MLA makes conflict of interest complaint against Don Morin

Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen is alleging that Premier Don Morin has violated the conflict of interest provisions of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act.

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen has picked up the gauntlet.

On Feb. 16, she filed a formal conflict of interest complaint against Premier Don Morin, alleging that Morin has violated the spirit and intent of Section 67 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act.

On Feb. 4, after he and other cabinet ministers had endured days of aggressive questioning from MLAs over a GNWT lease on the Lahm Ridge office building in Yellowknife, Morin challenged Groenewegen to make a conflict of interest of complaint against him.

Lease won by associates of premier

Last fall, a numbered company called 974102 N.W.T. Ltd ¬ who acquired the Lahm Ridge building on September 29, 1997 ¬ won a long-term lease from the GNWT worth an estimated $10 million.

The new company is owned by two close associates of Morin: Roland Bailey, a former high level bureaucrat who now manages the NWT's Aurora immigrant investor fund under a contract, and Mike Mrdjenovich, a construction contractor and developer who owns a house in Yellowknife that Morin rents.

Until 1996, Bailey was the GNWT's deputy minister of the executive, a job considered to be the most powerful bureaucratic post in the territorial government, akin to Ottawa's clerk of the privy council.

To finance its acquisition of the Lahm Ridge building the Bailey-Mrdjenovich company recieved a $4.2 million mortgage from the Pacific and Western Trust Corporation, also on Sept. 29, 1997.

Pacific and Western is a company that Bailey deals with in his capacity as Aurora Fund manager. In the Legislative Assembly last week, Groenewegen said that Pacific and Western holds 25 per cent of the Aurora Fund's assets in "liquid securities."

Morin will make no statements

Also on Feb. 16, Morin issued a press release saying he will make no statements related to Groenewegen's complaint, since there is a clear process set out in the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act for dealing with such complaints.

"[I]t would be inapropriate to make a comment that may infringe on the matter," Morin's press release says.

The press release goes on to say that Morin looks forward to "a prompt and fair resolution of this matter," and that he will cooperate fully to "ensure that the matter is resolved quickly, and in the best interest."

Public confidence eroding?

In her own press release, Groenewegen makes no mention of the Lahm Ridge lease.

But she did say that "public confidence in the integrity of this government has been eroded and I believe that the premier's office must address this issue."

Groenewegen filed her complaint with David Hamilton, the clerk of the NWT legislative assembly. Hamilton will then forward it to Ann Crawford, the NWT's conflict of interest commissioner.

"If the conflict of interest commissioner undertakes an investigation and finds no grounds for the suspicion, speculation and rumours, nobody will be happier than myself," Groenewegen said. "At this time though, it appears that the 13th assembly's reputation has been tarnished and this impacts all members."

In her complaint Groenewegen alleges that Morin may have contravened the "spirit and intent" of Section 67 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act.

That section states that members shall perform their duties and arrange their affairs "in such a manner as to maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of the member."

It also says that members may not accept any "remuneration, gift or benefit, the acceptance of which might erode public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity or impartiality of the member."

Groenewegen summarizes Lahm Ridge deal

On Feb. 11, before having made her complaint, Groenewegen made a member's statement in the assembly that summarized information about the Lahm Ridge lease.

She said that until the summer of 1995, the Lahm Ridge building was owned by Al and Hazel Marceau. A previous five-year lease held by the Marceau's had expired, and the Marceau's were renting the building to the GNWT on an "overhold" or month-to-month basis.

After unsuccessfully attempting to get another long-term lease, the Marceau's put the building up for sale at a Yellowknife real estate company, with an asking price of $5.8 million.

A southern company called "Urbco" looked at the building and considered buying it, Groenewegen said in the assembly. But the lack of a long-term lease apparently made the building a poor investment.

A "liability"

The Marceau's were then stuck with a "huge liability," Groenewegen said.

But she alleges that all this changed when the Bailey-Mrdjenovich company became interested in buying the building.

"Enter Mr. Bailey and Mr. Mrjdenovich, they looked at the property and made an offer of $4 million. This is $1.8 million less than the declaration of values signed by Mr. Bailey at the time of the transfer."

