Federal money for health care in Canada has always been provided to territories and provinces on a per capita basis. Yet providing an equivalent amount of money per person in every region of Canada makes arctic health care suffer. Costs in the arctic are dramatically higher than they are in the south and in urban areas, leading to what some have called a “Third World” health care situation. Recently, a proposal to reconsider the per capita strategy has been approved by the various Premiers of Canada. It is not known yet whether Prime Minister Jean Chrétien will accept the proposal.
