Monday, October 24, 2005
Those far-away people don't understand the key link ferries play for our communities. That's kind of funny considering that on the B.C. coast, ferries are considered essential and must provide a minimum level of service.
Rowe's Construction, the company contracted to run the ferry, has walked away because it couldn't get enough replacement workers to keep the service going after the workers went on strike. As a result, two communities are cut off at a critical time of year when every truckload of supplies is needed before freeze-up.
Meanwhile, the NWT's elected officials are doing what they do best: filling the legislative assembly with plenty of hot air. The government will write a letter to the federal labour minister and says it might have a plan to get the service going again by tomorrow.
The government's track record on this dispute is dismal.
Even knowing the two sides in the dispute were headed for a labour stoppage, the government sat on the sidelines and didn't intervene during the labour board process.
Seems to us that a government that can contract out part of the NWT highway system should be an interested third party in making sure that road remains in service.
Meanwhile, travellers are trapped behind the river. The flow of essential goods is stopped or they will have to be flown in, pushing up prices for consumers.
Now there's word workers who operate the Fort Providence ferry have unionized. They're already hinting a strike against the contractor - also Rowe's - is possible before the end of this ferry season if talks on a first contract don't go well.
If that happens, all hell will break loose because Yellowknife isn't going to stand for it.
It's time ministers and MLAs put away the jargon and get to work on legislation to make NWT's river ferries an essential service.
Skyrocketing diesel prices have forced everyone to take a new look at alternative energy sources.
Here, all our homes and businesses are powered by diesel generators, something that will have to change before diesel prices break the bank.
Qulliq Energy Corporation studied the feasibility of wind generation, and despite some success in Rankin Inlet, says wind power is still more costly than diesel generation.
The power company should continue to keep an open mind when it comes to wind power because technology will improve and diesel prices will continue to rise. There may come a time when windmills are commonplace around our communities, but it isn't today.
Now, Qulliq is taking a look at hydro-electricity.
This isn't a grand plan for billion dollar dams. Small, more environmentally-friendly run-of-river generating facilities are worth a serious look.
Qulliq hired a Vancouver company to find the best spot to generate hydro-electricity. Sylvia Grinnel River near Iqaluit is one of the most promising locations, and could ease the capital's demand for diesel.
Iqaluit consumes one-third of the 39 million litres of diesel burned each year to generate electricity in Nunavut.
Work on a deepwater port in Iqaluit needs to begin as soon as possible.
Iqaluit has eyed such a port since 1980. Then, a study showed the estimated price to be $10 million. According to a new study, the price has jumped to $49 million. What will it be in the future, $100 million?
We can't keep waiting because at some point the cost will simply be too high.
The port is needed. It will benefit tourism, fisheries and commerce by cutting down the time it takes to load and unload.
It would also show how a port could work in the Kivalliq and the Kitikmeot, and maybe push the Bathurst Inlet port and road project along.
With a port in each region, the whole territory will benefit.
It looks like this city council is ready to see it go through. Now all we need is for the federal and territorial governments to get on the bandwagon and make this project a reality, and not let it sink into the depths of oblivion.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
There is grumbling in some corners over the way Nunavut's Health Department handled the discovery of the HTLV-1 virus this past month.
Some believe the department was far too slow in releasing a public warning on the virus and making testing available in the territory.
In fact, some say the department gambled with people's lives by being so slow to react to the positive tests.
They claim every day the information was not public knowledge was another day people were needlessly put at risk.
Unfortunately, the only point raised we can sympathize with concerns expectant mothers who may test positive for the virus and become afraid of passing it along to their unborn child.
If any pregnant women do, indeed, test positive, they should discuss breastfeeding with their doctor before the baby is born.
The HTLV-1 virus infects the blood and can cause cancer of the blood and disease of the nervous symptom.
However, only about four per cent of those who test positive for the virus will ever get sick.
There is no known treatment or cure.
The virus is transmitted the same way a more well-known and far more deadly virus, HIV, is spread - through unprotected sex and the sharing of needles.
In short, blood-to-blood contact or unprotected sexual intercourse.
