Friday, January 28, 2000
One of the mainstays of a growing Northern economy is resource exploration.
That takes big money and, according to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, that's where the problem lies. Junior mining companies need cash.
That's why the association is proposing that the federal government revisit the idea of flow-through shares, where the investor takes the tax benefit of an unprofitable venture.
Junior exploration companies spend a lot of money before they show a profit. With the premium that the association is advocating, investors could take the writedown for themselves. The idea is to encourage investment.
An idea that fosters investment in the Northern economy is worthy of serious examination, and we like this one.
Caribou Carnival is about celebrating all that's good in Yellowknife.
Planning is now under way for the annual festival's 46th edition, and organizers want to make sure it's the best yet. To fulfil that goal, however, they need help.
The carnival is a community celebration, and that means the community must be involved. That means volunteering, whether it be for three hours or three months.
And experience is not required. All you need is a healthy dose of enthusiasm and a desire to make the event a success. In fact, it's better if you haven't helped before because new people brings new energy and ideas that can pay off in new events in future years.
So give the carnival office a call and say you want to help. You won't regret it.
John Earl McPhee is one Yellowknife teenager that is proving a little endurance can go a long way.
McPhee, a swimmer with the Yellowknife Polar Bear Club, clocked in a time of 30.82 in the 50-metre butterfly and 1:19 in the 100-metre breast stroke at the recent swimming trials.
Add these impressive times to the A time he also achieved in his 200-metre butterfly -- it took him all of 2:40 to finish -- that earned him the lead spot on the team set to compete at the Alberta A Provincial championships in Edmonton next week.
Not only will McPhee and his teammates be competing regionally in Alberta, but they will be also trying out for the junior national and national teams.
Stay tuned. Something tells us we haven't heard the last of this athlete.
You have to commend the savvy shown by Alternatives North last week with their discount fund-raiser held to counter the lavish one held by the Western Arctic Liberal Association.
At $15 dollars a plate $430 was raised for the Yellowknife Food Bank.
Liberal diners paid $150 a plate. From each ticket, $30 paid for the dinner, and the rest -- a whopping total of $32,000 -- was deposited into party coffers.
Granted, political parties need a lot of money to run their campaigns, but could you imagine what the food bank could do with that kind of money?
But then again, would people pay $150 a plate to attend a fund-raiser for the food bank?
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
The price tag continues to go up on the Nunavut government's original platform of bringing the government closer to the people.
That price continued to soar this past week with Finance Minister Kelvin Ng's announcement he was pushing back his schedule for the preparation of Nunavut's 2000-2001 budget.
The delay means, in all probability, the final budget won't be tabled in the legislative assembly until late March.
Like their counterparts across the territory, Kivalliq MLAs will have precious little say in departmental draft budget figures when they see them sometime next month.
With the time-line pressure the delay will put on having the budget approved, and MLAs worrying about such things as barge orders, the writing is pretty much on the wall this is going to be a take-it-or-leave-it budget.
What you won't hear any MLA admit publicly, is that many of them felt the community consultations were too ill-timed to make any noticeable difference for the next fiscal year.
In short, the price of a stalled budget was way too high for the relatively small benefit these community consultations may provide.
There could be an argument made the consultations and budget delay are a way of providing another ready-made excuse for any shortcomings in Ng's new budget.
While the finance minister was quick to accept plaudits for a balanced budget, when dealing with criticism he was also quick to point out there were many finger prints on the first territorial budget left behind by an outgoing government.
This time around, we could well be in for a stream of 'we did the best we could within the short time frame caused by the consultations' rhetoric in explaining weak areas in the upcoming budget.
The budget delay also took a good deal of the wallop out of the upcoming legislative assembly sitting in Rankin Inlet.
While some MLAs refer to the Business Incentive Policy and pre-discussions on the Education Act as hot topics to be discussed in Rankin, more are wondering what they will be filling their time with for two weeks.
The truth of the matter is, with the high visibility of the Rankin session and the delay in the budget, there were a number of Baffin and Kitikmeot members who let it be known behind closed doors they would rather be anywhere than Rankin next month.
Despite losing much of its political clout due to the budget delay, the February sitting will provide networking opportunities and give Kivalliq residents a first-hand look at the assembly in action.
It will also provide the opportunity for many organizations to lobby their MLAs on a one-to-one basis.
And, it will be interesting to see how the members handle actually being this close to the people in a formal setting.
Especially those in their own political backyard.