The Canadian Territories face some unique and pressing challenges. They rely heavily on their provincial neighbours to the south for a number of tertiary care services either through provincial (regional) facilities or through specialists in the provinces. Yukon is not regionalized and acute care delivery is shared between just two facilities for the entire territory. In the Northwest Territories (NWT), eight Health and Social Services Authorities (HSSA) plan, manage and deliver the vast majority of community and facility-based services for health care. Nunvaut is still early in its evolution and is constantly making policy decisions and tremendous changes to the delivery of services. The Government of Nunavut has recently released its 5-year plan (2009-2013) outlining the next steps for the territory. The focus in the territories is predominantly on delivery to remote areas, and on cost savings. The territories face the highest healthcare delivery costs per capita, and are very interested in solutions that minimize the current diseconomies of scale.
