Burn it, bury it -- do what you want with it, but the bottom line is we create too much garbage. And now the city has come up with a plan to deal with it all. It's a nice plan -- hundreds of pages long and ironically packaged and bound in plastic.

What it says makes sense because the city landfill is running out of space and taxpayers face millions of dollars in costs to build a new one in the next six years.

Success of the ambitious plan, which calls for a 40 per cent reduction in the garbage we generate, depends entirely upon everyone doing their part. That means stepping up recycling of everything from tin cans to plastic milk jugs and different kinds of paper. That means the government has to finally adopt a beverage bottle deposit. And it means a city commitment to making it work.

After all, while everyone agrees that recycling and waste reduction are good for the environment, getting people to do that is another matter. Recycling has to be made easy, either through curbside pickup or numerous transfer stations set up throughout the city. People have to be encouraged to compost with subsidized backyard composters and a community compost system set up at the dump.

Hiring a waste reduction co-ordinator, even at a cost of $52,000 a year, is a positive step, because practising the Three Rs (recycle, reduce, reuse) is not as easy as it seems. We have to be coaxed, prodded and educated into it.

And as painful as it seems, we may have to face paying the true cost of our wasteful ways, through dump tipping fees or buying tags for extra bags of garbage.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that everyone, from the public to civic government officials, must continue to press retailers and manufacturers to take responsibility for the waste they create. After all, packaging makes up a third of the garbage that ends up in the dump.

The Niven Lake Trail is one of the city's gems. It's a great place to take the dog for a walk, bird-watch or just enjoy a quiet time among the bulrushes, ducks and occasional muskrat.

It's also the scene of a clever prank that pokes fun at our society's obsession with prohibition. In response to the city's warnings against drinking the lake's water -- a sensible precaution given that the area used to be a sewage pond -- someone has made and posted a series of signs forbidding everything from wake-boarding to trumpeting. (Trumpeting?)

We applaud the spirit of the joke, and the manner in which it was executed. Instead of defacing public property or foliage with sloppy and toxic graffiti, the prankster put some effort into some artistic and elegant signage. Bravo, whoever you are.

The recent donation of books dealing with breast cancer to nine NWT public libraries should prove a most useful contribution for Northern women needing important information about the deadly disease.

The NWT Health/Breast Cancer Action Group has just donated copies of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, and Breast Cancer by Ivo Olivotto, Karen Gelmon and Urve Kuusk. The gift is especially commendable due to the high cancer rates Northerners face.

Here, in a territory, where Northern women have limited access to mammography machines, these books will be vital in ensuring that all Northern women can learn how to catch the signs of cancer early enough to avoid mastectomy and possible death.

Editorial Comment
Malcolm Gorrill
Inuvik Drum

The Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board is raising the alarm about what it calls a housing crunch within town. The board is having trouble attracting people here, due to a dearth of affordable housing.

Citing examples of rising rents, which also serves to encourage current employees to leave town, board official Deborah Mcleod states that while the Inuvik Regional Hospital continues to offer quality care, that could change down the road. As Dr. Braam de Klerk told town council last week, prospective board employees don't want to pay Vancouver rents in Inuvik.

Given the increased oil and gas exploration in the area, perhaps such a housing issue was inevitable, as the housing supply has not been keeping up with increased demand.

Certainly the oil and gas boom, if it comes or is indeed already underway, will be good news for the town and the region. But it must not be forgotten that all residents need to share in the benefits.

If the high cost of housing causes the health board more problems, then all residents will suffer. That is also true regarding other employers in town, who may now or in the future have staffing problems.

Every time someone decides not to seek employment in Inuvik, or leaves town, because they can find more affordable housing in another location, then everyone loses. It's time all parties involved started working on a solution.

Preserving the past

Modern technology is being put to use at the Inuvik Centennial Library to help preserve the past.

Memorial programs (funeral bulletins) are being scanned in to help ensure people from the area are remembered. This also serves a second purpose, in that people can have copies made.

