City council is taking the sensible route to regulate escort services in Yellowknife by moving to prohibit them as home-based businesses, but not trying to ban them outright.

Council Monday night gave unanimous approval to first and second reading of an amendment to the city's zoning bylaw which prohibits operating "a dating or escort service" as a home-based business. The bylaw is likely to be back before council in a couple of weeks for third reading and final approval.

Clearly, the amendment is aimed at keeping escort services out of residential neighbourhoods and was spawned by Angie Fehr's attempt last November to establish such an operation on 51st Street.

In the end, after a public outcry, the city's development appeal board quashed Fehr's application on a technicality: according to the development permit application, a home-based business owner must reside on the premises and the 61-year-old Fehr lives in Thunder Bay, Ont.

But, all in all, the Fehr episode was more a stroke of good luck than good planning. If Fehr had lived in Yellowknife, presumably she'd be operating her 51st Street escort service today across from a day care centre.

In April, some members of city council in full moral panic mode, including Mayor Gord Van Tighem, mused publicly about trying to ban escort services outright from Yellowknife.

The mayor said at the time his "inclination is not to allow it ... If it's strongly the will of the community that a certain industry not be here, and if legislating is the way to do it, then let's do it and get it over with."

Bad idea. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled quite clearly in 1985 that only the federal government has the right to legislate in the area of public morals. Municipalities may not use zoning or other bylaws to do that, the court said in quashing such a bylaw.

What is legitimate is the route Yellowknife appears poised to choose: using a bylaw as a lawful planning tool to require escort services to operate in a commercial setting, rather than as a home-based business.

After almost two months walking the picket line, 380 NorthwesTel employees, members of Local 1574 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), return to work today.

Over the weekend, 74 per cent of the IBEW members voted to ratify a deal hammered out with the company last Friday that gives them a 12 per cent raise, plus bonuses, over three years.

NorthwesTel, owned by Bell Canada of Montreal, provides telephone service to 110,000 customers in Northern British Columbia, the Yukon, NWT and Nunavut.

NorthwesTel management spokesperson Anne Kennedy Grainger says the lengthy first strike, which began May 27, affected the company financially and stretched their resources.

Indeed.

Ditto for the IBEW members who struck without strike pay.

But at the end of the day the strike was an example of an adversarial labour relations system that worked, producing a fair and equitable agreement both sides say they can live with.

Editorial Comment
Nathan VanderKlippe
Kivalliq News

Rage, grief, despair and horrible, throat-constricting sadness are necessary successors to life unnaturally ended. These are the most human of responses to tragedy, the sorrowed cries of hearts rent apart. And the deaths in the Avataq, awful and unexpected, were tragedy writ large.

But for those who grieve, somehow sorrow slowly begins to erode into sad acceptance. And when it does, a nagging desire begins to burn: can this death mean something? Can some sweetness be salvaged from the pervading bitterness of life passing?

The question cannot be answered easily, and the response cannot begin to measure any of death's offspring as compensation for it.

Yet the question persists. Can the deaths of four men in the waters of Hudson Bay somehow spur the living into greater action?

Soon after the Avataq sank, governments and departments across the country shifted gears on safety. Transport Canada hired more staff and moved its northern office to Winnipeg. The federal and territorial governments co-ordinated efforts to produce more marine safety publications in Inuktitut. Efforts are now being made to present more weather information in Inuktitut.

All of these are important and necessary steps. But they are not enough. Transport Canada still only comes to Nunavut when called on.

This sort of policy would seem silly in other areas. Who would place much faith in a health inspector who scrutinized restaurant kitchens only when requested?

The answer is clear, and Transport Canada needs to make random inspections part of its mandate in inspecting marine vessels in the Nunavut.

Yet reliance on government can only extend so far. The eye of the state is blinkered by distance and cost.

In matters of safety, personal responsibility can never be overlooked. The Avataq drew attention to marine safety in the Kivalliq, but dedication to safety of all sorts is crucial in a region where the natural elements are unpredictable and deadly. That means responsibility for safety lies directly on the shoulders of individuals, not simply the government.

Changes in policies, emergency measures and inspections can never begin to make a death worthwhile. But perhaps they can give those deaths some meaning. And perhaps, in the cruel sort of ways, they can give to the dead some purpose fulfilled in their dying.

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.