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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Public consultation is where the economic strategy panel went right and the mineral development strategy panel went wrong, according to Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley.

Former mayor Gord Van Tighem, former Alberta deputy minister Rory Campbell, former NWT Premier Joe Handley, and business owner and resident of Fort Good Hope Heather Bourassa, make up the NWT Economic Opportunities Advisory Panel. The Panel visited the Explorer Hotel during the Denendeh Investment Corporation's two-day annual general meeting in January as part of an NWT tour to solicit "grassroots" input on a new NWT economic strategy. - NNSL file photo

Bromley raised the issue of public input while discussing the economic strategy recommendations report and a mineral development strategy recommendation report tabled by the Department of Industry, Tourism, and Investment during the latest sitting of the legislative assembly.

Both strategies were allocated a total of almost $1 million, which includes the cost of producing the reports.

In Bromley's opinion, a focus on public consultation during the development of the economic opportunities report resulted in a strong product, but the industry-focused meetings held as part of the report process concerning the mineral development strategy concentrated on industry voices and did little to engage with the public.

"I found (the mineral development panel) very personable and engaging people but they were clearly industry professionals," Bromley said. "They were not public interest, policy people and what we're developing here is public policy. What we have here ... is kind of a wish list."

One of the issues he pointed to in the minerals report was the idea the NWT needed to compete with other jurisdictions for development.

Bromley stressed it is industry's job to compete and the government's role to "set standards and regulate."

According to Bromley, jurisdictions competing with each other will drive the public benefit down, since the most appealing location will have the lowest taxes and easiest regulations to satisfy.

Bromley said it will now be up to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure to insist a public perspective is included in the resulting mineral development strategy.

The issues identified in the two reports are very similar but have some significant differences in their perspectives.

For example, in sharing his experience compiling territorial input on the Economic Opportunities strategy, Joe Handley said there was a growing desire to have non-renewable resources stop functioning as the backbone of the NWT economy in favour of smaller-scale, renewable industries based in or near communities.

However, Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Ramsay insisted that while other industries have their roles, "resource development in one way, shape, or form, whether it be mining or oil and gas, is going to continue to be the backbone (of the NWT economy)," due to the sector's size and value.

Ramsay said the two strategies will be developed in co-ordination with each other and are on schedule for release before October.

Yellowknife's own strategy

The City of Yellowknife is developing its own economic strategy to accommodate the results of these two reports.

"We knew ... there would be these regional and territorial perspectives that we wanted to look at while we were talking about our own municipal strategy," said Nalini Naidoo, director of communications and economic development for the city. "We knew some of the major pieces (for the GNWT strategy) would come out of their report at a good time for us to absorb some of that information."

The city's schedule for the Yellowknife strategy was structured to be in its current stage of consultation when the GNWT released the recommendations report from the Economic Opportunities Strategy advisory panel and the mineral development strategy recommendations report, said Naidoo.

City administrators are speaking with council, industry, and other affected groups, such as the GNWT, and the results of those discussions will be brought to the public for consideration and feedback once they're compiled.

The Yellowknife economic strategy is scheduled to be released on Nov. 1.

The Department of Industry, Tourism, and Investment has contributed $25,000 of the $40,000 strategy cost and the two levels of government have met and been in communication about their respective projects, said Naidoo.

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