The thought of repairing the polar bear rug in the legislative assembly begs the question: is it time for a switch?

No, not just a change from one polar bear rug to another; rather, it's time for the territory to re-make its symbolic identity.

The weathered and wiped-out old rug is now more symbolic than ever of something that isn't.

It's due for repairs after years of having its snout poked and ears yanked by visiting schoolchildren.

But instead of growling to have the old boy fixed up, why aren't politicians who have staring contests with the bear every day taking aim at something much bigger - - like, say, choosing a more representative symbol for the territory?

Ask any Dene, or anyone who truly understands the NWT, which animal is identified with the history and people of this land and they will say caribou.

To this day the herds are critical to the well-being of the land, and to ignore their significance is an oversight of wild proportions.

The only explanation for why a bear still decorates our licence plates, the museum, the airport and even the floor of our government is image.

Let's face it, when it comes to marketability, bears offer shock and awe that caribou don't.

Predators do make better vehicles than prey, after all.

But how much longer should we flex muscles we just don't have?

Hop in a plane and you'll get the picture.

Hundreds of thousands of caribou are pretty hard to ignore, yet symbolically, we're still doing it.

Before April 1, 1999, the NWT had an argument for bears, considering how many roamed Canada's eastern Arctic.

But Canada's eastern arctic has a new name -- Nunavut -- and a new government, and at last check the bears weren't defecting westward out of loyalty to the NWT.

If we want to keep Southerners believing polar bears abound here, we should keep our stuffed goliaths and three-legged logos everywhere our marketing materials go.

But that means we'll also have to keep explaining to new arrivals that our government is responsible for the North's biggest false advertising campaign.

Let's stop pulling wool -- and a good first step would be to pull the polar bear off the floor of the assembly.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

The government of Nunavut is quickly becoming a ship without a rudder, with no clear direction for developing Nunavut.

In fact, the GN is becoming a reactive government in its worst possible sense.

This change of direction away from long-term educational gain is alarming.

The terms "government reform" and "a unique style of governing for Nunavut" are beginning to translate into lowering standards across the board for now and the foreseeable future.

The implementation of a new Education Act has become a bad joke, blasted by the Inuktitut, English and French population alike.

While the inclusion of Inuktitut as a primary language of instruction is a must, recent talks of lowering academic standards to increase our number of graduates is a giant step backwards.

Pre-trades training in high school, by itself, is not an idea totally without merit.

However, moving it in behind math and science as a major subject towards graduation just doesn't make sense when it's all ready available in various learning institutes across Nunavut.

And, as valuable a vocation (for the truly talented) that wall hanging, carving and sewing are, to make them accredited courses towards earning a high school diploma is just one more step towards lowering the education bar.

Tie this all into the GN's recent decision to revamp (read lower) its standards for about 800 government jobs and it reeks of the quick fix approach to governing.

Minister of Human Resources Peter Kilabuk is bending to the pressure of the Land Claims Agreement by, in a nutshell, lowering the standards of these jobs to make them easier for Inuit to obtain.

This decision, mind you, comes from a government that can't get its financial reporting into the feds on time now, even when more than $30 million coming from federal coffers into Nunavut is just sitting there for the taking.

Lest we forget, Kilabuk is also our Education minister.

Ask any 20 young students in your community what they want to be when they grow up and the majority of the answers are still to drive a hamlet truck or work for the Nunavut Government.

If nothing else, at least Kilabuk is making their goals easier to obtain.

And, he's making sure not to show any favouritism by doing his best to even up the qualifications for both.

Don't be confused here. These are NOT decisions based on distinct cultural differences.

These are decisions being made by a government that no longer believes its people can work towards reaching the bar, so the bar must be lowered.

A move in this direction will do nothing more than inflate numbers and create the illusion of accomplishment.

True accomplishment must be earned, not given away!

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

Here we go back into the fray over the rising costs of living in the North.

The latest rate application from NTPC was, at best, a Band-Aid solution to a problem that's easily solved -- unless you're an elected official.

The blatant pandering of our government over this issue is so hypocritical and would be laughable it were in any other democracy but here.

How is it that the GNWT can rant and rave about special considerations for Northern health care and turn around and eat their own when it comes to a fair energy cost?

