Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (May 10/02) - Nahendeh MLA Jim Antoine returned to Yellowknife Monday night with a lengthy wish list from Fort Simpson village council.

Mayor Tom Wilson pleaded poverty, still stinging from a $500,000 GNWT cutback to the village budget last year.

Antoine was addressed with seven separate items the mayor and council say are increasingly becoming more of a burden than the village can bear on its own.

Recreation complex heating, the ongoing sewage treatment plant lawsuit, long-distance phone rates, the proposed removal of the GNWT airport's generator, commissioners lands, capital needs, and a dearth of government jobs in the village, kept Antoine at the council table for more than an hour at last Monday's regular public meeting.

"We won't be coming to the dinner table without a plate," said Wilson, trying to convince Antoine that it was imperative the GNWT allow the village to "piggy-back" onto the government in paying legal bills associated with the sewage treatment plant law suit.

Wilson said if the GNWT joined forces with the village, they could provide valuable information to government lawyers fighting the lawsuit with contractor Camillus Engineering Consultants.

The mayor said the village cannot afford to pay the estimated $100,000 a year in lawyers' fees since the case began in 2000. "Why can't we use your lawyers?" Wilson asked. "Our suitcase is full of legal things that will help us win the case."

Coun. Pat Rowe scoffed at government plans to remove the airport's generator, which he said could prove unwise in the event of a real emergency.

"We were told it was $1,000 a year to run it," said Rowe. "It's not warranted (removing it) for $1,000 a year."

Counc. Betty Hardisty criticized the GNWT for not creating more government jobs for Fort Simpson citizens. "As you know Jim, when you come home, people complain that they're unemployed," said Hardisty, while also complaining about the appearance of the village office.

"This office, to our community members, is a real eyesore," said Hardisty, anxious see the GNWT increase capital funding. Other complaints laid by the mayor and councillors focused on erosion along the Mackenzie River, the need to carve off more commissioners land for the village and reinstating a $50,000 per year subsidy for heating the community recreation centre.

In the end, it all boiled down to money. More money for improving village infrastructure, roads and development, and more GNWT subsidies for village services.

Antoine said he would check into it, starting with Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Vince Steen.

"I'm kind of playing a dual role here as an MLA," said Antoine. "This is a request coming to me from village council to government. So, I'll move that forward to the minister responsible."