Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, November 23, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - With memories of a trip to China fading into the past of the 15th legislative assembly, another diplomatic mission has come to light - this time, to India.

Shortly after the September trade mission to China, former premier Joe Handley hopped over to New Delhi, India with one support staff for the 53rd meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), said Tim Mercer, clerk of the legislative assembly.

Joe Handley: former premier represented NWT at parliamentary meeting -

"Premier Handley was in attendance," he said. "We couldn't send a delegation because of the election."

The GNWT has been a regular attendee at the annual event, which brings parliamentary representatives from around the world to discuss global issues, democracy and development.

In 2005, a delegation including Speaker Paul Delorey and former Great Slave MLA Bill Braden, attended the meeting in Fiji at a cost to taxpayers of $10,836.

In 2006, Mercer said a delegation to Nigeria included Delorey and Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty.

Mercer was not able to provide travel costs from the 2006 trip at deadline.

One gap in attendance occurred in 2003 - no one from the territory attended due to an ongoing territorial election. Mercer said Handley presented a paper on alternative systems of democracy to the 27th annual Small Countries Conference while at the meeting in New Delhi.

"(Delegates were ) very interested in how our non -party consensus system works," Mercer said. "It was well-received."

As in previous years, the travel expenses of delegates were covered by the CPA, Mercer said, something that would be further offset by Handley's relatively close proximity to India in China.

"The cost will be virtually nil," he said, although he wasn't able to provide details.

Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay said he has attended CPA events in the past, and considers the GNWT's attendance important.

"We have to be doing things like that as a government," Ramsay said, referring to both the China and India trips.

He said because the CPA covers the cost of the event, the delegations aren't usually reported directly to the public.

"Where we have to report it is in the business plan," he said. Often, the GNWT will foot the bill for MLAs and delegates not covered by the CPA, he said.

While the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association covers travel expenses for delegates, participating governments are still required to pay a membership fee, which was confirmed to be $14,169 per year as of 2005.

Details on updated membership fees were not available at press time.