Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 03/99) - Finger pointing and accusations between Premier Jim Antoine and President of the Union of Northern Workers (UNW) Georgina Rolt-Kaiser have followed an interview Antoine gave to CBC North.

In the televised Nov. 29 Northbeat episode, Antoine said after the election the GNWT would have to "take a serious look at how government runs."

He said there might be some cost-saving measures to take in the process of streamlining government.

He did not say there would be job cuts.

In an interview with Yellowknifer, Antoine said "the government as we know it in the NWT is designed to run the whole North before division. This is the first election after division so we have to reassess government, re-look at it and perhaps redo government to function more efficiently for a smaller territory."

He said if there were to be any cuts, Yellowknife would be the place to start because the communities have already been hit hard.

Rolt-Kaiser issued a news release Nov. 30, the day after the Northbeat program aired.

"Antoine indicated that Yellowknife would see the first job cuts in the government's efforts to reduce costs," Rolt-Kaiser said.

"Members are burning out now and this latest news will certainly have a negative impact on the morale of all workers."

Rolt-Kaiser said she was "disgusted" to hear Antoine announce the GNWT plans to cut more jobs.

To Antoine, Rolt-Kaiser is simply overreacting.

"I never said anything like that," he said of her accusation that he said there would be cuts.

"I certainly don't want to see any job cuts. I never made any statement like that."

He said all the people in the bureaucracy that he knows are very hard-working people.

"We need them," Antoine said.

"This is a crucial time in the North where it's the first election after division and we want to do it right. We can't start by scaring the heck out of our employees like that. I'm not doing it. She's doing it with that kind of statement," he said of Rolt-Kaiser.

On Dec. 1, Rolt-Kaiser said that Antoine had phoned the UNW with the message being that he did not want the dispute to be aired through the media.

"I will respect Mr. Antoine at this time not to play 'he said, she said' and respect his wishes not to play it in the media," Rolt-Kaiser said.

"I don't wish to comment at this time until I've had the opportunity to discuss with Mr. Antoine his concerns."