Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/05) - Past inquiries into pay rates for Northwest Territories MLAs have drawn a big blank with the public, and Jake Ootes wants to change that.

Public hearings, the usual method of canvassing opinion, "didn't get very much feedback," said Ootes, who made one of just nine submissions to the previous commission on MLA compensation.

The former Yellowknife MLA and cabinet minister is leading a three-person commission that will present a new salary and benefits package to the legislature by next January.

Ootes said public hearings will be held in Yellowknife, but people outside the capital may be asked to submit their opinions by telephone or e-mail, he said.

"We definitely will have meetings in Yellowknife," Ootes said, but high travel costs may keep the commission in the capital.

"Some of the work done by previous commissions wasn't that successful in doing community meetings," he said.

"That's why I'm concentrating more on a method we can get feedback from people. But we want to be flexible; so we don't want to say yes or no to meetings in other locations just yet."

Website to be launched

The commission, which includes John Simpson former chair of the NWT Liquor Board, and Fort Simpson resident Sean Whelly, will launch a website with details on MLA compensation.

"It's important for people to have access to that, because they will feel more comfortable than providing feedback to us," Ootes said.

Ootes doesn't recall the specifics of his submission to the previous commission, but said "I'm approaching this as an unbiased observer.

"I have to be respectful of the public desires and the needs of the MLAs," said Ootes, whose presence on the commission as a past MLA is required by territorial legislation. The commission will attempt to balance "the public need for clarity, accountability, and responsibility, with what is an appropriate level of compensation and benefits for MLAs to do their work," he said.

In his submission to the previous commission, Ootes said he was satisfied with his pay as a cabinet minister, but thought MLAs should receive supplementary pension benefits.

"If good benefits attract good people to the political scene, then that's a good thing for people of the North," Ootes wrote in October 2001. "We certainly don't get rich in office. Election to political office should not become a financial disadvantage."