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Bylaw manager Jennifer Hunt-Poitras overseeing transformation at city hall

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With international and local pressure on law enforcement agencies to be more responsive to community needs, the City of Yellowknife has been undergoing a transformation within its municipal bylaw division.

Jennifer Hunt-Poitras, newly hired manager of the municipal enforcement division in May, is overseeing changes to how the city carries out its practices.
photo courtesy of Jennifer Hunt-Poitras

Jennifer Hunt-Poitras, manager of municipal enforcement, updated councillors Monday on the city's efforts to overhaul the division with a working document called the Way Forward Plan.

Since 2018, the city began reviewing its overall approach to bylaw enforcement to ensure it's meeting the needs of residents. In February 2019, council passed a Bylaw Enforcement Policy based on those reviews which laid out "very broad strokes"  in numerous areas needing improvement.

On Monday, council heard that efforts are ongoing in implementing last year's policy direction, particularly related to hazard assessments, bylaw enforcement policy and overall organizational restructuring.

Hunt-Poitras, who was hired in May, is working on improving officer training and focusing the division more around public education and community engagement. She's one of the first to hold the manager position after Doug Gillard occupied the office for many years. NNSL Media learned that Gillard has now vacated his employment with the municipality.

Significant staffing changes have occurred at city hall in recent years, particularly following Gillard's tenure, who was manager of the division for decades up to 2018 when he became embroiled in a city investigation involving inappropriate use of security cameras and other acts of misconduct of staff. 

In October of that year, he was reassigned as head of a newly-created emergency management division.

Asked about Gillard's standing with the city, it was confirmed his position is open.

"The city does not disclose personal information regarding city employees but can confirm that the manager of Emergency Management position is currently vacant," stated Alison Harrower, media spokesperson with the city.

The city also stated that the function of the position is an important one within the public safety department because its focus on unique threats in the northern environment – notably "winter power outages" or  "forest fires near our community."

The role also helps in managing "unexpected scenarios like Covid-19 pandemic," Harrower stated.

Procedural fairness and impartiality

Hunt-Poitras, has a unique background in the North, growing up in Iglulik, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit during her youth.

She moved to Yellowknife in the early '90s and worked in all three Northern territories as a bilingual English and Inuktitut journalist with CBC North. In recent years, she became a co-director of the Inuit sub-commission with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

At 48 years old, she went to law school and was called the bar last year after articling at Lawson Lundell LLP.

As a lawyer. and with her longstanding knowledge of Northern and Indigenous issues, her background provides the city with a different approach to directing the division from what residents might be accustomed to.

She is also interested in communications, commitment to community and social justice, which shapes her perspective in the position, she said.

"What I bring to it is a different approach and what administration wanted in the position was to bring policy and legal lens and less of the operational management style to it," she said.

While there has been discussion this week about "cultural transformation" at the division, Hunt-Poitras said she sees changes as ongoing and incremental.

"I feel like we are talking about a gradual approach over time in areas identified for improvement and areas identified for strengthening MED," she said. "I think there has been direction for change but I wouldn't say it is sweeping..."

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Key to her efforts is the division's focus on improving community engagement as MED faces public scrutiny like any other modern law enforcement agency, she said. Ensuring bylaw compliance involves not only handing out tickets, but also providing public education opportunities, being sensitive to social contexts and individual circumstances when infractions occur and working with partnering organizations.

"I think it applies to all law enforcement and we are no exception," she said. "There is an expectation that residents encounter procedural fairness, impartiality and that they have a way to be heard as well. So we have to have a way to look at what law enforcement and bylaws does and RCMP, and see whether people are working within their authority."

Hunt-Poitras said she's enjoying the new challenge her job brings and was highly complimentary of her staff – a full complement in place since May.

"The individuals coming to work in this role (MED) are similar to those working for fire department," she said. "They have a strong sense of wanting to contribute and are community-minded when it comes to public safety aspect and that role."