Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 04/02) - The centralization of power in Yellowknife was a recurring theme inside and outside the legislative assembly last week.

The reasons behind a call by regular MLAs from small communities surfaced again during a committee discussion of the future of electoral boundaries in the NWT.

"They've got it all," North Slave MLA Leon Lafferty said of Yellowknife. "They've got all the deputy ministers and they make all the decisions."

Lafferty later clarified that he meant deputy ministers do the government's long-term capital planning.

Nahendeh MLA Jim Antoine, co-chair of the committee examining what to do about a clause in the electoral boundaries act that calls for a review of representation in the NWT, said aboriginal Northerners are concerned about the present system.

"You could have some real right-wing anti-aboriginal people come in," Antoine said. "Down the line, 50 years from now, are our children going to find themselves in the same position as people in Alberta, where aboriginal people don't have any say?"

The committee plans to submit recommendations to the assembly during this sitting.