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Jason Unrau
Reporter, NNSL
Friday, May 25, 2007
Except for a few early risers from the Salvation Army circuit, Franklin Street in downtown Yellowknife was nearly empty Monday morning, as I walked to work. I thought the capital had shut down, until I realized it was Victoria Day. Then I knew it had.
Apart from a handful of journalists, some police, bylaw, Gold Range servers and a smattering of local fast food merchants, nobody was at work. Public servants don't work stat holidays and since the government remains NWT's primary economic engine, the territory grinds to a halt each Victoria, Labour, Canada and Remembrance days, among others.
So when Alberta-pundit Ric Dolphin, in his recent article, lambastes the territorial government for its bloated bureaucracy and free-spending MLAs, despite the low-blow invective (Dolphin refers to NWT Finance Minister as 'Floyd the Mechanic'), it was hard to disagree.
Dolphin makes a living writing about provincial (and territorial) political deficiencies -- his musings published by Western Standard magazine in a column entitled'The Colonies,' - so it should be no surprise the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) comes up an easy target.
Using bits and bobs he culled from several News/North stories, Dolphin surmises our bureaucrats are breeding like rabbits. He also reminds us that resource revenue sharing and devolution is just a mirage. Without the annual federal infusion of more than $800 million transfer payments, we'd still be lost in a snow blown desert. .
Like our politicians keep reminding us (especially our man in Ottawa MP Dennis Bevington), the Northwest Territories is an expensive place to live. What Dolphin, and all those government departments begging for more money each year remind us, is that it's an even more expensive place to run.
This year's territorial budget sets $1.23 billion aside for operations and as resource royalties gleaned from the NWT in 2006 amounted to $220 million, it's hard to see how getting a fairer share of these will deliver us from dependence on Ottawa.
When Premier Joe Handley announced the agreement he made with four aboriginal groups to pry some of this resource money out of Ottawa's hands, the aboriginal groups not included cried foul. One Yellowknives Dene Chief said Handley was living in a make-believe world.
Maybe both fellows have reservations at the Wonderland Ranch. The premier for believing his deal, lacking unanimous aboriginal support, would fly without dissent and the chief for believing his portion of any resource revenue chips would keep his domain in fuel and government services for the next year.
As for the Wonderland that is the Northwest Territories, its high-paid bureaucrats, debilitating federal dependency and Dolphin's criticisms of it, it would be fair to let Dolphin know his criticisms are decades late.
This is how things in the colonies have been running for years; we've just learned to adapt to those stat holidays, buy our beer in advance and rest up for another hard day at GNWT Inc.
- Jason Unrau is a reporter for Yellowknifer editorial@nnsl.com