Yellowknife (June 23/03) - With the ink still wet on a new contract between physician specialists and the NWT Government, Health Minister Michael Miltenberger said the two sides will soon be back at the bargaining table.

"It was an intense process," said Miltenberger of the contract negotiations. "And we'll be right back at it in a few months."

The two-year deal gives doctors a 38 percent raise is retroactive to April 1 2002. It expires in 9 months.

Specialists' salaries will rise to $434,000 in the final year of the deal. Based on News North calculations, on average, the doctors will also receive $95,000 back pay.

"My hope is that both sides learned from this process and we won't go through the same thing again," said Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee.

"These negotiations started off badly with both sides issuing ultimatums, and that's no way to proceed."

Despite the sometimes acrimonious negotiations, the new deal met with applause from health officials.

It calls for the creation of three new specialist positions, one each in internal medicine, general surgery and obstetrics/gynaecology.

"This new contract will improve our prospects of finding qualified specialists," said Al Woods, the Chief Executive Officer of the Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Woods says the hospital has hired a recruiter in to fill the seven vacant specialist positions.

"We have a number of specialists who are interested in working here, but they wanted to wait for the outcome of negotiations," said Woods. "Hopefully now they'll be able to come up."

While he was pleased to finally get a deal done, Miltenberger worried it could set a dangerous precedent for negotiations with public employees.

"We have raised the bar," he said. "Other groups will see (the 38 percent raise) and ask for the same thing."

Lee didn't share the same concerns. "I think this was a unique situation," she said. "There is a shortage of specialists across the country. I don't think we'll run into the same problems with other public employees."

Twelve of the 15 physician specialists were set to walk off the job on July 1, but an agreement reached Wednesday ensures they'll stay on until at least March 2004.