by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Aug 13/97) - The Keewatin Regional Health Board may be looking to overcome differences and make up with the Baker Lake's hamlet council -- or at least that's the impression Mayor William Noah has been left with.

He said that Betty Palfrey, chair of the Keewatin Regional Health Board, is inquiring about council meeting dates to possibly make an appearance.

"We've been asking Betty Palfrey and Jim Egan to come to Baker Lake and they're finally going to come in for the next council meeting," said Noah.

This comes after KRHB has turned down three or four invitations to Baker Lake.

"I don't see why all of a sudden she's coming to Baker Lake," he added.

Rankin Inlet councillors unanimously passed a motion last month to write a letter to Health Minister Kelvin Ng requesting Betty Palfrey's resignation from her appointment position.

The letter was written, councillors said, because they were fed up with not being consulted on issues affecting the community, particularly, the decisions to privatize the dental therapy program and not to renew the Northern Medical Unit contract after Sept. 30.

Noah said also that their appointed trustee, Janet Nungnik, has finally initiated communication with the hamlet after months of silence. She used to talk to elders, then she stopped and now she's talking with the community again, he said.

Noah added that even though Rankin Inlet took action against KRHB, Baker Lake lit the first match of debate. It ignited not over NMU or dental therapy, but over the loss of the regional Social Services office last year from their community.

It was amalgamated with the Department of Health's office, said Noah, without proper consultation, and shifted to Rankin Inlet.

"When they moved Social Services to Rankin Inlet that hurt us very much," he said.

On July 25, Baker Lake's hamlet council held a special meeting resulting in a resolution which was sent to KRHB, Ng, all hamlet mayors, the Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak, NTI president Jose Kusugak and KIA president Paul Kaludjak.

It stated: "That a letter be written to Mrs. Elizabeth Palfrey, chairperson, KRHB requesting that all minutes of the KRHB regarding resolutions be sent directly to hamlet council, so that council can review, discuss and recommend if our trustee should support the passing of all resolutions of the KRHB."

In the letter to Palfrey, signed by Noah, Baker Lake officials also requested all minutes for the 1997 fiscal year be sent to the hamlet office as soon as possible for council review.

Noah said council is tired of being told what to do, without having input. The recent loss of the NMU is one example, he added.

If Palfrey decides to come to Baker Lake in the near future, Noah said his councillors may get nasty. They're feeling somewhat uneasy about what the board has been doing and what plans it has in mind for the future of health care in Nunavut.

"If you don't know what's coming, you get this eerie feeling," said Noah.

"Maybe they have something good for the region, who knows? We were comfortable with them (NMU). They seem to know us inside out."

In a recent press release, the KRHB stated that based on a health services plan that resulted from community consultation meetings since 1993, the board intends to repatriate services from Churchill and Manitoba and place them in the Keewatin.

They are looking at recruiting family practitioners, specialists, nurses and interpreters/translators to work directly for the health board instead of having to go through NMU as they did for nearly 30 years.