Career
Butters was first elected to the Northwest Territories Legislature in the 1970 Northwest Territories general election. Due to a significant redistribution of electoral district in 1975, Butters ran for re-election in the 1975 Northwest Territories general election in the new Inuvik electoral district because Western Arctic no longer covered his home in Inuvik. Butters would be re-elected for a third term in the 1979 Northwest Territories general election.
In his third term he would be appointed as the Minister of Finance by Premier George Braden in 1981.
The posting was significant as Butters became the first elected member to hold the role since Frederick Haultain was acting territorial treasurer in 1905. Butters would He would seek a fourth term in the 1983 Northwest Territories general election.
He would be re-elected to his fifth and final term in the 1987 Northwest Territories general election retiring in 1991. He served as Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation from 1989 until 1991.
He died in Duncan, British Columbia in 2015, aged 89.