Groenewegen went on to say in the assembly that this is when the GNWT changed its mind on negotiating a long-term lease.

"Mr. Marceau then went back to Public Works and Services and negotiated the not so burdensome conditions of the lease extensions. The department readily admits that they knew of the pending sale and who the players were. The conditions were easy to achieve given that the deal was very attractive," Groenewegen said.

Building sold for only $4 million

She said Bailey and Mrdjenovich paid only $4 million for the building, $1.8 million less than its market value.

Groenewegen also said the lender, Pacific and Western, added an extra $200,000 to the mortgage on the building, "to carry out the renovations and upgrades" required by the GNWT.

"This was all accomplished without the necessity of a down payment because there is still a $1.6 million spread between the purchase price and the totally justifiable declared value of $5.8 million," Groenewegen said.

"It was a very safe loan for the Pacific and Western Trust Company. The company which incidently holds 25 percent of the Aurora Investment Fund assets in liquid securities. The fund which Mr. Bailey coincidentally manages," Groenewegen said moments later.

Minister didn't know

She also said that bureaucrats worked out the deal without the knowledge of the public works minister, who at that time was Baffin South MLA Goo Arlooktoo.

"Although cabinet had not endorsed any office space plan, the deputy minister, Ken Lovely, with absolutely no direction or knowledge of the minister of public works and services, negotiated an eight-year almost $10 million office lease," Groenewegen said in the assembly.

Over the past two weeks, the current public works minister, Jim Antoine, has said the Lahm Ridge deal was worked out in accordance with a "Yellowknife office space plan," and that it's a good deal for the GNWT.

The note-writer revealed: High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas

High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas has admitted to having written a controversial anonymous note to Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen.

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas has fessed up.

He says he, and not Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo, is the author of a controversial note recently sent to Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen.

Groenewegen, who along with other MLAs had been aggressively interrogating Premier Don Morin and other cabinet ministers about the GNWT's Lahm Ridge Tower lease, interpreted the note as a thinly veiled threat aimed at intimidating her from asking more questions.

The anonymous note, which was delivered to her last week by a legislative assembly page, referred to an $800,000 grant given to one of Groenewegen's businesses.

Barnabas says he wrote the note as a joke, and didn't intend any harm.

But Groenewegen wasn't amused, and she peppered Morin with questions about whether the note was written by a cabinet minister.

Morin responded by saying that no cabinet minister wrote the note.

"If this member or any other member can prove one of my cabinet ministers wrote that note, you will have my resignation the same day," Morin said this Monday in response to questions posed by Yellowknife Central MLA Jake Ootes.

Groenewegen the turned the screws a little tighter when she tabled a report from a forensic handwriting expert in British Columbia who concluded that the hand-writing in the note resembled Goo Arlooktoo's.

But Barnabas ended the controversy Tuesday when he confessed to having written the note.

Tensions have been running high in the legislative assembly over the Lahm Ridge Tower lease, which was the GNWT signed with two of Morin's close associates.

On Monday, Groenewegen filed a formal conflict of interest complaint against Morin.

Nunavut DM announcement delayed

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- Nunavummiut are still waiting for official word on who the first deputy ministers of Nunavut will be.

Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak said last week that he would announce the names of Nunavut's 10 deputy ministers and clerk of the legislative assembly Wednesday.

But contract negotiations have delayed the process. Anawak and his communications director flew to Ottawa Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment on when the names would be released.

Yellowknife consultant Bill Graham has recently been hired to negotiate the contracts.

Nunatsiaq News has learned that all but two of the deputy ministers are northern residents, and that three of the 11 positions will be held by Inuit.

Bob Varty, currently the assistant deputy minister of finance within the Newfoundland provincial government, is expected to be named Nunavut's deputy minister for finance.

Bob Moody, a senior bureaucrat within the department of education in Nova Scotia, is expected to be appointed Nunavut's deputy minister of education.

(See last week's issue for the names of the other nine people who have been hired as Nunavut deputy ministers.)

