There's only so much meat to go around, and someone's going to end up getting hurt and hungry when it's all over.

The trouble is there's not enough land that can be developed. With booming demand, prices are increasing. People with lower incomes are being priced out of the housing market or forced to make bad decisions that leave them mortgage poor.

In desperation, city council is considering building homes on precious parkland and nature preserve.

Council's clumsy handling of Phase VI of Niven Lake was a result of desperation and confusion over how to resolve the lack of land for affordable housing. Keeping Niven Lake exclusively for more expensive stick built homes simply wasn't an option.

Both councillors and administration knew exactly what kind of homes Les Rocher's company was planning to plunk down, yet they expressed surprise when the first double-wide trailers showed up. If councillors truly didn't know, they are out of touch with the community.

Council must demand better planning from its highly-paid administration. It must sit down with the Yellowknives Dene to work out a way to open up new land for development that doesn't involve blasting the greenspaces so many people cherish.

In short, it's time council and administration did some planning and actually managed growth and development.

Yellowknife's public school district is poised to make a fresh start with new superintendent Metro Huculak.

The district has suffered through seven difficult years filled with financial troubles, legal battles with former staff members, and political fights with parents. In the chaos, public schools emptied out while Catholic schools filled up.

If things are truly going to change for the better, Huculak must show himself to be a strong leader right from the start.

He must be capable of laying down the law when necessary, yet be open to working with the board, teachers and parents.

He has to know what's happened during the past few years and learn from those mistakes. Let's hope the school board, too, recognizes the opportunity to start anew.

With a firm hand at the helm, the public school district can begin to right itself and settle down to its number one job: providing quality education for Yellowknife's children in a schools district free of chaos and on a solid financial footing.

Editorial Comment
Brent Reaney
Kivalliq News

There is no denying the problems caused for Kivalliq residents over the past few years by that sweet, indispensable nectar of crude oil, better known as gasoline.

Clearly, the blame for spills and problems with our gas supply should be aimed at the companies providing the service or product.

But with snow machines and ATVs now an important part of many Kivallimiut's livelihood, we need the Nunavut government to be more cautious in its renewal of agreements with companies we've had problems with.

Few here need reminding the region was worst hit by the first bad gas problems in 2001, which stranded numerous people on the land with broken down snow machines.

And this past winter, the Kivalliq dealt with a slightly less serious - though at times still debilitating - fuel supply problem.

Then last week, after months of investigating, Transport Canada said it will pursue four charges against a vessel owned by Woodward's Oil Ltd. in connection with three separate Kivalliq fuel spills.

At less than 1,500 litres each, the spills were small in comparison to other environmentally destructive dousings, though the charges could end up costing the company a total fine of more than $300,000.

GN representatives were quoted in this newspaper last fall as saying a three-year contract would not be signed before the conclusion of the Transport Canada investigation.

But some time prior to the department's filing of the charges on June 28 - and with an agreement in place for the upcoming re-supply season - the pact was renewed.

Last week, deputy minister Tom Rich said he is still comfortable dealing with Woodward's because the company has made important operational changes to help ensure the spills will not happen again.

We understand this reasoning, though the changes should have been made after the 2003 spill in Coral Harbour.

And according to Shell Canada, the renewal of an agreement to supply fuel to the Kivalliq is being negotiated as you read this. Now we don't think Shell should necessarily lose its fuel contract with the GN, but after what happened this past winter, other suppliers should definitely be investigated.

Finally, we ask Woodward's to call us back.

Typing in the word "spill," along with the acronym "NTCL" - Northern Transportation Company Ltd., the Kivalliq's former delivery company of 27 years prior to 2003 - into the Northern News Services online archive calls up but two other documented leaks.

No matter how small the amount of liquid, your company is believed to have soiled Nunavut's shores four times within the past two years.

Kivalliq residents deserve to hear what your representatives have to say.

Unfortunately, it seems we will have to wait until the court circuit comes to Rankin Inlet on Aug. 15.

Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum

Inuvik will play host to more than 50 artists when the 17th Great Northern Arts Festival kicks off next week. As in previous years, the event will feature not only artists in the visual disciplines but performances and, for the first time, a local filmmaking effort too.

As the longest running event in the town's history, it is unfortunate that this cultural smorgasbord does not have its own dedicated venue. Sure, the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex has the space, and for a hockey and curling rink the arts festival staff and volunteers have done a fair job in recent memory of making it look, well, not so much like a hockey and curling rink.

