Besides hockey, there is no greater source of national pride than our health care.

Recently, however, that notion has taken a bit of a beating.

Under the rules that hold together the flimsy union we call Canada, health care is a provincial/territorial responsibility, funded in large part by the federal government.

Annual spending on health care in Canada amounts to about $90 billion, $62 billion of which comes from the public purse. The rest is spent by Canadians on private insurance plans or uninsured services.

In the last few years, health-care funding has taken a beating, as governments at all levels have undergone religious conversions to the faith of debt reduction.

Back in 1977, a plan of block payments from the feds was instituted, partly as an attempt by Ottawa to keep the lid on provincial/territorial spending. Increases in funding were tied to the growth of the economy.

However, health spending grew a lot faster than the gross domestic product (GDP). By 1986, the feds had reduced funding increases to the growth of the GDP less three per cent. The result was no increase in funding from 1990-95, which, in effect, amounted to a spending freeze. In 1996, with the establishment of the Canada Health and Social Transfer plan, $6 billion was cut.

By 1995-96, the federal contribution to health care was 32.1 per cent of total health-care spending, down from 47.4 percent in 1980.

Federal transfers to the provinces/territories having ebbing for about 15 years. Meanwhile, costs have risen with the development of expensive medical technology, costly medications, increasingly sophisticated treatments and an aging population.

In the context of the last 15 years, the Liberals' recent one-time contribution of $4.2 billion for health care is too little.

Health care is part of the social union of this country, and the federal government is in arrears. Territorial health ministers have every right to demand more funding. They are only asking the feds to pay their fair share.

And the children shall lead...

They can not really be considered children any more, but the teens who make up the local chapter of Students Against Drinking and Driving (SADD) are leading by example.

In a region where drinking and driving is 2.5 times higher than the national average, someone has to champion the cause and raise awareness. That's why SADD's plan to host a national conference next year is to be commended.

From March 22-25, 2001, up to 500 delegates will gather in Yellowknife, bringing with them a burst of teenage energy that could reinvigorate their peers and even older generations to new levels of awareness of the true depth of the problem of drinking and driving and its consequences.

Ten years ago a group of concerned citizens were looking for a way to reduce the intolerable number of suicides in their hometown of Iqaluit.

Today, we can all be grateful for the existence of Kamatsiaqut, the Baffin Help Line.

From an initial clutch of 14, there is now a trained staff of 47 people who man the phones seven nights a week. Calls come in from all across Nunavut and Nunavik. The service is bilingual.

Suicide remains a horrific problem in Nunavut, but God alone knows what the statistics would look like without the contribution of the Baffin Help Line. After ten years of community service, they have earned our gratitude. It's nice to know that as long as there are people who need to call, there is somebody there to answer.

Governments are often seen as heroes when they commit funding for projects. They're usually considered bums when spending has to be clawed back.

But in times when money is short, it takes a strong will to stand up and say 'sorry, certain plans have to be put on hold', even if it means taking a political hit.

In the case of the $10 million worth of recent capital spending cuts, the public must acknowledge current fiscal realities. The money to do the work is simply not available.

That said, however, it is up to the communities affected by the cuts to ensure their projects don't get lost in the shuffle when there is funding for the work due to government's changing priorities and shifting political winds.

Students in the Eastern Arctic are no strangers to travel and it isn't simply because they have to board a plane every time they want to visit the nearest, or farthest, community.

Nunavut students are well travelled, in part because their high school teachers are going the extra mile to take them down south, overseas and even to the territorial capital.

Kimmirut Grade 9 students just returned to their community after spending four days exploring the capital. Teacher Phil Flin said it's like a city for them, they have to deal with traffic, many people, many stores and a wide variety of activities to take part in -- a great difference from their community of 440 people.

But it isn't just trips within Nunavut that students are embarking on -- 12 students from Pangnirtung's Attagoyuk school are travelling to Scotland this month to investigate the similarities between whaling there and whaling in Pangnirtung.

Iqaluit dancers are presently overseas thrilling audiences in Eastern European countries and Russia, Kugluktuk students are planning a European vacation, Arctic Bay students have been not only in Iqaluit, but also in Ottawa, 15 people from Rankin plan on making a trip to Greenland -- just to name a few of the groups.

But don't just assume travel options are unlimited and costs are minimal. These trips take months of planning, fundraising and campaigning for donations.

Many are successful not only because of countless hours put in by groups such as Arctic Bay's High School Cafe, but because of the generosity of many Inuit organizations and Nunavut companies.

Time and time again these organizations are approached by groups looking for financial support to make their dreams a reality.

Time and time again the money is found to make those dreams come true.

Seeing the world first hand is what students will remember the most, it broadens and exposes them to ideas and other cultures -- it gives them options and memories.

The efforts put forth by the Qikiqtarmiut Heritage Society in Gjoa Haven are commendable.

After just a few months of planning, and with funding from Nunavut Arctic College, the group of organizers put together a three-day workshop designed to promote literacy in Inuktitut in the area of geographical terminology.

Elders were hired to act as expert professors. Community members, elders and students from the schools and the college attended.

Without a doubt, the workshop was a success. A glossary of words is set to be published later this year and Nattilingmiut remembered terms they hadn't used for decades.

The Government of Nunavut would do well in their mandate to support traditional knowledge by funding similar projects in the future.

The Western Arctic Leadership Program (WALP) has been living a hand-to-mouth existence for the past five years and a recent delay in funding from the feds placed the program in a precarious position.

This program provides the best of the best students in the NWT with housing, tutoring and mentorship to guide them on the way to a better future for themselves and ultimately, for the North.

Currently, the WALP selection committee is faced with uncertainty at to whether or not they should be recruiting for the next school year, because they don't know if the funding will be there.

A blue chip program like this one deserves a solid future that will build better leaders and a better North.