Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 28/00) - The job of building a new government continued this week with the finalizing of senior staffing changes.

The territorial government announced Wednesday John Bayly will serve as principal secretary, the government's most senior political advisor.

Bayly, a lawyer, will take over the position March 7. Until then, former NWT government leader George Braden will be acting principal secretary.

Brother to Yellowknife MLA Bill Braden, George Braden also worked on the last government's failed bid to develop a new NWT constitution. He is also an advisor to the territorial government's intergovernmental office in Ottawa.

Other senior staffing changes include:

Former principal secretary Richard Bargery has accepted an assignment to help cabinet co-ordinate the spring intergovernmental forum. Raised in Yellowknife, Bargery is the former executive assistant of John Todd, finance minister in the last government. He split his time between Ottawa and Yellowknife after being assigned the post of co-ordinating the division of assets between the two new governments of Nunavut and the NWT.

Elizabeth Snider will be cabinet secretary, the executive council's main liaison with the territorial bureaucracy. Snider, a former assistant deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs, has served as acting cabinet secretary since the retirement of her predecessor, Andrew Gamble, last week.

Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development senior policy advisor Susan Fleck was appointed executive assistant to premier Stephen Kakfwi for his RWED responsibilities. Lynda Sorensen remains Kakfwi's executive assistant.

Pamela Slater will be Kakfwi's executive secretary. Slater has worked for the law firm of Gullberg, Weist, MacPherson and Kay since 1985.

Bob McLeod, former deputy minister of the department of municipal and community affairs, has been appointed deputy minister of the department of resources, wildlife and economic development. McLeod had been serving as interim deputy minister since former deputy minister Joe Handley resigned to campaign for a seat in the assembly.