OTTAWA - Nunavut will not go unrepresented in the Senate for long, according to a spokesman from the Prime Minister's Office.

PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall said the Prime Minister intends to fill the more than nine Senate seats that will be vacant by August before autumn, and that will include Nunavut's single seat.

Retired senator Willie Adams says "the prime minister can ask Leona" who would be a good candidate to fill Nunavut's empty Senate seat. - NNSL file photo

MacDougall said the next senator for Nunavut would likely be Inuk, but declined to make a firm commitment.

"We'll want someone who is a strong champion of Nunavut, with the culture and language," he said.

Outgoing Nunavut senator Willie Adams stepped down last month, having reached the Senate's mandatory retirement age of 75.

The prime minister has few restrictions in appointing Senators. They must be over 30 years old, must live in the region they represent and own property worth at least $4,000. Other than that, the prime minister can appoint whomever he wants.

MacDougall said anyone can apply or recommend someone to be a senator. He anticipated the PMO would ask Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq for suggestions, but didn't say who else might be consulted. As of press time Aglukkaq was unavailable for comment.

Harper campaigned on a platform of electing senators for eight-year terms instead of just appointing them, but he decided to go ahead with the appointments. The Conservative government has had difficulty passing some of its legislation through the Senate, as it is presently controlled by Liberals, mostly appointed by then-prime minister Jean Chretien.

Harper intends to appoint senators who share its vision of Senate reform, according to MacDougall. This summer's Senate appointments will give the Conservatives a majority in the Senate for the first time since the Chretien government.

Adams doubts proposed Senate reform

Outgoing senator Adams doesn't think he'd be asked for his opinion on who should replace him.

"The Senate doesn't really have anything to say about who should be a replacement,"

Adam said. "It's up to the politicians. Leona (Aglukkaq), she's the minister of Health and everything, she can talk to the prime minister and the cabinet. The prime minister, he don't know anybody and maybe the prime minister can ask Leona what community and which guys should be a replacement."

Adams lacks enthusiasm for the proposed reforms, including fixed eight-year terms.

"To me, eight years is not really very long," Adams said. "It took me six or seven years to understand how the system works across Canada: the government of Canada, provinces, regulations, that kind of stuff."

Adams said reforming the Senate in this way would require amending the Constitution. Such a reform would need to be passed in the House of Commons, the Senate and at least seven provincial or territorial legislatures representing at least half the country.

At the time of his retirement, Willie Adams was the longest-serving member of the Senate, having been appointed by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau in 1977.

Adams was recommended to Trudeau by then-NWT commissioner Stuart Hodgson.

"(Hodgson) asked me if I wanted to be a senator. I asked, 'what's a senator?'" Adams laughed.

When the Prime Minister's Office called him to come in for an interview, Adams said he couldn't because he was working as an electrician and had two houses to wire.

He said it was the combination of the high pay, short work hours and government-paid travel that convinced him to go after the job.