SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Premier Bob McLeod announced Feb. 10 that, three years into decentralizion, his government has moved 150 positions across the territory. But according to a document recently tabled in assembly a majority of these positions are sitting unfilled.

The document, tabled March 9, listed 121 of these positions as vacant and the majority of those filled are in the larger centres of Hay River and Inuvik.

In 2013, the legislative assembly announced a new priority to move government positions to smaller communities. In his minister's statement Feb. 5, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger said the government is "solidly into phase three" of the three-year project. However, with 80 per cent of these positions sitting unfilled, some MLAs are wondering if a successful decentralized model is even possible.

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro says this was the easy part and filling the rest will be a long-haul.

"I appreciate that we want to get more jobs in communities, especially small communities, but most of the benefit to date has gone to Inuvik, Hay River and Fort Smith," she said. "What we've done so far is the easy stuff. If the policy is really going to work we've got to get into the smaller communities and that's not going to happen until we have housing and office space … but that's a slow process."

Although she says she's in favour of decentralization, Bisaro said she's troubled by the thought of long-term employees and their families leaving them little choice in the matter.

"Knowing what it does to people who have a job they like, who have a family, who have roots here in Yellowknife and the turmoil it puts on them as an individual to have to move or lose their job, it seems to me we are moving people for the sake of numbers," she said. "If we're moving them just to meet a quota, then I don't think that's a good enough rationale."

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya said perhaps the key is not forcing current employees to move to the smaller communities, but instead developing a training system so graduates from places like Fort Smith or Norman Wells could take on the positions themselves.

"Instead of bringing people into our region, why don't we use our own homegrown workforce, why don't we train them – (they) have the families, they have the language, they have the culture," he said. "Anybody in the small communities can take a job if we give them the proper support guidance."

He says in principle, the idea of moving government jobs across the region is great, but the reality is many of the communities do not have a standard of living that is attractive to people used to a certain lifestyle. Getting people from the south to move to Yellowknife is hard enough, he says, let alone Fort McPherson.

"Moving to a community where there is no full-time nurse, there's no RCMP, there's one store with a high food cost, you might be lucky to get a house there and you're isolated because there's no roads there – (that's) a challenge," Yakeleya said.

Bisaro says placement should be evaluated on an individual basis and personal needs taken into consideration.

"I just think there needs to be a bigger appreciation and a bigger acknowledgment of how much upheaval it puts into some people's lives," she said. "Some people are quite happy to go, but somebody with a family and kids in school here they're not going to want to leave in a hurry."

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Alfred Moses says although it is progressing slowly, decentralization is still a good idea and some communities are seeing a benefit.

"Even just the little bit that's been going on you can see that it's a benefit to the community and creation of jobs," he said, adding high cost of living and poor infrastructure may continue to be a future impediment. "I think as we knew we were going to be moving to this we should have started working on getting the proper resources and infrastructure in place."

He doesn't, however, believe anyone has been or will be forced to relocate if they do not wish to.

"I think they're being given an option and I don't think anyone is being forced to move into the communities."

At this point only time will tell – Yakeleya says it may require a 10 or 20-year plan to really take advantage of all the benefits decentralization has to offer and patting each other on the back at this point would be getting ahead of themselves.

"We need to pour a cold bucket of water on our faces and say here is the reality of it," he said. "The vision is good, the dream is good, but step out the door and the reality hits you in the face."

McLeod's did not respond to a request for comment.

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