Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Baffin Regional Hospital was opened in 1962 to serve the Town of Iqaluit and the Baffin Region. In this 34 year period, the facility has remained essentially unchanged since its opening. In this same 34 year period, Mr. Speaker, the population has more than doubled in the region it has to serve. All public health functions had to be located in a separate building because there was no space in the hospital. All material management functions are also located away from the facility in a converted, double-wide trailer. This is not acceptable. As part of the 1988 Health Transfer Agreement, a cost-sharing arrangement for the replacement of the existing facility with the federal government was signed. The replacement of the Baffin Regional Hospital will be cost-shared by the territorial government and the federal government. The catchment area of the Baffin Regional Hospital is 85 percent Inuk, plus the federal government will cost-share 85 percent of this total cost. The Inuvik Hospital was also included in the original Health Transfer Agreement with similar terms and references as the Baffin Regional Hospital, the major difference being the lower cost-shared amount because of the lower Aboriginal catchment population.

In the original agreement, an annual base of $1,000,000 was contributed to the cost of replacing the hospitals. Based on the annual base and the PL escalator, the total contribution from the federal government to the territorial government would be $9,297,000.

Mr. Speaker, over the past year, two meetings with myself and the chair of the Baffin Regional Health Board and the federal Health Minister, Mr. Dingwall, were cancelled by me because of information that these projects, the Baffin and Inuvik, were moving ahead. Recent information indicates this may not be the case. I will be questioning the territorial Minister of Health today on this matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.