Tom Beaulieu eyes premier chair
MLA for the new riding of Tu Nedhe-Wilideh says that he has experience to return to cabinet and perhaps become territory's next leader
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, November 30, 2015
TU NEDHE-WILIDEH
The newly elected MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wilideh said that he would make a strong premier and may seek the position.
Tom Beaulieu made this comment Nov. 24, the day after he handily won the newly created riding. He defeated his lone challenger Richard Edjericon 410 votes to 177.
Beaulieu said he is entering his third term as an MLA and as a former cabinet minister he thinks he has the experience to become premier of the NWT.
"I have the interest of the people at heart. I want to make sure that each day for people living in the NWT that their life is improving for them. The communities have backed me because they see that I am a cabinet minister and I am a cabinet minister on the move. I'm not going to be starting over," Beaulieu said.
"In the south we have lots of new people. Only Michael Nadli and I are returning to the House. We need to get two cabinet ministers out of the south so it's likely that I would be elected. But we'll find out once we have a discussion with all the MLAs present sometime around Dec. 16 or 17."
He added that he has not yet made up his mind completely on whether he is going to run for cabinet or if he is going to run for premier.
"If I run for cabinet there seems to be a lot of people are very interested in seeing me go back into the housing business. I used to be president of the housing corporation ... I held a senior position there from a bureaucratic sense. I think maybe I would have the same type of success at the housing corporation as minister," Beaulieu said.
He said that he wants to make sure that communities recover from their economic depression and unemployment.
"They have unemployment rates of 40 or 35 per cent. That's common and has been going on for years. I want to see that change," Beaulieu said.
"We have to get those employment rates up so that individuals in small communities have the basics that people in the larger centres take for granted. If I decide to run for premier, it will be based on that."
The best way to provide employment in the smaller communities is through infrastructure spending, Beaulieu said.
"If the government is going put some infrastructure spending in communities then I think there is a possibility to get people working during certain seasons depending upon the kind of infrastructure they are going to put in," Beaulieu said.
"If they are going to put in winter roads then it is winter work. Cleaning up the environment is probably summer work. If they are going to do complete retrofits of all the houses then that's probably summer work.
"There are also positions for daycare, early childhood development, youth employment ... that's the type of thing that needs to happen for employment rates in the smaller communities to go up. I'd like to increase employment rates in the small communities by 20 per cent over the next four years."
The newly created riding of Tu Nedhe-Wilideh now includes the communities of Ndilo and Dettah.
Ed Sangris, Yellowknives First Nation chief for the community of Dettah, said Beaulieu needs to meet with him to talk about a lot of things that pertain to his people.
"We need to have a dialogue on some of the issues the government has put in front of us over the past four years - wildlife, housing, infrastructure, medical and health issues, well-being issues. All the government has done over the past four years is push things down our throat," Sangris said.
"There is no consultation of accommodation so hopefully these new MLAs will look back and see where they did wrong."
Voter turnout in Tu Nedhe-Wilideh riding ended up being one of the highest in the territory with just over 71 per cent.
