Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Since the ban only prohibits international travel, we're left wondering what the board is really trying to say? That it's alright for an MLA to blow their constituency money in Toronto but not in Japan?
As far as we can tell, most MLAs seem to have been bitten by the travel bug, whether by using their constituency fund or not.
Hawkins spent $8,500 to go to Expo 2005 in Japan, but his trip is defensible. He went there to promote aurora tourism - an enterprise the government expects will draw 11,000 Japanese visitors to the territory this winter and put $8.2 million in the pockets of NWT businesses.
What great gain can management board chair Paul Delorey and Great Slave MLA Bill Braden say they won by going to Fiji for an obscure parliamentary conference? Or last year's conference in Quebec City that cost taxpayers $30,000 so that six MLAs could hob-nob with parliamentarians from Bangladesh and Zanzibar.
And what exactly are we getting for all those trips Brendan Bell, Industry minister and management board member, takes to the United States?
Last May, he announced that he was in Washington, D.C., convincing U.S. lawmakers that the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline was a good investment, while headlines back home blared that the whole thing was falling apart.
One more thing on constituency funds. Few MLAs seem to have any problems spending the money. Ten out of 19 made sure they spent nearly every penny last year.
It's hard to understand why Braden and Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee need to spend up to $60,000 to employ a constituency assistant while others get by on half that.
Hawkins spent all his constituency fund, too, but it seems hypocritical that one group of MLAs can pass judgement on his spending habits while ignoring their own.
If voters are unhappy with the way Hawkins or any other MLA used taxpayer's money to travel or for otherwise, we're sure they'll let them know.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
The police in Nunavut are no different than other public figures when it comes to what they say on the record and behind closed doors.
Nunavut's rising crime rate has transcended alarming and become downright scary.
We have people leaving some communities because they either don't feel safe or want a quieter lifestyle in a smaller community.
And we're not just talking southern transplants here.
People born and raised, or who have lived decades, in our bigger communities are relocating to smaller towns.
The police say their job is to make the arrests and the role of handing down justice falls on the courts.
However, too often they see behind closed doors when all-too-lenient sentences are handed down to repeat offenders and those found guilty of violent crimes.
Many Nunavut communities have a small group of habitual thieves who steal everything that isn't bolted down.
And, as was the case of a would-be bank heist in Rankin a few months back, even a solid steel safe embedded in the wall won't stop some from trying.
While criminals seem to have lots of money for booze and drugs, they never have any for fines levied against them and the last thing we want to do is lock them up as a deterrent.
These days, jail time for thieves seems to have become some sort of cruel-and-unusual punishment.
There's been a lot of fingers pointed at alcohol the past few months as the cause of all our criminal problems.
But go to any, and we mean any, municipality in Canada and alcohol is going to be involved in a high percentage of its crimes.
After that, drugs come into play.
Once past drugs and alcohol, it's time to lay the mental instability, emotionally challenged, underprivileged and unloved-in-their-childhood cards on the table.
Heck, it's almost enough to make you feel sorry for these people.
There are no criminals anymore, just a large group of misunderstood people with deep-rooted social scars from one reason or another.
We've become a society in which blame has to be found at the root of almost every action.
In short, precious few are held accountable for their actions anymore. My mom couldn't afford cable when I was young, so that's why I broke into your home to steal your colour TV.
There are no easy answers to curbing the escalating crime in Nunavut.
However, there are easy answers for those who want to explain the whole thing away by simply blaming it on a bunch of drunks.
Alcohol is but one part of the problem. Larger concerns are an overly lenient judicial system and too many communities where the people stay silent out of fear or misguided loyalty.
Hardship is tough for anyone to endure, but it's not a licence to break the law.
And, contrary to what some would have you believe, the vast majority of people who have a beer on the weekend don't break into your home on the way to theirs.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
Pipeline proponents say it will take two seasons to construct the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.
Touted as one of this country's biggest projects, building 1,300 km of pipeline through remote areas of the country will be a feat in terms of both engineering expertise and the mobilization of manpower and materials.
Obviously lots of thought and care has to go into a project like this, but with big oil backing things up, nobody seems in awe of such a short window for construction.
