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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Stanton Territorial Hospital has dug itself another deep hole into the red despite receiving a massive bailout from the legislative assembly earlier this year.

The Stanton Regional Health Authority will be between $5.5 and $7 million in debt by year's end, according to acting CEO Al Woods.

An $11.6 million deficit - accumulating since 2004 - was paid off by a supplementary appropriation bill passed during the second sitting of the legislative assembly earlier this year.

Woods said depending on how the rest of the year proceeds with expenses and the collection of outstanding receivable accounts, the health authority is expecting another big deficit by the end of this year.

"Our budget situation is not in good shape," he said.

"We won't be able to balance the budget for 2008/2009 budget however, we are moving forward on some initiatives."

One initiative is not to fill vacant positions if the hosptial can get by without them. The hospital has also begun to eliminate staff. Two positions have been cut so far - a recreational therapist in extended care and the recreational aide in the psychiatry unit.

"When we looked throughout the organization we thought those were the ones we could eliminate and still be able to provide some of the services in another way," said Woods.

"We won't be able to do it as good because these people were dedicated to the job.

"That's one of the reasons we have to get our budget in shape so we have some flexibility around our programs. I feel it's going to take us three years to get our finances back in shape. It will be a relief to get there."

Last June, Yellowknifer reported Stanton owed money to the GNWT's Financial Management Board Secretariat, which covered 13 pay periods totalling $26 million. Woods said the health authority has paid some of that back, but still owes for approximately nine pay periods. He could not say whether those were for nine of the original 13 owed or for nine new pay periods.

Health Minister Sandy Lee downplaying the hospital's financial woes, adding that multi-million deficits in large operations like Stanton Territorial Hospital are relatively routine.

"After years of experiencing a deficit that all of a sudden we're going to take measures to reduce a deficit overnight, that can't happen without impacting the services that we provide to the people," Lee said.

"It's a $90 million operation that experiences around a $5 million deficit. For any other organization of that size, it's something we'd rather not have. We'd love to balance the budget, but it's not something that should cause panic."

Medical travel is the biggest cost driver at the hospital, said Woods.

"Ticket prices and fuel costs are expensive," he said. "We pay all the costs of fuel for medevacs. Certainly it's affected us the most."

Lee said medical travel has gone $3 million overbudget. Another deficit contributor is the medical services the hospital provides to residents of Nunavut.

"We haven't been able to bring that down substantially," said Lee.

"We're working with Nunavut government to work out a concrete agreement as to how we are going to be paid for it."

The ongoing budget troubles at Stanton have some Yellowknife MLAs pointing fingers at the health minister, saying she is not doing enough to get a problem under control.

When asked about Lee's performance and whether MLAs ought to remove her from cabinet, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said that's something that will have to be decided when the legislative assembly resumes in February.

"She's had this portfolio for almost a year and when all these shots were signalled over her bow in June that we wanted to get to the bottom of this and it's November now and there hasn't been any communication," said Hawkins.

"I don't think we should continue to bail out this minister."

MLA Dave Ramsay wants Lee to provide details on the current financial situation of the Stanton hospital.

"There really hasn't been any accountability," said Ramsay said.

"It's a hospital, but at the end of the day it's public funds and we have to be concerned how money is being spent, whether it's health care or education.

"It's an obligation on our behalf to ensure the money is being spent the way it should be."