New commissioner yet to be named
No word from Ottawa on replacement more than five months after retirement of George Tuccaro
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, October 14, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The territory's part-time deputy commissioner says he knows no more about the naming of the territory's next NWT commissioner than anyone else in the territory.
Inuvik resident Gerald Kisoun said he would be honoured and would likely accept a promotion to the full-time job - but if and when that might happen is anyone's guess, he said.
Kisoun has been filling the role of full-time commissioner since George Tuccaro retired from the position on May 10 of this year.
Yellowknifer has asked both the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs as well as the Privy Council in Ottawa for an update of the status of the selection of a new commissioner but neither had responded as of press time.
The role is largely ceremonial but a commissioner - essentially the Queen's representative in the Northwest Territories - is required to give royal assent or final passage to bills in the legislative assembly. The last time Kisoun was called on to do that was back in late June at the end of the previous sitting of the legislative assembly when the territorial government's budget became law.
He said he has put his signature on some other less important government documents but has not attended any official functions and has only been at a handful of public events in his role as deputy commissioner.
"A couple of meetings I've gone to they thanked the commissioner," Kisoun said. "I had to say I'm not the commissioner, I'm the deputy commissioner."
Kisoun said he would be willing to relocate to Yellowknife if he is given the position on a full-time basis.
"I was advised that we might have to move to Yellowknife but nobody has said that we would have to," said Kisoun. "A lot of the things that do happen with the government in regards to the ceremonial position do happen in the big city."
Kisoun said he has been keeping very busy helping his nephew run a tour company in Inuvik.
He also occupies his time on a number of governing boards, including the Gwich'in Land and Water Board and the NWT Tourism Board. He is partway through his second term as deputy commissioner, having first been appointed to the position in 2011. His term is scheduled to end on Dec. 10, 2017.
If he is not named the next commissioner, Kisoun said there are any number of people in the NWT who have earned the right to hold the position.
He was not about to wade into the debate as to why the federal government has not yet named a new commissioner.
"It's a political decision that I am not involved in," he said.
Tony Whitford, the Yellowknife resident who served as NWT commissioner from 2005 to 2010 said he is perplexed as to why it is taking so long to name a new commissioner.
"I am concerned that it has been a while since the position has sat vacant. It begs the question as to why and a lot of people have asked me about it," Whitford said.
"There has been times when the deputy commissioner has taken over for short times."
Whitford said he does not remember the commissioner's position sitting vacant for so long.
Cory Vanthuyne, MLA for Yellowknife North, said regular MLAs are also in the dark over when a new commissioner will be named.
"To date we haven't even been updated. Members of the assembly have put a bunch of names forward for consideration. I expect the federal government is now going through their evaluation process - I don't know what that is or how they conduct that."
Vanthuyne said he does not know if the length of time it is taking to replace Tuccaro is reasonable or not because this is his first term as an MLA.
