What your new MLAs say they want for the Northwest Territories

We now know exactly what the Northwest Territories’ new MLAs would like to get done. And it only took 31,000 words.

Over the course of a four-hour Monday session, each MLA took around 10 minutes to set out their own take on how the territory’s priorities should look for the four years ahead.

While essentially a rehash of their priorities as candidates in this month’s election, the session begins a process designed to come up with a better plan than the last government had.

This time around, at the recommendation of outgoing MLAs, the new crew are going to take a little longer before delivering a finalized set of priorities some time in February.

There have been some calls for the priority list to be trimmed back, too. The last group produced a list of 22 priorities in 2019, but some candidates in 2023 were advocating for just three or four big items to dominate the agenda. (Even so, virtually nobody on Monday kept their list that short.)

Housing, the cost of living, healthcare and relations with Indigenous governments are the items that took up the most airtime on Monday.

Rewind four years and much of that was the same – the NWT is not in a fundamentally different position than it was four years ago, with most of the government’s work having involved crises like Covid-19, floods and wildfires.

This time, the word “crisis” got a few more mentions than four years ago, and issues like land claims and education didn’t get the same attention they received in 2019.

Here’s a taste of what each MLA said on Monday, in the order they spoke. A full transcript is available from the legislature’s website.

Caitlin Cleveland, Kam Lake

The priorities I have ultimately identified are: one, cost of living, where Kam Lake residents tied this to developing clean energy solutions and affordable, accessible housing. Two, the economy, through which residents also identified affordable clean energy, infrastructure and affordable housing, along with education, population retention, childcare and certainty.

Three, accessible healthcare, where the people I serve highlighted medical travel reform and responsive client-centred integrated service delivery, especially for vulnerable residents. And four, climate adaptability and resilience, where many Kam Lake residents reflected on a timely need to improve mitigation and management of emergencies while supporting a resilience-based culture shift.

RJ Simpson, Hay River North

We need to rein in government growth. We cannot continue to grow at the rate we’ve been growing. I don’t think we need to make massive cuts, but I think the government is stretched too thin. We’ve tried to do too many things and we’re doing them halfway.

We need to focus our efforts on doing the things that are important. We need to get back to basics and ensure that we are delivering the services, providing the safety and security and the healthcare and the housing to residents that they need. We need to focus our efforts, get things done and not do things halfway.

Vince McKay, Hay River South

My community of Hay River and our neighbours are hurting. We are losing families to the south. They are moving because they can’t take it any more. Three evacuations in 16 months aren’t easy – even one isn’t easy. When Yellowknife loses a family, hardly anyone notices. However, when we lose a family in a small community, we notice as it affects our staffing levels, our volunteers, funding for our schools and territory – when the population drops, so do our transfer dollars.

Our government needs to change its way of thinking. Our government should support our communities, ensure all GNWT jobs stay in place, and aid local governments in keeping residents healthy and happy through funding programs and addressing local issues.

Shane Thompson, Nahendeh

We need to continue to invest in infrastructure that enhances the well-being of individuals, such as long-term fourplex facilities in smaller communities and the enhancements of road structures within the region, including access roads to the smaller communities. Chipseal at least 40 additional kilometres on Highway 1 and an additional 20 kilometres on Highway 7. Move at least 20 metres of brush and trees on each side of the road. The creation of energy-efficient homes in the smaller communities, like what the community of Jean Marie did in the 18th Assembly with the Arctic Energy Alliance, which helped the band and homeowners become more energy efficient.

Housing NWT needs to work with small community governments in establishing a year-round maintenance program for Elders and knowledge-keepers in their own homes. It’s horrendous and deplorable when I visit community members and they lack the support to fix their homes.

Jay Macdonald, Thebacha

We must recognize the urgency for change. No government can go it alone, and the status quo is not sustainable. The time has come to challenge the norms that have held us back. The economic landscape is evolving rapidly and we must adapt the bureaucratic processes that once may have served a purpose but now threaten to impede progress.

