Back then the hot topic was a clause calling for cabs to be no older than five years. Council backed down on that rule, but insisted vehicles older than six years receive a mechanical inspection twice a year.
The residency rule is the latest cause celebre. Newcomer Somba K'e Cabs has asked the city to delete the requirement.
The company called the clause unfair and said it wouldn't stand up to a challenge under the Fair Practices Act. The firm also said it doesn't take six months to learn Yellowknife's streets.
The city can test driver knowledge, Somba K'e says.
Other cab companies want the rule to stay, saying newcomers to the city will give all cabbies a bad name, by overcharging or not being able to find an address.
Despite the longstanding tradition, we wonder why city council wants to regulate cabs at all. But if they must regulate, confine it to licensing and safety inspections.
The market should be allowed to determine the fares and a minimum number of cabs any particular company has.
The biggest absurdity is dictating how long someone has to live here before they can make a living as a cab driver.
Imagine if we had the same requirement for a doctor, dentist or a city clerk.
It's time let go of the urge to regulate to death and at the very least erase the residency rule.
In a competitive market customers will quickly find out who knows the streets and who doesn't, which company provides prompt courteous service and which doesn't.
Last week the NWT Liquor Licensing Board held a public meeting at City Hall to address the issue of drunkenness in licensed establishments. Almost 70 Yellowknifers attended to voice their opinions on one thing or another.
Ideas were tossed back and forth as everyone tried to come up with some way to reduce public intoxication and its spin-off -- crime in the downtown core.
Mayor Gord Van Tighem suggested extending bar hours after last call for alcohol in order to discourage binge drinking and prevent patrons from spilling on to the streets all at once.
We think he just might be on to something here.
The NWT Liquor Act, however, does not regulate a time for last call. It only states that all patrons must be out of the establishment 15 minutes after closing time -- 2 a.m. for most downtown establishments.
Therefore, any bartender could legally serve an already intoxicated (and possibly belligerent) person yet another drink five minutes before he or she is booted out the door.
The Liquor Act should be amended to regulate last call times for all licensed establishments. Cut off liquor sales at 1 a.m.
That will give patrons an hour to sober up, which could result in a decline in drunken violence on the streets.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
While Mayor Lorne Kusugak may say people will vote how they want on the upcoming liquor plebiscite, there is little doubt hamlet council adopting a public no stance will sway a number of voters at the polls.
Liquor is a sensitive subject in the Kivalliq. However, no matter where you stand on the issue, you do get to democratically cast your vote on the issue.The same can not be said for smokers. While council can only adopt a stance on the liquor issue, it is about to unilaterally impose a smoking bylaw.
The bylaw is slated for first and second readings during the Nov. 3 meeting. But, hey, the rest of Canada is doing it, so it must be the right thing to do, right? Maybe. Maybe not.
Just the facts please
Let me state up front both my wife and I smoke, and neither of us would downplay the dangers to your health of doing so -- but, second-hand smoke is a different story.
As a journalist, showing both sides of the story (read balance) is quite important to me.
We won't bother with the fact media outlets are paid large amounts of money to advertise the findings of government-funded studies on second-hand smoke.
However, rarely do we hear studies showing the opposite to be true.
Manipulating numbers
It is scary to hear exposure to second-hand smoke may increase your risk of coronary heart disease by 30 per cent.
However, that impact diminishes when you consider statistical risks smaller than 200 per cent are rarely considered by serious science (second-hand smoke seems to be the exception).
That, coupled with the fact toxicity (poison) is based on the level of dosage, not the length of exposure, casts more shadows on some of the "information" we've been bombarded with.
Two recent studies conspicuous by their absence in the realm of public information are: Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98 (May 19, 2003) and Revisiting the association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and lung cancer risk (May 28, 2002).
Be informed
Again, this opinion is not intended to downplay the risks associated with smoking.
That being said, take the time to read studies on both sides of the fence concerning second-hand smoke.
You may not be politically correct, but you will possess an informed opinion, which, the last time we checked, you are totally within your rights to express.
Both sides on the subject will present the numbers in a manner that suits their purpose.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
With the Peel River ferry shutdown for the season and the Arctic Red River ferry soon to follow, shortly Inuvik will be cut off from the rest of the country.
Nevertheless, this is the modern age and with that comes the modern-day high prices of flown-in milk and other such soon-to-be overpriced staples, or so I'm told.
