Will it take job action by Stanton staff before the health minister produces a proper pay and benefits package, one that attracts and keeps nurses and doctors in the North?

Walking off the job in the summer of 2001 was how Nova Scotia nurses got fair compensation for their service.

During that strike the community supported the demands of the nurses. The public understood the staff was overworked, underpaid and burning out. But this was lost on politicians who had the power but not the presence of mind to change the situation long before the illegal strike.

Our health minister, Michael Miltenberger, is also lost when it comes to fixing what ails Stanton staff.

He has only offered band-aid solutions and empty promises that he is working on a recruitment and retention package.

But we don't believe he's on top of the situation. He's failed to meet his own deadlines to deliver a solution.

The recruitment and retention package for our nurses lapsed in March. The minister said he was working on it, and would announce his plan Sept. 20. That date passed without a whisper from him.

Last night, the minister sat through a health board meeting and again failed to offer any solution as doctors, nurses, and the public repeatedly told him he needs to do something now.

Miltenberger says he's having a hard time finding money.

He had better find a big bag of it soon because bad morale is spreading throughout hospital floors like a virus.

The intensive care unit was shut down in June due to a lack of staff. Obstetrics is teetering on closure and now they cannot find enough staff to adequately run the operating room.

But those problems go back much further. The surgery ward closed as scheduled from June to September 2000 to save money. But re-opening was delayed for more savings. When they tried to open the ward in October 2000, there wasn't enough staff. Adequate staff was not found until September 2001.

Employee morale was going downhill then and now it's in the toilet. These are people who spend their lives fixing other people's problems and they have no one to fix theirs.

An angry public was credited for pushing administration to re-open the surgery ward in 2000.

It's time for Miltenberger to start hearing those same voices at his office, at his home, on the street, at the grocery store -- even in his sleep.

His response to the Stanton crisis, already long delayed, had better be fast and furious.

Otherwise, Premier Stephen Kakfwi and the rest of cabinet must admit Miltenberger's in over his head and replace him.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

There is a voice trying to make itself heard in the Kivalliq and across Nunavut.

It is a voice of pain, but it is also one of awareness, and it is speaking up on the topic of suicide.

This is a voice which has been kept silent for far too long.

While suicide is, has, and always will be a sensitive subject as long as some among us choose to take their own lives -- the past has shown us trying to deal with the problem in whispered cries behind closed doors is not the answer.

We salute the organizers of the Suicide Prevention Hike in Coral Harbour for having the courage to bring suicide to the forefront of territorial discussions.

Coral has suffered greatly during the past two years due to needless deaths in the community and they are not alone.

Suicide has affected most of us at one time or another.

While it's true the more well-known the individual, the larger the media headlines when this tragedy strikes -- the pain felt by all left behind to wonder why is no less severe.

More effort has to be put into making those who find it difficult to cope more aware of the help available to them in our territory.

Simultaneously, as difficult as it is, those stricken by the pain of a lost loved one have to speak out in order to show the devastation suicide leaves in its wake.

Maybe, just maybe, the more those on the edge are made aware of the pain this desperate act inflicts on the people who loved them most -- the more likely they may be to seek help as an alternative to taking their own lives.

We also applaud the efforts of Hockey Nunavut in trying to use the February telecast of Hockey Day in Canada, which will originate out of Iqaluit, to draw more attention to this social problem.

Every voice willing to speak out helps show Nunavummiut, especially our youth, that no situation is bad enough that it cannot be overcome.

And, should that voice come from someone as famous as Don Cherry -- looked upon by millions of youth in our country as a man who tells it like it is -- the louder the message will ring.

The silence must be broken, and the taboo label removed, if we are to curb this senseless loss of life once and for all.

There are few among us who would not do whatever they could to aid a plea for help.

But first that plea must be heard.

Editorial Comment
John Barker
Inuvik Drum

Inuvik lives for me as a kaleidoscope of snapshots. One of the most vivid that will resonate with me for a long, long time is standing on the shore of the mighty Mackenzie River last Saturday morning, watching a flotilla of small boats head out in miserable weather for Aklavik.

The Gwich'in and Inuvialuit were gathering to bury three of their own: Doug Irish, Larry Semmler and Charlie Meyook. Northerners, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, look after their own.

