Wednesday, June 13, 2001
"Community policing" is the big thing in law enforcement.
To us that means getting officers out of their cruisers and into the community. Police in Yellowknife are now able to take a big step forward, thanks to resumption of downtown foot patrols during the summer.
This is a high-profile way to prevent crime, but it does a lot more.
By having police on the street on a regular basis, people frequenting downtown will get to know the cops on a more personal level. They'll see the human side of policing, the smiling cop who will stop and chat about the best place to have coffee or remark about the great weather or bad bugs.
It's community policing at its best and we hope the detachment continues to view foot patrols as a priority every summer.
Anyone who regularly takes a dog for a walk on the city's trails knows that far too few glass bottles find their way to their proper destinations. Instead they lie shattered in countless pieces on Twin Pine Hill and around the Frame or Niven Lake trails.
Gary Tait's honorable effort to draw attention to the problem by organizing a cleanup brigade can only take us so far, however. If we want to make sure more bottles are properly discarded or, better yet, recycled, then the city and territorial governments will have to come up with a comprehensive strategy.
Fortunately, the NWT's Environmental Protection Service is trying to do just that. Under a proposal now making the rounds, the price of all beverage containers, glass or plastic, would include a deposit of between 15 and 35 cents, depending on the size. The proposed refund is 10 and 25 cents, with the difference paying for handling the returns.
As its stands now, the only deposit programs in operation in our neck of the woods involve liquor, wine and beer bottles, but they obviously aren't working, and there are no laws governing them. Just ask the dog-owners spending hundreds of dollars a year on the veterinary bills that come with slashed paws. Or the parents who refuse to let children near playgrounds littered with broken liquor and beer bottles.
A week ago it seemed like it would never get here.
Now that the sun has arrived, Yellowknifers have abandoned all caution. Without thought for ozone layer depletion or clouds of marauding insects, they bare hectares of skin that has not been touched by the sun since last August.
Gardeners fret over their tender seedlings, coddling and coaxing bedding plants with water and fertilizer, hoping that the last fatal frost has truly passed.
There is a sudden run on camping supplies and fishing tackle. The boat ramps in Old Town are choked as Yellowknifers take to the lake in an armada of kayaks, canoes, fishing skiffs and party boats.
As solstice approaches, the confused warble of the dawn chorus fills the twilight time as brief and surreal as a Northern summer.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Well, valued readers, by the time you're reading this I will already have my feet up and be resting comfortably on vacation. Don't be alarmed, however, you won't find a Gone Fishin' sign in the window of Kivalliq News.
I will be leaving the newspaper in the capable hands of Northern News Services reporter Jorge Barrera for the next five weeks. I'm confident he will grow to appreciate Rankin Inlet and the entire Kivalliq region as much as my family and I have.
To be totally honest (even a bit weird, some might say), I'm almost a little leery about going on vacation right now with so many exciting events about to happen in the Kivalliq. (Almost, not but quite.)
Kivalliq Inuit Association reps travel to Wager Bay this week to sign off on the final agreement to create a brand new park at Wager Bay. Once the park is in full operation, I expect local hamlet councils and Nunavut Tourism will have numerous effective ideas in place to see a number of Kivalliq hamlets benefit economically from the park's creation.
Concert ahoy
I'm spending the first couple of weeks of my vacation right here at home in Rankin, so I won't miss out on any Jammin' on the Bay music festival developments.
A definite buzz has been created by the festival, which promises to be a huge economic boom to our region, showcase a number of our own fine artists and promote Inuit culture to the rest of Canada.
We here at Kivalliq News sincerely hope Quassa's vision for the festival reaches fruition and Jammin' on the Bay is so successful it becomes an annual event.
Good choice
As I mentioned to a representative from Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) when interviewing him, they would have to look long and hard to find a more deserving recipient of their inaugural award for teaching excellence than Donald Clark.
The Alaittuq High principal is as revered by many of his students away from the school as he is in the classroom.
Clark is known far and wide for his efforts in hockey rinks across the North and encourages students at every opportunity to be actively involved in sports and other extracurricular pastimes to expand their horizons.
Clark's refusal to accept anything less than a person's best effort, both in the classroom and on the playing field, is one of his strongest attributes and one worthy of the award he has received.
We'll see you next month, folks. Enjoy your summer. I know I'm going to.