RCMP: few answers on why snowplow driver was killed

Aiyow Qavavauq's family and friends are mourning his sudden death last weekend under the metal belts of a Caterpillar D-6.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ Police in Nanisivik can't explain why a snowplow driver killed on the job last weekend decided to leave his cab for a dark and deadly walk toward a co-worker's moving tractor.

Family and friends of Aiyow Qavavauq, 53, mourned his death this week as the RCMP continued to probe the circumstances that precipitated the tragic mishap.

The 15-year veteran of the GNWT's transportation department was fatally injured last Sunday evening on the highway between Nanisivik and Arctic Bay when his legs and hip were crushed in the metal belts of a Caterpillar D-6.

"We don't exactly know what happened," Cpl. Marion Lamothe said.

"We know that the driver of the second loader, the D-6, never saw Aiyow at all, mainly because of the snow, which was still drifting around his cab."

The pair were working together to clear a stretch of road near the airport turn-off, about 10 kilometres from the hamlet of Nanisivik.

Qavavauq, who was a well-known member of the Arctic Bay and Nanisivik communities, may have slipped while trying to climb onto the tractor to speak with the other operator.

Or he may have simply fallen imperceptibly in the snow before the tractor drove over his body.

According to police reports, Qavavauq was still alive when the D-6 operator finally noticed him laying in the snow. Having no radio equipment with which to call for help, the driver of the tractor had to use Qavavauq's snowplow to fetch a nurse from Nanisivik.

Qavavauq died before help arrived.

High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas and Transportation Minister Jim Antoine expressed their condolences to Qavavauq's family in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The Department of Transportation is conducting its own investigation of the accident, and it is likely that the Worker's Compensation Board will also investigate.

Department regulations apparently do not require vehicles working outside of town to be equipped with radios. In light of this latest tragedy, at least one union representative has questioned this policy.

"If they're working that far away, what precautions are in place for these peoples' protection, in these types of circumstances?" asked Scott Wigges, a spokesman for the Union of Northern Workers.

Transport Canada clips Air Nunavut's wings

Baffin-based airline doesn't meet maintenance standards

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ Transport Canada grounded all Air Nunavut flights this week after safety inspectors found flaws in the company's maintenance program.

Inspectors with Transport Canada's civil aviation, maintenance and manufacturing branch detected the problems during an on-site safety audit conducted Feb 9-11.

The company voluntarily surrendered its air operator's certificate on Monday.

"Officals at Air Nunavut realized they do not meet all the requirements to possess their air operator's certificate, including having adequate maintenance," John Thorpe, a communications officer with Transport Canada said.

"Transport Canada will continue to work closely with them to correct any inadequacies before the certificate can be re-issued."

Air Nunavut President Jeff Mahoney, away on holiday, was unavailable for comment as of Nunatsiaq News press time this week.

Must meet basic criteria

Small commercial airlines such as Air Nunavut are required by Transport Canada to meet a number of basic criteria in order to obtain and maintain a valid air operator's certificate.

First, they are supposed to have a maintenance organization that consists of an operations manager, chief pilot and a person responsible for maintenance whose qualifications and experience meet or exceed Transport Canada's commercial air standards.

In addition, they must develop an operational control system that measures up to these standards, and submit a detailed company operations manual.

Airlines are also required to submit a detailed training program for all flight crew members and other selected personnel.

Series of incidents

The airline's accident record apparently alerted Transport Canada inspectors to potential problems.

"Our inspectors monitor all operators of course, and due to two recent events they felt a more thorough on-site review of Air Nunavut was required," Thorpe said.

In January this year, the pilot of a Piper PA 31-350 registered to Air Nunavut had to land the airplane a mile from the runway in Sanikiluaq after one of the plane's engines caught fire shortly after take-off.

A month earlier, the front landing gear of another Piper twin-engine Navaho, registered to the same company, failed during a landing at the airstrip in Pangnirtung.

Transport Safety Board records also show three other accidents reported by Air Nunavut between 1989 and 1993 ¬ all involving Cessna-type aircraft.

None of these accidents resulted in injury to passengers or crew.

Transport Canada inspectors regularly audit all all commerical air operations to monitor compliance with safety regulations and maintenance prodecures.

