by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 13/96) - The chairman of the Stanton Regional Hospital has announced his resignation at the end of next March.

"You have to be careful not to be in one place too long," Tony Chang told a recent hospital board meeting.

Chang was appointed by former premier Nellie Cournoyea for just one year. Thirty months later he'll be leaving to spend more time with his own businesses.

Cournoyea was at the board meeting as the representative from the Inuvik region.

"I asked him to do it because he was dynamic, had creative ideas and a broad view of the Northwest Territories. He is very competent and we all appreciate the work he's done," Cournoyea said.

The high points of Chang's term of office were many.

Under his leadership a charitable foundation has been started. The hospital became regional and a dialysis machine is operating in the North instead of sending patients to Edmonton.

But the fact the hospital is maintained, has been improved and services increased with budget cuts has probably been the toughest job.

"Cutting staff people I've known a long time was hard," he said. "It was an operational issue that was highly personal. Cutbacks had to be done with respect."

Chang takes great pride in seeing the hospital and the board work together as a team. He also had praise for board members.

"I did not do all these things myself. The chair speaks on behalf of the board. All the work was done on behalf of the board, as a board."

Chang will stay on as chairman until March 1997.