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Nobody should fault city council for aiming to keep Yellowknife's downtown clean, but council left itself open to criticism for not giving local businesses a chance to bid on new garbage and recycling bins.

Last week council was poised to purchase six dual bin containers from a Whitehorse-based company for $10,500, until a Yellowknife business complained that it had been overlooked.

Since the Oct. 27 council meeting, our municipal leaders have wisely reconsidered and will evaluate what the local company has to offer.

"Shop local. It's our tax dollars they're spending and they're sending the work out," said Sandra Elliott, co-owner of Fibreglass North.

Council is not bound to shop locally, but it's a good practice. Taking on contracts from outside the city is understandable, so long as there are no companies within Yellowknife suited to the task at a reasonable price.

By not giving fair consideration to local businesses, city council would not be putting Yellowknife's economy on equal footing.

That should be a primary point for our elected officials to keep in mind when preparing public contracts.

Chalk one up for road safety and improved fish habitat - perhaps a strange combination but one that seems to be a success.

The Kam Lake culvert, long an eyesore and a dangerous spot on Kam Lake Road, received an overdue overhaul this year. The city replaced a pair of small steel pipes with one larger one and straightened out the notorious "s" in the road where Grace Lake flows into Kam Lake.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, with help from Trout Unlimited, did its part by monitoring the project and planting poplar trees along the banks to guard against erosion.

When the city announced the $480,000 project last year, its purpose was twofold: to make the road wider with greater visibility to prevent collisions with vehicles, dog sledders, snowmobilers and pedestrians; and to make it easier for fish to migrate up the connecting stream to spawn.

There are many winners here. The section of road is no longer as dangerous, snowmobilers and dog sledders will be able to easily pass through the culvert and no longer have to cross the road, and fish are already seeming to benefit from the changes. Large numbers of whitefish were seen spawning in the outflow over the weekend.

There is even more good news: the new road now covers over the old parking area where a large amount of trash had accumulated over the years.

The new parking area is on the other side of the road. Hopefully, now that the culvert has been spruced up, visitors will be more inclined to keep it clean.

The planets are aligning for the battle over the polar bear quota cuts in Kivalliq to step up a notch.

Members of the Kivalliq Wildlife Board have been upset since the Nunavut government decided to lower the polar bear quota for 200809 to eight bears in the Western Hudson Bay area.

The traditional quota was 56 bears divided among the communities of Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Whale Cove, Chesterfield Inlet and Baker Lake.

That number was reduced to 38 during the 200708 season and slashed to eight for 200809.

Science and traditional knowledge are strongly opposed on this matter, with science claiming the bears are in danger and elders and hunters saying the predators' numbers are as strong as ever.

The term civil disobedience was bandied about again this past week during the Kivalliq Inuit Association's (KIA) AGM this past week in Rankin Inlet. The latest reported findings of an aerial survey conducted in Manitoba aren't going to do much to cool things down either.

The study covers most of the inland range in the Western Hudson Bay area.

A September aerial survey is reported to have counted 266 bears; the largest number recorded in that survey. In addition, many bears were reported to have been able to stay out on the ice until well into August this year.

As much as these findings seem to support the viewpoint of the hunters, one good year of weather that exposed a seal den bonanza to the Churchill-area bears and kept the ice from breaking up early is no reason to give science the boot.

To properly protect the bear populations in the Western Hudson Bear area, science and traditional knowledge have to work in co-operation, not as adversaries.

But, evidence continues to mount that suggests both sides hold little more than disdain for each other, let alone respect.

This is another path that leads to quotas being set by political pressure rather than research and observation.

A number of wildlife board members have stated the Nunavut government takes nothing Inuit say seriously on the issue and refuses to listen to the hunters and elders.

Yet, those same members and hunters are quick to dismiss anything that comes from researchers as nothing more than fear mongering.

This is not the type of rhetoric conducive to a productive relationship.

Instead of calling for civil disobedience - dramatic but rarely effective - maybe it's time for the KIA to attempt to become an arbitrator, of sorts, in the disagreement and call the sides back together.

No insults or accusations would be allowed, rather, the two sides would have to sit down and actually discuss ways to effectively work together and honestly evaluate what each brings to the table.