At a time when agility and innovation are critical. I propose a decisive shift in our approach, a commitment to untangle the red tape and streamline bureaucratic processes. We must prioritize efficiency, transparency, and a business-friendly environment that attracts investment and fosters economic development. Technology offers us the tools to create a more effective, efficient and responsive bureaucracy. Let us leverage these advancements to reduce paperwork, enhance communication and create a government that works hand-in-hand with businesses, not against them.

Kieron Testart, Range Lake

Public safety is paramount. I will tirelessly work towards strengthening our law enforcement agencies and fire departments, providing the necessary resources and support to ensure the safety and security of our constituents. Every citizen has the right to feel secure in their homes and their communities.

This also means ensuring local governments have the funding and training necessary to protect against unprecedented climate disasters that turned two-thirds of our people into climate refugees mere months ago. We cannot afford or allow a repeat of what happened earlier this year, and I’m determined to build the infrastructure and legislative framework that will keep our homes and families safe for decades to come.

Julian Morse, Frame Lake

It is critically important that we receive staff feedback and advice on how priorities can best be achieved. We also need staff input into measurable and achievable goal-setting as part of this process, to ensure that MLAs and administration have a mutual understanding of what success is expected to look like. We should, where possible, align our goals with work which is already taking place. This will ensure consistency and that we don’t lose initiatives staff have put valuable resources towards.

However, I want to emphasize that we are going to have to realign some resources to ensure priorities are successful. One of the key failures of past priority setting has been a lack of commitment of funding and resources towards ensuring their success.

Kate Reid, Great Slave

We need to have fundamental discussions about how we grow and mature our consensus government. The GNWT has often been criticized for many years for being the party at the table holding up negotiations. I think we can be clearer at those tables and in all actions if we recognize that our role should be to direct and support a public government that operates alongside Indigenous governments in the spirit of partnership and humility, not opposition.

We need to talk about how we can make collaborative decisions that all residents can trust. For me, that looks like finding a better way forward together. One option could be a bicameral legislature with an Indigenous senate, but I’m one person and it needs to be a full conversation between all partners. Further, Land Back is a conversation we need to be having every day for the next four years, to really confront what that looks like here in the North – what that means with the lens of reconciliation.

Danny McNeely, Sahtu

The social fabric of our communities is very low for a number of reasons. In my area, and similar to other areas, we’ve got the the absence of industry. What replaces industry’s injection to the prosperity and jobs and training that come with their presence? I can recall, years ago, we had a family that was travelling south to get their truck serviced, or even exchanged or buying a new one. And that same family is coming back home – I passed them on to winter road – they’re full of smiles, the back of their truck is heaped with groceries and everybody’s smiling.

That smiling face is not here today. We can go to every small community, every urban community and you can see that. There are many conflicting, plaguing problems with our communities. I’m hearing a lot of the influx of drugs and addictions. What’s the solution to that?

Denny Rodgers, Inuvik Boot Lake

How can we as a government ensure that we are working with the Indigenous governments in a way that respects both and ensures we are working shoulder-to-shoulder, providing the most we can for all our residents? For far too long, divisive politics have made it so that our regions have not been able to take advantage of the opportunities that can come from working together.

It’s time for us to come together and work for our collective interests. As a whole community, we are greater than the sum of our parts. We can address the needs of families, we can start to bring economic strength back to our regions.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong, Monfwi

Every government makes housing a priority and then fails to make any real, meaningful changes. We need to start thinking about this differently. I am personally tired of southern consultants and endless policy reviews that don’t produce change.

We need to take a different approach to policymaking. All government departments seem to want is to create one policy for the entire territory in the name of equality and accountability. For me, this type of policymaking will never be fair, because it doesn’t take into consideration how different our 33 communities are. These differences should be celebrated – life in small NWT communities is not the same as it is in larger communities, or larger regional centres. One centralized policy is not the answer to our problem, but is the problem.

George Nerysoo, Mackenzie Delta

Treatment centres within the North are much-needed. There are people out there who want and need the help that they deserve. Sending our Indigenous people south for treatment is not working – we send our people to southern institutions and they’re expected to adapt to a totally different culture, then when they come back there’s no aftercare and they fall right back into that same system.

What works in Yellowknife or Inuvik may not work in places like Tsiigehtchic. Only the residents of Tsiigehtchic know what needs to be done. We can work with our own people and find solutions and make it healthier.

