Dez Loreen
Northern News Services
Friday, April 6, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Four Samuel Hearne students worked as pages during the last session of the Legislative Assembly.

Phillip Iatridis, Kodi Walker, Brittany Lucas-Cockney and Justine Atkinson were chosen by Inuvik MLAs Robert McLeod and Floyd Roland to assist them at the legislature.

To choose the pages, McLeod said a list of students was made up by high school teachers in Inuvik, then the list was shortened by Roland and himself.

"We chose the four of them for this year," said McLeod.

"Usually we look for younger students, from Grade 8 to 9."

Last time the Inuvik reps recruited pages was last October, when six students spent a week working in Yellowknife. Roland said the pages' duties include training, working from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day and gathering information for the members.

"They will get us our notes, make sure we have our water and keep notes of what goes on," explained Roland.

"We also give them plenty of time for their homework."

Justine Atkinson, one of the pages, said homework time was a good break from the week-long activities.

"Even though we were in Yellowknife that week, we had to keep up on our studies," said Atkinson.

She said meeting new people was a bit intimidating.

"We were kinda working for both MLAs, which meant we met a lot of new people," said Atkinson.

"It was a fun time and we got to do some shopping on the side."

McLeod said each MLA may bring two pages to Yellowknife. McLeod added that travel and accommodations for the pages are paid for by the legislative assembly.

"The plane tickets are paid by the assembly, so we try to get a few students as often as possible," said McLeod.

Roland said when the pages were out of the assembly chamber, they would spend time in the Inuvik member's office working with the assistants.

"We also brought them over for dinner," said Roland.

"I got some good input on what they were thinking."

Roland said keeping youth involved in the political process is good for their future.

"It's important to give them an idea of what is outside Inuvik for them," said Roland.

"We also try to get them at a young age, so they know to make wise decisions."

Lorna Jones-Martin, counsellor at Samuel Hearne, said she is happy the youth were able to take part in the program.

"It is good for the students to work with other students from across the North."

Lucas-Cockney, now 13, said the experience of being a page was one to remember.

While she was at the legislature in Yellowknife, she said she saw a lot of people working and got to meet some of them.

"There were a lot of people who were nice to us while we were there," she said.