But it could be oil or gas, a pipeline, or gold. The approach is familiar and well-practiced: drop in for a show-and-tell, take the measure of community attitudes and concerns. A dialogue usually follows.

The Mackenzie Valley pipeline took 25 years of discussion to get from wish list to reality. Ekati and Diavik needed a decade or more to get going. Commander Resources met several times over the past year with Holman residents and got down to work this week.

The company started test drilling for diamonds with the approval of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Mary Banksland, chair of Holman's hunters and trappers committee, summed up community attitudes: "They're not happy with it."

Benefits so far have been negligible. One resident has a job as an environmental monitor, keeping an eye on Commander while the company goes about its business in the Kagloryuak River and Burns Lake region.

If Commander finds what it's looking for, there will be many more jobs. But that's well in the future. In the meantime, hunters and trappers are worried that the work might disrupt the caribou migration and deprive them of meat, and income from sports hunters.

Bernard Kahlert, Commander's vice-president of exploration, dismissed their concerns. Holman is as far from the exploration action "as London is from Edinburgh," he said.

In the vastness of the North, that's right next door.

Commander has promised to do everything it can to avoid upsetting the caribou. There will be no drilling in the valleys where caribou feed. Exploration will follow the annual migration path, not cut across it.

There are no guarantees in this enterprise, for anyone. Commander is risking investors' capital. That's the nature of their business.

The people of Holman are being asked to risk a way of life. Little wonder that they are concerned.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

This common saying, also meaning "ask and you shall receive," refers to a loud and persistent voice that gets heard, and gets the results it is looking for.

In Gjoa Haven the wheels are squeaking.

It's a perfect expression for them too, because it's the hamlet's road equipment that is giving out and breaking down.

But it's hard to say who is listening to this rumble and crash.

Every community and leader in Nunavut should take note. This is the story of the growth of Nunavut, and how well all levels of government are handling it.

If the government of Nunavut is not providing enough funding to communities like Gjoa Haven for upkeep of their equipment, which they clearly are not, then maybe communities must band together and raise money for new equipment.

Maybe it will take bake sales and bingos.

Maybe if they did that, the hard-won equipment wouldn't get vandalized as much as it does now.

It's hard to say.

No level of government seems to be doing much to help the broken down trucks of Nunavut.

Fed up and frustrated, the mayor of Gjoa Haven, Peter Akkikugnaq, did something drastic. He applied to Atuqtuarvik Corp. in Rankin Inlet for a loan of $1 million to help his community. His heart was in the right place. But it's questionable whether or not Gjoa Haven qualifies as an Inuit-owned business.

The issue of whether Gjoa Haven will get the funding it needs from the corporation is still up in the air.

So is the fate of Nunavut when hamlet leaders cannot do simple roadwork.

Aging equipment is not a sexy, colourful story. It's one of those issues that will go unchecked and unnoticed until a child is killed under the wheels of a faulty machine, or an entire generation of young Nunavummit up and leave their community because it cannot employ them or take care of them and their families anymore.

Is that what it must come to in Nunavut before anything is done to help hamlets?

Let's hope not. Let's hope the mayor's complaints are enough for all three levels of government to get rolling for better funding for road equipment, and further down the road, training for locals in the proper maintenance of their equipment.

We cannot let the wheels of Nunavut just go to rust.

I got the chance to visit Baker Lake last week.

I was impressed by the community's pristine beauty and of course the friendly nature of the people. A friendliness that seems to be a defining characteristic of the Kivalliq.

What I was most impressed with was the growth I saw in Baker.

A new state-of-the-art, $15 million school, new territorial library and most recently the addition of 15 more jobs.

That latest announcement gave the community cause to celebrate and MLA Glenn McLean a reason to thank the government.

In fact, the MLA was so happy that he told the premier he had nothing left to ask for.

A point he told me he received a little flak for later, especially after it was quoted in ink in this newspaper for all to see.

Obviously there is still much work that needs to be done in Baker, as there is in most Nunavut communities.

Housing, employment and other social issues still need to be addressed and where one problem is solved there is likely another to pop up.

But, Baker is fortunate it has a lot of good things happening for it right now and many potential lights for the future.

All that, however, will only be made possible if the Government of Nunavut continues support to community as well as it has to date.

As well, it should look to doing the same for the remaining six Kivalliq communities, which there is evidence of.

This is an election year.

And, there is no better time to ask a government for a favour when there is so little time for the public to forget a negative response before heading to the polls.

