Yellowknife's grief expanded, yesterday, to include Cyril Fyfe, 41.

A born-and-raised Yellowknifer who served 18 years with the city's fire department, Lieut. Fyfe - and the city's newest firefighter, Kevin Olson, 24 - made the supreme sacrifice while helping put out a blaze at a building supply store March 17.

They were the first firefighter deaths in the line of duty in Yellowknife's history. Their's is a highly respected profession, but one that can also come with great costs. Who does not look up when they hear a siren blow? Who does not feel a sense of excitement on seeing a fire truck - or ambulance or police cruiser - roar down the street to dangers unknown?

To paraphrase an ancient poet: "Do not ask for whom the fire bell tolls, it tolls for you."

A loss of life, no matter how it happened, is a loss for Yellowknife.

Fyfe and Olson lost their lives doing their duty. The fire department and the rest of us in this city will grieve in this loss, knowing that our city is the less without them among us.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the dump, the city has recycled the idea of user-pay garbage fees.

The suggestion is to make people pay for disposing the garbage they produce. There's logic in that.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it works right now. Under the present system, homeowners pay more than double what it costs to pick up their trash annually. Commercial users are vastly undercharged.

There are two sticking points in the city's plan. First is the revival of dump gate fees. Second is the prospect of restricting the amount of trash people can put out at the curb.

The principle of people taking responsibility for reducing waste is right.

But until the city implements a realistic, effective recycling program to help people reduce garbage, the new fees will be nothing more than a tax grab.

That will send people and trash to illegal dump sites in the bush.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

Those who understand the wonderful world of broadcasting can't help but feel a bit of sympathy for the dilemma facing the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

While in no way are we endorsing the path APTN has chosen with dubbing, we do understand the decision.

At the centre of this storm are concerns by Iglulik filmmaker Zach Kunuk, who opposes APTN's request that his films must be available in more than just Inuktitut, and have versions in English or French and another aboriginal language.

In a perfect world, a network such as the APTN would be able to pay aboriginal filmmakers handsome licensing fees and broadcast their finished works in the same format as they were produced.

Alas, the world is far from perfect and the APTN, like every network outside the realm of public television, needs advertising revenue to survive and prosper.

And therein lies the dilemma.

In order for the APTN to gain more revenues, it must attract more lucrative advertising.

In order to do that, it must escape the niche-market label often attached to it and reach a wider, more mainstream audience.

Welcome to the world of demographics and the target audience.

For advertisers to open their cheque books, they must be confident the target audience they've identified for their product is being reached. It wouldn't make much sense for a beef producer to pitch its product during a show aimed at vegetarians.

And exact demographics walk hand in hand with the number of viewers a network attracts.

The wider the audience you appeal to, the higher your potential for attracting advertisers. It's not exactly rocket science.

However the film gets more than a little grainy when a network is expected to appeal to the wishes of a particular segment of the population, as is the case with the APTN.

We don't believe for a second aboriginal filmmakers and show producers would be content to remain a fringe element as long as they never had to relinquish artistic control of their work.

And, if every production was as well made as Atanarjuat, the bickering over dubbing and subtitling would all be a moot point.

But this is the real world and, as in all differences of opinion, common ground must be reached for the APTN and the aboriginal artistic community to move forward harmoniously.

Interest in aboriginal lifestyles, heritage and culture - as well as accurate depictions of history - has never been higher amongst the non-aboriginal population.

The APTN and its show producers have to take advantage of that interest if they are to take their craft to the next level.

Although there are varying opinions on how that can best be achieved, dubbing may just be the most viable method of attracting a larger viewing audience at this particular point in time.

And, if the only thing standing between higher licensing fees and bigger production budgets is the odd bad kung fu movie, everyone can take solace in the fact some of the best entertainment writing is done with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum

If the Turning Point emergency shelter can be pulled out of its most recent predicament, the creation of a more inclusive facility should be the order of the day.

Currently, the shelter offers a bed and two meals a day only to those who are not under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

Unfortunately, there are many in the community who are homeless at least partly because of their addictions. As the shelter is currently not filled to capacity, there should be some flexibility in its policy regarding people under the influence who could freeze to death if they don't find shelter.

Those involved with Turning Point - staff, volunteers and concerned citizens - are focused on putting together a successful proposal to secure more funding from Education, Culture and Employment so one can forgive them if Turning Point policy is not at the forefront of their collective agenda. However, as many in the community have expressed that there is a need for a more-encompassing type of facility in Inuvik, it is too bad that initiative is at a standstill while ECE puts shelter financing up for grabs. It's almost as if the powerbrokers in Yellowknife are not hearing the community's call for some action in dealing with homelessness and more importantly its root cause: addictions.

In a conversation with the health minister last week, Michael Miltenberger said no plans for community treatment and/or rehab facilities would be made unless numbers could justify it. He cited the 236 addiction treatment referrals given to territorial residents in 2004 as part of the rationale for not changing the ministry's position.

Which begs the obvious question: if only 236 referrals were given in 2004, how many more are there out there who could use treatment, but for one reason or another, didn't ask for or get referred?

While there's no way to get an accurate number, to say 10 times 236 would be a relatively conservative estimate. Leaving one's community to seek help can sometimes create more stress that does nothing to facilitate success in breaking an addiction. It would be ridiculous to have treatment centres in each and every community. However, for somebody in Sachs Harbour, travelling to Inuvik instead of Alberta for help is a pretty good alternative. Not to mention the fact that NWT dollars would stay in the NWT instead of going into the coffers of another province.

Proponents' calls for a treatment centre in Inuvik are obviously falling on deaf ears in the capital.

Its legislators are obviously distracted by much more pertinent topics of the day, such as devolution, the pipeline and holding the territory to a budget.

Meanwhile, the homeless who can't access the shelter wander the streets, existing on a loonie here or a coffee there until next time.

Maybe the homeless have become such a fixture in the human scenery of Inuvik that many have just come to accept their existence as an unfortunate reality.

That would be unfortunate indeed.

Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh cho Drum

Last week, the territorial government announced it would push ahead with plans to build a $41 million courthouse on a plot of swampland beside the Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife.

The decision was criticized - and rightly so - by several MLAs who said the government should focus instead on providing basic services to the territory's smaller communities.

In the Deh Cho alone, there are five settlements without resident police forces.

The territory as a whole faces a chronic shortage of doctors and other professionals. Substance abuse continues to be a major problem and new drugs like crack-cocaine and methamphetamines are finding their way into the communities.

So how does the government decide to deal with these problems? Build a $41 million bauble in Yellowknife, that's how.

This courthouse scheme is a textbook example of government waste on a monumental scale.

It is also a remarkable about face by the Justice Department, which cried poverty earlier this year when it decided to slash jobs in Hay River and Inuvik. The department has since reversed some of those decisions.

In defending the plan, Justice Minister Charles Dent said the existing courthouse - which occupies three floors of downtown government building - is unsafe.

Somehow I doubt that would be a very persuasive argument for the people of Wrigley who can wait up to two hours for police to respond to a call.

The courthouse folly is reminiscent of ancient Rome, where emperors spent vast sums of public money building monumental arches and pillars to commemorate military victories.

While these triumphs - as they were known - were often brilliant architectural feats, they did nothing to alleviate the social problems facing the Roman Empire.

Bread lines in the capital grew, the highway system disintegrated and frontier defences were scaled back.

The Romans, like so many advanced civilizations, forgot the golden rule of governance: take care of the people before you embark on legacy building.

The government and Minister Dent would do well to learn this history lesson.