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Briefs from the Legislature


Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 17/00) - The territorial government is bailing out Rae-Edzo to the tune of $320,000, and kicking in another $85,000 to help the community develop a plan to recover from its dire financial straits.

The bail-out was the focus of a review of a government request for $12.4 million in funding. The appropriation was accounted for in the 2000-01 budget. Finance Minister Joe Handley said the community's total accumulated debt was $454,000 as of April 1, 2000, up from $52,000 in March 31, 1999.

"In this case, unfortunately, you had a senior officer employed by the hamlet who was just not providing accurate information," said Handley.

Yellowknife South MLA Brendan Bell said the situation highlighted the need for the government to improve its monitoring of community finances.

Rae-Edzo is one of three communities which reported debts for the year ending March 31, 2000. The others were Fort Good Hope, ($190,000), Fort Simpson ($642,817) and Fort McPherson ($55,382).

Road costs

A summary of highway studies completed last year and not released until last Friday provides some insights into the tremendous cost of some of the North's longest-standing dreams.

The report estimates it would cost between $384.7 million and $438.7 million to build an all-weather road from Tibbet Lake to Bathurst Inlet.

If the road left Rae-Edzo instead, the cost would range from $424.6 to $429.1 million.

Estimates for extending the Mackenzie Highway to the Dempster Highway, with access from Deline, range from $424.2 million to $490.7 million.

A road from Inuvik to Tuk would cost between $100 million and $135 million.

Not budging

The government is not prepared to honour commitments to students who initially applied for assistance under the old Student Financial Assistance Act, said Education Minister Jake Ootes. Ootes was responding to questions from Frame Lake MLA Charles Dent, who urged Ootes to continue to allow the students to receive remissible loans -- loans that would not have to be repaid if the students returned to work in the North once they graduated.

"A fix here would cost far less than the $500,000 it cost to fix the program for Metis students," said Dent. He was referring to the government providing Metis students with the option of receiving remissible loans or grants.

"It would cost little to stand behind the promises made by employees of this government."