It would be a feather in the cap of anyone who could get researchers and hunters honestly working together.

Maybe then we would see some advancement in ways to meet the very real needs of Inuit and still be able to protect the bear population.

Why does this always have to be a huge problem for so many smart people on both sides of the fence?

Every town has its longstanding grocery store and TJ's Grocery has been an integral part of the Fort Simpson community for many years. It faces yet another battle for survival.

Sometime next year a new truck stop will be open for business in Fort Simpson. The $4-million project spearheaded by Liidlii Kue First Nations, Trademark and international food service conglomerate Sodexho will provide something new for the community, bringing jobs and money to the area. While this is all fine and dandy there are some issues that need to be addressed.

When the Northerner opened up in Fort Simpson, TJ's experienced strain from having to compete with a corporate grocery store, losing business to the cheaper more complete store. Now, with a company like Sodexho setting up shop in the community, it's going to make things even more difficult for the little guy to compete and the community could see the demise of the lone local grocer.

The two local restaurants will also face a challenge to their current dynamic. With a new restaurant going in at the truck stop, competition increases. In a small community, when a new restaurant is available after having limited options for so long, it's bound to affect the longstanding eateries. I'm not saying competition is bad. The problem lies in the fact the competition isn't coming from a local entrepreneur.

Also, there is a chance workers employed at the 50 man executive camp might come from outside the region.

There are more than a dozen people in Fort Simpson trained and certified to run a camp and catering service like the one being built, but there is a chance this work might not go to them.

All these issues beg the question as to why LKFN didn't look to go into business with a local entrepreneur. Rather than inviting in a faceless corporation to set up shop and suck the local economy dry they could have paired up with someone in the community interested in being a part of the project.

This project is part of LKFN's self-sufficiency initiative to alleviate some of the dependence on federal money.

It's great to see them taking the bull by the horns and creating money making opportunities to improve their current financial state and improve services they offer to their membership, but it's coming at the expense of businesses and people in the community.

It's a David versus Goliath scenario - except David's slingshot isn't going to be as effective as it once was.

Inuvik Town Council is under scrutiny this week as one of their own is accused of writing controversial posts on a national news website.

Comments left on a website forum about the federal election are being attributed to a member of the council.

How are we to know who really made those comments without tracking an IP address and even more techno-babble?

Officials in town council say the comments are all anonymous.

There are two sides to this issue: the people who want the person who wrote the post to be held accountable and the people who think it's been blown out of proportion.

Some are arguing since the member of council is an elected official, anything he or she has to say should be at the mercy of the people.

Others say a person's private life and his or her online opinions are no one else's business and should be separate from the business of the town council.

Regardless of what you think about what was said, town council has enough to do without being distracted with any personal conflict its members have going.

At a recent public meeting hosted by the town, residents of Kingalok Place voiced their need for more services to their aging cul-de-sac.

I'm sure town officials will have lots to do in that park and surrounding road.

Another huge hole we need to address is the vacuum we call our bylaw officer position.

With two postings out for the job and one candidate who isn't in town yet, we need someone to step up and take control of the matter.

There is one person on the town payroll who is certified as a bylaw officer and has the authority to hand out tickets and citations; that man is the fire chief and director of protective services.

Town council should be on top of this, keeping our paid officials on duty and up to snuff.

Anyone who has tried to walk from home to work, would also know about the lack of snow-clearing on walkways.

I talked with one person who urged me to write about the poor state of our roads, so there it is.

I understand the town has contracted out its plowing and snow-clearing duties to local businesses, but the people have concerns.

We can't forget about another headache for the town officials in the parking lot at the rec complex.

I swear those massive holes and jutted crevices almost claimed the truck I drive for work.

Even now, with the freezing temperatures, the parking lot is flooded with water.

I've been told this water is runoff from the hill behind the complex because it was flooding while the pool was empty this past September.

With all these things to deal with, the last thing the council needs is to be shrouded in a controversy like this.

Now, because of the web posts attributed to a councillor, the town is having a closed-door meeting next week to discuss what to do next.

So regardless of who said what and who offended who, the members of town council already have enough to do without picking fights.

It's time to stop blogging anonymous comments on some website and start paying attention to the matters at hand, like the managing of our community.