Work on Baffin hospital could start next fall

Plans to build a new Baffin hospital in Iqaluit are accelerating rapidly.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ A site for a new Baffin hospital will be selected within the month, contracting methods are being finalized, and financial negotiations with the federal government are wrapping up.

That means that those people building the new Baffin hospital are hoping to have construction work well underway by the fall.

Jerry Ell, the president of Qikiqtaaluk Corporation and project manager for the hospital project, promises the "open and transparent" awarding of sub-contracts.

The corporation, the development arm of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, will build the hospital and lease it back to the government in a long-term arrangement.

Ell met with Iqaluit-based contractors recently to explain how they can get work on the project.

"We're putting on the table the rules we'll be using in the tendering," Ell told about 15 contractors who met with QC officials in Iqaluit.

The Baffin hospital is one of three Nunavut health projects the GNWT has lumped together.

Smaller health centres, estimated at $9 million each, will be built in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Representatives from regional health boards, Inuit birthright development corporations and the GNWT developed an overall framework recently for awarding contracts.

Contractors will get information

"We're not creating another company that will compete with your businesses," Ell assured contractors, adding it was a lack of information that caused tension within the business community when the Nunavut Construction Corporation was set up last year. "We want to avoid a lack of information to the contractors."

Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak also gave tentative approval for the projects. Because leaseback agreements will extend past April 1, 1999, when the NWT separates, Anawak must give the nod for the projects to proceed.

"Final support would be needed once actual lease costs are identified, and the actual dollar amount that will be committed for the Nunavut government," Ell said.

Same rules apply

All three regions are bound by the framework agreement and the same rules will apply to all developers, with modifications for each region.

"I don't expect too much change," Ell said.

He explained QC will award contracts based on a loose blend of current GNWT and QIA policies.

"To the extent possible, we'll be using QIA policies."

Businesses eligible for sole-source contracts will be chosen from lists maintained by the GNWT and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Invitations for tenders will be requested for contracts between $25,000-$250,000, and companies from across the North and southern Canada can bid on public tenders for work exceeding $250,000. Ell said, however, that he wants to "maximize the benefits within Nunavut."

Details relating to how sole-sourced and invitational contracts will be awarded have yet to be finalized. A management committee, with members from the health board, GNWT and QC, will determine these and other details within the next few weeks, Ell said.

Is $25 million enough?

GNWT Finance Minister John Todd has repeatedly said that the government cannot afford more than $25 million for a new Baffin hospital.

But Dennis Patterson, the chair of the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board. is saying that may not be enough.

That $25 million includes paying consultants and architects and providing materials, labour and furnishings. Hospital equipment is also included in that figure, but Patterson said "that's negotiable."

"We're concerned $25 million isn't enough," he told Iqaluit Town Council earlier this month.

QC will finance the project, including purchasing any medical equipment that's required. However, the health board will decide what needs to be purchased, and what equipment can be carried over from the existing hospital.

"It hinges on the study that's being done by the health board," Ell said.

Three potential sites for the new hospital have been identified. Two are located on either side of the existing hospital, making recovery of waste energy from the nearby NTPC power plant more accessible.

Officials from the federal government and the GNWT are still negotiating how Ottawa will pay for the hospital project.

The federal government committed to paying for a replacement hospital for Baffin when responsibility for health was transferred to the NWT in 1988.

GNWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng told MLAs in the legislative assembly last week an agreement in principle with Ottawa could be worked out within the next 30-60 days "that could guide us toward concluding this issue."

TVNC lobbies CRTC for southern aboriginal channel

If Canada's broadcast regulator accepts the idea, southern Canadians may one day get a chance to watch northern aboriginal programming.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ¬ Television Northern Canada wants to reach its goal, to "share the unique character of aboriginal culture with all Canadians," by broadcasting into every Canadian home subscribing to cable.

In order to do that, the nationally-licensed network will ask the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) this spring to expand its distribution license to include southern Canada.

"Self-sufficiency" is another reason TVNC's chair, Abraham Tagalik, gives for pushing for change.

"We want to be able to control our own destiny without government handouts," he said. Canadian Heritage gives TVNC a $3.1 million annual operating grant. Other revenue is collected through infrequent commercial sales and transmission services.

