Monday, August 21, 2006
In fact, no one ran against him -- a sign of good fortune for any politician. It's also a strong indicator that support among his constituency for his leadership style is high.
Unlike the soft diplomacy used by his predecessor Michael Nadli, Norwegian chose to firmly draw his line in the sand right from the start -- letting everyone know that he wasn't go to be pushed around.
He has so far refused to compromise on the Dehcho's desire to retain full control over the region's lands and resources.
A federal government offer made on land claims and self-government last June -- one that promised $104 million over 15 years and 39,000 square kilometres of land -- was brushed off as a "non-starter."
In turn, the feds scoffed at the Dehcho's land use plan, saying it focused too much on "conservationism."
Norwegian didn't blink when a deadline to join the Aboriginal Pipeline Group for the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline came and went.
There's no question Norwegian is using the pipeline to further the Dehcho's land claim and live up to his constituents' expectations to protect the land.
Herb and the rest of the Dehcho leadership is under extreme pressure to get a pipeline deal done.
Gas is flowing out of the ground around Fort Liard. Liidlii Kue chief Keyna Norwegian says her First Nation is ready to join the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, if the conditions are right.
Even Herb Norwegian has agreed to that, but by outlining conditions for joining the APG, he has put the ball is back in the hands of the federal government.
The Conservatives came into office with a no-nonsense image, a government many believed would trample Aboriginal rights. Indian Affairs minister Jim Prentice has even said the pipeline will go ahead with or without the Dehcho, although a few weeks later, the government tabled a land claim settlement offer.
What we see is a government that talks straight and appears open to creative solutions.
Now is the time for that creativity to shine.
Instead of demonizing the Dehcho, Northern leaders should look to Ottawa to sit down with the holdout First Nations group.
Surely there's a middle ground that can found in direct government to government talks.
Herb Norwegian talks tough, but in the past he has been open to compromise, settling prickly lawsuits and allowing the pipeline regulatory process to move ahead.
Let's get talking because almost everyone wants to see the pipeline go ahead.
Deh Cho residents and the rest of the Territories need the jobs and prosperity it could bring.
Ask someone who's sick: half a doctor is better than no doctor at all.
So when Dr. Viviane Provost says she's willing to open a family practise in Iqaluit, it boggles the mind to see the territorial health department refuse.
It's especially bizarre, given the shortage of doctors in Nunavut. Of 11 positions in the Baffin, eight are filled. The Kivalliq is short three doctors. In the Kitikmeot, three positions are filled, including doctors from Yellowknife who provide part-time support.
Two months ago, the health department and Kivalliq regional health authority decided not to renew the contract of Rankin Inlet physician Dr. James Wiens. He spent four years in the Kivalliq, loved the people and the land and wanted to stay.
In this new case, Dr. Provost was new to the North, after 20 years treating patients in Montreal. She has two young daughters. Her husband was an accountant with the territorial government. They were looking to buy a home and stay for four years.
The only hitch was that Dr. Provost wasn't prepared to do shifts in emergency at Baffin Regional Hospital.
To the folks who run the territory's health department, that was a pretty big hurdle to overcome.
Sandy Macdonald, in charge of medical affairs, said while the department wants to be flexible, dumping all the ER hours on other staff would burn out the other doctors.
Seems to us that with one less doctor seeing patients in a clinic, they're going to burn out even faster and waiting times are only going to grow. It also adds up that Nunavut could find itself without another accountant, another area where there's a critical shortage of professionals.
Hiring for any position in the North requires creativity.
While Nunavut News/North doesn't know the entire story about why Dr. Provost wasn't hired, it seems that sticking to the rules during a doctor staffing crisis is a recipe for disaster.
Given the fact the region was three doctors short, couldn't Dr. Provost have been given a contract that would terminate when all positions were filled? Could her pay have been reduced because she wasn't doing emergency hours? What about recruiting an ER specialist for Baffin hospital?
Department officials must ask themselves this question: if you're starving on the land after a week-long blizzard, do you turn away seal meat when you prefer to eat caribou?
Dr. Provost's patients and everyone who has to wait weeks and months for a checkup must demand answers from their MLAs and from the bureaucracy.
It's time hard questions were asked in the legislative assembly about why doctors are being turned away when the need is so obvious.
The cabinet and top bureaucrats must be put on notice that people's health must be put before rules.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
An enthusiastic thumbs-up, way up, to Arviat hamlet council for taking control of bingo games in the community this past week.
Arviat is the latest in a growing number of hamlets, from Gjoa Haven to Rankin Inlet, to take a positive step towards ensuring proper accountability with publicly-generated funds.
These types of moves are especially important in the Kivalliq, which has struggled more than a little with the problem of missing funds during the past five years.
We fully appreciate that taking over bingo puts an even greater strain on hamlet staff in many communities, but the gains are worth the effort.
Bingo revenues represent huge dollars in our communities these days.
In fact, even the smallest of our hamlets now rake in $200,000 per year.
That means the process has to be effectively monitored from start to finish - and that means hamlet involvement.
The biggest gain with a municipality running bingo is that the money raised should go where it was intended.
