Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 28/99) - Two brothers found themselves face to face at opposite ends of the table at a public hearing in Yellowknife on Thursday.

Organized by the legislative assembly's Standing Committee on Government Operations, the hearing was one in a series being held across the territory intended to draw out public opinion on a proposed bill making its way through the house.

Bill 15: An act to amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act proposes adding five seats to the 14-member assembly: three to Yellowknife and one each to Inuvik and Hay River. The bill comes as a response to a March 5 Supreme Court judgement that ruled two territorial ridings are under-represented based on population.

Public hearings began in Inuvik on June 15 and took place in Rae-Edzo and Fort Simpson before returning for three sessions in the capital.

At one point at Thursday's meeting, committee chairman Roy Erasmus sat listening to arguments against Bill 15 offered his brother Bill Erasmus, chief of the Dene Nation.

"We have never taken the territorial government to court, but that's one option we're looking at now," said the Dene chief.

Aboriginal groups, represented by the Western NWT Aboriginal Summit, have consistently opposed the court ruling, arguing increased urban representation can only take away from the power of the communities and interfere with the self-government process. The summit was recently denied the right to appeal the ruling, but Bill Erasmus said it's considering its options.

While, to this point, the hearings have been sparsely attended and the Thursday afternoon meeting drew only nine members of the public, the issues involved are weighty. Some MLAs have questioned whether hearings are practical at this point, but chairman Erasmus has backed the idea of consultation taking place before the committee must make recommendations to the house by the end of July.

"The summit's appeal to Justice Mark de Weerdt's decision was unsuccessful," said the chairman, "so now it's more important than ever to hear suggestions from the public."

His brother tried to place the situation in context from the Aboriginal point of view.

"Knowing this is a transitional government, we were willing to tolerate it," he said, "but adding seats would jeopardize our ability to get legitimate power into the communities and the status quo would only be entrenched -- the colonization of the North is real and it continues."

Other citizens making presentations at the hearing included city councillor Bob Brooks as well as Bob MacQuarrie and Sandy Holmes from the Friends of Democracy, the group that took the electoral boundaries case to court.

Saying they were speaking as private citizens only, the three made some novel suggestions.

Brooks suggested one reason why the hearings on the bill have not drawn so many people.

"The perception...is that it's because of apathy," he said, "but a lot of people are not coming out because they like it the way it is."

The public hearings continue next week in Fort Smith on July 5 and in Hay River on July 6-7.