.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - And the number one reason to live in the NWT is ...

According to Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Bob McLeod, it's our boundless potential.

Speaking to a dinner audience of more than 500 at the Meet the North conference in Edmonton on May 13, McLeod promoted the Northwest Territories as a place to work and play, concluding his remarks with a top-10 list of reasons to live in the North.

The Meet the North conference brought together political and business leaders from Alberta, Nunavut, Yukon and the NWT for four days to talk about business opportunities in the North.

While McLeod said his list - including the territory's spectacular environment, economic opportunities, and friendly people - went over well, he wasn't thinking about making a career change any time soon.

"I don't think we're going to be taking over for David Letterman yet," he laughed.

Like Letterman, McLeod did not come up with the list on his own, but collaborated with department employees and his "top speechwriters" in the cabinet communications office.

Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem attended the dinner and said he was pleased with the government's apparent change in tone.

"One of the things about his speech that left me slightly optimistic is that it has been very difficult to get positive promotional, motivational statements out of the GNWT for a while," he said.

"So it may be a turning point."

He said if he had one piece of criticism, it would have been for McLeod to back each statement up with "quantified motivators," or eye-opening facts.

"I mean you can point out that only 25 per cent of the territory has been mapped and in that 25 per cent, there was found oil and gas, diamonds, lead, copper and zinc," he said.

"It's stuff that gives the real punch to the statement," he said.

"Like the lady used to say: 'where's the beef?'"

The list did include some perhaps odd reasons to live in the NWT - consensus government? - and some which may not be entirely truthful - safe communities is a bit of an exaggeration when the NWT's crime rate is many times higher than southern Canada's.

"Some people would change the order, but essentially they were okay with it," said McLeod of the feedback he received from the list.

McLeod said the speech was designed to promote the NWT as a place to live. This follows last fall's tax consultations, which revealed Northerners wanted the government to attract more residents to the territory to increase its tax base, instead of raising taxes or creating new ones.

Van Tighem said that message hadn't been presented very strongly in the past, "but it was in his presentation," he said, adding he hoped it continued.

"That whole conference was hopefully an eye-opener because the perception that Edmonton... and Alberta has of anything North of it is not what we see as the reality of it," he said.

McLeod said many consul generals expressed an interest in wanting to come North with their families.

In February, Jane Groenewegen, MLA Hay River South, poked fun at McLeod's sometimes deadpan delivery in the legislative assembly. "Sometimes I do give him a hard time about not being a bit more animated in his dialogue with us," she said on Feb. 6.

Van Tighem said that wasn't the case this time.

"He wasn't monotone in this one," the mayor said.