'She did not improve anything in Nunavut.'

A front-line nurse who used to work in Nunavut says Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have made a big mistake when he appointed Nunavut's new Conservative MP, Leona Aglukkaq, as federal health minister

"She did not improve anything in Nunavut. She lost ground," said Cheryl Young, the former head of the nurses local within the Nunavut Employees Union.

Harper appointed Agluk­kaq to his cabinet Oct. 30.

This means that after a strife-ridden three-and-a-half year stint as Nunavut's minister of health and social services, Leona Aglukkaq will now do a similar job for Canada, Young said.

Aglukkaq becomes the first Inuk to serve as a cabinet minister in any federal government, prompting a long list of congratulatory messages from Inuit organizations like the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

"We will no doubt benefit from the appointment and have direct say in the health matters in Nunavut," NTI president Paul Kaludjak said.

But Young says many of those who worked under Aglukkaq at Nunavut's troubled Department of Health and Social Services likely hold a different opinion.

"I would have given her a different portfolio. I don't think she proved herself as a minister of health. It was a very negative experience," Young said.

Premier Paul Okalik shuffled Aglukkaq into the health and social services department in June of 2005, after she served as finance minister for about a year and a half. She remained in the health portfolio until early September 2008.

Young says that for most of that period, Aglukkaq did little to ease Nunavut's worsening shortage of health workers.

"You never got the feeling that she cared whether you stayed or left," Young said.

Young said that a new nurse recruitment and retention package that Aglukkaq worked out has helped a little, but she says it was too little, too late.

Aglukkaq did not respond to a telephone message that Nunatsiaq News left with the Office of the Prime Minister following her appointment.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail's Jane Taber, broadcast Nov. 2 on the CTV current affairs show Question Period, Aglukkaq suggested her experience in Nunavut influenced Harper's decision to appoint her to Canada's top health job.

"It's a great opportunity for me to continue on in this role, coming from a territorial level to the federal level," Aglukkaq said

But she didn't mention the turmoil that marked her tenure as Nunavut's health and social services minister.

Here's a list of some of the more memorable controversies, many of which continue to this day:

• July 2005 – Palluq Manning, a homeless diabetic suffering from kidney failure, ends up stranded in Ottawa with no help from the Government of Nunavut.
• September-October 2005: new health centres open in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet, but to this day, both facilities sit half-empty because of a shortage of nurses, doctors and technicians. Iqaluit's new hospital, which opens later, also sits half-empty.
• September 2005: the GN attempts to recruit more than 50 nurses from India and the Phillipines, but the project ends in failure. The GN eventually reveals that the botched program wasted at least $3.5 million in direct and indirect costs
• November 2005: Bernie Blais, the GN's highly respected deputy minister of health and social services, suddenly quits his job.
• November 2005: Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo tables a notice of a motion to have Aglukkaq removed from the Nunavut cabinet, but he can't find a seconder.
• January 2006: The Baffin Regional Hospital loses its accreditation. The Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation finds the hospital suffers from substandard infection control, poor hygiene, and poor risk management, staffing and record keeping. Aglukkaq announces a $2.3 million cash infusion.
• June 2006: Ronald Browne replaces Dave Ramsden as senior boss of the health department, but Browne quits only 11 months later for undisclosed reasons.
• November 2006: Justice Beverly Browne finds the Health and Social Services department behaves like a "negligent parent" in refusing to provide for 16- and 17-year-old orphans.
• May 2007: Alex Campbell, the fourth DM to serve under Aglukkaq in less than two years, is appointed to replace Ron Browne.
• September 2008: The Calgary Herald newspaper quotes a Calgary youth court judge on Nunavut's child welfare system: "In my opinion, child welfare in Nunavut is incompetent," Judge Steve Lipton says.

With reporting by Chris Windeyer.