Wednesday, November 10, 1999
To quote Mayor Dave Lovell, it's a "great, great, great, great day".
The mayor's exuberance was sparked by the news that Ottawa had approved the environmental review of the Diavik diamond mine.
As the mayor pointed out, this decision means the difference between a recession and a boom. We can't help but agree.
With Diavik having spent $170 million just to get the approval, it's expected this project will create 200 jobs in Yellowknife alone. The biggest immediate boost will be to the construction and transportation sectors.
With the recent layoff at Giant Mine and considering the current deficit facing the GNWT, this is one windfall from which we all serve to benefit.
But as Northerners gear up to embrace the many spinoffs to come from this diamond mine, there remains one important area yet to be dealt with ã royalties. The very government that has given the go ahead to begin building this $1.3 billion mine will, under current legislation, be the one to rake in the royalties.
It's estimated Ottawa could stand to earn well over a billion dollars from both the BHP and Diavik project over the next 21 years.
At the same time, corporate and personal income taxes and the payroll tax from the two mines is expected to generate only $20 million for the GNWT.
Ottawa's not the only player. Northern aboriginal groups have yet to agree with the GNWT on a formula for transferring some of these benefits to the North. It's time to sort out a deal with which all parties can live.
In the meantime, be proud Yellowknife, you're going to be busy.
For many, tomorrow is a holiday. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the First World War ended.
Tomorrow we commemorate the contribution of those who fought and those who fell in all wars in the service of our country.
As the NWT heads towards an election and the grumbling gets louder over candidates and issues, it is important to remember that grumbling about our choices is a privilege.
Men and women died defending that privilege and we should remain grateful to them. Our system is far from perfect. There are still wrongs to be set right and injustices to be settled. But we are free to make choices, a freedom not everyone in the world enjoys.
Tomorrow take a moment to reflect on that hard-won freedom.
TEXT:
Math students at Ecole St. Joseph in Yellowknife have come up with some alarming statistics of bad drivers running the crosswalk outside their school.
The students and instructor should be congratulated for taking a practical interest in the real world outside the covers of a text book.
At the student's presentation to the city, councillors were quick to recognize the cost of installing a street light or a pedestrian crossing light. But with more than 500 cars travelling through this intersection during lunch hour, they know it's only a matter of time until an accident occurs.
We also notice increased patrols by bylaw officers near the problem area, a good solution until a more permanent one is found.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
The mission was no different from his previous 35. Objective: locate enemy submarines wrecking havoc on Allied shipping lanes.
A remark was made what a beautiful day for flying as the metal bird lumbered objectingly down the runway, crew members mentally running through their routines as its white nose began to arch gracefully towards the heavens.
About two hours into their mission, the crew's spotters first started having difficulty with the conditions.
The day's sunlight was reflecting off the ocean's calm waters with blinding results.
A crew member jokingly quipped they could fly over the leader of their aggressor, casually sunbathing himself on the deck of the Bismark itself, and not notice a thing.
A few moments later, Capt. Greer informed his flight crew he was lowering altitude in hopes of cutting the glare and improving their visibility.
The plane's navigator barely had time to ponder such riveting thunder on a cloudless day, when the shell ripped through the belly of the plane, turning his beautiful day into the blackest of nights.
About 12 hours later, that same navigator was the only survivor plucked from the Atlantic by a British convoy ship.
Although my uncle, the man in the faded picture proudly attired in his RCAF issue, will always remain a stranger to me.
I know him only through the stories of others and he continues to exist only through my own manufactured memories.
For 11 months of the year, I'm as guilty as most for not giving very much thought to the man in my faded picture -- and what he did for me, 14 years before my birth.
But tomorrow, Remembrance Day, I'll join millions across this great nation thanking him for making the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.
I will renew my vow to never forget the price he and so many of his brothers and sisters in arms paid for us to be able to enjoy the greatest gift of all -- freedom.
As tomorrow ends, I will put this year's poppy in my little box containing 40 others -- one for every year I've lived a free man.
And, as I close the lid and softly slide it back into the darkness, I will have but one thought...Lest We Forget...
It was a sunny June morning in 1944 the last time Capt. William Greer climbed into the cockpit of his RCAF Hunter, Killer, on a search and destroy mission over the North Atlantic.