 | E-mail this story |  | Write letter to editor |  | Order a classified ad |
| E-mail this story | | Write letter to editor | | Order a classified ad |
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
 Michael Miltenberger: 'The Cuff Report, during its time on the stage, its 15 minutes of fame, was a lightening rod. It was a flawed document' |
Married for 26 years, he has one daughter and one granddaughter. Miltenberger spoke with News/North in his spartan Yellowknife apartment Friday.
Describe a typical work day.
Michael Miltenberger: I get up fairly early. This morning I was in the gym at quarter to four. I did my workout I came back here, did my shower and shave and stuff and was in the office by quarter to six.
When I'm here that's basically my life. I go to the gym, go to work, go home.
When does a work day end for you?
MM: The last few days, eight or nine at night, depending on what I have to do.
With the ministerial things going on now, a lot of the times you do your phone calls in the evenings, that's when you can get some down time to meet with staff to get things done.
It makes for fairly long days.
You mentioned you've known premier Stephen Kakfwi for 40 years. You were at Grandin College together. What do you remember of the premier from that time?
MM: I have the yearbooks, and I look at them periodically. We were in a class picture, I forget what grade it was, but we must've been 13 or 14 and weighed, maybe 120 or 130 pounds. We had brush cuts, these skinny little guys with shirts and ties on. We played sports all the time, we studied lots. It was just a very active existence.
With the Grandin crew, there's a network out there and people stay in contact to see what's happening in each others' lives.
One of the big issues you're going to have to deal with is the Cuff report. You attacked it as a regular member. It seems to indicate there's a trade-off to be made, that if you want to decentralize health care its going to cost you in terms of health care delivery.
MM: The Cuff report is not an issue. The Cuff report has been dealt with by the department as far as I can see. And they've taken the approach the social programs committee recommended -- salvage what you can, scrap the rest and lets move on.
The Cuff Report, during its time on the stage, its 15 minutes of fame, was a lightening rod. It was a flawed document in my opinion and the right thing to do is take what we can out of there, get it off the table and look at what we have to do to make the health system better.
You seem to have a knack for making enemies. I recall a few disputes you've had with Jeanie Marie Jewell and Jane Groenewegen and you seemed to get under the skin of cabinet ministers as an ordinary member.
MM: I think its an unfair characterization, to say I have a knack for making enemies.
I was engaged in probably one of the toughest electoral campaigns in the territories' history when I first got elected against Ms. Jewell. In defeat she chose to take me to court and tie up almost two years of time and about a million dollars, I figure, in a court battle. She chose to do that. I don't take things personally, and we carry on.
I had an incident five years ago with Ms. Groenewegen, an incident. It's been dealt with. The press, yourself, CBC keep going back to that one time and from there they make sweeping generalizations that I have a problem with women or I make enemies or I say inappropriate things, and it's not accurate.
I mean, look at the thousands of people I've dealt with in the last five years and the 20 years before that. One incident with one person that was, in my opinion, very minor, and it's been dealt with.
Did you apologize to Jane?
MM: We came to an understanding. We agreed to put it behind us and move on.
Maybe you have to keep going back to that because that's all you can find. It's ground that's been ploughed many, many times.
In your speeches you use some flowery and sometimes inflammatory rhetoric. Where does that come from?
MM: Give me an example of my inflammatory rhetoric, as you call it. You tell me what you consider inflammatory rhetoric.
I can tell you I like language. I read books, I like words. It's something I picked up from my folks, who were great readers.
My dad grew up taking Latin and Greek and knew all the roots of words. It sort of inspired a real interest in words and language.
Do I use inflammatory rhetoric? I would like to say I don't. I use strong language when I think its appropriate. Inflammatory is your word, not mine.
What's your main priority for the rest of this term?
MM: I want to do my job as MLA, I want to keep doing that, but now I have a ministry to look after. My focus here is going to be to get things happening with health and social services. I want to start implementing the change that has to be done -- things we can do quickly, plan for the longer term, get the consensus, do the consultation and get the buy-in that wasn't done the first time when the department moved ahead with a lot of its initiatives.
Do you feel you have a fairly firm handle on how things are going to look after self-government?
MM: I don't think my grasp of that is any firmer than most people's.
I do know that, whether its aboriginal government or public government, there's a fundamental interest in making sure the quality of service in the communities is there. That's my focus and I think that's the focus of every chief, mayor, Metis president and health board rep. That's the focus, and I think that's what the people want to do. We can talk about governance issues, but regardless of how that shakes out, we have to deal with the service issues.For all of us, elected or not, that's our job, to make sure we have a system that can run.
