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IQALUIT - While Nunavut has the highest infant mortality rate in the country, almost twice the national average, the territory's health minister conveys optimism when putting those statistics into perspective.

Born and raised in Rankin Inlet, Tagak Curley, minister of Health and Social Services, remembers the days before birthing centres and prenatal programs.

Tagak Curley, minister of Health and Social Services, says he's optimistic about that ways his government can address the highest infant mortality rate in Canada.

"Services were not as available as they are today with health care and care needed for the young infants in Nunavut," he said. "To have children that suffered as a result of not having proper facilities or housing in the early years was a major thing."

"These were very different times," Curley added. "Obviously, I think we're a long way from that part of a social condition."

The infant mortality rate, which was 10 per 1,000 live births in Nunavut and 5.4 in Canada in 2005, fluctuated between 2001 and 2005.

At its peak in 2003, the rate in Nunavut was 19.8 per 1,000 live births – almost four times the national average.

Low birth weight babies are at highest risk of infant mortality. Smoking is one of the leading causes of low birth weight, along with poor nutrition and teenage pregnancies.

Curley said Nunavut's department of Health and Social Services had developed a number of strategies related to prenatal care stemming from the passing of midwifery legislation that "allows for the community to train and license midwives."

He also pointed to the midwifery program at Nunavut Arctic College where students can work towards their diploma.

"There have been already graduates for midwives and so on," said Curley. "Rankin Inlet has been one of the leaders in that situation."

To decrease the infant mortality rate, Nunavut's Health and Social Services will need co-operation from all departments, said the minister. Inadequate housing, for example, is a contributing factor.

Increased federal support for health care is needed as well to address all the contributing factors to infant mortality, said Curley.

"We certainly need more, always more support from feds," he said. "In a way, there's some support for First Nations programs, but they are never enough because it's a cost-shared kind of arrangement."

As the territory's former health minister and Canada's current minister of Health, Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq said there are a number of programs in the territory to help reduce the rate of infant mortality.

"Healthy Pregnancies is one," she said. "The issue around smoking cessation is another one and there's a number of preventative initiatives designed to ensure that healthy pregnancies and children are getting a good start in life. FASD is an example of another project.

"So we try and educate our young mothers in the North how to look after yourself while you're pregnant, not to smoke and FASD, eating well while you're pregnant, and so on," the minister added.

Aglukkaq said the federal government continues to invest in such programs and to transfer health care funding to the territorial and provincial governments – an amount that increases by six per cent annually. It is up to the territory, however, to decide what to do with those funds, she said.