MP doles out cash, election talk heats up
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Oct 16/00) - With a federal election rumoured for Nov. 27, Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew is gearing up for a fourth term in office.
| Fact File Four literacy programs announced: - Family and community literacy development project to be run by the NWT Literacy Council in Yellowknife received $119,000. - A territorial literacy network promoting literacy in all the NWT's official languages to be run by the NWT Literacy Council received $75,000. - WOW, Wonder of Words Newspaper for at-risk youth, to be run by the NWT Literacy Council, four issues, received $38,000. - Aurora College literacy projects in Yellowknife received $125,000. |
Two days earlier, Blondin-Andrew announced she would seek re-election.
Speaking after the grant announcement, she said she wants to be around when the NWT stops being a "have-not territory."
Blondin said that part of putting the NWT on solid footing means changing the way the federal government sends funding North., The current per-capita grant is insufficient.
"With the per capita structure we lose," she said.
Under per-capita funding, provinces and territories receive funding levels based on population. That puts the North with its smaller population and higher costs at a disadvantage.
She also said the federal government needs to get more involved with the Mackenzie pipeline project.
Blondin-Andrew said the proposed natural gas pipeline which NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi has been lobbying for across Canada and in the U.S. is one of the bright spots for the future, adding that the federal government should contribute their fair share of dollars and support.
"I think it should be a multiparty effort with federal, territorial, industry and aboriginal leaders working together," she said.
In fact, the pipeline and other potential for growth are why she wants to return to Parliament.
"I'm excited about the opportunities that are here," said Blondin-Andrew.
"We are on the cusp of the greatest development the North is going to experience in the next decade," she said.
Campaign on experience
The three-term MP said her experience is one of her greatest assets. She was first elected to Ottawa in 1988 and served in opposition until the Liberals returned to power in the 1993 election. She was re-elected in 1997.
"I'm good at what I'm doing. I'm considered a veteran," said Blondin-Andrew.
She reminisced about her rookie years campaigning when she was flying in a single-engine airplane with a female pilot whose hands froze. They had to thaw her hands out in a sink in Norman Wells.
"Back then I was young, daring and dashing," she said.
The $357,800 government literacy grant is divided between four projects based out of Yellowknife.
The projects focus on family and community literacy development, building literacy networks in the NWT, creating a four-issue newspaper targeting at-risk youth in the NWT and Nunavut and developing projects with Aurora College.
Money has already been set aside for the projects and won't be affected by the upcoming election, said Blondin-Andrew. However none of the projects will receive continuing funding.
Blondin-Andrew said the literacy funding announcement had nothing to do with the upcoming election.
"Someone had to announce it," she said, "if we could have done this sooner we would have."
