Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 17/99) - The clock is ticking as MLAs struggle to meet the March 31 deadline for hammering out the new electoral boundaries for the Western NWT.

The chairman of the western caucus, who opposes a proposal to add three seats for Yellowknife and one each for Hay River and Inuvik, has declared he will not be "browbeaten" into making a hasty decision.

"I'm not going....to give up what I think is right because of a deadline," said Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger.

Rather than expanding the assembly to 19 MLAs, Miltenberger suggested one solution might involve redrawing the existing ridings to accommodate the supreme court order to more fairly balance electoral districts.

Justice Mark de Weerdt ruled March 5 the current system of legislative representation to be unconstitutional. And last Friday the western caucus decided to recommend that the cabinet prepare a bill adding five legislative seats to the current total of 14.

At a sitting of the legislative assembly Tuesday, Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen also addressed the difficulty of settling the boundaries issue and coming up with a formula acceptable to all parties.

"What we do from here is a difficult question because no matter what we do, not everyone is going to be happy," she said.

But Groenewegen said she objected to plans to rework boundaries that interfere with her riding or lump parts of Yellowknife together with smaller communities like Lutsel K'e.

"I'm not prepared to lop off a significant portion of my constituency, diminishing Hay River's presence in the new western territory in the interest of balancing the numbers," Groenewegen said.

During Question Period, Groenewegen pointedly asked Premier Jim Antoine about the time-frame. Antoine said the proposed solution would be brought before the house in the form of Bill 15.

"Yes, we're moving forward," he assured.

Aboriginal summit upset

The Western NWT Aboriginal Summit announced Tuesday that it, "strongly disagrees with the recommendation of the western caucus of MLAs to add five more seats."

A summit press release also called de Weerdt's decision "narrow, and very disappointing."

"The judgement gave more weight to individual rights, rather than our existing collective constitutionally-protected rights," said Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus in the release, which added that the summit is still reviewing its legal options.

But Groenewegen also pointed to the difficulty of carrying on business in the legislature with the loss of 10 MLAs to Nunavut.

"We saw in there today evidence of what it would be like with six cabinet ministers and seven members," she said. "You see how much pressure there was on those seven members to ask all the questions."

The boundaries proposal bill is expected to be tabled before the house when it reconvenes next week.