by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 25/97) - To the surprise of few, a request for a $3,000 clothing allowance for MLAs has been rejected.

The decision was made public last Monday, following a meeting of the legislative assembly's management services board.

Board deliberations are treated with the same confidence as cabinet discussions. Decisions, but not details of the debate are released.

Asked if he supported the allowance, board member and Kitikmeot MLA Kelvin Ng said he felt it was ill-timed.

"Considering the reduction measures our government has undergone, the program, staff and salary reductions we've had to impose, it just wasn't the proper environment to discuss an issue such as that."

When it was revealed two months ago, the request came under fire from a number of groups.

Former head of the NWT Federation of Labor, the late Jim Evoy, spearheaded a tongue-in-cheek clothing drive for the MLAs.

Women's groups asked that the funding be given to them to support programs that had been slashed because of cuts to government funding.

The allowance, along with other new expenses, was proposed by Nunakput MLA Vince Steen in a memo to board chairman and Speaker Sam Gargan.

In his memo Steen noted many MLAs, particularly newly elected ones, do not have wardrobes suitable to the decorum of the legislative assembly. The clothing allowance, reasoned Steen, would ease the burden of acquiring a new wardrobe.

Steen's secretary said last week the MLA had no comment concerning the clothing allowance.

Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus supported the clothing allowance in another memo to the board, going further to suggest money available for constituency assistants' salaries should be increased.