Iqaluit (Sep 29/03) - Flying back and forth over the great expanse of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is something Kelvin Ng does more than any other MLA.

Kelvin Ng in his office. A big challenge lies ahead, he says, making sure Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk don't feel alienated in the new territory. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

The frequent-flyer life between Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Yellowknife comes to an end next year when Ng retires from politics - a move that surprised even his closest colleagues.

"In politics timing is everything," he said in an interview last week after announcing his decision not to seek another term.

"You can't do it too early because then people know and some of your credibility is undermined. And you have to give enough notice to give any serious candidate time to get organized."

It was a decision reached over the summer after discussions with his wife Susie, who maintains the family home in Yellowknife.

A MLA for Cambridge Bay for the last 10 years, Ng grew as a politician in the turbulent, exciting and somewhat chaotic times that have characterized the North since Nunavut was created in 1999. Ng is deputy premier, finance minister, government house leader and the minister responsible for the Housing Corporation and the Workers' Compensation Board.

"I had no idea when I moved up North I'd be sitting here," he said. "I just came up North for a couple of years in 1978."

Ng moved to Cambridge Bay to work for the Hudson's Bay Company. From the start, he noticed that North was ignored and that bothered him. Ng wanted to change all that.

"Quite frankly we had been neglected for years," he said.

"Not just Cambridge Bay but Kugluktuk. Pretty large communities that seemed to be getting the short end of the stick in terms of government programs." Ng was elected mayor of Cambridge Bay in 1988 and found the move to territorial politics "intimidating."

"Everyone is focusing on you. Everything you say, and the issues you bring up are hopefully legitimate ones. There was a bit of a learning curve there."

Ng came under fire for the high school and cultural centre in Cambridge Bay that ran over-budget. He is also bothered by the botched Kitikmeot Foods plant in Cambridge Bay. The facility should have been brand new, he said. But to save money it was housed in existing building.

"Ten years after the fact there are all sorts of problems with that facility," he said. "If they had done it right in the first place we wouldn't have run into this problem.

"That whole industry is in jeopardy because of the state of that facility," he said.

Mixed reactions

Nothing could dim the excitement of being part of the first government of Nunavut.

"I was as proud as anyone else, and extremely honoured," he said.

But not everyone from his region was pleased about the separation from the Northwest Territories, and some ill feelings remain.

"People from our area didn't want to come to Iqaluit or outside of the western service area for health, education; they still don't," he said.

"So that's one the reasons they barely supported separation."

People in the Kitikmeot need attention, just as they did when he got into politics 20 years ago, "because now the government is even farther away than Yellowknife was," he said.

What they said about kelvin ng:

Premier Paul Okalik:

"His parliamentary and business experience was a substantial benefit to the early days of Nunavut's first public government."

Cambridge Bay Mayor Keith Peterson:

"He's spanned a very historic occasion, a transition into a new government here."

Health and social services minister Ed Picco:

"He was a good guy for jokes."