Watt welcomes northern health money

Senator Charlie Watt is pleased Prime Minister Paul Martin, the five national aboriginal leaders and premiers managed to agree on the need to improve the state of aboriginal health care in Canada.

“If there is to be any meaningful change in the lives of the Inuit here in the Arctic regions, an Inuit specific component to health care must be undertaken. We must look at ways of developing a preventable health strategy including a study of domestic social issues in the North such as the extreme high cost of living and the impact it has on our everyday health, housing, education and the cost of food,” Watt said in a public statement.

Watt also said the high cost of transportation and climate change in the Arctic regions should also be part of any health care discussions.