Builder of consensus
Premier Don Morin juggled cost-cutting with devolution, diamond mines
Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Weeks before Don Morin became premier, in November 1995, Ron Irwin, the federal minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development at the time, recommended consensus government be scrapped.
The NWT should adopt party politics, he argued, because the consensus system leaves the premier beholden to ordinary MLAs who outnumber those in cabinet.
"It's not a system that works well," said Irwin, adding he held more powers when he was a mayor in northern Ontario than the premier enjoyed in the legislative assembly.
John Munro, a Northern Affairs minister under Pierre Trudeau, made a similar argument in the 1980s.
If any MLAs heard Irwin as they headed into the leadership forum following the territorial election that year they certainly weren't listening. Morin was chosen and set about unifying ordinary MLAs and ministers.
"We're looking forward to a co-operative, working relationship," Morin told News/North shortly before heading to his first meeting with his new cabinet in Fort Smith.
Former MLA Brian Lewis, who has written on the development of responsible government in the Northwest Territories noted "One of his (Morin's) first gestures as premier was to remove the alarmed door that divides the offices of ordinary and executive members."
The blueprint Morin was following for devolution was crafted by the previous assembly. Titled Agenda for Change, it contained all of DIAND's directions for moving ahead regarding division
of authority and resources with the creation of Nunavut, not treading on aboriginal powers yet to be determined through negotiations and the relationship between community and regional governments.
There was the transfer of administrative control over elections in 1997 from Elections Canada.
"This is one step toward the full devolution of powers," Morin said at the time.
Morin's focus was also on keeping the territorial budget under control, cutting costs to the point of forcing
GNWT staff to take unpaid days off between Christmas and and New Years, known as Donny Days and now paid holidays.
Canada was just coming out of a deep recession, gold mines were either shutting down or on rocky financial ground in Yellowknife, Ekati diamond mine was being built. There was a major scramble to secure the kind of benefits from the diamond boom devolution powers would have made far easier and the feds, due to a lack of experience with diamonds, made the process much harder.
Ultimately, Morin would not preside over a division with Nunavut as premier. He resigned on Nov. 26, 1998, after he was found to be in conflict of interest over some business dealings.
He did not entirely stay out of political arena after his term as MLA ended in 1999. He went on to become CEO of the Aboriginal Summit, an organization put together to represent aboriginal groups during negotiations on devolution. But the organization fell apart after only a few years.
Morin declined to comment for this story, saying he is a businessperson and no longer involved in politics.
