NWT legislature has a home of its own - finally

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After years of conducting official business in school gymnasiums, hotels and community halls, the Government of the Northwest Territories finally has its own home.

The new NWT Legislature building in Yellowknife opened its doors to the people of the North and their honored guests in a flurry of pomp and ceremony Nov. 17.

"This is a truly unique experience," House Speaker Michael Ballantyne said. "In this country, you have a greater chance of seeing a total eclipse of the sun than you do of seeing the opening of a new legislative building."

This was only the third legislative building to open in Canada this century, he said. The last, in Nunavut, will occur in 1999.

The North languished "in colonial obscurity, ruled by an appointed council" for almost 50 years, Ballantyne said. In 1951, the first northerners were elected to the NWT council. For the next 20 years, they held meetings wherever there was room - gyms, community halls and schools across the territories as well as in Ottawa.

By 1967, the council had its first Aboriginal member, Simonie Michael of Iqaluit, and had moved permanently north. The first fully elected legislative assembly took office in the mid-1970s.

But by the 1980s, the northern government had taken on a multitude of new challenges that required a permanent home for the legislature, Ballantyne said.

The territorial government decided to construct the new legislature building in 1990.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien gave the christening address before the legislative assembly and a capacity crowd gathered in the Great Hall outside.

"I would like very much to congratulate you," said the one-time Indian affairs minister. "I'm very much impressed by the quality of this building. When I first came here as minister of Indian Affairs, it was not like that."

The opening of the $25 million structure marked Chretien's second visit to Yellowknife in less than a month.

"For me, I visited my own riding last week in rural Quebec in St. Maurice. My second visit is almost as close to my heart, to be here in Yellowknife."

Chretien spoke briefly on the transfer of legislative powers from Ottawa to the territories, which should be finished by the end of 1994. The pace of those transfers will be set by the NWT itself. Land claim settlement and outstanding claims with Aboriginal peoples in the North will also be settled "as quickly as possible," he added.

But Chretien told Windspeaker he has no set agenda for such negotiations.

"I just wanted to show that I have an interest."