Handley unopposed as next NWT premier

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Joe Handley, a no-nonsense 14-year veteran of the Northwest Territories, vaulted his way into the premier’s office Dec. 12 when his only two rivals dropped out of the contest. Having worked as a child at a small Saskatchewan sawmill, trained teachers in Ghana and run a large school division in Manitoba, held top administrative posts in the Northwest Territories and served in a wide array of territorial cabinet posts, he was acclaimed to succeed Stephen Kakfwi.

Now Handley, at the age of 60, faces some of his toughest challenges as the Northwest Territories sits on the verge of its greatest economic development and wants to ensure it turns that opportunity into prosperity and self-sufficiency.

How well the territory fares depends heavily on his ability to persuade the Canadian government to turn over revenues from natural resources, such as diamond mines and a Mackenzie natural gas project, to the Northwest Territories and succeed where others have fallen short over 17 years.

At the same time he will try to wrest control over lands, resources and resource royalties from the federal government he must work to build strong relations with the territories’ emerging aboriginal governments.

Handley occupied the premier’s office with strong endorsements from those who have worked with him. Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and a former Northwest Territories government official, told the Canadian Press that Handley “goes out of his way ... to seek out others’ views. He has a tremendous skill at bringing people together.”

Gordon Wray, a former Northwest Territories premier, described Handley as “very easy-going and very affable, somebody you can sit down a talk with.”