N.W.T. premier hopeful Glen Abernethy answers your questions

MLAs will vote for the next premier of the Northwest Territories on Wednesday, and today Glen Abernethy sat down with CBC Radio's The Trailbreaker to answer your questions.

Abernethy, who most recently served as the N.W.T.'s health minister, and incumbent premier Bob McLeod were the only MLAs who put their names forward for the top spot.

McLeod will appear live on The TrailbreakerTuesday, Dec. 15, between 7 and 8 a.m. MT.

Here are just a few of the questions Abernethy answered this morning. The following has been edited and condensed.

Q. Constituents have been afforded a week to weighin on what they want to see in the next premier. What are you hearing?

People want things done in a different way. Our government has been characterized as being very bureaucratic, not particularly compassionate, not particularly transparent. These are things that trouble me. These are things that I would like to work on to fix.

During my campaign, when I went door-to-door, one of the things that actually surprised me was people would say, 'Hey you guys need to put this program in place,' and I'd be like 'We do. We have that program already, and here's how you find it.' But they'd have to go through multiple pages or they'd have to know it exists before they go looking for it. We need to do a better job of helping people understand what programs exist and how you can access those programs.

Q. What distinguishes your approach from the policies and values of Bob McLeod?

If you look at how I've done business, I've been very open, very transparent in the Department of Health and Social Services. When we have had crises I've stepped up and gotten in front of those, whether it was the Stanton [hospital] violence that we were dealing with a couple of years ago, or the more recent diagnostic imaging problems we had.

I got involved in going and actually attending some of the anti-poverty meetings:not just there to make a speech, but there to actually listen to the individuals. In my mind, I'm an accommodater and a facilitator.I want to help people get solutions and I think that's what we need in a premier someone who's going to get in, get dirty, get the work done for the people of the Northwest Territories.

Q. Could you give some specifics on how you'll help northerners handle the high cost of living?

People in the Northwest Territories still primarily heat their homes with diesel. The price of diesel fluctuates a lot but it tends to be quite high. Things like the costof [wood] pellets tends to be a lot more stable and a lot more affordable over time. We need to actually enhance some of the rebate programs we have to support individuals who would like to switch to a more affordable and more consistent alternative.

I've heard a lot of people saying we need to explore some loan-type programs that individuals can enter into, because some people, even with the rebates, can't afford the remainder of the infrastructure costs. So if we had a loan program that they could pay back over time, we might see more people moving in that direction,and it will save people money over time.

Another area where people are experiencing difficulty or the high cost of living is certainly around power we've been hit hard here in the Northwest Territories with a couple of low water years.

So we need to continue to explore other ways to generate power, so we as the government don't have to rely on the diesel. Solar, windthose are options that exist.

Q. How will you assist N.W.T.'s small communities to get funding to address issues they can't afford?

We did meet with the N.W.T. Association of Communities on the weekend; they made a presentation on community funding shortages, and they're indicating they're about $40 million short. Forty million dollars is a lot of money, but the communities, their ability to utilize dollars and get significant results for their dollars, is clear and evident.

This government is going to have to make some hard choices about how we can move forward. I would like to see us moving toward covering the $40 million, but we may not be able to do it in the first year. Given our fiscal situation, we may have to phase it in over time and look at redundancies.

Q. As premier, what investments would you make to diversify the economy so it's not completely commodity-dependent?

We do need to look at investing, and we do need to consider taking some short-term debtin order to support some of these industries that are out there so that they can become more sustainable, whether it's fishing, whether it's agriculture. I think there's a lot of opportunity in tourism with the low dollar that we have today, and the number of Chinese tourists coming in, we have a real opportunity to build on the Chinese tourism.

We also need to look at biomass. Biomass south of the lake is an absolutely huge opportunity. As a government, we've already agreed to purchase pellets exclusively from Aurora Pellets when they do open. That means we will be buying products in the North, keeping the money in the North, circulating it in the North, rather than bringing up oil and seeing the profits go directly south.