Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 24/99) - Despite the creation of Nunavut and a consistent drive toward decentralization during the past few years, Yellowknife still continues to exist as an important service centre for the North.

Stanton Regional Hospital, for example, caters to people outside Yellowknife.

In 1997/98 there were 2,322 inpatients and 3,956 emergency unit or surgical day-care patients, according to hospital statistics.

In 1998/99 the number of inpatients dropped to 2,039 while the number of emergency unit or surgical day- care patients rose to 4,149.

Stanton Regional Hospital director of operations, Donna Zaozirny, said though the objective of health care in the NWT is to provide service to patients as close to their home community as possible, many patients are still cared for in Yellowknife. The reason is simple. Yellowknife's service is one tier above what many communities offer.

"About 50 per cent of our service is to those in the Yellowknife area," Zaozirny said.

"That means health professionals or physicians in Yellowknife visit communities outside Yellowknife. Sometimes the patients come to Yellowknife."

As for corrections, Yellowknife is similarly a centre which houses many inmates from around the North.

Director of corrections John Dillon chose Aug. 20 as an arbitrary day to show how many inmates come from areas of the North outside Yellowknife.

Though 31 inmates were from Yellowknife on that particular day, 19 were from the Inuvik region, three from the Deh Cho, 22 from the Sahtu, eight from the Baffin, eight from Kivalliq, 24 from the Kitikmeot, five from the South Slave and 19 from the North Slave outside Yellowknife.

"The statistics speak for themselves about how much Yellowknife serves the rest of the territories," Dillon said.

Lyda Fuller from the YWCA said there are several programs the YWCA offers to cater to women from around the North.

"Many women come to the Yellowknife women's shelter to get away from their home community for a while," Fuller said.

She said 120 women have stayed in the shelter in the past year, of which only 56 were from Yellowknife.

One client was from the South Slave, 15 were from the Fort Smith region, 29 were from the Kitikmeot, three were from the Kivalliq, seven were from the Inuvik region and nine were from the Baffin region.

Aside from the shelter, Fuller said there is a focus program for pre-employment training and academic upgrading.

Here women are encouraged to improve work toward more independence and by learning lifeskills. Many of these women come from outside Yellowknife, Fuller said.

In the Transitional Housing program, Fuller said 91 per cent were from outside Yellowknife and have relocated to Yk.