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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
When Premier Bob McLeod selected his cabinet for the 17th legislative assembly on Nov. 2 he said his goal was to balance the needs of the smaller communities and larger regional hubs.

"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 as minister of the Executive, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, minister Responsible for Women and minister Responsible for New Energy Initiatives.

Veteran cabinet minister Michael Miltenberger, MLA for Thebacha, regained his previous portfolios of Finance, Environment and Natural Resources and his role as government house leader. He also picked up the new role as minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation but is no longer deputy premier, a role now being filled by Jackson Lafferty.

"There is no pause, there is no learning curve here," Miltenberger said. "There's work underway and we're going to continue to pursue and push all of our various initiatives."

As some of his priorities for the coming term, Miltenberger named trans-boundary negotiations for water regulation, finalizing devolution, creating a strategic plan for business, the territory's recycling program, alternative energy initiatives and addressing legislation such as the Wildlife Act and the Forestry Act.

"It seems clear from all the feedback we've received from all corners that there is a general sense that the Wildlife Act needs to get passed," said Miltenberger. "Last time there was an enormous amount of work done that came down to the last dying minutes and a disagreement between the aboriginal governments of settled claim areas and the unsettled claim areas."

Miltenberger tried to put the Wildlife Act to a vote in the legislature in late-August but then pulled the act off the table when it became clear there was not enough support for it to pass.

This time around, Miltenberger said he would like to get the issue settled, though he acknowledged that "further consultation" with many of the stakeholders will be necessary to create a consensus.

"We'll see if there's further revisions required," he said. "I would hope that by this time next year, if all goes well it will hopefully be done."

During the last days of the 16th assembly, it seemed that Miltenberger had fallen out of public favour as minister of the Environment and Natural resources. When asked if this held any sway on his decision to keep Miltenberger in this role, McLeod said "I think I thought about it quite a bit and at the end of the day I decided that there was a number of important initiatives underway that could affect the whole NWT and we needed to keep those processes going and to try to bring them to conclusion in this 17th assembly."

Tu Nedhe MLA Tom Beaulieu is now minister of Health and Social Services, minister responsible for Seniors and minister Responsible for Persons with Disabilities - a bit of a surprise considering his background is in housing and he has also served as the former deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

"I am looking forward to the challenge," said Beaulieu. "It's a huge department and I think it touches households right across the territory."

Beaulieu said he recognizes there will be heavy budget considerations that will factor in on what he is able to get done during his time as minister in this assembly.

"I know that the Department of Health has a very big budget and there's always more needed," he said. "I will talk to the senior guys and see which areas we can concentrate on and areas where we think we can do the most good."

Though he is very up front about his intentions to familiarize himself more with his portfolios and the major players in the health and social services industry in the NWT, Beaulieu does already have certain ideas about areas he would like to focus on.

"I think that there's definitely areas in smaller communities where the health standards - where the overall health of the people - seems to be worse than it is in larger centres because they seem to have less access," he said. "Access of health services in small communities will be one of the things I will look at, I think."

The next task for NWT MLAs will be to set the priorities for the coming term, which will happen in mid-November, said McLeod.

The legislative assembly is scheduled to sit for the first time from Dec. 7 to 15. The main priority for this session will be to approve the capital plan that controls the budget for all infrastructure projects across the territory, said Miltenberger.

"So that when spring comes, we're hopefully far enough along that we won't lose any valuable building time," he said.

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