The CRTC licensed TVNC on Oct. 28, 1991, as a native television network "to provide television programming in northern communities which reflects the social, political, economic and cultural life of aboriginal residents of northern Canada."

The network was established after an influx of southern programming that northerners felt was destroying aboriginal culture and language, Tagalik said.

Currently, TVNC broadcasts cover more than one-third of Canada's land mass stretching across the north from the Yukon-Alaska border to Labrador.

Programming includes health shows from the NWT government, children's shows from the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and CBC North's news, among others, broadcast in 15 aboriginal languages.

Its audience consists of about 100,000 people, the majority with an aboriginal background.

National interest

The Angus Reid Group, in a nation-wide survey commissioned by TVNC, reported that 79 per cent of those polled said they would watch an aboriginal channel at least occasionally. Angus Reid questioned 1,510 southern Canadians from Jan. 26 - Feb. 2.

"The survey confirmed there is a lot of interest," Tagalik said.

Two-thirds believed an aboriginal network would build a bridge of understanding between aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups. Three out of 10 people said the aboriginal population is too small to warrant its own network, which might replace current cable or satellite channels.

Basic cable package

Tagalik wants to expand TVNC's audience by including the network in basic cable service packages across the country. He suggests cable subscription fees would increase only slightly, about 10 cents, with the addition of the network.

"If TVNC is distributed on a wider scale, we could generate the revenue needed to ensure our programs stay on the air," Tagalik told the CRTC last November as it gathered public opinion on establishing a third national network.

Tagalik, with Aboriginal Voices publisher Gary Farmer, were the only presenters asking for a national network dedicated to aboriginal programming.

The federal government had asked the CRTC to seek nation-wide feedback on whether setting up one or more national television networks would serve the goals set out in the Broadcasting Act. The Commission submitted its report Feb. 6.

It recognized TVNC as a "unique and significant" service.

"Such a service should be widely available throughout Canada in order to serve the diverse needs of the various aboriginal communities, as well as other Canadians," the report stated.

"The commission expects any application by TVNC to demonstrate how it will adapt its programming service to reflect the diversity of the needs and interests of aboriginal peoples throughout Canada."

TVNC's license comes up for renewal this spring, at which time Tagalik said he'll apply for full national network license.

"Hopefully by August we could be approved," he said, adding TVNC could be up and running nationally by the fall.

TVNC, with the help of an advisory committee of southern aboriginal people involved in the media, will develop a plan, both technically and content-wise, on how it would provide a nation-wide service representative of all aboriginal groups within Canada.

Commentary

I know where my ancestors' footprints belong

A survivor of Chesterfield Inlet's Turquetil Hall residence reacts to Jane Stewart's statement of reconciliation.

SIMEONIE KUNNUK
Special to Nunatsiaq News

OTTAWA -- Today is February 16, 1998. It has been a over a month since the apology by the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs for the Canadian government's role in residential school operations, in which many children were abused in the 1950s and 1960s.

For a while, I could not bring myself to read the contents of the government apology and announcement for reconciliation. I was afraid that the announcement would merely be a dress-up for the "mainstream society" or "dominant culture" to mask the realities of the assimilation practices.

However, there was an even more pressing matter which I hesitated to include in this article. Those are of psychic flashbacks which made it difficult for my day-to-day life and it was all I could do to focus on my studies, self-healing, and to maintain my composure.

Disappointment and hope

As a survivor of residential school, I want to state my input and views on the matter of the recent -- January 7, 1998 -- announcement and apology. My response is both a mixture of disappointment and hope.

First of all, my concern is on the simple matter of word usage. Facts and statistics are great tools that are used only when considered appropriate or when they meet certain objectives of a particular group or government.

I was disappointed that no statistics or data were listed as to how many aboriginal children were processed through the residential school system, in which the state and various religious denomination were managing and operating such institutions.

The government probably has the data but will not disclose it for the public. But they will focus on details of convenience. In any case the data is available as to how many children were processed through the system -- more than 100,000.

