Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Friday, November 16, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Department of Justice has a job for you ... but be warned, it's the kind of job that takes a special person.

When the territories' chief coroner, Percy Kinney, resigned, the department advertised a request for proposals for the appointed contract position.

According to Reg Tolton, assistant deputy minister of Justice, they had received no proposals by the deadline of Aug. 31, 2007.

More than a month after Kinney's Sept. 30 departure, the territory is still short one chief coroner.

Tolton said this is not unheard of, and that the position was vacant for a year before Kinney's appointment in 1998.

"That's definitely not our preference," Tolton said, but indicated that the position requires the right person.

"The concern of the minister and the department would be to have the job done competently," he said.

"There are a lot of subtleties to a position like this, (the chief coroner) can be critical of the government in the course of their job, and they have to be independent to a certain extent, in order to do that," he added.

In some jurisdictions in the United States and Canada, a coroner is required to be a doctor or a lawyer, however there are also many, such as the NWT, where the coroner or medical examiner does not need to come from a specific profession, and is chosen for the job based on relevant skills.

When asked about standardized qualifications for coroners in an interview before his departure, Kinney told Yellowknifer that "a physician-based coroner's system in the North would not work. It's hard enough to get doctors up here to be doctors, let alone to be a coroner."

The main tasks of the chief coroner require medical knowledge, but the job also requires a variety of other skills.

The territories have nearly 40 coroners spread throughout the communities, and the chief coroner also acts as leadership for these positions, as well as being responsible for holding inquests, with the assistance of the deputy chief coroner, Kathy Menard.

Menard said in the absence of the chief coroner, she is able to perform all the required duties, and that it's "business as usual" in the office these days.

"All the work is getting done," she said.

Before deciding on whether to hold an inquest into the deaths of firefighters Kevin Olson and Lt. Cyril Fyfe, who died responding to a shed fire in March 2005, Kinney had been waiting for a report from the NWT Worker's Compensation Board (WCB).

The WCB had given the city a list of requirements which the fire department had to meet as a result of the deaths.

Menard said the WCB has still not provided the coroner's office with the report, and when they do, she will be able to proceed as a chief coroner would with the information.

In the meantime, Tolton said the department was now considering recruiting people in the territory who possess the requirements for the chief coroner's position, and may have expressed interest in the job in the past.

He was not able to say how many people the department was considering.

He said while they would look outside the North if they had to, they would prefer to find someone already in the territory.

"We may also submit another request for proposals," he said.