Saturday's tragedy on the Ingraham Trail should have police more than concerned about the lack of radar traps along the Ingraham Trail.
While there's no way we can reclaim the lives of the three teenagers who drowned after the car they were in overturned into a small lake near Powder Point, we can face the reality that speeding has become a favourite pastime in the area.
You don't even have to leave town to witness these kids tearing around, night after night, let alone doubt that these kids often take to the Ingraham trail in pursuit of the thrills ahead.
Perhaps police could set up some sort of sporadic radar trap system that, at the very least, could remind these drivers that speed limits are there for a reason.
Why some Yellowknife residents and, even more curious, the department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development would get all excited about some bears at the dump is a bit difficult to understand.
For anyone who hasn't noticed, Yellowknife is surrounded by several thousand square kilometres of...well, of several thousand square kilometres. There are bears out there, a lot of bears, and we are infringing on their space far more than they are infringing on ours. Wildlife is a fact of life in the North and many Northern communities consider bears at the nuisance grounds a little local entertainment.
While wildlife officers should keep an eye on the bear situation out there and do what they can to keep the bears and the people at a distance, let's not get bent out of shape over what is, after all, a perfectly normal facet of Northern life -- wildlife.
While considering the needs of others is always important... while the government should set a positive example... while being politically correct is admittedly more important that being sensible or right... this is just too much.
It seems that smoking is going to be totally and completely banned inside the Yellowknife Airport. Ergo, after that two-hour non-smoking flight and despite the fact your nerves are a wreck and you're dying to have a coffee and a cigarette -- you're just out off luck and out the door.
It doesn't matter if it's minus 40 or pouring rain or what -- you're out.
Even in the privately-owned restaurant, you're out.
Face it, smokers, you are second-class citizens who have no rights whatsoever.
Common sense has finally prevailed at Yellowknife's legendary dump.
City council had a plan up its sleeve to build a facility at the dump where people could drop off and pick up re-usable stuff like toasters, chairs, washing machines and anything else that was unwanted, but still functional.
Pardon our confusion, but wasn't that exactly what was going on at the dump anyway?
City council was on the verge of spending $90,000 to build a little depot.
A call for expressions of interest to run the depot brought only one reply and that one requested permission to sell some of the things to help offset costs.
The whole scheme sounded a little hare-brained. If people want to pay for stuff, they go to a store -- they go to the dump because things are free.
Mercifully, fiscal prudence has won the day. The dump will remain, for the time being, the glorious first come, first serve, early bird gets the worm, free-for-all shopping mall it has always been, and city council can turn its visionary gaze elsewhere.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
While more and more voices are being heard in Rankin Inlet complaining about the messy state of the hamlet, precious little seems to be getting done about it, save for those few individuals with enough civic pride to keep the area around their own home clean.
In fact, one would had to have looked very hard to find anyone out and about during the hamlet's Cleanup Day which, for the most part, went by almost completely unnoticed.
While there are many of the opinion it is time for Rankin Inlet's council to pass a bylaw enabling local authorities to fine those people whose yards or business areas look a combat zone or a poorly maintained junkyard -- there are just as many who seem to feel the root of the problem lies with the fact Rankin's council doesn't care one way or the other about the hamlet's appearance.
There can be no denying the fact that, in general, our hamlet is a cluttered mess. If council truly does care about its hamlet's appearance, the time for action is now before, once again, Old Man Winter swoops into town and covers our shame until the next spring thaw.
It's one thing to hand out free garbage bags, it's quite another to give hamlet residents the incentive to use them for anything other than impromptu laundry hampers.
Another puzzling factor in this messy business is the almost total absence of a voice from our tourism sector advocating the cleaning up of our community. After all, tourists come to the pristine North to get back in touch with nature and experience a different way of life and our scenic beauty.
They can experience all the uncleanliness, rampant littering and numerous eyesores their little hearts desire without ever leaving their respective urban homes, let alone spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles only to be confronted with the same intolerable mess.
If we're to continue to be perceived to be the unofficial regional capital, it's time we, literally, picked up our socks and started caring about the negative message our messy community sends out.
And, while everyone should do his or her part to help beautify our hamlet, they should also take the time to gently remind our hamlet council that it should be leading the way in cleaning up our community.
If our mayor and counsellors continue to sit on their laurels and ignore the problem until the snow hides it from view and people's minds -- maybe it's time for local voters to make sure the next major cleanup in Rankin is on election day.