Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 27/99) - Though Ethel Blondin-Andrew admits she has used Department of National Defence's challenger jets more than other junior cabinet ministers, she says it is because she works hard and her riding is far from Ottawa.

"I'm not just busy, I'm productive," Blondin-Andrew, Western Arctic MP, said.

"(Challenger jet trips) are all on behalf of the government like the Prime Minister's Office or the Privy Council Office. They are also on behalf of specific ministers like Minister (Alan) Rock, Minister (Pierre) Pettigrew, Minister (Shiela) Copps and others."

Last week, a national newspaper reported Blondin-Andrew flew more than 94 hours aboard the aircraft in the last fiscal year, the majority of trips between Ottawa and Yellowknife.

The jets cost DND $7,925 per hour, and at that rate, Blondin-Andrew cost taxpayers $749,705.

Blondin-Andrew confirmed this information, but explained that the vast majority of the time she has had to take red-eye flights overnight from Yellowknife after taking one day to spend time with her family.

"I like to share a meal with my family and then I leave at 8 p.m. on Sunday (to get to Ottawa by morning.)"

As far as getting funding for the North goes, Blondin-Andrew said she has 18 pages listing all the grants she has secured for the North.

"They range from everything from youth activities to child development centres to working with D'Arcy Moses to working with the new geoscience camp. The total is $3,416,000 worth of projects in that section."

She then listed projects such as the national aboriginal human resource development strategy for $1.6 billion - that will mean about $30 million for the North for the next five years.

"I arbitrated, mediated and negotiated that along with my colleague Mr. Pettigrew."

"There's a tremendous amount of footwork," Blondin-Andrew said.

"Money doesn't just fall out of the sky for the North. I'm sorry but it's not true. You have strong representation in cabinet and you have strong representation in the House on these issues that's why we're getting the money we're getting."

Otherwise, Blondin-Andrew stressed her workload includes areas such as immigration, working visas, disability pensions, old age security and other constituency work. She also keeps abreast with land claim negotiations and has helped many Northerners get federal appointments, she said.