Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Hay River (Feb 18/02) - Communities have different views about what to do about a law with a clause added to ensure politicians don't forget about self-government.

The clause was inserted in a law that sets elections. It says the legislation will be cancelled when the government's term expires in 2004.

If that happens there would be no election, no legislature, no spending powers. Government could grind to a halt and all authority handed over to Commissioner Glenna Han-sen.

A committee of four MLAs is touring the territory collecting views about the "sunset clause. They will recommend either cancelling the clause or extending its deadline.

The MLAs say some communities want the clause to stay because the government needs something to maintain focus on self-government.

The committee itself is comfortable with self-government progress.

Town councils in Hay River and Fort Smith decided the clause should be cancelled, as did the Deninu Ku'e First Nation in Fort Resolution.

Communities in the Mackenzie Delta and Sahtu prefer it stays in place.

Yellowknife public meetings haven't taken place yet.

The law, called the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, is tied to self-government because it sets riding boundaries.

"Boundaries will have to change with the land claims," North Slave MLA Leon Lafferty told Hay River's public meeting.

Just three members of the public showed up.

In Fort Good Hope, people said the premier's riding should be entitled to a second MLA because the premier is so busy with other duties.

Electoral boundaries have been a sensitive issue in NWT since the last government resisted adding more seats after Nunavut was formed.

A grassroots group called Friends of Democracy went to court over the issue, forcing the government to add three more seats in Yellowknife and one each in Inuvik and Hay River.