Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (June 10/05) - More nurses, more social workers, more addictions counsellors, more police, more training for tradespeople and more technical advisors.

These were just some of the many needs identified at a workshop on anticipated social impacts of a proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Four GNWT departments - Health and Social Services; Education, Culture and Employment; Justice; and Housing - organized the session, which attracted about 50 people representing First Nations, Metis, industry and the territorial government to Fort Simpson, May 31-June 1.

Stan Sanguez, a band member from Jean Marie River, was one of several workshop participants who was adamant that the government should allow decisions to be made in the communities.

"Every time they do it for us not enough money goes around... it never works for us," he said. "Let us do our work. Stay the frig out of our face. I think that's more beneficial than the government running things for us."

Sanguez made mention of Member of Parliament Ethel Blondin-Andrew's message at a leadership meeting held in Fort Liard in late May.

"That money I consider your money," she told the Deh Cho delegates in regards to $40 million in Northern Strategy funding that is expected to flow this month. Sanguez said the GNWT should heed Blondin-Andrew's opinion.

Marie Lafferty, president of the Fort Simpson Metis Nation, said she sees sub-standard housing, a lack of police, convoys of heavy trucks and the potential for an explosion in drug trafficking as the most pressing concerns associated with the boom from the pipeline. But she expressed little optimism that the GNWT will act on the recommendations that came from the workshop.

"They say things, but they don't carry it through," Lafferty said.

The government will produce a report reflecting the concerns to arise from the workshop, according to Andy Langford, director of planning and reporting for the Department of Health and Social Services. Similar reports will be generated from similar social impacts workshops to be held in the Sahtu and the Beaufort Delta, he noted.

Among the priorities that Langford discerned from the workshop were the need to create community plans and build partnerships with government to jointly manage impacts of the pipeline.

Another suggestion was to combine government funding pots to create "one stop shopping" for social requirements in the communities, he added.

Asked where the money will come from to support these initiatives, Langford said there's always a possibility of making government departments more efficient. "Until and unless there is more money coming in, we have to work within existing budgets," he said.