Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 09/99) - New Minister of Health, Inuvik MLA Floyd Roland, says a ministers' forum on health care that would travel to several NWT communities is a better solution to hearing concerns than holding a full inquiry.

"The make-up of it has yet to be looked at, yet to see how large it will be and will we take people from different areas and what backgrounds," he says.

"That all needs to be done and the department is working on it now."

No start date has been set yet.

Roland says communication concerns, such as a recent complaint that Inuvik Regional Hospital staff were not aware a patient was arriving via medevac from Edmonton, should be easy to solve.

Problems needing money may be more difficult to solve, he says.

"If people are talking about having a permanent doctor in every community, well that might be harder to accomplish because it requires funding. We all know we're struggling to maintain what we have," he says.

"I know when the ministers' forum on education was up here there was a lot of concern raised at the time about what was happening. Hopefully when the ministers' forum on health and social services comes out, people will clearly speak of their concerns."

As part of a post-division cabinet shuffle, Roland also takes on the departments of housing and seniors, as well as the role of deputy premier.

There are a number of issues Roland would like to look at as housing minister, one of which includes establishing incentives to encourage residents in low-rent housing to find work.

Otherwise, Roland has been following the proposal to add five new seats in the 14-seat NWT legislative assembly.

"I would support doing minimal change in light of all that's happening. If we redraw some seats and add one seat then that would be acceptable," he says.

"But, at the same time, if the committee comes back with bill 15 intact (suggesting) 19 (MLAs) then I would support that as well because it brings us in line with the constitution but my preference would be to not make big changes right now."

Because each riding must not be represented with a greater-than-25-per-cent difference from the average number of constituents in a riding, the riding map was initially redrawn to add one seat in Hay River and two more in Yellowknife.

But those changes push Inuvik to 42 per cent more constituents than the average riding, so Inuvik has one proposed new seat. And that changes Yellowknife's numbers to require one more seat there.

One final concern Roland has so far is that P3 projects may not go as planned.

"Right now the government is waiting to see how the first projects turn out," he says.

"(It's) to see if we will, in future years, continue with this process."