At Turquetil Hall and Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School, which I went to in 1965 and 1966, there was an RCMP finding of over 200 victims and survivors of child abuse, both physical and molestation.

Apparently, there were many other residential schools and many more childhood victims who became adult survivors. I hope this puts into proper perspective the omission of the important data and the word "some" used with the statement that said "children were victims of sexual and physical abuse."

The issue of assimilation

The other concern I had was the statement on "assimilation policy for aboriginal people." This practice was targetted specifically to children but not less so to "men and women."

That is what the residential schools represented -- assimilation from the well-established Aboriginal life into the so-called "civilization."

I could say truthfully with some discomfort that I am assimilated after struggling with this personally difficult issue for some time. However, I have fond memories too of what Inuit culture is about -- legends that sound too fantastic in any other language and stories of incredible human feats.

My opinion is that these legends of special powers and Inuit stories should not be translated or interpreted into another language. The Inuit must maintain their cultural power by keeping secret much of what is spiritual and resource-related.

Elders' teachings should prevail

More recent Inuit cultural history states that we are to welcome the visitors to our homeland who came from across the great waters. The price of welcoming these visitors may be summed up as follows: dishonorable treaties (land claims), concentration-camp-like reservations, assimilation policies, thousands of severe residential school child abuse cases and $350 million.

I am certain that the teachings of our elders will prevail and be heard by the non-Aboriginal population. It is my belief that the call to welcome the visitors to the Inuit homeland will be recognized, acknowledged, and accepted in its entirety.

As a childhood trauma survivor of residential school operations, I have succeeded to a degree. I admit my own failure against assimilation.

However, I can rewrite my history, which I know will certainly be different from the non-Aboriginal documentation.

"I have found my place."

I have found my place. I know where my ancestor's footprints belong and that theirs are ones that can never be erased from the Arctic tundra though invisible to the naked eye -- locked into their special place by the time-spirit and the memories of the earth on which they have walked since the beginning.

The spirits of my ancestors still sing in the memories of the elders, waiting to be passed onto the next generation of elders. The heart of the traditional drum-dance remains strong, pumping the lifeblood of Inuit culture.

I was working with Survivors Tasiuqtit the last couple of years, but I had to withdraw from the work because I was periodically disabled by uncontrollable cases of childhood, residential school trauma "flashbacks." There were are other issues that were convenient excuses I used to mask what I was going through, because at the time I was not sure whether I should disclose such flashbacks.

Inadvertently, I left a number of other childhood survivors waiting for development on a healing project that was planned and was nearing important steps for approval for implementation.

I take responsibility for leaving those survivors waiting for development on specialized therapy that did not materialize and which probably prolonged their difficulties. I do not kknow what else to do right now but to wait and see.

All I can do at this time is to say: Speak to your childhood trauma memory with silent gentleness; allow your childhood memory's voice to travel with the wind.

You do not have to know that your ancestor's spirits shall caress your memories and cradle them in a special way. Your ancestor's spirits want you to be free. TAIMA

My Little Corner of Canada

The Olympics

JOHN AMAGOALIK

So far, it has been pretty hard to get too excited or involved with the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The reason for that is that they are so far away and there is such a big time difference. If one wants to watch events as they happen, one has to stay up all night.

The controversy over Ross Rebagliati's gold medal got things off to a bad start. It was flashbacks to Ben Johnson. Fortunately, it didn't turn out as badly as it did in Seoul.

It was again disappointing that Elvis Stojko didn't win the gold. It seems that we have a lot of world champions in figure skating which are never translated into gold medals in Olympic games. The questionable judging in this sport doesn't help.

The biggest downer so far is that the women's hockey team didn't win the gold. You can bet that they will be better prepared for 2002.

The men's hockey team is doing okay so far. They could have very easily lost to the Americans in the round-robin had it not been for Patrick Roy. Canada's biggest strength in international competition has always been goaltending. Canada will probably be playing for the gold medal this coming weekend. Whoever they face, it will be a great game. A good omen is that Gretzky seems to have that certain look in his eyes.

Medal wise, Canada is doing better than any past winter games. Here's hoping that the best is yet to come. Here's hoping that Patrick Roy stays "in the zone".

