Yellowknife (May 14/04) - Premier Joe Handley says it would be wishful thinking to believe chairs at the discussion table will be set aside for the territories when talks over missile defence commence, but he does expect regular consultation from Ottawa.

The U.S. plan for a missile defence system around North America was one of several topics discussed at a meeting between the three Northern premiers in Whitehorse over the weekend.

Handley said the last thing the Yukon's Dennis Fentie and Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik and himself want to contemplate is a closed-door decision where missile bases are placed in the North without their consent.

In a news report earlier this week, Defence Minister David Pratt indicated there wouldn't be any room at the discussion table for the North, although he would consult them.

"Consultation means more than once every six months or a year that they would come up and brief us on where they're at," said Handley. "We don't want to be told after the fact that there is a missile defence site being built in Deline or something. We want to know ahead of time."

The premier said he is extremely worried about our southern neighbour's desire to surround the continent with missiles to thwart attacks from terrorists and rogue states.

"I don't think anyone is very comfortable with the thought of having a lot of junk falling out of the sky or having live munitions fall on our territory," said Handley.

"We can't just let the Americans take the attitude that, 'well, that's pretty isolated, empty land anyway.' That is our land."

Another item discussed by the premiers last weekend was developing a Northern health strategy.

Handley said until now, there has been little co-operation between the territories in sharing information about Northerners' health needs.

They would like to change that but time is of the essence. Meetings between provincial health and finance ministers and Ottawa are scheduled for the end of this month.

"We have to watch our own statistics and be willing to share them with other territories," said Handley."If it proves to be savings on health costs then great."

He said Northerners want the territorial governments to continue supplying health services but may have to give them up if Ottawa doesn't provide more funding.