There are municipal bylaws against smoking in public places, making too much noise late at night, and dogs running wild.

These have evolved over time because citizens have demanded their personal spaces be protected, and elected officials have obliged.

So why is it that while a city can control what buildings can be erected and where, it can't control how a development affects neighbours?

Earlier this month, Yellowknife resident Les Rohac complained to city hall when his house was sprayed with mud from work on a foundation next door.

The two sides differ on the facts, but the battle brought out a key point: while the city issues building permits, it does not demand certain measures be taken to avoid disrupting neighbours. Or, as acting manager of inspections Randy Jacobs said, "The building permit does not say 'Thou shall not produce a certain amount of dust.'"

Yellowknife is certainly not alone in this. Most municipalities consider neighbours affected by the byproduct of construction to be a civil matter, falling under the heading of "We can't cover every circumstance."

But this is a cop-out. The city can do something about it, such as one small clause in a building permit that allows officials to stop all construction until a legitimate complaint is resolved. The city controls construction -- it shouldn't be too much to expect it to control the side effects.

Hotels in Yellowknife are having a bad year when it comes to tourists.

Occupancy at the Yellowknife Inn has dropped by up to 50 per cent from last year. The Northern Frontier Visitors Centre is reporting 400 less visitors this June compared to last June.

Studies show since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, some international travel to Canada is on the rise with more people travelling via highways.

But because of our poor highway conditions, it's clear these tourists are not making their way to the land of the midnight sun.

That's a shame. With 60 kilometres left to be paved, the drop in tourism is more proof that until the highway reconstruction is complete, we'll continue to lose out.

Pedestrians making their way near 50th Street and 51st Avenue this week should be relieved things are calming down out there.

Construction crews have been ripping up 49th Avenue for weeks installing new sewer lines.

While we understand that there's little crews can do to minimize the inconvenience -- they have a job to do that happens to be on the doorstep of several storefronts -- there is a real safety issue.

Mixing bulldozers, backhoes, front-end loaders, packers and pedestrians isn't a good idea on the best of days let alone for weeks on end.

Luckily no one's been hurt yet.

Be careful out there, and make sure you know where you are walking.

Editorial Comment
Nathan VanderKlippe
Kivalliq News

If Sakku Arctic intends to keep wiring up the Kivalliq with Internet access, it should take a couple of tips from the pages of NorthwesTel.

This week, the Rankin-based company is blasting NorthwesTel for bringing the Internet to Coral Harbour. Sakku Arctic's General Manager Ryan Butler, has gone so far as to insinuate that NorthwesTel is breaking the rules by fixing up Coral Harbour's phone line to facilitate Internet access in the community through Sympatico. (Sympatico is the brand name for NorthwesTel's Internet access, provided through its parent company, Bell Canada.)

Now, far be it from us to blindly support the bigger guy. The little guy often has plenty to offer, including better service and a better product -- even if it might be a little more expensive. But in this case, Sakku doesn't have a right to sympathy points on either score. The company was going to charge the Coral Harbour Internet Society $2,400 a month for Internet. With Sympatico, the Internet Society had to fork over $25,000 up front -- money they got from the hamlet. Then each resident puts up $24.95 a month.

Crunch the numbers, and you'll find that if Coral can get more than 100 members, they could be in for a deal. So in a larger community, that might not be a scam. But in Coral, where there are still only 30 people signed up after almost half a year of access, that's a pretty hefty sum. The NorthwesTel option is far cheaper. Sympatico is also significantly easier to use. Since February, the Internet Society has basically been able to relax, since NorthwesTel will take care of everything -- billing, maintenance, and the rest. With Sakku, the Internet Society would have had to figure out a way to track their users and then create their own billing system. That's hardly convenient.

But all of this doesn't address one of the more important questions: why are so many communities in the Kivalliq still so far behind in Internet access? In the South, many people are signing up for cable Internet, which is super-fast and not all that expensive. Here, some communities are still dialling long-distance over crackly phone lines to watch Web pages load at a snail's pace. It's no wonder Coral residents are smiling now that Sympatico has arrived. Now, Sakku's promise of high-speed wireless networks shows some hope here. The logic is to skip dial-up modems altogether and head straight for high-speed technology. But timeline for completion is still being measured in years. Sakku says it is committed to wiring up the Kivalliq. If they can do it, more power to them. But if the company drags its feet on getting into the rest of the communities, it shouldn't whine. After all, the customer should come first. This isn't a question of Inuit versus non-Inuit ownership. And it's barely even a question of company size. After all, both NorthwesTel and Sakku have access to deep pockets: NorthwesTel because it's part of a big national phone company; Sakku because it's owned by Sakku Investments, which is owned by the Kivalliq Inuit Association, which ultimately gets its money from Nunavut Tunngavik, Inc. -- hardly a small player.

