment by press time.