Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 26/99) - New regional health centres, more money from Ottawa for post-secondary education and a road linking Nunavut to the rest of Canada topped the wish list of delegates to the 1999 Western Premiers' Conference.

Hosted by Ralph Klein at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, last week's summit brought together seven premiers, including the NWT's Jim Antoine and Nunavut's Paul Okalik.

Klein said the premiers agreed to look at building "centres of excellence" for specialized medical procedures like organ transplants that could serve the entire West -- along the lines of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

"There could be one centre for highly specialized procedures," Klein was quoted as saying. "We're trying to increase interprovincial efficiencies."

The premiers also vowed to lobby Ottawa to restore the $1 billion it cut from transfer payments for post-secondary education.

On other interprovincial matters, Premier Okalik, attending his first Western Premier's Conference, said he had lobbied Manitoba and Alberta for new highways to Nunavut -- which has few roads of its own.

"We're the only jurisdiction in the country which is not linked by road to the rest of the country," said Okalik. "It would be a good sign of nation building."

A strategy paper developed for the conference by the Western finance ministers, including the NWT's Charles Dent, put some of the figures in perspective. It said the provinces and territories suffered $6.2 billion worth of annual cuts to Canada Health and Social Transfer payments from Ottawa between 1994 and 1998 -- payments it said help pay for health, education and welfare programs.

The Western premiers also discussed the challenges facing Northern resource-based economies -- noting the depressed world prices for commodities like gold.

"Premiers recognized the efforts of the Northern territories to diversify and integrate their economies," delegates said in a statement, adding they, "supported the efforts of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to strengthen their capacity for economic development by negotiation devolution of control over resources."

Since the release of the new territorial budget in April, the GNWT has said gaining greater control over resources and a greater share of royalties from Ottawa are government priorities.

But the NWT's neighbours vowed to work together on this and other strategies, including internal trade and trade promotion -- and they agreed to hold special economic policy talks in the fall.

Premier Antoine was unavailable Friday and said Monday he was not in a position to comment on the conference.