Ice goes out, shacks go down and danger goes up: Up for boaters by way of partially submerged hazards... Up for fish thanks to the potential for pollution... And soon, finally, up for the sloppy fishermen, too, by way of federally imposed penalties.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is working toward regulating ice fishing huts in the NWT.
Eventually these temporary shacks may need to be registered -- perhaps even plated like a vehicle -- so that abandoned huts, and the damage they cause, can be traced back to the offending individual. This is not a new idea. Many southern provinces have placed similar requirements on cold-weather fishermen for years.
All too frequently, people take beautiful lakes and abundant fish populations for granted here in the North.
It's just too bad the DFO has to impose more rules and regulations to solve this problem.
A good idea is like any good dance: there's no party until people step forward and start wigglin' their butts.
The proposed Yellowknife outdoor market is one of those good ideas, but it is suffering from not enough bodies doing the two-step.
"It's a lot more work than we anticipated," says Trent Frequet who, with Coun. Dave McCann, is hoping to get a weekend market going in the City Hall parking lot for this summer.
But no dancers have pushed off from being wallflowers.
Maybe McCann and Frequet are playing Gregorian chants when they should be strummin' classic country. We suggest they follow a tune we heard played down Hay River way: recruit a service club to put their personpower behind it. The Legion, the Elks, Kiwanis and many others: all have a solid group of like-minded members itching to do good civic works. Now there's an orchestra waiting for a gig!
Failing that, don't let big dreams get in the way of good ideas.
If the market has to start small -- fine. This is too good an idea to let waste away for another summer.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It was almost painful to sit in the gallery during Rankin Inlet's regular council meeting earlier this month and watch new senior administrative officer John Hodgson try to get a motion passed to conduct a feasibility study on Rankin becoming a tax-based community.
If Hodgson was worried as to how the vote on the motion would go, he needn't have bothered.
Council wouldn't even make the motion, let alone vote on it.
Most disturbing about what unfolded in the council chambers was that the topic wasn't addressed by a group of elected municipal officials whose first duty is, supposedly, to look at what may be best for the community.
Although each had a plaque in front of them firmly establishing the fact they were hamlet councillors, the group spoke to the matter as a collective group of homeowners, nothing more.
You always have to give Coun. Justin Merritt credit for having the wherewithal to speak his mind in council and this time was no exception.
Merritt wasted no time in making it quite clear he wanted nothing to do with the concept.
He informed council he pays about $225 a year in property taxes to the Nunavut government, and both he and the government are happy with that. Case closed.
Just not listening
Hodgson was met with the same attitudes that Community Government Services ran into about a year ago, when it offered to pay for the feasibility study.
In fact, a number of councillors made the same fact-deprived statements this time around as they had a year ago.
Once again, the contention came from council that in a tax-based system, only private homeowners and the private business person pay.
Hodgson tried to set them straight on grants in lieu of taxes, just as Shawn Maley had tried the year previous, but to no avail.
A chance at independence
There is much, much more to becoming a tax-based community than a rate increase in property taxes.
Taxed-based municipalities have the ability to make their own decisions in capital planning and infrastructure projects, and are far less dependent on government handouts for their very survival.
Under the current system, there is precious little, if any, room for Rankin to grow as a community.
Sure, there's the chance a mine will go into operation and the company involved will put infrastructure money into the hamlet during its lifespan.
But that too can be filed under the dependency heading.
At least take a look
Other than the comforting caress of the GN's apron string, we don't understand why council is so scared of a feasibility study.
Council should have the study completed, analyzed by experts, broken down and fully explained.
Only then can it make an informed decision on whether the system is in Rankin's best interests.
Even if the answer is still no, at least council members would have taken the time to look over their own private fences at the rest of the community.
Simply maintaining the status quo can be a hard habit to break, but nobody has ever moved forward simply by treading water.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
By now, everybody should know that this year is the Dempster Highway's 25th anniversary and that several projects and events are in various stages of planning.
The goal of all of this is to promote the event and, more importantly, attract people to visit Inuvik for those oh so juicy tourist dollars.
Moreover, the events are designed to bring out the town's people and, hopefully, strengthen the community's spirit.