Now, we don't mean to be insensitive, but just about everybody these days knows the fate awaiting people with the HIV virus who develop full-blown acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
While a number of drugs have been developed which improve the quality of life for those infected with AIDS, it's still one of the scariest afflictions known to mankind.
Like cancer, the mere mention of AIDS sends a shiver through the most well grounded among us.
Yet, for all the pain caused by HIV infection, people still have unprotected sex and share needles when doing drugs.
We would ask those so quick to damn the health department; if the spectre of AIDS is not enough to make some people change their behaviour and live smart, what makes them think the threat of the HTLV-1 virus will?
Let's be honest, next to AIDS - and a few other most unpleasant sexually-transmitted diseases - the HTLV-1 virus amounts to little more than an afterthought.
The best way to combat these types of diseases remains education and awareness.
Unfortunately, some people refuse to get the message.
As long as humanity has free will there will always be those who will engage in unprotected sex and share needles while injecting drugs, no matter what the dangers.
The most we can ask from our territorial and federal health departments is to keep sending out the message.
Hopefully, with a heavy focus on our youth, more will turn on their receivers in the future.
In the meantime, talk to your children.
That will accomplish far more than talking about blame.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
Easter Island is a small and remote land mass located in the South Pacific.
Without trees and containing massive stone statues, some weighing up to 270 tons, the place was of great interest to anthropologists who wondered how on earth such huge objects, carved out of stone from an extinct volcano, could have been moved into place.
Well, the popular theory today about how and why, with respect to the statues and their creators, revolves around short-sightedness.
Population on the island peaked at around 15,000, so say the experts, and these inhabitants were divided amongst 11 clans. As well, research has shown that when inhabitants first arrived at the island - most likely from Polynesia - the place was covered by a subtropical forest made up of a now-extinct palm tree, the tallest of its kind that survives today in a smaller version known as the Chilean wine palm.
Anyway, intense competition amongst the clans was expressed by seeing which clan could erect the biggest statue to honour their gods. It is said that the tall palm trees were cut down and used as sledges to drag the stones from the volcano to wherever they would be placed. This went on for quite some time and, as clans were constantly trying to outdo each other, eventually all the trees were cut down.
Of course with the trees gone, Pacific winds blew away all the farmable soil, the birds decided to leave and inhabitants began eating all the animals who couldn't flee until they were gone, too.
Since all the wood was used up, the ability to make canoes to aid in catching fish disappeared. What a situation.
So what the heck does this story have to do with this region and goings on here?
Well, if the Environment and Natural Resources caribou numbers are correct, serious considerations must be made with respect to how we are harvesting those animals. If we're not careful, they could disappear, just like the trees on Easter island.
Please keep in mind that I'm in no way trying to compare the building of useless statues to sustenance hunting.
Apples and oranges. If anything, to the people here the caribou are only somewhat similar to what the trees meant to the Easter Islanders. The difference between the two situations, is that we know what the significance of the caribou is in the cultural, spiritual and ecological senses, while those Easter Islanders thought it was all about the statues, never giving a second thought to the trees until it was too late.
So we've got a few advantages over those statue-obsessed Easter Island residents, in particular our knowledge of the caribou's significance and our ability to impact various herds through selective harvesting. Certainly harvesting alone has not caused the population decline (if you believe the data presented by ENR).
Yet, harvesting is the only way hunters can positively impact the herds' numbers.
It would be a shame if one day people were only able to talk about the days of heading out on the land to hunt caribou, rather than taking their kids out to experience for themselves what has been forever a part of this region's culture.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
The Liard River ferry strike/lock-out is creating dreadful friction in Fort Simpson.
Motorists are confronted with the labour dispute every time they board or disembark the ferry. The replacement workers are constantly being reminded by union members - sometimes in very blunt terms - that they are not appreciated.
Here are a few more observations:
There were, nevertheless, at least a few tourists reportedly stranded in Fort Simpson during the two days the ferry was shut down. That's the purpose of strikes: to make people realize that a service is crucial.
Quite contradictory, wouldn't you say?