SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Proposed changes to electoral boundaries in the NWT violate Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms because Yellowknife is getting shortchanged, yet again, says a local activist for election fairness.

Bill Aho calls on city council to petition Yellowknife MLAs to ask for more seats in the legislative assembly during a council meeting on Sept. 23. Aho wants Yellowknife MLAs to push for additional representation for Yellowknife in the legislative assembly during the next sitting, which begins Oct. 17. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

Longtime Yellowknife resident Bill Aho said none of the three recommendations contained in the NWT Electoral Boundary Commission's final report provide Yellowknife with sufficient seats in the legislative assembly.

After offering one recommendation that would increase the number of Yellowknife seats to nine from the current seven in its interim report released in February, the commission now recommends a maximum of eight MLAs from the capital.

With the legislative assembly set to resume on Oct. 17, Aho is calling out Yellowknife's seven MLAs for failing to speak against the final report's recommendations.

"We expect leadership from our politicians on this issue," said Aho.

"There's been a silence and that's disappointing. It looks like it'll take the motivation of Yellowknife's residents to get MLAs to get out of their seats."

Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny insists MLAs have not yet spoken publicly about the report because they are waiting for the opportunity to debate it in the assembly.

"I think the reason you're not hearing that is because we haven't had that full exercise yet," said Dolynny. "I think until we do, (discussing) it would probably be premature."

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro said she too wants to wait until MLAs can discuss the issue in the assembly.

"As a member, we will be discussing this in the house," she said.

Presently, Yellowknife has 47 per cent of the territory's population but only 37 per cent, or seven out of 19, of the seats.

The final report offered three recommendations for altering the number of electoral seats in the assembly: reducing them to 18, increasing them to 21 and preserving the status quo at 19.

While each of those options includes variations on the distribution of seats among different districts across the territory, only the 21-seat recommendation proposed giving additional representation to residents of Yellowknife.

However, as Aho pointed out, the change proposed by the 21-seat recommendation would still not increase proportional representation in favour of the capital, as that seat would be offset by the creation of an additional seat outside of Yellowknife.

Bisaro said she does not support the status quo and none of the recommendations in the report were entirely satisfactory.

"My problem is that I'm not sure that any of the three options that have been presented to us are the way to go," said Bisaro.

She said she would favour adopting a hybrid of one of the three options, with an extra seat going to Yellowknife.

"Bottom line, I believe Yellowknife needs one more seat. I don't believe we are adequately represented here," said Bisaro. "There's lots of explanations why we don't need another member but when push comes to shove and there's an issue that's on the table, and you need votes, Yellowknife members are at a disadvantage."

While Dolynny would not explicitly say whether or not he wanted to see an additional seat for the city, he said the statistics speak for themselves.

"It doesn't take long to do the math. If you look at just voter parity in terms of the overall population of Yellowknife when compared to the Northwest Territories, of course Yellowknife does not have the number of seats - if you look at the whole issue of one person, one vote, or equal parity," said Dolynny.

Bisaro has been told by several people that if Yellowknife does not get an extra seat there will be a legal challenge.

"That would not surprise me," said Bisaro.

Aho was formerly part of group known as Friends of Democracy, which won a NWT Supreme Court case against the GNWT in 1999, which the brought the number of seats in Yellowknife up to the current seven from five.

The judge in that case ruled that the GNWT's decision to not award two additional assembly seats to Yellowknife violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that there should be "effective and fair representation in every legislative assembly and the House of Commons."

Aho said he would not rule out the possibility that Friends of Democracy will be reborn should no extra seats be awarded.

"If they continue on the same path that they have been on since '98, which is to systematically under-represent Yellowknife by 25 per cent ... I think there are people out there who will challenge that," said Aho.

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