Square is Round

Lucien Bouchard is again telling the world that white is black and that square pegs fit into round holes.

It was not long ago that Bouchard was telling the world that independence for Quebec was going to go smoothly because the separatists had the rule of law on their side. Now that the government of Canada is asking the Supreme Court what Canadian and international law says about separation, Bouchard is saying that independence has nothing to do with the rule of law.

Mr. Bouchard says the separatists have all the good laws on their side. He also says that the only laws that applies to Aboriginals are the ones designed to suppress them.

This Corner Quotes "We are nomads. We chase opportunity in order to survive...We are still nomads, chasing opportunity by negotiating our way with words." -- Ann Meekijuk Hanson, in the Nunavut Handbook

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Editorial

"Pilot project" needs closer scrutiny

The government of the Northwest Territories has devised what might turn out to be a promising new way of negotiating community empowerment agreements with Nunavut municipalities.

To try out the idea, the GNWT's municipal affairs department is getting ready to carry out something called the "Keewatin pilot project."

Under it, the GNWT would undertake a massive transfer of money and management responsibilities to the Keewatin region's seven municipal governments. Based on what MACA Minister Manitok Thompson and her deputy minister, Penny Ballantyne, have told MLAs recently, that seems to include virtually all of the capital and operation-maintenance money that the GNWT now spends in the Keewatin.

It's a bold new idea with a lot of merit. But Thompson and her officials have not yet provided the public with enough information to allow us to properly evaluate it. MLAs and other Nunavut leaders must, therefore, scrutinize the Keewatin pilot project carefully before endorsing it.

MLAs and other Nunavut leaders must also wait for the public release of the latest auditor-general's report on how the GNWT manages its finances. That report contains a lengthy analysis of the MACA department and its community empowerment activities. Leaders must have access to the auditor-general's independent observations on MACA and the financial administration aspects of community empowerment before they can be expected to make rational decisions about the Keewatin pilot project.

Until now, GNWT officials have been negotiating community empowerment agreements on a more or less piece-meal, community by community basis. Different communities appear to be negotiating their own individual transfer packages according to their own schedules. That's consistent with previous commitments made by the territorial government that allow communities to take on more community empowerment responsibilities at their own pace.

In the Keewatin, however, the GNWT appears ready to do community empowerment deals with all seven communities under the umbrella of one overarching agreement. That's an attractive idea. If it's carried out, the equivalent of seven community empowerment deals will have been struck all at once, in an efficient and co-ordinated manner.

As well, the idea seems to have won the support of most of the region's hamlet governments. That too ought to carry a lot of weight with the GNWT.

On the other hand there are a number of glaring questions that GNWT officials have yet to answer. Those questions include:

• Does the Keewatin pilot project mean a new form of regional government that's at odds with longstanding GNWT policy and the Footprints model for the design of the Nunavut government? MACA officials have been talking vaguely about the creation of a "Keewatin mayors' society" to handle the pilot project. But they haven't said anything about whether this will turn out to be a de facto regional government. As the old saying goes, if it's got stripes, it's probably a zebra.
  
  
• Has the GNWT thought about how this will affect the Keewatin's regional education board and local school councils?
  
  Nunavut's boards of education are already saying they have concerns about how this new arrangement might fit into new school governance provisions contained in the NWT's new Education Act.
  
  
• Who will be accountable for the millions of dollars worth of money that will flow into the hands of the vaguely described "Keewatin mayors' society?"
  
  We're not suggesting in any way that the Keewatin's mayors can't be trusted. But all residents have a right to know what safeguards will exist to ensure financial probity.
  
  
• How will this affect the operations of the new Nunavut government next year?
  
  A large chunk of the fledgling Nunavut government's budget may end being committed to the Keewatin pilot project. Nunavut Tunngavik -- perhaps through its shadow cabinet -- should closely study the idea before endorsing it, to ensure that Nunavut's interests are protected.
  
  
• How will the "pilot project" be evaluated?
  
  In English, the term "pilot project" usually means the same thing as the word "experiment." If its an experiment, GNWT officials need to tell us how they plan to evaluate it, and what they plan to do if the experiment should fail. JB

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