However, the problem seems to be that while noble all of this activity may be, perhaps there is too much in the works and efforts could better be combined to bring several of these ideas together.
As my cranky neighbour once said in the summer of 1989, after watching me carry grass clippings the length of my driveway to a trash bucket, "Bring the bucket to you. Work smarter not harder."
The following is a perfect example of working harder and not smarter in regard to the Dempster celebrations.
Thanks to the efforts of two individuals, a compiled book of Dempster Highway tales, poems, anecdotes and songs should be ready in time for the festivities.
And across town at RWED, there appears to be a similar idea in the works regarding a publication of a brief Dempster Highway history to be accompanied with some personal stories about its construction.
Why in the world aren't these two efforts combined to make "Dempster Highway Tales" the best darn book ever published in the territory?
With RWED behind a good idea such as the one already underway, how can it go wrong?
Instead, both will inevitably go it alone and the unfortunate result will likely be a couple of publications that may have improved ten-fold if heads were working together instead of separately.
Need another example?
The End of the Road Music Festival is slated for the end of August (27-29). On Aug. 21, RWED is planning a community feast and "big" musical entertainment flown in from down south.
According to an official from Inuvik's RWED office, the notion to combine the music fest with RWED's plans to fly in a band was suggested to the town.
Unfortunately, the two bodies were unable to come to an agreement about dates (for gosh sakes they are only a week apart!) and so RWED's feast and entertainment will go ahead as planned, as will the music fest. Separately!
Is it just me, or does this sound plain ridiculous?
For a festival that is in desperate need of any kind of support, turning down RWED's offer for the sake of a week's worth of "poor timing" is akin to shooting oneself in the foot.
And as for RWED, a government body that is supposed to help "develop economies" -- both local and regional -- one would think that they could've seen it the same way as the town. After all, a successful music festival is sure to bring in the bucks this year, and in years to come.
If that's not aiding economic development, then I'm a monkey's uncle.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
Mayor Dianne Gonet's message about the drug and alcohol problem in Fort Liard will hopefully spur some people to be part of the solution.
Unfortunately, her words will almost certainly raise the hackles of those who automatically get defensive about the issue. Her intention is not to portray Fort Liard as a town full of drunks and drug addicts. Nobody is saying that Fort Liard is unique in its struggle against bootleggers and dope dealers. That is a common problem across the NWT and throughout many communities in Canada.
What Gonet is trying to communicate is that there is an addictions problem and something must be done about it.
It's certainly not the first time that an attempt has been made to put a dent in the alcohol and drug trade. Several public meetings have been held in Fort Liard over the past few years to rally residents. Unfortunately, despite an initial burst of support, few of the previously formed action groups have had any staying power. The Citizens on Patrol initiative started last year quickly fizzled when residents realized that they would have to testify against bootleggers and drug dealers in court.
So what's a leader or concerned citizen to do? Quit trying? No, at some point momentum will build, a catalyst will be found to unite those who want to take back their community.
Maybe the Community Action Committee will be it.
Forms of pollution
Unquestionably the sludge-like oil that coated the ground and vegetation around the ruptured oil tank in Fort Simpson in late April was appalling. However, it should be noted that an Environment Canada official only had praise for the local clean-up effort in the hours following the spill.
The employees and volunteers kept the thick oil in check and mopped up a significant amount of it.
As well, to keep things in perspective but not to downplay the incident, let's say that the spill amounted to 5,000 litres, the high side of the estimate. Seeing as the majority of people in the Deh Cho drive pickup trucks, it's safe to say that a usual fill-up at the gas station is around 50 litres. So it would only take 100 trucks consuming that amount of gas (maybe a week's worth of driving?) to equate to the volume of oil that leaked out of the storage tank, most of which was recovered.
The difference, obviously, is that gasoline is heavily refined and when its byproduct comes out our tailpipes it is absorbed into the atmosphere where we don't see it. Our consciences are only "clean" because after all that driving, there are no plants coated in a tar-like substance that we can see.
The moral of the story isn't that we should all throw away our car keys, but just to keep in mind that we're contributing to pollution in various ways on a daily basis.