Monday, November 20, 2000
Investing in Roads for People and the Economy: A Highway Strategy for the Northwest Territories bears the sort of workman-like title that suggests a straight-ahead, no-nonsense program.
The $1.2 billion plan includes an extension of the Mackenzie Valley Highway and a road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.
But the main objective is the treasure trove of the North Slave Geologic Province that extends in a swath 300 km wide from Yellowknife to the Arctic coast.
An all-weather road is the key to unlocking the riches, as is co-operation between the territorial and federal governments.
The study shows many possible routes, but all pass near the BHP, Lupin and Jericho mines before they head northeast across the Barren Lands to Bathurst Inlet.
Estimated costs for this road to resources range between $385 million and $440 million, or roughly a half million dollars per kilometre. That does not include any money that may be paid in land claims or royalties to First Nations.
North Slave MLA Leon Lafferty was the first to point to a flaw: the proposal doesn't offer anything to 2,000 Northerners living in Dogrib communities near the road to Bathurst Inlet.
Transportation Minister Vince Steen sought protection in a timeworn defense.
The proposal to spend $1.2 billion of taxpayers' money is not based on any firm decisions as to where the new roads will go, the minister told the Legislature.
All that is known is that the roads will connect Yellowknife with diamond mines farther North.
Communities will be consulted, Steen promised.
Why were they not consulted before the plan was made public? Who is calling the shots? Diamond mining interests who may not be here in 20 years, or Northeners?
DIAND needs to plug the leaks at the Cat camp fuel cache and then its own department.
A former DIAND employee says he discovered a spill at the site in the fall of 1999. DIAND's director of operations in Yellowknife says there was no spill but the fuel in the area should have been cleaned up. Then the head of the environmental protection branch says the tanks showed signs of a diesel leak but it was "very minor."
It is also unclear who is liable for clean-up and damage -- DIAND believes it is the Canadian Zinc Corporation's responsibility.
But who takes responsibility for cleaning a spill when it hasn't been decided if there was a spill. No doubt the finger pointing will only begin when disaster strikes.
A big fuel cache at Grainger River is another potential problem. DIAND doesn't know when the site was checked last, but it's on their "to do" list.
Maybe DIAND should add record-keeping to the list.
If the Alliance Party was unable to complete a task as simple and as easy as handing completed nomination papers in on time, we must ask ourselves if we would have wanted them representing us at the federal level.
It is unfortunate that Whale Cove's Agnes Poksiak-Turner missed the deadline and that it came down to one absent signature. But she, or her mentor in the party D'Arcy Barker, should have had the wherewithal to get the necessary paperwork filled out and to the office on time.
The whole fiasco reeks of chaos and disorganization and in Nunavut's infancy, it would be disastrous to have a party capable of such a bungle at the helm.
Made short, the story is simply that we were spared by a mere 34 minutes.
The Kugluktuk search and rescue society must be praised for the persistence they showed when looking for two of their own earlier this month.
The search party was well into day seven of its efforts when brothers John Aviligak and Gordon Ailanak were located walking on the tundra. While many searchers would have started to lose hope, the society kept at their mission and didn't quit until the pair was brought back to safety.
The accomplishment of the brothers must also be mentioned. While they were cold, hungry and exhausted, their drive to stay alive didn't ebb and they made it back to their families.
Because the community struggled together and worked hard, a happy end was achieved.
The harvesters in the NWT are faced with the highest fuel costs in history, but unlike their southern counterparts, our trappers, fishers and farmers are all forced to pay full cost for fuel.
The GNWT has said that due to the limited numbers of producers, instituting a purple gas or tax-free fuel program would not be cost-effective.
As it sits now, young people can't afford to work these industries. Why would they? A paycheque from a pipeline or diamond mine comes a lot easier than toiling out on the land and lakes.
We see enormous subsidies and tax incentives going into non-renewable industry but nothing new for the small producers who don't have the big bucks to lobby the feds and GNWT for a break.
Trapping, fishing and farming are all sustainable industries and long after the oil and gas and the gold and diamonds are gone, our producers could still be producing -- but not without some forward thinking from our government.
The first contact is often the most difficult for union and employer.
Throw in the fact the employer is a new territory faced with financial challenges and you get a recipe for trouble.
Last week, it looked like the worst was near as the union walked out of contract talks and the membership voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike. Now, it looks like the two sides are going to mediation.
That's good. While we respect workers' right to strike, and the government's needs to balance the books, caution is the key word at this time.
Because in the push and pull and hard knocks of negotiation, they must remember who will really be hurt by any job action: the public -- family, friends and neighbours.
The hardwork of Iglulik hamlet employees should be commended.
Six years of cutbacks has finally brought the wheel of fortune full circle for the workers who chose to withstand the immediate hardship in the name of helping to bring the books out of the red.
Mayor Aime Panimera, who has said he won't run for office again, also deserves a round of applause for being able to turn a bad situation around without a mass exodus of disgruntled employees and citizens.
Staff and residents alike can now feel the effects of a surplus just short of a million dollars.