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Coun. Owen Rowe stands beside the oil tank at the centre of a battle between the village and territorial government. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

It's blackmail: councillor

Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Apr 01/05) - A Fort Simpson councillor is accusing the territorial government of blackmail after it threatened to withhold funding from the village while the two sides are embroiled in a legal battle.

Coun. Owen Rowe said the government is trying to strong-arm the village into abandoning a lawsuit over back property grants by delaying a request for emergency funding.

"It's blackmail, pure and simple," said Rowe.

The village applied to Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for $200,000 last summer after nearly 5,000 litres of oil seeped from a tank on Antoine Drive.

The village covered the cleanup costs and according to officials, the territorial government agreed to reimburse the money through its Extraordinary Funding Policy.

But in February, council decided to take the territorial government to court over $39,000 in unpaid land grants dating back to 2001.

Until that point, the government paid the village for improvements to territorial land occupied by squatters. Those payments were transferred to the federal government in 2002, but the grants from 2001 remain unpaid.

In a letter presented to council March 21, MACA deputy minister Debbie DeLancey wrote: "It is important to note that processing of any new funding requests may be delayed while the matter of the legal action against the Government of the Northwest Territories by the Village is being resolved."

Mayor Ray Michaud said the territorial government reimbursed the village about $100,000 -- before council decided to go ahead with the lawsuit. He called the letter from MACA "political blackmail," but questioned whether the village had any recourse. "There is not much we can do about it," he said.

Despite the letter from DeLancey, Michaud said he believed the department would eventually come through with the money.

MACA officials were not immediately available for comment before press time.