(Dec 03/04) - Kevin Menicoche celebrated one year as Nahendeh MLA on Nov. 23.

Last week, he sat down for an interview with the Deh Cho Drum to discuss his experiences over the past 12 months and the challenges ahead.

Kevin Menicoche

Question: Now that you have a year under your belt as MLA, what aspects of the job have involved the greatest learning curve?

Answer: Just the ability for me to speak up and be angry about things. Previously that wasn't my lifestyle. Today that's pretty well my job is to speak up if there's a wrong. My first challenge when I got elected was to speak up on behalf of elders not being respected in the health centre. I thought I was going to get my hand slapped, but then I realized that's what I do now.

Q: You left a position with a pipeline company to become a full-time politician. Are you glad you made the jump or do you have some regrets?

A: I've got no regrets. You have doubts and hesitations when you do a major life change, but as soon as I got into the role of MLA, I said, "Hey, I can do this, I am ready for it and I'm going to do this job well."

Q: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of concerns from your constituents?

A: Yeah, at times. When we're sitting in the House in Yellowknife and we've got all these bills and government things before us and at the same time I'm getting calls from constituents in all six communities saying, "These are my needs, can you address them?" A lot of them, by nature, are 11th-hour issues, "You better address it by 5 o'clock today or else my whole world is going to fall apart."

Q: Do you feel you're getting to the other communities in your riding enough?

A: I believe that I am making time to go to all the communities and am speaking on their behalf. Now that I'm travelling to those communities I know what their issues are and I've got to keep bringing them to the forefront as well.

Q: Your predecessor, Jim Antoine, spoke in favour of splitting up the Nahendeh region because it's too much ground for one MLA to cover. Would you like to see the Nahendeh divided?

A: I believe that he was on to something, just because of the size of our geographic riding. In 2005, the Legislative Assembly will be reviewing the ridings and the amount of MLAs, so there's the opportunity to speak about it. Geographically, Fort Liard is out in a corner, so a lot of its needs don't always get addressed for whatever reason. So myself, I've taken an effort to spend as much time as I can there to know the people and know the issues.

Q: Are you a supporter of consensus-style government or would you prefer to see party politics in the NWT?

A: I'm a supporter of consensus-style government just for the very fact that everyone's views get heard. I still believe that (in) party politics, you just listen to your party members and supporters.

Q: You've stated that the NWT, aboriginal people in particular, must benefit from a proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. What sort of mechanisms must be in place for that to happen?

A: I was telling the staff of the (regulatory) boards they have the opportunity to put conditions on the pipeline. The first pipeline that Inter-provincial Pipelines Ltd. (IPL) built in 1983-85, didn't do that. They didn't say, "Your socio-economic agreements must be long-term," or "This will be your land one day, so we'll recognize access fees." I think the boards have the power to make those recommendations this time.

Q: Back in January, you called for a pipeline readiness office in Fort Simpson. The territorial government decided to put that office in Hay River. Do you feel the GNWT is doing enough to help Nahendeh communities prepare for the pipeline project?

A: Logistically it doesn't make sense, but that's what they want to do. Hay River's got their own arguments, of course. For me, I've always said, "Look, at least you've got to have one senior member of this pipeline office in Fort Simpson."

Q: Other than the pipeline, what do you see as the major issues in 2005?

A: I still believe that we're not spending enough money on young people -- on their education needs. We still have, I believe, a 10 per cent graduation rate. I think we can do better. I ran into a lady a couple of weeks ago from the Sunshine Reserve in southern Alberta.

They've recently done an education program that involves young adults and they got like a 60 per cent graduation rate. That's something that I'd like to pursue in the near future, to get this program over here and see if it would work for us. At a 10 per cent graduation rate, we'll never fill all the positions in our Deh Cho government or all the jobs in industry.

I'd still like to address inclusionary schooling. It's a big piece of work; it means opening up the Education Act.

In the schools, we're still spending too much energy on our special needs children and not giving them the isolated time by themselves that they need.

Q: You've continued to call for a single power rate in the NWT. That concept keeps arising, but do you think there's a realistic chance it will ever happen?

A: At the legislative level, I still have no support at all from the larger centres. I introduced a motion but it died on the order paper.

Q: Housing is another recurring issue in the communities. The Housing Corporation recently made a commitment to fix units in Fort Liard. What more needs to be done on that front?

A: What we lack is an appeal mechanism. People are coming to me with their issues because they think I can change decisions of the Housing Corp., but I can't. If there was an independent appeal system, people could look at some of the factors like income.

The current system is not flexible enough to say, "Yes here's something that's obviously wrong and we can correct it if we do it this way."

Q: Prior to becoming MLA, you started to regain the Dene language. How were you picking it up, and are you still taking lessons in Slavey?

A: I'm still using my language in the House. My introductions are in Slavey, and when I get the chance, I say opening prayers in Slavey. I use it when I speak with the elders, and I've got a couple of Slavey dictionaries that I do use. My goal is still to do a full member's statement by 2007 in Slavey.