Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 04/99) - The best guess on when a decision will be made on how many, if any, DIAND jobs will be moved North is still "soon."

Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Jane Stewart is responsible for making the decision on whether or not to relocate jobs in Ottawa, Ont., and Hull, Que., to the North.

For the last three years the territorial government, arguing the North would be better served by people who live here, has been lobbying to have federal jobs moved North.

The assistant deputy minister of DIAND's Northern Affairs program said this week the territorial government's argument has merit for certain positions.

"My view is that functions that are performed in Ottawa that are highly operational in nature, that could and should be delivered closer to the delivery point...ought to be positioned in the North," said Jim Moore.

He said that would amount to about 10 jobs, but added, "I would not extrapolate from that, that the minister is going to make a decision to decentralize 10 jobs to the North."

The Northern Affairs program includes about 100 positions in Ottawa, according to a recent report. Another 170 in the Yellowknife regional office are carrying out "NAP-related activities," noted the report.

Moore said it makes sense to keep departmental strategists in a central location because that's where the decision-makers, the minister and government, are.

He said Northern Affairs policy often applies to all three territories and sometimes is intertwined with the policies of other departments, such as Natural Resources Canada.

The territorial government has been awaiting a decision since a report on moving jobs North was completed at the end of March.

The report noted most Northern Affairs DIAND workers in Hull did not want to move to the North and thought decentralization was politically motivated.

Moore said any movement of jobs North will itself raise political issues.

"One of the really pragmatic issues we've had to face is, (for example) if the minister decides it makes sense to move quite a large chunk of the resource base to Yellowknife -- how's Nunavut going to react and how is the Yukon going to react?"