Monday, September 26, 2005
The government has stepped into the breach in recent months, spending thousands of dollars to airlift people to Iqaluit and Yellowknife for urgently needed procedures.
Thanks to $1.3 million from the federal government, the backlog has been reduced to 261 and should be eliminated by March.
It's impressive work, but the problem festered to a point where drastic action was necessary: 2.5 per cent of the territory's population was waiting for dental surgery.
Imagine the suffering of children, elders and others with rotting teeth, abscesses and other problems.
Add to that the trauma of being pulled from your home community, put on a plane with dozens of others and flown for hours across the territory.
For some patients from Cambridge Bay and Kuglugktuk the nightmare included being left at the Iqaluit airport when no-one showed up to take them to their hotel.
It's also important to compare the scope of the problem in Nunavut to other jurisdictions. In the NWT, the waiting list is about 400, a number that includes people from the Kitikmeot. In B.C., 1,637 need dental surgery, less than half a per cent of the total population.
Like so many other essential services, dental care has not been a priority.
There are just three dentists in Iqaluit and a travelling dentist from the south visits communities on a regular basis, a situation that's far from ideal.
The health department says it's doing all it can to fill this large cavity, including efforts to have the lion's share of future dental surgeries done in regional health centres and through education programs aimed at improving dental health among children.
There's also talk of a major effort to train Nunavummiut to become the next generation of dentists.
All that's good and we hope it works.
Yes, we recognize the challenges posed by distance, costs, small population and everything else, but Nunavummiut should no longer be content with Third World status.
In a democratic society, the free exchange of ideas and opinions is vital. The key to making it work is having opinions and ideas backed up by facts.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada may well be right about the state of things at Hay River's H.H. Williams Hospital but they didn't provide any documentation to back up the rather inflammatory statements made to News/North last week.
Union executive Jean-Francois Des Lauriers stated that patients were left sitting in their own feces for hours. A sensational statement, to say the least and, if you take a closer look, one presented without hard facts.
He started by saying the long-term care facility sometimes has only one nurse on staff, who is sometimes called to help with emergencies. From there, he jumped to the conclusion that the facility is left unstaffed for hours and, further, that patients are left uncared for.
It's easy for union leaders to launch wild accusations, especially if they are not called to account by members for statements made to the public.
When that happens we all lose, because unsubstantiated accusations hurt the credibility of union leaders and weaken the union's ability to represent the workers with employers and just as importantly, with the public.
If we are to believe the territorial government then there is nothing unusual about the drastic decline in the Bluenose and Cape Bathurst caribou populations in the northwest corner of the territories.
But numbers presented two weeks ago indicating that the herds have declined by as much as 75 per cent are very troubling. The government says it's natural. Caribou populations rise and fall in a natural cycle. If you're from the East Coast, however, you may take this one with a grain of salt. There were warnings in the 1970s that cod stocks were declining. Even so, the government bowed to political pressure from the fishing industry and allowed the harvest to continue.
The fishery came to a crashing end in 1992, and now scientists say the cod may never come back.
With a resource as precious as caribou, the government can't afford to play politics and hope the problem sorts itself out. Population declines might be a historically natural occurrence, but it's only recently that caribou have had to face hunters thundering down Ski-Doo trails after them - not to mention increasing natural gas development in the region.
The government must take concrete action now, even if the move proves initially unpopular, if we are to make sure these herds don't go the way of the cod.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Make no mistake about it, people are going to have strong feelings on both sides of the ledger concerning the Government of Nunavut's (GN) new strategy for staff housing.
For some, the initiative will be viewed as nothing more than an attempt by the GN to bolster the percentage of Nunavummiut staff by dissuading southerners from seeking employment in the North.
The argument has some merit, considering Nunavut Housing Corp. president Peter Scott was quick to point out that 55 per cent of government positions are still held by non-beneficiaries.
Even with the phase-in period, the two areas of primary concern are education and health professionals.
Percentages or not, we still need quality teachers and health-care professionals in Nunavut and we're not going to train enough local doctors to meet our needs during the next five years.
While the picture for educators is somewhat brighter, we will still be hard pressed to come anywhere near the required number of teachers in the next 10 years by trying to hire solely within our ranks.
Education Minister Ed Picco and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq are going to have to get awfully creative in attracting professionals to their respective departments for the next few years.
The GN believes the new system will encourage home ownership in Nunavut and has dreams of major condominium projects springing up across the territory.
Should that come to be, the vacated rental units would go a long way towards easing Nunavut's housing crisis, or so the theory goes.
That would be nice to see, but unless the GN is prepared to implement strict rent controls, these units would have to go down the road to public housing to be effective.
