Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 18/02) - A small but vocal contingent of Yellowknife residents gathered Tuesday night to hear from their local MLAs as the legislative assembly heads into the final year of its mandate.

Great Slave MLA Bill Braden joined his six other colleagues from Yellowknife to listen to residents' concerns Tuesday night before heading into session this week. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

All seven Yellowknife MLAs: Brendan Bell, Charles Dent, Sandy Lee, Tony Whitford, Bill Braden, Jake Ootes, and Joe Handley, attended a constituency meeting at the Great Hall, which has become somewhat of tradition before the opening sessions of the assembly.

The growing crisis at Stanton Territorial Hospital, the proposed human rights bill, and changes to the NWT Wildlife Act were among several concerns conveyed to the MLAs present.

Jean Francois Des Lauriers, regional executive vice-president for Public Service Alliance of Canada, said he was "extremely disappointed" that the wording "equal pay for equal value" wasn't included in Bill 1, the proposed Human Rights Act.

The bill will likely pass into law, and replace the out-of-date Fair Practices Act, before the end of the month.

The wording of the act will read "equal pay for equal work" instead, which means workers in the North doing the same kind of jobs will be guaranteed a similar pay scale.

Critics, however, wanted the legislation to reflect a fair approach when discerning between traditional female or "pink" jobs and those typically occupied by males, which they say are still disproportionately higher in pay.

Weledeh MLA Joe Handley said "equal pay for equal value" wasn't included because it would be too difficult to enforce in the private sector.

"It's too complex, too onerous," said Handley.

Yellowknife South MLA Brendan Bell added that if "equal value" was included in the act, small businesses would have to resort to hiring human resource consultants to rate job values.

As for Stanton Hospital, Yellowknife resident Sue Glowach warned the MLAs they should focus on finding solutions for the chronic staff shortages, ward closures, and poor morale, instead of using the crisis to help bolster their own public profiles. In the end, the MLAs conceded a large number of the NWT's woes comes down to money or the lack of it, particularly when it comes to federal transfer payments.

One resident had a suggestion: The NWT should emulate a religious sect out of B.C. that drove the federal government to fits in the 1930s.

"If there's some way we can be the Doukhobors, then we could get the federal government's attention," said Mary Beth Levan, too which everybody, including MLAs could not help but laugh.