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Cabinet ministers announced Mayor happy with consistency in Municipal and Community AffairsLaura Busch Northern News Services Published Friday, November 4, 2011
"I tried to keep in mind the different interests of small communities and the larger centres and tried to have a balance as much as I could," said McLeod. "And where some of the portfolios had a natural fit, I tried to make that happen as well." McLeod assigned himself the ministries of the Executive, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, minister Responsible for Women and minister Responsible for New Energy Initiatives. Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay and Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy are serving as cabinet ministers for the first time. Abernethy was assigned three portfolios: Justice, Human Resources and the Public Utilities Board. Ramsay will serve as the minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and minister of Transportation. During his previous term, Ramsay openly chastised the Deh Cho Bridge project for being too slow and milking too much money out of the territorial budget. "Probably the most interesting appointment is David Ramsay getting Transportation because now he has to build the bridge that he's been criticizing for a few years," said Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem. McLeod said Ramsay's qualms with the bridge project did not factor into his portfolio designation. "No, I don't usually go back and examine everything everybody said, but I think, obviously, he's knowledgeable about the bridge," McLeod said. Van Tighem told Yellowknifer that portfolio selections don't really effect his work within the city. "In some cases we'll be dealing with the same people and in some cases we'll be dealing with new people," he said. "You've got an ongoing relationship rather than developing one. You've got a person that has experience and understanding of a portfolio rather than versus somebody that you have to bring up to speed." One portfolio in which the city has a vested interest is Municipal and Community Affairs, which will be managed by Robert C. McLeod who held the same portfolio in the previous government. Van Tighem said this would provide some consistency for the city when dealing with the GNWT. The next task for NWT MLAs will be to set the priorities for the coming term, which will happen in mid-November, said McLeod.
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