Public asked to speak up
Hearings on boundaries Bill 15 begin

Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 16/99) - The government has officially kicked off its public-hearings campaign on the bill that proposes to change the shape of the NWT legislature.

At a special meeting of the Government Operations Committee on Monday, Chairman Roy Erasmus opened proceedings by saying that in drafting the bill, the committee tried to make minimal changes to the system while still falling in line with a March 5 supreme court judgement that ruled two Yellowknife ridings and Hay River were under-represented in the assembly.

The resulting Bill 15 is designed "to amend the legislative assembly and executive council act" by adding three seats to Yellowknife and one each to Hay River and Inuvik.

The chairman said the committee hoped for positive debate and recommendations at the community meetings to be hosted in Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Rae-Edzo, Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith over the next month.

"The bill is about political power-sharing in the NWT, and the committee must strive to strike a balance between the rights of individuals and the collective rights of Aboriginal peoples," Erasmus said. "We know about Aboriginal people's concerns but we don't simply want to hear that there should be no more seats -- If someone says that they should explain how we can stay with 14 seats and still abide by the judge's ruling."

Erasmus said it was important the hearings take place now, even though the Western NWT Aboriginal Summit will appear in appeal court this week to argue against Justice Mark de Weerdt's boundaries-case ruling.

"We must move ahead to meet our deadline -- we report to the house on July 26," he said, adding "but if the appeal is successful, it's back to the drawing board."

Erasmus also responded to recent criticism by Metis Nation President Gary Bohnet and the summit -- which argues the road-show should visit more communities. He said the committee is encouraging Aboriginal feedback to the point where it is offering to pay the way for representatives of smaller communities to travel to the hearings. He added that interpretation services would be available at every stop.

Erasmus said the committee would be open to hearing a variety of proposals from the communities -- including novel suggestions like agreeing on regular meetings between the government and Aboriginal leadership or having a 2-2-2 formula for cabinet representation, with two members from the North Slave region, two from the south and two from the capital.

"We will listen to other ideas on how to share power with the communities," he said.

Presenting the bill on behalf of the government Monday was Premier Jim Antoine.

"I think this is a good opportunity to take the bill to the public and to hear their views and recommendations," he said.