I wonder, if big oil were in charge of GNWT infrastructure, would this community have to wait - and wait - for replacement schools to be built?
After meetings in Inuvik last week between education officials and public works, it seems the odds are in favour of a joint high school and elementary school facility.
It is said the planning for this project will take two years, with shovels expected to hit the ground in summer 2008.
Well, it's nearly the end of 2005 and fingers are crossed that the aging Samuel Hearne secondary school will be habitable in time for classes to resume after the Christmas break.
In the amount of time it apparently takes to check the pilings, close the school and repair the pilings - barring further disaster - theoretically a Mackenzie pipeline starting construction at the same time would have been lumbering past Fort Good Hope by the time the school reopens in January.
With ongoing discussions - both official and coffee talk - about how and why big oil should pony up some cash to address social impacts in the GNWT, maybe this community should invite Imperial to build Inuvik a new high school, just as a sign of good faith, you know?
Then the good people of the GNWT could sit back and observe textbook corporate efficiency for spending money and, more importantly, getting results. The key difference here is between a corporation's bottom line and a government's accountability.
Imperial doesn't like to waste money when its board members are accountable to the shareholders. Who is the GNWT accountable to?
If the perceived dilly-dallying is any indication - not to mention complete failure of the government to take any responsibility for SHSS woes - the answer is pretty much nobody.
Sure, there's always somebody around to complain about this and that when government simply points to a planning bureaucracy or spending bureaucracy as rationale for why its wheels seem to grind along at a pace slower than molasses in January.
Regardless, that is hardly any consolation for parents and students affected by what is indeed a crisis.
People wonder why there's so much cynicism about government and the politicians caught in the midst of its machinery.
Too bad the powers that be didn't simply throw convention out the window, pull up its bootstraps and order a new school be built, pronto.
My cynical side says that would be asking too much.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
It turns out the federal body that ruled Fort Simpson's ferry is not an essential service actually deemed the power plant at Ekati to be just that.
So Fort Simpson and Wrigley got kicked to the curb, while the money-making machine in the middle of the barrenlands got a thumbs up.
While our six ferry crew members - who live in the community for at least six months of the year - were allowed to walk off the job, Finning employees - who come and go from the mine site on a bi-weekly schedule - were forced to stay put to ensure the Ekati plant continues to run. No matter what might have happened to the folks in Fort Simpson and Wrigley, the diamonds must keep coming out of the ground!
In light of the mess at the Liard River ferry, it seems that getting fuel into these Deh Cho communities is rather essential indeed. With the ferry back in operation on Tuesday, it looks as if we've dodged a bullet. But if we hadn't, do you think those insightful individuals from the Canada Industrial Relations Board would have come up here to join us around a giant bonfire to stay warm?
Perhaps they would have thoughtfully mailed us toques or an extra blanket? This federal legislation, which leaves such decisions in the hands of a southern board, must be amended to include more input from the NWT. Granted these decisions must be impartial, but those North of 60 must be given a stronger voice.
Unions aren't always winners. They fight a hard battle, but sometimes the gains they seek are not realized. Yet the potency of the union was manifested in one sense last Thursday.
Dave Thompson, a negotiator for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, stood at the ferry landing reading aloud a contrite letter from one of the replacement workers. The engineer aboard the vessel made his apology in writing and pleaded to be removed from the union's blacklist. He stated that he had become acutely aware how difficult it would be for him to find a job elsewhere.
The striking workers and their supporters expressed little sympathy as they listened to the words Thompson read from the page.
Because that replacement engineer pulled the plug, the house of cards came tumbling down for Rowe's Construction. Although the loss of one of the temporary ferry captains days earlier only caused a hiccup, Rowe's couldn't maintain the service beyond last Thursday without the only fill-in engineer. As the replacement workers drove off the ferry for the last time, the jeers on the picket line turned to cheers.
"Yeehaw, go home," one person yelled.
This time the union won the battle and the war.
The owner of the Right Spot Sports Bar and Grill is facing charges of conspiring to traffic cocaine. Incorrect information appeared in a news brief in the Oct. 28 issue of Yellowknifer.