Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 26/99) - The three legislative candidates in the Inuvik Boot Lake riding met for a public debate at Aurora College on Monday night.

With no clear winner emerging from the group it will be up to voters on Dec. 6 to say which one heads to Yellowknife.

The debate was organized by Changing Times news magazine and editor Jack Cunningham acted as moderator throughout the evening. Riding challengers Mary Beckett and Chris Garven flanked incumbent MLA Floyd Roland as they presented their positions and fielded questions for more than two hours.

In fact, the night turned into more of a respectful presentation of political positions and never showed signs of becoming an actual heated debate.

The candidates frequently spoke of the need for the region and the territory to "work together" at finding solutions to a looming budget deficit and in creating a true "Northern Accord."

The most controversial questions of the evening came first from Bertha Allen, chair of the Inuvik Elders Committee, who asked point-blank what the candidates proposed doing about making the elders' plans for a retirement home a reality. Roland answered by speaking of the competing groups vying for a share of shrinking government resources and Garven, too, spoke of the need to free up resources, not just monetary for both elders and youth. Beckett vowed support.

"I will commit to going to your meetings whether I'm elected or not to see your home built," she said.

Aurora College student council president Mark Minute drew applause from the crowd of 60 when he spoke of the need to reopen regional centres to deal with concerns like gambling, addiction, FAS and special-needs education.

"You've closed all the treatment centres except Hay River," he said. "When are you going to open the others and get these people some help?"

Beckett said she agreed, and said Inuvik's Delta House should be reopened, saying it simply isn't cost-effective to send people south for treatment. Garven said he was one of those who had fought to keep Delta open. Roland described its closing as "one of the most difficult things I've had to go through in the legislature."

Roland, the current Health and Social Services minister, added that finances remain the biggest obstacle to such centres, but that he tried to help find a solution to Delta's loss by assisting Turning Point.

"We tried to do something," he said, "to get something to come out of it."

In his concluding remarks, Roland stressed his experience and what he described as his ability to make tough decisions in the legislature.

"I have come back, sometimes victorious and sometimes not, but always having improved and represented the community," he said. "Now we have to look at a vision to get more resources -- not just the same old pie and how to divide it up."

Garven, who is representing the New Democrat Party, stressed the accountability and clear platform that comes with party politics.

"I think it boils down to this government needing a plan," he said.

Beckett stressed her concern over education as well as her experience running a business consultancy.

"We have to realize that the next government has to cut another $50 million out of the budget," she said. "A business approach is what we've been missing."

Candidates in the Inuvik Twin Lakes riding -- Roger Allen, Glenna Hansen and George Roach -- get their own chance to debate the issues this coming Monday back at Aurora College.