Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 31/99) - The government's decision to hold public hearings on the bill dealing with electoral boundaries has sparked feedback of its own.

But opinion on whether consultations at this point make sense -- when Bill 15 has had two readings in the assembly and when the Western NWT Aboriginal Summit is set to appeal the matter in court -- is as divided as the issue itself is divisive.

Currently in the hands of the Government Operations Committee, Bill 15 seeks to conform to a NWT Supreme Court ruling on territorial representation by adding five seats to the legislature -- three to Yellowknife and one each to Hay River and Inuvik.

The committee has until mid-July to debate the bill and make recommendations to the assembly, which in turn has been given until Sept. 1 to solve the constitutional crisis.

Committee chairman Roy Erasmus announced last week that public consultations would be held in major centres across the territory between June 15 and July 16.

"Members felt it was imperative that we make every effort to allow NWT residents the opportunity to provide input on this issue of crucial importance to the future of governance in the North," Erasmus said in a prepared statement.

But the motion did not pass without the opposition of some committee members.

"I don't know if I'm opposed or if I just won't participate," said Yellowknife Centre MLA Jake Ootes. "I think we've spent an awful lot of time with the constitutional working group and consultations -- we had the boundary commission and did community consultation, and those reports are still there to be read."

Ootes also questioned the cost factor -- in light of the recent budget debate.

"We're trying to find $5 million for education and have to ask ourselves what our priorities are," he said. "We could wait for the court decision before we proceed with consultations."

Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen echoed Ootes on Thursday and, like him, qualified her opposition to the proposed hearings.

"I'm all for public consultation -- under certain circumstances," she said, "but all these costly road shows and junkets and ministers' forums also overlap -- and there's no reason the MLAs can't organize community consultations in their own constituencies and then report back to (the committee)."

Groenewegen also said that the timing of the hearings might only serve to further complicate an already complicated issue.

"It might be confusing to the average person that the bill has passed a second reading, that the government then decided to finance an appeal to the ruling and now wants to hold public hearings," she said, "It's a mixed message."

But two regional mayors said that, mixed or not, the hearings will serve to provide the government with an up-to-date community voice.

"I think it should have been done right at the outset," said Fort Providence Mayor Michael McLeod. "But it's better late than never and they have to make a good effort to learn what the communities think."

Fort Resolution Mayor Euan Hunter agreed. He said that while his biggest concern in the boundaries debate is to keep the riding of Tu Nedhe intact, talks may also bring other issues to light.

"All the cost factors are always great in the North," he said, "but if they have public consultations, then the MLAs can't go wrong -- so if the public consultations go through they'll have a complete idea of what the towns and communities think."