Hopefully, the good that has been done will continue into the new term.

Hopefully, the people of the Kivalliq and of Nunavut will begin to see what they deserve: prospering and thriving communities.

All this is possible and I am sure as Premier Paul Okalik sighed relief at McLean's comments, the good MLA was in the process of drawing up a new list.

In October, during the next sitting of the legislative assembly, we will see what that list, along with lists from all the other MLAs, includes.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

It's nice to see the gas company has backed off its summertime gas gouge a bit, but we're still paying about three times what the rest of the world pays for the same product.

Albertans are outraged in paying about $5 per gigajoule and here we are paying $17.50.

I know, I know, you're asking, "What's a gigajoule?" I didn't know either, but found out today that it takes roughly 23 of the little buggers to heat a home in January.

It would be different if IGL had to ship that gas all the way up here like Imperial does with heating fuel, but they don't. It gushes out of the ground here in true Jed Clampett style and all they do is pipe it into our homes.

They throw us this fastball high and inside, to back us off the plate and then come in with a change-up to sucker us into swinging at this next pitch.

Well, I'm not swinging. This gas price has got to be regulated and the gas company fears that more than wind and solar power combined.

When the council of the day approved the cost of gas to be tied to the cost of heating fuel, they might as well have tied it to the price of dodo eggs.

With oil reserves shrinking throughout the world, lunatics, liars and other Americans starting wars, of course the price of oil is going to rise.

There was no foresight; no public consultation. They all looked at natural gas as the saviour when they should have been looking at it like the devil they didn't know.

Without competition the gas company was left to gouge as deep as they wanted. They have the market converted and we're now all at their mercy.

It's nice of them to drop the price a few dollars in time for winter's icy grip, but how long will that last?

As for the NWT Power Corporation's rate hike, I'm about done blaming the bloated office types in Hay River, this is all about our MLAs trying to save their political necks.

The majority screams when "election" is whispered on the wind and if you've ever been to Yellowknife, you know the wind blows hard down there.

Yes, this is an election year and it's time to pay attention voters. It's time to take a good look at the people who represent you and ask some hard questions.

There will be a lot of wind blowing as this election winds up and there will be many shirking and shrugging off the blame about power corp., recorded phone calls, severance packages and conflicts of interest, but it's up to you to determine just how "open and accountable" this 14th Assembly has been.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

Fort Providence resident Agnes Silverthorn has undoubtedly touched on a sensitive issue by confronting rampant drinking and gambling in the community.

The problem peaks during the Mackenzie Daze weekend. Silverthorn's comments are, to a large extent, validated by Chief Berna Landry's shared concern and backed up by RCMP statistics. The police received about seven times as many complaints during the Mackenzie Daze weekend than they do on an average weekend.

There's nothing wrong with friends getting together for a game of cards. There's nothing wrong with having a social beverage, whether it contains alcohol or not.

There is something wrong when a child as young as eight is passed out in a ditch drunk and kids are wandering around at all hours of the night, scared to go home.

It's time the community takes a hard look at this problem.

True democracy

Mayor Tom Wilson has been under attack by some village councillors and some members of the public for voting twice on motions.

To make things clear, Wilson isn't regularly voting twice on every motion. On occasion, when the councillors have voted 3-2 or 4-3 (depending on the number of councillors present), Wilson has cast a tying vote. Then he would cast the tie-breaker. Any way you look at it, that's two votes and the perception isn't good.

So now council is revising its procedures bylaw. However, this bylaw, as it currently reads, goes too far to the other extreme. It would prevent the mayor from voting except to break a tie. That would create a situation where the mayor -- be it Wilson or the next mayor elected in October -- has been put in place democratically, yet the mayor is denied the right to vote on motions. But it's a right that every councillor would retain. Is that just?

Granted, this proposed system isn't unprecedented. As a matter of fact, it's used in Yellowknife and other major centres. But there ought to be a middle ground in there somewhere. Why not allow the mayor to vote once, and once only? If the mayor's vote happens to create a tie, then a tie is commonly considered a defeated motion.

In a small community like Fort Simpson, where there are sometimes only five councillors present to make quorum, giving the mayor a vote could prove beneficial.

Democracy isn't that difficult a concept. Let's not stretch it in either direction.

The two Aurora College residences in Fort Smith which have been closed by the Fire Marshal have a total capacity of 34 students, not 30 each, as was reported last week.