Eileen Collins
Northern News Services

Hay River (Nov 08/99) - Jane Groenewegen (left) has been acclaimed the MLA for Hay River South.

She served in the 13th Assembly for four years. With the new mandate she has been given, Jane will be working to further some of the ideas and convictions she has for the North and for Hay River.

News/North: How does it feel to be acclaimed in Hay River South?

Jane Groenewegen: It feels very good. We weren't expecting it. We were geared up for an election campaign for the six weeks. We were pretty well organized. But it came as a surprise and we took the news with joy.

NN: If you had to campaign, what are some of the issues you would have addressed?

Groenewegen: The pressure is on our education system partly because of the way we educate and because of the financial restrictions and restraint. We had started to deal with that, but there's a long ways to go yet. Teachers a few years ago had their vacation travel allowance removed. The public service roll back of wages could cause teachers to look afield for positions in the South, or in other countries.

There is a shortage of teachers nationally. When we are in a budget and deficit reduction mode, we walk the fine line of losing some of our resources in terms of teachers. By not offering competitive remuneration packages, there comes the risk of losing some of those teachers and having to recruit new ones, if you can.

In the North, we embrace inclusive schooling, which means any one teacher could have a wide range of abilities within one classroom setting. They are required to deal with the children who are operating perhaps at the medium level, at the higher level and then also there are those who maybe are not operating at grade level. Inclusive schooling is wonderful, if you have the resources to assist teachers.

The whole education system is a subject that I became quite familiar with the last assembly. Right now, as we speak, they are in mediation hearings between the teachers and the government. We are hoping that we will find some kind of solution with the teachers and that no job action will be required on their part.

Education and training are key to so many other things. When I think of education and training specific to Hay River, I think about our dream of many years for a vocational trade centre here. If I had campaigned, I would have talked about the new middle school concept where we are probably only going to be taking grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 in the high school in the future. Perhaps that would free up space and allow us the opportunity to expand vocational training within our high school.

NN: How do you see the diamond industry benefiting Hay River?

Groenewegen: We've already begun to see some of the contracts for construction at the mine site come to Hay River. With the BHP mine we've seen service contracts for heavy and light equipment. The tanks are being built here for Diavik. Hay River has a lot of infrastructure. Certainly in the oil and gas sector, when you're talking about the Beaufort Delta, Hay River is the launch point for all that activity. Hay River is key location-wise and well prepared with a lot of the infrastructure for manufacturing, transportation and for servicing. That's where I see Hay River coming in.

Of course, we would like to see some of the secondary diamond industry processing coming here. There's still potential for that. We were disappointed when the sorting and grading went to Yellowknife and subsequently three cutting and polishing facilities were approved for Yellowknife. The future looks very good to me. With all the natural resource sector development, we have to look at maximum benefits to Northerners for jobs and business. Those are covered off by our socio-economic agreements with those companies. I will be working very diligently on a new political accord and Northern accord for Northern resources. It's already being talked about. The royalties go to Ottawa now. Ottawa has pretty well dug their heels in with us and are saying, "Until the North comes with a united front and united force to talk about these things, we will not be too willing to share some of those royalties which we receive from the North." It's becoming a very substantial amount.

NN: Who are the players who will be involved in this united front?

Groenewegen: The players who have to come together are the territorial government and the aboriginal governments. It takes the agreement and the signing on of all the aboriginal governments. In the past, I think we've come close in the sense that maybe we were one party short. It's going to require co-operation and a recognition on the part of all parties that there is benefit for us to co-operate and work together.

When you look at all the families living in the Western Arctic, the basic needs of the family and the individual are all the same. We all need hospitals to go to. We all need schools for our children to go to. We need some friends and a roof over our heads. The basic needs are similar. If we can enhance our services and programs and care of our people by tapping into some of that money by coming together to form an accord, that's the message we need to get out.

NN: If the size of the pot remains the same, a settlement with the teachers, for example, would require taking from some other program to make it happen, would it not?

Groenewegen: On that subject, education to me should be a very high priority. I know what you're saying. We have to rob one thing to supplement something else and it becomes a juggling act. I am still of the mind that there are many areas within government spending that need to be examined that may not be priority spending. In some way the government has gotten into a rut of doing things in a certain way. I think we need to step back look at how we do things and say this is ineffective it's not netting results. We could do this more cost effectively.

I made a statement in the House that we spent a million or maybe it was two million on consulting people on the issue of health care. I would like to see some of those dollars go into things like education. So often the government is so eager to appoint another panel, the premier's panel on the economy, the minister's appointees on education and health and social services. Those are very costly advisory groups.

When I first became an MLA, the premier appointed a panel on the economy. I thought, "I have something I'd like to say on the economy," but I wasn't a member of the panel. I never sat down once with the premier and had the opportunity to say to him, "I think this is the direction the economy should be going or this is the shortfall in terms of government support or we could enhance this sector if we put this effort into it."

I was never given that opportunity.

NN: I was going to ask you what direction would you like to see the government take in the new millennium and beyond and you've covered that somewhat. Do you have anything else to add?

Groenewegen: A government evolves and it changes. I think we've seen the start of a new era in our government in terms of openness. The Management and Services Board is no longer a secret board. No more can the Speaker and a minister and three ordinary members go into a room and close the door and make decisions on behalf of the members. It's open to the public. It's open to the media. A small step, but a very important step. The government should be open and much more transparent in their dealings. I think that's the era we are entering. I hear a lot of the new candidates who are campaigning talking about that. We have to take away the mystery of the government and bring it down to earth. We should tell people what we're doing, what our job is, what it entails, the hard choices, the challenges, the opportunities. I'm a strong supporter of that.

I'm optimistic about the future. I'm going back into this job again. I'm very enthusiastic about it and I'll try and bring that positive energy to the table.