Last month, Kakfwi and his Northern counterparts turned their backs on what was offered by the feds on health care, because of the high cost of delivering care up here.

But when the small communities ask for the same consideration on electricity, our government turned its back on us.

The firing of the power corp's board of directors was something akin to third world politics that still has me reeling. The board was doing what was right for the territory and what they were told to do by the minister, but when he remembered it was an election year, he pulled the plug.

A level rate is the only fair thing for the territory, but it won't happen, because the minister responsible -- Joe Handley -- is a Yellowknife MLA.

To level rates in the territory would mean raising the rates in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and some points in between. It would also mean political suicide for all those MLAs.

While we all paid for the cheap power those people are enjoying, at the Snare and Talston hydro dams, only those residents get the cheap rates.

Not fair, you may say. Forget fair -- this is isn't about fair, this is about politics.

When cabinet fired the board last year, they did so to save their political butts at the expense of all of us and all the other folks who don't live on the hydro grid.

The CRTC can allow NorthwesTel a subsidy to provide reasonable long distance rates to remote communities, the federal government can pay higher health-care transfers for the same reason, surely the GNWT can realize the same logic applies to electricity.

To think otherwise is hypocritical.

I'd like to hope the Public Utilities Board has enough pull to rule against the political prodding of our government, but I'm not that naive.

These are the pratfalls of Crown corporations that have been learned and re-learned by governments down through the ages, but ours is having a hard time learning the lesson.

Call and write your MLA, attend the PUB meetings and let the wags in Yellowknife know that we count for something here too and we will remember this at the ballot box in November.

Smoke and mirrors

I was a bit surprised to see town council bend on the amendment to the smoking bylaw last week and I sense that they will bend again next week too.

The smoking bylaw came about as a protection issue to keep children away from secondhand smoke, but the bylaw goes further than that.

To say the town can order what goes on inside private clubs, is a bit far-fetched and more than a little domineering.

If I open Terry's Black Lung Club tomorrow, myself and my membership will decide what goes on inside that building because that is our freedom of association.

Town council may be able to regulate the curling club, because it owns the building, but if I held that lease I would look at the fine print.

If the club leased a smoking building, that building should remain that way until that lease expires.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

By all expectations, one enormous pipeline project is going to be a reality within the next few years. So it's no coincidence that in recent weeks there have been calls and pleas in the Deh Cho for badly needed preparations.

Last week's social development conference was a case in point. The consensus among the delegates was that a concerted regional effort is needed to address the anticipated impacts from a pipeline -- not just First Nations, not just Metis Locals, not just municipalities, not just businesses, not just government departments, not just federal offices, but all of them together.

As it stands, each of these entities is plotting its own pipeline strategy. Some of the groups have done thorough groundwork, others have only scratched the surface.

As the delegates at last week's social development forum advocated, it is possible to marshal the stakeholders and get a better grasp of the bigger picture. It is possible to arrive at some common goals in the best interest of the Deh Cho region and its people.

No, it's not realistic to think that everyone in the region will be on board. Not every group will agree on every issue or every principle. But by bringing the stakeholders together we will at least find out where those differences lie and what, if anything, can be done about them.

There's too much at stake to let time fritter away, to allow fragmented political bodies to vie for small scraps from the larger pie, to see local governments tripping over themselves in a last-minute scramble.

A co-ordinated approach that would bring the greatest benefits to the greatest number of people isn't yet out of the question.

But we must act very soon.

The First Nations seeking compensation from Paramount Resources Ltd. have no clear parameters for determining a fair deal. The oil and gas company was entrenched in the Cameron Hills prior to the Deh Cho First Nations' Interim Measures Agreement and, of course, the Interim Resource Development

Agreement due to be signed on April 17.

Therefore the parties have to improvise.

Paramount, in its own long-term corporate interest, should not be too tight-fisted with the First Nations. The company, in all likelihood, will want the best possible relationship with First Nations to improve its chances of working elsewhere within the Deh Cho in the future.

On the other hand, the First Nations, at least when it comes to accusations of disturbing the land and wildlife, should have solid proof that changes in the ecology are linked to Paramount's activities and not caused by other factors.

Remember to set your clocks ahead one hour when you retire on Saturday evening. Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) officially begins on Sunday at 2 a.m., bringing us brighter evenings.