Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 25/98) - Citizens of Enterprise now know why they no longer have an elected council.

A GNWT report detailing 25 violations of municipal legislation found by inspectors after studying the settlement's local government was released last week.

The controversial report, kept secret since March, was hand-delivered to homes in Enterprise Wednesday afternoon shortly after Manitok Thompson, minister of municipal affairs, tabled the report in the legislature.

Violations include:

• a lack of written contracts and formal tendering procedures

• a lack of written minutes, reports or committee recommendations to council

• the awarding of a school busing contract to a sitting councillor with no signed contract

"These violations on their own would not necessarily warrant the appointment of an administrator," Thompson said in the legislature Wednesday. "However, in the situation of Enterprise, the council was bitterly divided and unable to function effectively to resolve outstanding issues on their own."

That view is resented by at least one former member of the settlement's council. Winnie Cadieux said Thompson's statement and action smacks of "colonialism."

"Internal politics ... that's the name of the game," she said. "If we choose to fight over issues in our community that is our business."

Cadieux also suggested that territorial government examine its own governing practises across before condemning her community.

"If they shut us down for these minor infractions, then how is the GNWT still up and running?" she said.

Cadieux also said that the council, which took office only in January, was in fact working to correct many of the very violations that GNWT inspectors found.