While the 10 provinces say they have signed on reluctantly, all three territorial premiers -- Kakfwi, Nunavut's Paul Okalik and the Yukon's Dennis Fentie -- walked out on the deal Wednesday. The three says it will continue to under-fund health costs in Northern Canada.

The provincial and territorial leaders met with prime minister Jean Chretien in Ottawa earlier this week.

In the final draft accord released on Thursday, the prime minister laid out a $17 billion dollar health-care deal for the provinces and territories.

"The prime minister said, 'I'm not going to negotiate anymore,' " Kakfwi said. " 'You have two minutes to accept the deal, or the money disappears. There will be no new money for health. You take it, sign, you accept the accord as it is. Or I take it and pay down the debt.' "

Kakfwi and his Northern colleagues decided to leave it.

The deal they rejected would have worked out to about $4 million a year in new health-care money to the NWT.

"We calculate that to be about a week or two of services in the Northwest Territories," Kakfwi said. "It's absolutely appalling."

The final deal also made no mention of the hard-won territorial health-care funding plan. That angered Kakfwi and his fellow territorial leaders.

"It's supposed to give us some hope. It does absolutely nothing," Kakfwi said.

"The prime minister is going to have to deal with the fact that it was a miscalculation," Kakfwi said. "He had a chance to show some leadership, some compassion for the territories. He had a chance, and he blew it."

Going into the talks, Kakfwi said every area of health care in the NWT needed help.

"You name it," he said, "we just don't have enough money to give our people assurance that the health care they expect and deserve is there."

Remote, inaccessible areas cost more to run, he said. Ambulance service, for example, between Colville Lake and Yellowknife can cost from $5,000 to $7,000.

Per capita funding simply isn't enough, the premier said, adding the aboriginal population in the North already suffers from poor, "Third World conditions," he said.

"For the prime minister who brags about how much he loves the North, how much he understands the North, talk about a flat tire," Kakfwi said.

Kakfwi hoped to secure about $20 million in extra health-care funding a year for the NWT on top of the approximately $6 million per capita funding the NWT already receives from the federal government.

"We thought he would be decisive. And right until the last draft I thought he was going to do it. How could he not do it?" said Kakfwi. "We're surprised. We had not planned to walk out. But in the end we had no choice. We said we cannot accept the funding arrangement. And he just looked at us."

In a joint statement, NWT MLAs showed their support of the territorial leaders backing away from the deal.

"Rapid development in the NWT, coupled with health standards that are far below the Canadian norm, compels Ottawa to deliver on the package supported by the premiers," the statement read.

Sandy Lee, MLA for Range Lake, called the prime minister's offer to the territories "laughable."

"If we signed it, and went away, everybody would think everything was fine."

"In the big scheme of the federal purse, this is small change," Lee said, adding that she knows the premiers are in Ottawa, still continuing to push. "I'm right behind them," she said.