It's not every day the government changes its mind -- especially where money's concerned.
But changing its mind the GNWT did last week when it decided not to cut as much as it originally planned from the Family Support program. The territorial government had planned to reduce funding to the program, run by the Yellowknife Women's Centre, by $100,000. According to Executive Director Arlene Hache, this would have been devastating.
But a complaint or two later, the GNWT informed Hache it had changed its mind and was only going to cut $50,000 from the program.
Okay, okay. So it's still a hefty cut. But the boost of $50,000 warrants a pat on the back.
Doesn't it?
A pall of gloom has settled over kitchens from Frame Lake South to Latham Island.
After 14 years of servicing Yellowknife's desire for ground cardomum seeds and gorgonzola cheese, Edgson's has closed its retail operation.
However, with unrepentant optimism, we choose to look at the bright side. There is now an opportunity in a sorely deprived market for a store that represents the confluence of cultures that makes Yellowknife such a special place.
It seems that food is where the spectrum of cultures, north and south, east and west, happily collide. A store like Edgson's, with its products from around the world, is both a treat and an educational experience.
We look forward to browsing through the tikka sauces and the chanterelles somewhere soon.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
There are many good folks who have spent their entire lives as productive members of the workforce, but, unfortunately, have spent the vast majority, if not all, that time in the employ of a
company with no private pension plan.
As their retirement years approach, these are indeed scary times for anyone who could not afford private investments or the much heralded Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) during their working career.
This decade, for the first time since its inception, has cast serious doubts on the long-term viability of the Canada Pension Plan and quality national health care seems to get more perilous with each passing calendar page.
Like it or not, we have the federal government and decades of mismanagement to thank for all this future uncertainty and, with the exception of a handful of provincial leaders such as Ontario's Mike Harris with the fortitude to take the political flak which comes from making tough decisions, precious few of our leaders are doing anything to solidify our futures.
Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin has made a career out of fudging numbers and borrowing the work person's money to trumpet his so called "balanced budget." At what cost?
Anyone who follows such things, which we all should, knows the Employment Insurance fund has become nothing more than the federal government's own personal slush fund. The department itself, originally conceived to aid workers, is now little more than a government watchdog with a mandate of denying, or cutting deeply into, as much of the money workers are entitled to as possible -- and then some!
I have no overpowering soft spot for public service employees. Fact of the matter is, I firmly believe they've had it too good for too long, when compared to the rest of us working stiffs. That being said, the federal government's recent announcement it's going to introduce legislation to address the management of the accumulated $30-billion surplus in the Public Service Superannuation Fund is disturbing.
Since it's to be mainly controlled by an Investment Board of the government's hiring or naming, it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to know how these funds will be manipulated.
Like others before it, this legislation has implications on the Northern economic climate and is yet another move by the feds aimed at accessing money accumulated by the working class to pass on to the affluent and less productive of society.
It wasn't that long ago it was quite a good thing, really, to be a member of the workforce, but, these days, being a productive member of society seems to amount to little more than being financially responsible for righting all our countries financial woes, with nothing in return.
Hopefully, the federal government will soon wake up and realize the average, every day working person is the backbone of this great nation and to continue to retard their future for short-term gain is, without a doubt, the poorest investment of all, regardless of what misters Martin and Canadian Treasury Board president Marcel Masse would have you believe.