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Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley should be commended for his proposal to subsidize milk, which will make the product more affordable for Northern families.

The subsidy would allow parents to purchase milk at Yellowknife prices. In some communities people have to pay up to 110 per cent more than the shelf price in the NWT capital.

Health practitioners and Northern residents have often lamented the hardships caused by high milk prices in the North. The high cost of milk has been attributed to dental problems and health issues such as obesity because parents are forced to substitute milk with cheaper products such as pop and sugar-based fruit drinks.

Expected to cost approximately $1.5 million annually, the subsidy is a small price to pay for healthier children. The money spent would be an investment as cost savings will come from a decreased burden on the health system.

The GNWT should take this idea one step further. Aside from milk, remote Northern communities are burdened with high costs for fruit, vegetables and whole grain breads and cereals. In contrast, junk foods such as potato chips are relatively inexpensive.

One idea to help combat the high cost of nutritious foods is to tax junk food high in sugar, fat and or salt content. The criteria would need to be researched to determine a fair list of what foods would be taxed.

Funds generated through the tax could then be used to subsidize healthy alternatives.

The current cost of healthy natural food in the North is persuading shoppers to buy products that, consumed regularly, contribute to health problems. A tax would merely level the playing field.

In 2005, a Human Resources and Social Development Canada report showed the Northwest Territories and Nunavut had the highest national obesity rate.

Obesity leads to a host of health problems ranging from diabetes to heart disease. It also contributes to a number of social problems stemming from poor self-image.

It might not be the cure-all for Northern social and health problems, but helping people gain access to healthier foods is a good start for creating healthier communities.

The GNWT has other initiatives to assist with healthier Northern diets. One is the Northern Food Guide. A subsidy to reduce the cost of healthy food is the next step.

Forty-six candidates. Two acclamations. One riding failed to attract candidates before the nomination deadline.

Four people have since stepped forward in the South Baffin riding and will run in a by-election.

It's a puzzling situation, given the election trends in Nunavut's short history. In 2004, there were 82 candidates and 93.7 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. In the first Nunavut election in 1999, there were 69 candidates and 88.6 per cent of voters cast ballots.

When Nunavut was created, there were high hopes for its new government.

"It is our intention ... to set a high standard of principles to guide senior public servants, those seeking office and those elected to the new government. This government is for the people and people should have confidence in all their officials," said Commissioner Jack Anawak in 1998 about the creation of an Ethics and Accountability in Government panel prior to Nunavut's first election.

Well, the people may be losing confidence in their officials and it's not hard to guess why. The behaviour of Nunavut's territorial leaders during the last assembly wasn't exactly of the highest standard.

The business credit corporation was mismanaged, dispersing $18 million in loans with either poor or no documentation.

A finance minister violated Nunavut's Integrity Act by keeping abreast of his own companies' business dealings.

A former housing minister stopped paying his own mortgage.

The premier called the head of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities an obscene name at a public event and was sued.

The president of the Status of Women Council was forced to resign or lose her government job after she criticized the government.

A women's group protested when an MLA with a conviction for a violent act against a woman was named to cabinet.

And regular members had to officially censure the cabinet when a long-term office-space lease in Cambridge Bay was renewed without being put out to tender.

Breaches of integrity mar the legislative assembly's reputation. Voter distrust and the scrutiny from others' dishonourable acts may have discouraged many worthy candidates from running for the legislative assembly.

Fewer choices is never ideal in a democracy. Nunavut needs fresh ideas and new perspectives in order to keep moving forward.

Let's hope voter turnout in the Oct. 27 election doesn't follow the trend set by candidate registration.

So a bison almost killed me. It's a funny thing to say, especially from someone born in Eastern Canada where we only see bison when we pay our admission fee to the city zoo, or in the form of a $30 steak at the local eatery. So instead of gazing in amazement of the glorious bison, or dousing it in A1 steak sauce, I was watching my life flash before my eyes, albeit slow, due to the fact I was going 30 clicks.

From the side of a house it streaked out in front of me as I hit a small turn in the road. Bison seem like slow, stupid animals, but man, they can really move when they want to, probably faster than myself. Actually, if I were a betting man, I'd be putting my money down on the hairy beast (for those that might be thinking otherwise, I meant the bison). I cursed at the burly mammal as it gave me a blank stare. Talking to locals afterwards however, I learned they couldn't see you when they are looking straight ahead but can only see you from the side. The Creator must have had an error message pop up during the bison-making process and had to restart the animal design system.

It was my first encounter with a bison and I can tell you now, if I lived around them for a long period of time, I would dislike them just as much as people in Fort Providence do. I was at the local saloon having a 'sarsaparilla' that evening and the barkeep told me they had actually thought about putting them all on trucks and shipping them out of town. Seems like a good idea to me, I thought, I would get quite tired of stepping in their conveniently placed steamy piles of - well - you get the point, every time I took my dogs out.

It's odd being an East Coast boy and seeing a large animal, a wild one at that, somewhat domesticated. They're like big, ugly cows that just roam the streets, pooping where they please and going where they want - hence the high number of broken fences in the hamlet, two for every normal one by my guess.