We've said it here many times before - when you take that much money from the people in your town, it had better be going to a worthy cause.
Hamlets that control bingo can ensure the municipality has the opportunity to raise the funds needed to enhance recreational programs.
They can also ensure important organizations, such as community radio and search and rescue and committees that provide travel money to families in times of sickness and loss of life, are properly provided for.
A hamlet in control of the process can also ensure the bingo slots are divided fairly, with extra attention paid to organizations with precious few ways to raise revenue.
At the top of that list are youth travelling to sporting and scholastic events, as well as non-profit day cares and organizations that do so much to enrich our communities.
Those who have gone to great lengths over the years to ensure bingo money raised by their organizations has been properly accounted for should be insulted by these moves.
Simply put, you're not the problem.
When the applications are screened, the slots allotted and the games actually played, that's when the true test begins.
When large sums of money leave a community hall in a plastic bag or leather sack, temptation comes calling.
And, unfortunately, not everyone passes the test.
Hopefully, with more hamlets taking charge of bingo revenues, the days of hearing about organizations with less money in their bank account than they should have (and no idea where it went) will become a thing of the past.
Bingo isn't going anywhere, and there aren't many who want it to.
There are simply too many valuable organizations and services that depend on it for their life's blood.
More involvement by our hamlets is good for the region. In fact, it's good for Nunavut.
When the day comes when every penny raised is spent on a program that makes our communities healthier and stronger - then we can all jump up and shout bingo!
Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
Development is something that we cannot avoid. In the coming years, we will see the land around us change. It's easy to see that trees will be cut down and tonnes of gravel dumped to create new places to build.
With the possibility of the Mackenzie Gas Project, there will be companies from the south that will want to acquire land around town and use it for their own purposes. A great example of this is the recent blocking of the Navy Road river accessway.
Long used by people who walk their dogs and others who want to get to the river, the road is actually on private land. The company that owns it decided to secure its investment and put up a barricade to keep the public off the land.
While the land isn't developed, who knows what's planned for the future. The company may just be preparing the community for the inevitable: a fenced lot with no access to the waterfront whatsoever.
This may be the time for the town office to wake up and develop the road that has been in the works for so long.
Dog walkers, mushers, fishermen, elders and anyone else who uses that access in the summer time will know that this comes as an inconvenience. One guy I talked to used to take his two dogs out to the open area for some exercise.
He said he preferred the secluded area because his dogs have a tendency to be hyper. It makes perfect sense and nobody was getting hurt.
Some other people said they want to park their boats out on the old federal dock at the end of the road on the beach so no one steals their gas. I guess there have been complaints about the main boat launch.
Maybe the people who are leaving their boats out on the Navy access road should lobby the town for a secure marina space, instead of hiding them in the brush.
People in town need to realize that private land is private for a reason. The owner has every right to seal off their property.
The town also needs to recognize the need for an access road in that area, which serves travellers from outlying communities as well as truckers who transport goods through the passage.
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
Take a festival with events, entertainment and fair weather, add a few people and presto, there will undoubtably be a number of individuals who are showing the effects of drinking alcoholic beverages of one kind or another.
The likelihood of people noticeably drinking increases exponentially if the event is held on a long weekend For many, long weekends are tailor-made for enjoying a few, and sometimes a few too many drinks. All of this is to be expected in adults and, unfortunately, the same can often be said for people under the age of 19 who are not supposed to have access to alcohol.
A resident of Fort Providence is raising her voice about what she judged as out-of-control drinking by youth during the Mackenzie Days festival over the civic holiday long weekend.
The truth, however, is that this is not an issue limited to Fort Providence and Mackenzie Days. It's not an issue limited to the Northwest Territories or even to Canada.
It's also definitely not a new issue.
Underage drinking happens in many places, probably everywhere that youth have access to alcohol.
For many societies and cultures, it's a rite of passage.
Few people make it through their teenage years without gathering a number of stories involving that time they had a bit too much of something to drink, did a number of crazy things and then felt horribly sick the next morning, afternoon or even evening.
If you are through your teen years or even early 20s and don't have at least one of these stories, you may be found lacking by your peers.
But with that said, it doesn't make underage drinking right.
Legally, no one under the age of 19 is allowed to purchase alcohol but that doesn't mean that in practice they don't get a hold of it and, of course, drink it.
Should teens be teetotallers? My best wishes go out to anyone who believes they could enforce that.
Instead, it comes down to a question of what level of drinking is acceptable.
The Northwest Territories Addiction Survey released this year and conducted in 2004 found that 83.7 per cent of drinkers in the Territories are between the ages of 15-39.
The age group most likely to drink heavily, five or more drinks at a time in a month are those between 15-24. On the front line are parents who have a responsibility to watch out for the welfare of their children.
In some cases, however, parents are not able to do this for a variety of reasons or simply turn a blind eye to excessive underage drinking and the behaviours that can come with it.
At that point, it can be members of the community who watch out for youth and help to ensure they don't irrevocably harm themselves.
In the end, someone has to speak up if things are indeed getting out of hand.
Airing concerns allows the rest of the community to help judge the situation and decide if action is needed.