Peter Crnogorac
Northern News Services
Friday, February 2, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The city's mayor says he doesn't remember telling an Edmonton reporter that a Yellowknife company recruits staff at the RCMP's drunk tank.

"I remember her asking me a question about the drunk tank, but I ignored it," Mayor Gord Van Tighem said of a media scrum that took place after his speech at the Workforce Shortage Summit on in Edmonton on Jan. 25.

Van Tighem: "I do not recall having said that."

In her Edmonton Journal story on Jan. 26, reporter Susan Ruttan wrote that Van Tighem said one "very patient" employer regularly resorts to hiring workers at the local drunk tank. The article's headline declared Yellowknife employers desperate for staff.

However, Ruttan paraphrases Van Tighem's comments and does not directly quote him saying anything about the city's drunk tank.

"I do not recall having said that," said Van Tighem. "I would say I appear to have been taken out of context."

The mayor claimed that what he did say was that when he was an executive of the NWT Community Mobilization Program he heard of employers hiring people who had successfully completed treatment for drugs and alcohol.

Ruttan couldn't be contacted for comment.

However, Peter Maser, city editor at the Edmonton Journal, said he sides with his reporter, even though he hadn't spoken to Ruttan about what Van Tighem may have said.

"I stand by my reporter," he said. "The Journal stands by this story."

According to Ruttan's report, Van Tighem made the comments in front of about 40 human resource professionals at the conference.

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel was also there as a guest speaker.

"The mayor said he doesn't recall the Yellowknife mayor making any comments about employers hiring from the drunk tank," said Brad Stromberg, communications adviser for Mandel.

In a copy of Van Tighem's speech, there was no mention of drunk tanks.

The Journal's story was picked up by the Calgary Herald with the headline

Finding Workers at The Drunk Tank. It was also on the CanWest newswire service under the title NWT Company Plunders Drunk Tank Workers.

The name of the company in question is not mentioned in any of the articles.

Van Tighem said he couldn't name the company because as far as he knows it doesn't exist.

Roxanne Dreilich, spokesperson for the Yellowknife RCMP, said that she has never heard of anyone in the city recruiting workers from the drunk tank.

"Absolutely not," she said. "Our cells are not open to the public. If we did get a request like that we would advise the person that that type of practice is not allowed."

Van Tighem said he's not asking for a retraction from the Edmonton Journal because he said he's become accustomed to being misquoted by the media. And besides, some good has come from the story.

"Sometimes with misinformation, you get the result you wanted," he said. "Since the story came out, we've had people from around Canada contact us about work."