It's a question of customer service. And in this battle, cost and convenience should be the primary selling points -- not ownership.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

Just when the elders thought they had a place to call their own, democracy reared its ugly head.

Denny Lennie came into last Wednesday's council meeting fully prepared to sing into the wind, but I think he was as surprised as I was when council agreed to halt the building permit on the six-unit elder's facility at the Happy Valley campground.

Now the town is taking the issue to the public -- where it should have been in the first place.

This project has steamrolled ahead at the request of Bertha Allen, some 10 other seniors and a handful of government types behind closed doors.

Granted, Bertha is a respected elder in this community and one of the territory's Wise Women. Her voice has been heard from here to Ottawa; she's an accomplished woman and commands respect.

When Bertha talks politicians listen. Elections happen and any savvy politician knows the power of the senior voters.

All the more reason to leave it to the public, who never got a say in this issue from the beginning.

The Happy Valley campground has been has been paid for by everyone and we all have a stake in what happens there.

There are also the business people who have a big stake in this.

Dennis Zimmerman at Arctic Nature Tours was one of the few who spoke out against this from the beginning.

He knows the value of that chunk of real estate as well as the campers who have filled it to capacity over the past week.

Location, location

I walked around the campground last weekend and saw every site full. I talked with the visitors who stayed there and you'll see a few of their comments in this week's Street Beat. What you won't see there are their comments about closing the campground.

The people who stay there want that campground to stay just like it is. It offers them a beautiful view of the river that they travelled thousands of miles to see, but more importantly, it offers a place to park their RVs and still walk to a restaurant or the grocery store.

Those same amenities are what have attracted Inuvik's seniors to the parcel of land. Living there, the elders could have their independence and still walk to shopping.

But is shopping the most important amenity when you are in your golden years?

Myself, I hate shopping and I'd rather be close to people who could keep my ticker ticking; that's why I think this facility should be built beside the new hospital. There is a spectacular view of the river, the lake and the golf course and you're right beside a brand-new hospital and long-term care facility.

I hope to one day make it to that stage of the game and if I do, I'd much rather be living beside my doctor and my buddies in long term care, than with the group who just staggered up the hill from the liquor store. If you're looking for a seniors facility in any southern city you can start looking at the hospital. That's where they build them, because it makes good sense.

We're all in favour of seeing a seniors centre being built in Inuvik -- that's not an issue, but build it where it will do the most good for the most people -- and above all, give the most people the most say, since they all have a stake in it.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Aiming to save some money, Fort Simpson village council purchased a waste oil burner five years ago. The NWT Power Corporation (NTPC) provided incentive by not only defraying the initial cost for the burner, but it provided the waste oil.

Too good to be true? Apparently so.

The Power Corporation lived up to its end of the bargain, but the village fell short. Whether the village's waste oil burner was in good running order to begin with is up for debate. Regardless, the village compound quickly became a dumping ground for not only waste oil but for various other products, such as glycol and antifreeze, that may have found their way through the burner's filtration system, which certainly wouldn't have helped the matter.

The problem could have been avoided by having the drums of used oil clearly labelled by NTPC and stored within the fenced area surrounding the village garage. Any other barrels discarded at the site should have been traced back to their rightful owner, if possible. If not, the village would have had some tainted waste oil to unload, but at least it would have been kept separate, away from the burner.

That, of course, is hindsight.

Waste oil burners have proven themselves in other places. As a matter of fact, the idea hasn't been forsaken in Fort Simpson. Rowe's Construction has invested in one, and has now assumed the contract with the Power Corporation to take their waste oil.

Owen Rowe, an owner of the construction company, is avoiding any possible contaminated product by having Power Corporation employees empty NTPC's used oil directly into his burner. Rowe said he knows of several waste oil burners that have been operating efficiently in Hay River and Yellowknife for years. If the machine is of good quality and the supplier is trustworthy, then there should be no problem, he said.

Why couldn't it have been that simple for the Village of Fort Simpson?

Artistically inclined

The Open Sky Festival was, for the second year, a successful exhibition of the immense artistic talent here in the Deh Cho. From singers to painters to craft makers, the displays were dazzling.

Although a lack of funds and support is something that many artists lament, there is a glimmer of hope in the territorial government's attempt to create a new arts strategy. If the input of the artists is truly reflected in that strategy -- and if the Cabinet allocates more money -- things should be looking even brighter in the future.

Unfortunately the Open Sky Festival coincided with the opening of the more established Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik this year. The Open Sky strategy of piggy-backing on the Dene National Assembly was likely the cause. While it meant more people were in the Fort Simpson area, it might have also forced some artists to choose between the two festivals. That's a shame. The festivals should be timed to compliment each other, allowing maximum exposure for all deserving artists.