Editorial Comment
Malcolm Gorrill
Inuvik Drum
Last week parents were registering their tots for Kindergarten for the upcoming school year.
Meanwhile, last Friday graduation exercises were held at Samuel Hearne school.
Obviously, students don't just enter the school system one day and graduate the next. They have to start somewhere, and Kindergarten and Grade 1 are important first steps.
That point was driven home during the graduation by James Anderson, director of the Beaufort Delta Education Council. Anderson told those assembled that he was principal at Sir Alexander Mackenzie school in 1988, and that nine members of that year's Kindergarten class were on stage with him, receiving their high school diplomas.
It's worth thinking about all the adventures those nine had from their days in Kindergarten up to and including last Friday. The math problems in class, the homework (done and not done), the schoolyard games, friendships made and crushes felt -- school life is full of triumphs and pratfalls.
Plus, imagine all the teachers who helped those nine along, by giving and repeating instructions and advice, wiping noses, and just being there when needed.
Ditto for all those volunteers who supplied cookies, or rides, and any other valuable help.
Let's not forget the administrators who hire the teachers, address parents' concerns and do a hundred other necessary tasks. As it happened, the Beaufort Delta Education Council held a regular council meeting last weekend.
Those nine (plus the other graduands) made it onto the stage last Friday due to skill and hard work, but it must not be forgotten that they had a lot of help along the way.
This was touched upon by the valedictorian. Kristine McLeod thanked all the parents for making the graduands get out of bed on school days. She also noted that while teachers sometimes asked a lot from them, it was because they knew they are capable of great things.
Cleaning up
Speaking of great things, lots of people have been busy cleaning up litter around town as part of community beautification efforts.
It's certainly a worthwhile project, because while it's nice to see the snow melt, it's not so nice for residents or tourists to see bottles and other trash scattered all over the place.
Of course, these efforts will need to continue to truly be effective. Plus those who are tempted to litter will need to change their ways and put their garbage where it belongs -- in cans and bins, out of sight.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum, Fort Simpson
In this week's story regarding the next steps in self-government negotiations, DCFN chief negotiator Chris Reid suggests that First Nations are welcome to begin conducting seismic tests for petroleum deposits on their own lands if they so choose. Why then did Nahanni Butte receive such a cold reception when its leaders proposed a seismic project with Arcis Corporation?
The answer to that question, according to Reid, is that Nahanni Butte's joint-venture partners were giving the impression that they were moving quickly towards opening the lands to exploratory drilling, a process known as a "rights issuance."
Indeed, Bill Beaton, of Northern Projects Incorporated, had said during a public meeting in April that without a promise of a rights issuance, the Nahanni Butte seismic project would likely draw little or no interest from oil and gas companies. Those companies are inclined to pay for seismic data only in areas that they can bid upon to explore, not areas to which they can't have access.
The suggestion of a rights issuance was what had the DCFN concerned, Reid said. Other First Nations who share traditional lands with Nahanni Butte are worried about the affects of oil and gas development on their territory, he said.
It should be noted, too, that Nahanni Butte chief Leon Konisenta told his fellow leaders at DCFN leadership meetings last week that his community is not yet willing to open its lands to drilling, only to seismic activity.
Underwater mystery
The declining pickerel stocks in Kakisa Lake and Tathlina Lake, in particular, are cause for concern. The loss of commercial fisheries has been well-documented on Canada's East Coast, but the circumstances seem to differ so much from a couple of remote lakes in the Northwest Territories. Yet the levels of fish have fallen in both places.
The 20,000-kilogram quota for Kakisa Lake has existed for nearly 20 years with little in the way of adverse effects, according to fisheries biologist George Low. Nevertheless, stocks appear to have dropped to some degree.
In Tathlina Lake, a commercial fishery involving fishermen from outside communities had existed in the 1950s. A practice known as "pulse fishing" used to be employed, in which the lake was fished heavily for two years and then allowed to recover for four years. Later, a 20,000-kilogram annual limit was set, with Kakisa residents getting first priority, but it now seems that quota is too high. Of note, chief Lloyd Chicot said there has been additional fishing taking place that hasn't been applied toward the quota, but nobody knows how much extra fish have been taken. Let's hope measures taken to correct the situation prevent the seasonal livelihood from being lost forever.