Hundreds of Gwich'in, Inuvialuit and non-aboriginals travelled by river and by air from Inuvik, from McPherson, from Tsiigehtchic, from the Yukon, from Alaska and from the South for the funerals at All Saints Anglican Church in Aklavik, on the site of the original Anglican Cathedral of the Arctic. The women volunteered to cook the community feast; the men hunted caribou and dug graves, all giving aid and comfort to their brothers and sister in Aklavik.

By the time you read these words, I will have hopped a jet plane and be back doing my usual job as a news editor in our main newsroom in Yellowknife after spending six weeks on the Mackenzie Delta. Five of those weeks were spent working as a reporter and photographer in our News/North bureau here, while the last week has been spent as the acting editor of the Inuvik Drum.

This is a vast and open land, where two of the highest virtues practised are tolerance and respect. I witnessed many examples of both, but the two that come readily to mind occurred on difficult and controversial stories.

My first assignment here was to fly into Tuktoyaktuk for a story involving allegations of police brutality by some officers from the hamlet's RCMP detachment. A number of things struck me. Taking off one's footwear at the hamlet council meeting as a sign of respect (and practicality to keep the floors free of Delta mud), which is also common here in Inuvik.

Nobody tried to "spin" me on the story. The alleged victim and his wife invited me into their home for tea. One of the accused Mounties, knowing this wasn't going to be a good news story, still managed to chat graciously with me later at the airport. Mayor Eddie Dillon, in some ways the man in the middle, offered me a ride to the airport in his pickup with his daughter and grandchildren after the meeting.

I would have a similar experience my last week in Inuvik, covering a joint meeting of the Inuvik Indian Band and Nihtat Gwich'in Council in the wake of critical press coverage by Inuvik Drum of their postponed election. Again, no one tried to "spin" me on the story. No one went behind closed doors. No one asked the press to leave or gave us the cold shoulder.

Chief James Firth, who has shouldered much of the criticism, candidly admitted, "There was a big mistake made. We're here to do it right ... blame me or whatever ... we buggered it up. Let's do it right."

Firth also noted the council's process, while flawed at times, was at least "transparent."

Indeed. There's many lessons, many virtues, practised here that would do well to be practised everywhere.

Mahsi Cho, Inuvik.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

The Liidlii Kue First Nation's announcement that it is becoming more pro-development, or industry friendly, should not come as a complete surprise.

The band's position is not a departure from statements that Chief Rita Cli has made over the past few years. Although the LKFN, like the Deh Cho First Nations, has been accused of being "anti-development" by some, Cli has repeatedly declared that the LKFN is not opposed to development, but wants to be in control of development.

Granted, an argument could be made that Cli's words are nothing more than rhetoric. To this point there has been little action to substantiate that the LKFN is truly engaging industry. There was a "close call" last October when the LKFN proclaimed that it was ready to sign the Aboriginal Pipeline Group's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a Mackenzie Valley pipeline, as the Acho Dene Koe First Nation in Fort Liard had already done. The Fort Simpson band had polled its membership and found the majority were in favour of endorsing the MOU.

That announcement sent shockwaves rippling through the Deh Cho. However, the LKFN delayed signing and, after a consultant condemned the MOU, the band reconsidered.

Regardless, Cli has been one of the most vocal leaders in favour of creating a Deh Cho Economic Corporation, which is now close to becoming a reality.

"We've got the interim measures and all these things in place, now get on with business. You can't be afraid, you've got to go forward," Cli said at a regional economic development conference a year ago.

The Mackenzie Delta Producers Group expects to spend close to $250 million in its pipeline "project definition" phase, involving community consultations and preliminary studies. Who wouldn't want a share of that?

The LKFN's membership comprises business-minded individuals and those who are enticed by the prospect of high-paying jobs. On the other hand, there are those who are skeptical of development at this point and want more agreements in place before it proceeds. Therefore band council has been trying to manage the tug of war between both sides while not overlooking the Deh Cho Process.

There are pipeline and non-pipeline related opportunities for all First Nations to harness if they choose. It can be done without forcing the Deh Cho's hand at the negotiating table.

The conflict, at this point, arises over a proposed river seismic program. It's an issue that rouses emotion in Deh Cho assistant negotiator Herb Norwegian's voice. Based on years of working with chiefs and harvesters, he's dead set against the project. Yet the Liidlii Kue First Nation is conditionally in favour of it.

Hopefully this isn't an early indication of the divisiveness development could create in the Deh Cho.