Yellowknife (Nov 26/04) - As the Sahtu region's new health and social services authority gets set to open its office in Norman Wells in April 2005, the reformation of the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Authority could end up costing the region more.

According to Authority CEO Gerry Uswak, the new board will include one representative from each community and travel costs associated with flying board members to meetings from outlying communities will add up.However, from Uswak's perspective, the bigger issue is going to be finding housing for recruits who will work at the new Norman Wells office.

With the creation of a new authority in the Sahtu, between $3.2 million and $3.5 million will come out of this region's $45 million budget.