N.W.T. leaders unhappy with northern agency's Iqaluit home
The establishment of a northern economic development agency in Nunavut has some leaders in the Northwest Territories worried that important decisions affecting Canada's entire North will be made far off in the eastern Arctic.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Tuesday that Iqaluit will be the headquarters for CanNor, a new stand-alone regional economic development agency for Canada's North. About 30 employees will work from the agency's office in the Nunavut capital.
"The days of development decisions being made in a city thousands of kilometres away are past," Harper said during his announcement in Iqaluit, where he also chaired a cabinet meeting later that day.
The prime minister was referring in his comment to the early 20th century, when the federal government administered the northern territories from their offices in Ottawa.
Still thousands of kilometres away, mayor says
Yellowknife Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said he's concerned that decisions will still be made thousands of kilometres away from N.W.T. communities.
"One of the challenges in setting up financial access points is that frequently, they require that you get to them," Van Tighem told CBC News on Tuesday.
"Iqaluit would be a little bit tougher to get to than Yellowknife, for somebody from Inuvik or somebody from Fort Smith."
The agency will also have satellite offices in Yellowknife and Whitehorse.
Van Tighem said he hopes the Yellowknife satellite office will have authority over N.W.T.-specific issues, without having to turn to the Iqaluit headquarters for clearance.
Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben said the Northwest Territories would have been a better location for CanNor's headquarters, considering the federal government's emphasis on asserting Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic.
"Tuk is right next door to Alaska, right next door to Russia; I mean, you couldn't get any closer than that," Gruben said.
"Iqaluit's way the heck over in the eastern Arctic. That's a long ways from what we've been talking about."
Feds 'moving very well' in North, former premier says
But the decision to base CanNor in Iqaluit did not surprise former N.W.T. premier Stephen Kakfwi, who said Nunavut is playing the political game well right now.
Kakfwi also noted the federal government's current interest in the N.W.T., having recently expanded the Nahanni National Park Reserve and created another park in the territory's Sahtu region.
"They're a Tory government. They're not going to spend a lot of money on social issues — housing, health issues, those type of things — because it's not in their nature," Kakfwi said.
"But they move on other things and they're moving very well."
Kakfwi, Van Tighem and Gruben all said the economic development agency will benefit the whole North, including the Northwest Territories.
Kakfwi said the territories will now have access to economic development funds that were previously available only to the provinces.