BidZ.COM


 Features

 Front Page
 News Desk
 News Briefs
 News Summaries
 Columnists
 Sports
 Editorial
 Arctic arts
 Readers comment
 Find a job
 Tenders
 Classifieds
 Subscriptions
 Market reports
 Handy Links
 Best of Bush
 Visitors guides
 Obituaries
 Feature Issues
 Advertising
 Contacts
 Today's weather
 Leave a message


SSISearch NNSL
 www.SSIMIcro.com

NNSL Photo/Graphic


SSIMicro

NNSL Logo.

Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall text Text size Email this articleE-mail this page

Around the world with MLAs

Herb Mathisen
Northern News Services
Published Saturday, May 16, 2009

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Last week, two MLAs invited the public into the legislative assembly to share what they saw and learned from a recent international fact-finding mission.

Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley said the press conference – a rarity for MLAs returning from travel – was intended to show transparency on the trip to Scandinavia.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, overlooking the Petronas Twin Towers. photo courtesy of Chris Puglia.

The trip to send the government delegation of five to Denmark, Finland and Sweden from April 25 to May 7 cost tax payers $54,191.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy said he was happy to see Bromley and Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko provide the public with a breakdown of what they found.

"I think that was responsible, sharing what they learned. If they didn't, why did they go?"

Abernethy said he believed there was value to travelling nationally and abroad because it can potentially create partnerships or business opportunities. However, he said the value is truly dependant on MLAs reporting on the benefits of the trip.

"Unless they come back and say I attended this and say this is what we heard, this is what we discussed, then I don't think that has much benefit to the legislative assembly."

In the past 16 months, MLAs have travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, China, four Scandinavian countries, London, England, and Antwerp, Belgium, on government business.

Krutko leads the pack when it comes to out of territory and country excursions.

In December, the fourth-term MLA, took off to Antwerp, Belgium, and London, England, to meet with diamond executives and visit the BHP and De Beers diamond sorting plants. His stop in London included a three-night stay at the ritzy Renaissance Chancery Court – to the tune of $909.65.

Krutko said the hotel – a five-star establishment named one of the top 100 luxury hotels in the world in a 2006 survey – was chosen because "it was within walking distance of the De Beers headquarters in London."

"It is pretty pricey for hotels in London, period."

He said the trip to Antwerp – accompanying frequent-flier, Industry, Tourism and Investment minister Bob McLeod – allowed him to view first-hand what happens to diamonds when they leave the NWT.

His travel, accommodations and meals cost $7,144.75.

"I think it's important as a government that we do find out what is happening to our diamonds," he said.

Krutko also set off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – at a price of $14,926.98 – in August, to Washington, D.C. in July and to the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Toronto, last March.

An MLA since 1995, Krutko spent $778.35 of his constituency budget on accommodations and meals in Toronto from March 1 to 8, 2008.

Krutko took five separate constituency trips outside the Northwest Territories – half of the 10 taken by all MLAs – and went to a Manitoba hydro conference on the government's dime last November.

Krutko said he thinks the travel is necessary, as it allows Northern leaders meet face-to-face with the rest of the world to show how serious the NWT is about taking control of its own lands and resources.

"We are the messengers to get that message out to the rest of the world," he said.

Last November, Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche flew business-class to China.

The trip, which he said advised Chinese and other foreign investors that any business in Canada must have aboriginal partners, cost tax payers $14,145.

He said a trip last year by the Yukon government paid-off when a Chinese investor put up a stake in a Yukon mining project.

"The venture I attended can have benefits for the NWT," he said.

Menicoche said he has not heard any follow-up inquiries from Chinese officials about his trip.

He said, however, Chinese officials did remember the NWT delegation from its last trip – referring to former-Premier Joe Handley's 2007 visit.

Menicoche's trip included a $2,200 business class upgrade from Vancouver to Beijing, and another $1,000 for business-class upgrades in China.

"That's a government policy. Any flights over four-and-a-half hours is business class," he said.

Menicoche said he filed a report detailing his trip with ITI and the standing committee on economic development and infrastructure.

In August, Speaker Paul Delorey and his wife travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for an annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference.

No report was filed, but Delorey said afterward he and Krutko told MLAs what was discussed at the conference.

From January to September of last year, Bob McLeod was the only minister to leave the country on government business, travelling to Houston, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Anchorage, Alaska, to promote Arctic gas at various oil and gas symposiums. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 31, 2008, $187,610.81 was spent on ministers' travel outside the NWT. While figures from October to December have not been made public by the government yet, it appears the spending has at least been curtailed from the previous year, where $293,463.66 was spent to send ministers around the country and world.

While many of the trips made by ministers in 2008 were to various Canadian capitals for first ministers meetings, one trip cost more than $15,000 to send four ministers to the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Toronto in March 2008.

International travel is already accumulating this year, with Bromley and Krutko's trip to Scandinavia and Robert Hawkins, Yellowknife Centre MLA, recently accompanying Premier Floyd Roland to Norway for climate change conference talks.

Abernethy said MLAs aren't always informed why some of their colleagues are chosen to attend trips, adding he doesn't understand some of the selections.

While he said national and international travel can have value, he said he'd like to see more politicians and senior bureaucrats travel within the NWT, because it supports local businesses like airlines and hotels, and creates a presence for the legislative assembly.

He said it shows residents they are there to "hear them, rather than us just saying we know."