The Curtis Merrill Slide Collection is also being scanned in, helping preserve images taken around the time of Inuvik's birth.

The past belongs to everyone, and yet bits and pieces of it can easily be lost forever. Efforts like those at the library help keep the past alive and accessible to those in modern times, and in the future.

In its own way, the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre is also helping preserve the past. The centre has helped bring about a revised edition of the Siglit dictionary in efforts to preserve the Inuvialuktun language, and get more people speaking it.

Revised editions of the other two dialects are to be done as well.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum, Fort Simpson

Finding out that three out of four retailers in Fort Simpson sold cigarettes to youths on a single occasion doesn't come as much of a shock, but a disappointment nonetheless.

With many cashiers being youths themselves, there is overwhelming peer pressure involved. Adults, on the other hand, should easily be able to put their foot down. They must have a fairly good idea who is under 18 in a small community. If there's any uncertainty, a request for identification is all that's needed.

The fines for committing the crime can be substantial. The retail owners will now be even more aware of that, and it is their responsibility to make sure it's crystal-clear to their employees as well.

Parents can't be let off the hook entirely, either. Whether they are smokers themselves or not, parents must do their best to explain the dangers of smoking to their children. Of course, it's not easy to keep cigarettes out of the hands of 15- or 16-year-olds. Many get them from their older "friends," which is also illegal.

Remember, the GNWT's "Smoke Alarm" report released earlier this year revealed that the smoking rate among youths in the NWT is among the highest in Canada. Sixty per cent of 12- to 14-year-olds in the NWT reported that they have smoked, compared with only 22 per cent nationally. That indicates a real problem.

This was the first time a compliance check was conducted in the village. The next time may come with harsher penalties. Don't let anyone say they weren't forewarned.

Paving the way

We've returned well rested from vacation. The warm greetings of "Welcome home" from the friendly people here are always appreciated.

Immediately noticeable was the progress made along main street in Fort Simpson. The aggravating delays in the road work had become the source of many jokes and cynical remarks over the years, but by the time this is published, a large stretch of 100 Street will have actually been paved. Plenty of other streets in Fort Simpson will remain full of ruts and potholes -- a topic of conversation only surpassed by the weather.

Having driven the crowded highways and city streets in the Vancouver area over the past few weeks, it will be a pleasure to be cruising along the smooth blacktop in Fort Simpson without the chronic stop-and-go traffic and the related choking emissions found in the big cities down south.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

The numbers are already astounding and they just continue to grow.

Professionals in the Nunavut legal system estimate domestic violence has reached the point in our territory where assaults against one's spouse account for almost 60 per cent of the charges laid.

We applaud the efforts to launch Nunavut's first Spousal Abuse Counselling program in Rankin Inlet.

There are many dedicated players who came together behind the scenes to push this program forward -- lawyer Bonnie Tulloch, Community Justice Committee supervisor Valerie Stubbs, Myrna Michon of the Friendship Centre, former manager of Kivalliq Community Mobilization Page Burt, the list goes on.

The reasons behind our shameful rate of domestic violence are nothing new.

Boredom, drugs and alcohol, and too much free time have long been recognized as triggers for frustration and anger, which often lead to spousal abuse.

However, there are still many people who don't fully realize what bubbles beneath the surface of domestic violence and how deeply it can affect family members.

There is much more to spousal abuse than mere physical pain.

Those who abuse often lose their jobs, families lose their homes and children suffer immense emotional and psychological pain -- at school, within a family structure and, finally, within society in general.

There is no excuse for people not to know and understand these hideous ramifications to domestic violence.

Likewise, there are no excuses for those who continue to abuse and, like it or not, there are no valid excuses for those who continue to be abused and repeatedly return, with their children, into the same abusive environment.

However, the worst sin of all when it comes to domestic violence is acceptance by society -- any society!

Hopefully, the pilot project in Rankin Inlet will be successful and help sway the ever-increasing tide of domestic violence in our territory.

It is not enough for us to be simply aware, we must be able to offer help and the spousal abuse counselling program may be the first step in that direction.