After arriving in Inuvik two weeks ago, I've been without a home telephone and since then have developed a love affair with the remote control and the fare of dozens of channels to choose from to wile away the hours of my free time. Without contact with the outside world -- certainly, I didn't wish to visit the office on my off-days to use the phone -- I have been left to the devices of the television to keep me posted of the daily events gripping our planet.
(I did visit the library. However, the lure of the cosmic rays emanating from my idiot-box were too much to ignore.)
And so I flicked and flicked, through CNN updates from the Middle East, then to the reality show that wasn't quite a reality show and on through the host of movie channels generating their own versions of revisionist history.
What became apparent in all of my channel surfing was how much Inuvik, despite its remoteness, is very much like the rest of the modern world.
To paraphrase a Neil Young-ism, we've got department stores and toilet paper and styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer... and in the not too distant future, there will be the rumble of heavy equipment, the influx of transient workers and the big dollars of the oil and gas industry at Inuvik's doorstep.
Community consultation packed
On Monday evening, myself and more than 100 other people managed to pull themselves away from the boob-tube, or whatever activity those in attendance usually fill their Monday evenings with, to attend a community consultation hosted by the oil and gas corporations -- soon to be soiling particular areas of the landscape with their "worldscale" gas projects.
Of course they promise to maintain the integrity of the environment whilst constructing huge drilling and refinery complexes within the delicate ecosystem of the Mackenzie Delta. But be sure, these kinds of operations will affect the landscape and they will affect the lives -- for better and worse -- of the people living in their midst.
On one corporation pamphlet, highlighting its commitment to working with the local communities, there are three circles that overlap. The top circle, entitled "Economic Growth", weaves into a "Social Progress" circle and then one labelled "Environmental Protection". At the intersection is perhaps the key word: "Sustainability."
While the oil and gas companies tell us there is 30 years worth of fuel to be harvested from underneath the delta, one must wonder what is so sustainable about a finite resource. Are these industry players going to be investing money in the affected communities to ensure that after the Shells, Conoco Phillips and Imperial Oils of this world have picked up and gone, there will be something left, something sustainable?
These are the questions we as community members should be asking the decision makers of the land and the oil and gas companies. Not only what's in it for us today, but what will be in it for us tomorrow, as well.
If we don't address these issues at the get-go, then the future will be much like your television: a mind-numbing tool with limited potential.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
The Deh Cho First Nations and the federal government are going toe to toe once again.
On the heels of the Deh Cho publicly exposing what they claim is a pipeline land scandal, the federal government cancels a negotiating session.
A mere coincidence? Seems unlikely.
Both sides are ratcheting up the rhetoric and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline -- one of the Deh Cho's favourite leveraging tools -- is a hostage. The Deh Cho are asserting that they don't need the pipeline. On the other side we have the government making veiled threats that a pipeline can be built across Deh Cho lands without the DCFN's approval.
Each side appears to be firmly entrenched in its position. Court battles and a stalled pipeline project could be a reality if someone doesn't find a solution soon.
Having uncovered something that appears suspicious, the Deh Cho should not have been forced to look the other way. They had every right to blow the whistle on what could prove to be a conflict of interest. The fact that the federal official at the centre of this controversy quickly removed himself from the file -- and the fact that an investigation is being launched -- indicates that there is at least potential for something inappropriate to have taken place.
Deh Cho chief negotiator Chris Reid and Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said they attempted to meet with DIAND Minister Robert Nault and his senior officials a few times to discuss their concerns prior to going public, but they claim to have been brushed aside.
Rolling the dice
A federal election may come early next year. That means a new administration and quite likely a new minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. It's always a roll of the dice whether the next government, even though it may still be Liberal, will be as progressive as this past one when it comes to aboriginal self-government.
Over the past few years, several land claims and self-government agreements have been resolved across the country and within the NWT. Robert Nault has been the minister behind a regime that has earned the respect and support of some aboriginal peoples -- the proposed First Nations Governance Act notwithstanding.
The Deh Cho First Nations have been raising the bar in their negotiations. With Nault's approval, they have achieved unprecedented interim agreements to protect lands while working toward a final self-government agreement. They are trying to reach provisional terms for development, too.
So when the next DIAND minister opens the Deh Cho file, will he/she see a problematic region with lawsuits as its means of recourse or will he/she see a supreme negotiating challenge that could be turned into a crowning achievement?
Whatever the answer, the Deh Cho First Nations aren't going away.
In Wednesday's edition of Yellowknifer Marcel Blanchet was incorrectly identified as a former teacher for Conseil Scolaire Francaise. He is actually the former secretary treasurer of the Commission Scolaire Francophone de Division. Yellowknifer regrets the error.