Peterson demands details on health spending

Health costs continue to stress the government of Nunavut’s budget, and Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson wants to know where the money is going.

Last Tuesday, he asked Health Minister Levinia Brown to table a medical travel study contracted to KPMG consultants, and reminded the minister that he had first requested a copy of the study in May.

Peterson listed some alarming health statistics from that report that he heard at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association general meeting in Kugluktuk in October. Among them: 20,000 airline tickets, 60,000 patient nights and an $8 million deficit for the first 10 months of 2004.

Peterson then asked Brown to commit to tabling that report by Friday, Nov. 19. She agreed, but on Friday, broke the commitment.

In a gotcha move that afternoon, Peterson tabled a detailed list of written questions about medical travel expenses for Brown.