If I had a fence around my yard, it would be electrically charged, not a deathly big charge but enough to make there eyes bulge. I'm not promoting cruelty towards the bison, but an example has to be set. Hopefully they aren't really stupid, like the lemming and copy what their counterpart has done. My power bill that month would make my bank account cry a little.

Or maybe, I would just train them to do my every bidding, the first point of order being to stop eating my lawn. I wonder if they could produce a paper for me?

Andrew Livingstone is the interim editor for the Deh Cho Drum while editor Roxanna Thompson is on holidays.

Where can we go from here? Another rash of youth vandalism has the town talking about change and questioning policing efforts such as the curfew.

For a lot of people in this community, youth violence and vandalism is nothing new. We all grew up with it.

Some of us were the ones who lived in fear of bullies and wouldn't dare to walk the streets at night.

Others were involved in shady activities such as senseless damage to public and private property and worse.

Now we have a new member of our community who won't go out at night for fear of ridicule and harassment (see story page 16).

That nice young woman is scarred by the actions of bad apples.

Every year we have to deal with angry cab drivers who are being abused by youth.

Our lives are being affected every day by roving bands of unruly teens.

Years ago, the community had meetings about youth activity. Last year, there was a massive meeting about the effects a curfew would have on the town.

All of the major players in town met again last week to discuss what could be done.

I'm all for finding a solution but we can't keep bringing the same people back to the drawing board because, frankly, they can't find a way to fix this.

The sad thing is that most of the problem lies in the values of our region.

People were brought up a certain way and now they're raising their kids the same way.

Nobody is learning anything new which is something that needs to be addressed.

I would suggest training be offered to parents on how to discipline their offspring, without resorting to violence.

Somewhere in the last few decades, people stopped disciplining their kids and now we have a generation of smart-alec young people who think they're untouchable.

People are talking about how most of the population is suffering from the actions of a minority of the people in town.

With no bylaw officer on the streets and a lack of police presence, people are losing faith in the justice system.

We need to make a stand against this sort of behaviour. Of course, we can't have people taking the law into their own hands but something needs to be done and soon.

I've typed my fingers sore in past editorials about youth, at first backing them up and giving them the benefit of the doubt, but things are looking bleak.

Yes, most kids are good but they need to start taking action, too.

I've said it many times before that our little society is ruled by factions and peer pressure.

If the youth of the town were convinced we as adults were united against their bad behaviour, it would change.

Unless we're all willing to get our hands dirty and change the way we live and act with each other, there's no use in getting worked up when our kids turn into hoodlums.

Anyone paying attention for the past decade knows the gap between the haves and havenots in Nunavut is growing wider all the time.

Now it appears, judging by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) president Paul Kaludjak's remarks this past month concerning Nunavut's Education Act, the gap between those with a firm grasp of reality in this territory and those living in their own little world has also widened.

Kaludjak claims the legislation is flawed and was passed against the advice of all Inuit organizations.

But, what was truly shocking was the president's contention that local district education authority (DEA) members and teachers do not represent ordinary Inuit.

NTI seems set on hiding behind the shield of what it views as southern curriculum and the pervasive English language as the sole reasons why only 35 per cent of all Inuit who start Grade 10 graduate.

NTI is obsessed with lowering teaching credentials to increase the number of Inuit teachers and dumbing-down the curriculum as an illadvised way to increase the number of graduates. The land claims organization has lost touch with reality.

And statements like the ones made this past month show NTI as teetering on the edge of relevance with territorial policy making.

We're not in the business of embarrassing anyone, but has NTI noticed the number of educators and affluent Inuit who have sent their kids to the south to finish high school and prepare for postsecondary studies during the past few years?

Does that indicate our educational standards are too high? Too high for whom? The ordinary Inuit NTI refers to? If that's what NTI is selling, we're not buying.

Most educators and DEA members who supposedly do not represent ordinary Inuit have a much firmer grasp on the issues than NTI, judging by the path it wants to follow.

Those frontline educators and involved community members know many of the problems facing our educational system have little to do with legislation.

Small schools lacking more qualified local teachers could be seen at the top of the heap when it comes to the challenges faced by education, but that's mainly because there's far too much reliance on the system itself.

Too often, teachers are expected to be guidance counsellors, disciplinarians, athletic coaches, group leaders and advice givers while there is next to no focus being placed on family support or management in the home.

Add the abnormally high number of specialneed students who are receiving next to no specialized instruction and the territory's terrible literacy rate, and you don't have to be a genius to realize there's no magic bullet dressed up as an Education Act.

And we don't need to spend millions to discuss the matter for another 10 years to arrive at the same conclusion.

NTI should continue to pressure the Nunavut government to increase the power of local DEAs to match the level of responsibility they shoulder, rather than start viewing them as not representing ordinary Inuit.

Maybe if its leaders spent more time with the little people, NTI may realize how connected teachers and DEAs truly are to ordinary Inuit.

Of course, that would take a whole lot of smartening up instead of dumbing down.