It's true that the petroleum show, a similar-sized event, manages to use the complex. However, staging a trade show on a hockey rink tends to go well with the industrial feel of tungsten lights and sheet metal. An arts festival is a little bit more of an organic affair, which demands a warmer, intimate setting.

So with new schools to be built - both elementary and eventually a high school - and a college dorm now in the capital plan, it might be difficult to justify building a regional culture centre on top of everything else. Or would it?

Which brings us to Sir Alexander Mackenzie School. Plans are underway to design a new building to replace the aging elementary school, thus sealing the fate of that titanic wooden structure fronting main street, destined to fall under the wrecking ball. While the argument not to renovate but replace it has convinced capital planners of the economics of starting anew, it would be a shame to erase SAMS without trying to preserve at least some of this historic structure.

Imagine if the large entranceway, right at the back of the gymnasium/auditorium was left intact and turned into a gallery and performance space.

Consider that the new elementary school will not include an auditorium, so why knock down the one we already have? Additionally, the entranceway contains offices - perfect for an arts society currently borrowing space from the town - and included in what would be saved in such a project is a library and woodworking room.

Not to mention the possibility of staging future arts festivals in a space designed precisely for this kind of event, the revamped SAMS could be outfitted with a proper sound system perfect for year-round film showings, concerts and old time dances.

Imagine spinning your partner while surrounded by art work rather than the sterile green walls and buzzing fluorescent lights over at the recreation hall.

Instead of completely tearing down a landmark building, it would make perfect sense to save even a part of it - a way of maintaining some of Inuvik's cultural landscape - in order to create a venue to inspire and showcase the region's ongoing artistic efforts.

But the time to act on a project like this is coming soon, before the corrugated steel and its "built-to-last" blandness consumes the skyline.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

As reported in News/North, Dehcho First Nations is ready to make its court case against the federal government go away.

In what is being termed a "settlement agreement," DFN is accepting $15 million in cash and a few million more for Dehcho participation in the environmental review of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

This is, by definition, settling.

It's settling because it's far from being what the Dehcho wanted.

Chiefs Keyna Norwegian and Lloyd Chicot pointed out that the money is desperately needed in this cash-starved region. The Inuvialuit and the Gwich'in have settled land claims and have fairly big bucks rolling in through their various ventures. Not so in Deh Cho.

Not only is the Dehcho Process far from being finalized, economic development remains on the back-burner. At the Dehcho Assembly in Kakisa last week, the Dehcho Economic Development Corporation was given short shrift. Over the course of four full days of talks, the economic development corporation representatives addressed delegates for only about 15-20 minutes. They were asked few questions. That was essentially it for any talk of building business.

Other aspects of the settlement agreement expose how the Dehcho has essentially bowed down to government demands. A clause forbidding DFN from launching any more court action against the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act to halt the pipeline is most damaging. Ottawa clearly viewed the Dehcho's litigious actions as an enormous hindrance and successfully sought to prevent a repeat of the situation in the future. The Dehcho acquiesced, and thereby has forsaken its greatest leverage - the pipeline - in trying to negotiate further gains in self-government.

On another front, DFN has pleaded for an independent Dehcho Resource Management Authority. The federal government has indicated that it isn't opposed to creating such a regional body, but would not commit to making it separate from the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Despite getting only a "maybe," the Dehcho signed the settlement agreement anyway.

That means DFN may never realize true autonomy in fully managing its lands. Should a Conservative government come to power over the next several years, then the lack of a guarantee could harm the Dehcho's chances of ever realizing that provision.

In addition, any hopes of gaining more than one seat on the joint review panel have been forsaken.

By filing its lawsuit last year, the Dehcho had gone into the trenches. Its weapons were drawn and cocked. Regional aboriginal leaders spent the next several months quietly looking through the cross hairs. In the end, they never pulled the trigger.

Going to court to fight this case would have been a long and painful battle. Self-government initiatives would have been stalled indefinitely because the government would have refused to negotiate. Federal funding - which represents the bulk of DFN's operating budget - may have been pulled for months or even years.

Under enormous pressure and in return for a desperately needed $15 million, the Dehcho has waved the white flag in this standoff. We'll never know how much more they could have achieved.

Two stories in the June 23 edition of the Inuvik Drum contained incorrect information.

Samuel Hearne Secondary School T.R.U.S.T. Citizenship Award for Grade 10 was presented to Alyssa Carpenter.

William Greenland and Brandi Larocque were on the Metis Nation-sponsored float at the Aboriginal Day Parade.

We apologize for any confusion or embarrassment.