Caroline Wawzonek, Yellowknife South

By the time my children and your children grow up, I hope the Northwest Territories will be known as a leader, as a trailblazer and as a place of opportunity. I would hope that we’ll be known as leaders in Indigenous reconciliation, and known for our style of consensus governance.

I want all children of today to have opportunities available to them across all of the Northwest Territories, because we have unlocked the tremendous potential that exists in all of our regions for a diverse and prosperous economy. With this prosperity will come opportunities for residents to be healthy, educated and ready to maximize their opportunities.

Lesa Semmler, Inuvik Twin Lakes

I want to bring the voices of what my community has told me. That way, we all get a picture of where everyone’s coming from and then when we do get in that room, and we do start to finalize our priorities, we all know where we all are coming from.

In Inuvik, like many other communities, our community has been hit hard by drugs. We need to work together with the RCMP, we need them to have the tools that they need to be able to combat this issue. Our people are suffering, our people are dying from this. This is not something that we can continue to talk about or do any reports or anything – we need to deal with this. And it’s not just in the regional centres, it’s in our small communities.

Shauna Morgan, Yellowknife North

When the smallest community or the most vulnerable amongst us suffers, we all suffer. Those of us in Yellowknife must find common cause with other communities, while empowering each community to find its own unique ways to address our common problems.

I spoke with many constituents who have become so discouraged in recent years, who are struggling to believe that change is possible in government but, through our conversations, were persuaded to find some hope. It sounds contradictory, but I am both buoyed up by that hope and feel the weight of it. Over the next four years, people need to see real improvements in their lives and in how the government operates if our residents are to believe in this community and to invest all they have to offer here.

Lucy Kuptana, Nunakput

People want a safe existence in their home and in their community. Our policing services, our bylaw services, our ambulatory services are non-existent in many communities. Drugs and alcohol are plaguing our communities. We want a thriving school full of staff and students, and all the resources required to fulfil their educational growth, like gymnasiums. Tuktoyaktuk hasn’t had a gymnasium for over three years. The attendance rate right now is 43 percent.

Constituents need help with mental health issues and addictions. They need day-to-day counselling services and any-time clinical counselling. I find we are all still feeling the effects of the lockdown and minimal interaction, especially with our young people. Our medical travel and dental care is in terrible disarray. Patients are missing critical appointments due to travel with incomplete paperwork. It’s a totally disrespectful society system.

Sheryl Yakeleya, Dehcho

We all know about the forest fires that occurred this summer and the impacts that occurred in the communities of Kátł’odeeche and Enterprise. The devastation that occurred there, and how the residents are trying to pick up their lives and continue, was at the forefront of discussions. Some of these residents do not have insurance to rebuild. They all want to return to their homes. How can we assist with this?

The residents of Enterprise are concerned that their local workforce is not being utilized to help with the cleanup of their communities – the residents who need this income to keep food on the table and pay their bills. Why aren’t we supporting their efforts to rebuild by contracting them directly?

Robert Hawkins, Yellowknife Centre

The state of the economy is a real concern and it may rise above many other issues for some. However, for others there are simple, overwhelming issues such as the overwhelming costs of living. Whether you live far in the north or you live in the south of the NWT, families are making day-to-day decisions that are challenging and they’re struggling.

There are many other issues, such as families struggle with the poor application of the $10-a-day childcare program, a program well intended but not promised with the delivery and the implementation as we all believed it was. It carries many complications. Many families are personally worried about the future, as I am as well. But we need to take thoughtful, collective steps together to help address many of their concerns.

Richard Edjericon, Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh

We’re going to have settled claims here in the Northwest Territories sooner than later. And I have mentioned to my colleagues in the last assembly – and I’ll continue to advocate it here today – we must continue to recognize those constitutionally protected land claim agreements.

We may have to look at some kind of constitution going forward. I think that’s something that we need to talk about. And as much as we want to talk about all the stuff that we want to put in our communities, at the end of the day, I think I heard from my colleagues that we have to put our house in order. And if we don’t do that, what do we do then? We may have to review all the government departments, because we can’t continue to do this.