By Canadian Press

Two Northwest Territories ministers survive cabinet expulsion vote

Nov 1, 2018 | 9:30 AM

YELLOWKNIFE — Two cabinet ministers in the Northwest Territories have survived votes on whether they should be expelled from cabinet.

Glen Abernethy will keep his job in Health and Social Services and Wally Schumann will remain head of Infrastructure.

Abernethy has faced criticism over a scathing report from the federal auditor general over the state of child services in the territory.

The audit found little has improved in the last four years and some concerns have grown worse.

It concluded that two-thirds of foster homes aren’t subject to a criminal record check before being assigned children.

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Schumann has taken heat for a decision to cancel a barge shipment that would have resupplied three northern communities, but he  blamed unusually heavy and early drifts of sea ice.

Some say the real reason was that his department was slow getting organized and was more interested in lucrative contracts with private companies than in serving communities.

Under the N.W.T.’s consensus government, cabinet ministers are chosen by members of the legislature and can be removed by them as well.

Although the expulsion debate went overtime in the legislature, critics of the ministers couldn’t muster enough votes from MLAs outside of cabinet.

Members of cabinet, including Premier Bob McLeod, supported the ministers.

The Canadian Press