We have nothing against people making $90,000 and up per annum being asked to carry their fair share of the rental load.
In fact, for that alone we applaud the government.
As pointed out by Scott, there are still far too many people with high incomes in Nunavut who are able to take advantage of the current housing system.
But if the GN expects private landlords to give the average working person making less than $15 an hour in the retail sector a break in their rent, it will be in for a rude awakening.
The GN's new staff housing strategy is a good move for cleaning up its own house, saving about $23 million a year and increasing the number of beneficiaries working with the government.
However, unless we see a spike in public-housing units or some form of rent control initiated during the next few years, the strategy will do nothing to establish healthy communities outside of the capital.
And, while it may establish sustainable housing markets, those markets will remain far out of reach for the average working person trying to support their family on $30,000 a year in the Kivalliq.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
Attending the Twin Lakes MLA's constituency meeting last Thursday, I was reminded once again of how interesting it is to live in the Northwest Terrritories.
I mean, name another territory or province in the country where the deputy minister will listen to the plight of curlers in his or her constituency?
Credit must go out to Floyd Roland for listening patiently to their concerns before turning to more pressing matters, such as the state of pipeline negotiations between Imperial Oil and the aboriginal groups on the proposed right-of-way.
I've been scanning the various news items that have come in since the two forces came together in Calgary earlier this month and it started me thinking that at this year's career fair for secondary students, a consultant's booth should most definitely be included.
It's probably the most lucrative career choice out there these days and in relatively high demand in the NWT, what with all the high-level meetings taking place everywhere and giant pools of money brimming over for such endeavours.
And I'm not just talking about the pipeline.
Take, for instance, the new elementary school the government is planning to build in Inuvik.
The budget is $20 million with 12 per cent of that set aside for planning alone. That's roughly the same amount that early childhood education/daycare will have to throw into the pot if it wants space to operate from at the new school.
Granted, policies and procedures must be followed when spending from the public purse and gone are the days when the government would just come in, make a decision and throw up a building.
I suppose the updated version of government planning we find ourselves in these days is what's known as progress.
Enter the consultant. Earlier this year, Education, Culture and Employment dispatched one to these parts to get a bead on what people wanted in the new elementary school. Early childhood education amenities surely appeared on the list but alas, that kind of thing is not in the education ministry's mandate. "Softer toilet paper," (one student's suggestion) probably didn't make the minister's list, either.
Take solace in the fact that classrooms, a staff room, library and office space will indeed be included in a new school, thank goodness!
We wouldn't want our tax dollars going to waste on just any old consultancy exercise.
So the next time you hear of some consultant saying that the people's interests are in good hands or that they'll go to the wall to ensure the people get what they want, remember that the consultant's interests are already well in hand.
Because without a school or a pipeline to speak of, the only people bringing home the bacon on your behalf are the beloved consultants.
God bless them. Send in the lawyers!
Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh Cho Drum
Climate change and mounting fossil fuel prices are two of the most challenging problems facing Northerners right now.
With that in mind, the territorial government has taken a $15,000 gamble on solar-power project in Jean Marie River.
Photo-voltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electrical energy, will be installed on the band office and one home in the 250-person community.
The government hopes the solar panels will help lower the tremendously high cost of generating electricity in Jean Marie River. Residents there pay 20 times what Calgarians do.
While the $15,000 may seem expensive, the return could be tremendous.
The diesel plants which supply most remote Northern settlements with power are inefficient and expensive to maintain.
Solar power could be the cost-effective solution to the territories' energy needs. Kudos to officials for some forward thinking.
The panels also have the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gasses, perhaps a happy coincidence for a government that supports the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.
Fort Providence is a great community, but it could be one of the unluckiest towns in the Northwest Territories.
Not only do residents have to contend with plagues of mosquitoes and black flies but also pests of the larger, hoofed variety: bison.
Nearly 75 animals marched through the Mackenzie River hamlet last week, happily grazing on lawns, knocking down fences and trampling flower beds.
The free-roaming bison have been a nuisance in Fort Providence for decades and some residents say the problem is getting worse.
They have called on the territorial government to intervene, but there are few options.
Building a fence is not practical. Few seem inclined to allow limited hunting around the town, which could re-instill a fear of humans in the animals.
The community has tried cutting the grass, but the beasts still find it appetizing.
The reality is simple: Fort Providence is smack dab in the middle of a sanctuary that is home to about 2,000 bison and the animals will probably be denting cars for years to come.
Faced with that inescapable reality, residents will have to remain vigilant to avoid accidents. That and buy a good hoe.