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Hearing that you're out of a job is devastating.

That's the stark reality that cold-cocked 128 Snap Lake diamond mine employees on Feb. 24.

Another 90 contractors are also out of work. As the news filtered through our city, Yellowknifers snapped to attention.

Times are tough and, while not as battered as some southern centres, we're not being spared.

Not all job loses are equal, at least from a local economic standpoint. Of the 128 people laid off from De Beer's Snap Lake mine, 13 were Yellowknifers.

Most of the Snap Lake contractors are considered to be Northerners.

Less of an attention grabber, but still very significant, word came last week that five diamond cutters and polishers at Arslanian Cutting Works lost their jobs.

Those layoffs followed the shutdown of Laurelton Diamonds, which put close to 40 people out of work.

Other sectors are feeling the pinch, too. Yellowknife-based charter airline Arctic Sunwest announced last week that it would be cutting more than 20 employees. This comes after Discovery Air axed six positions.

It's a disturbing trend in the shadow of a contracting global economy.

Many of the people who have lost their source of income live in our city. Some of them may have come from overseas to fill the jobs with their experience and expertise, but once here they bought homes, rented apartments, purchased groceries and services and paid local taxes. Every bit as important, these people and their family members represented $25,000 each ($100,000 for a family of four annually) in federal transfer payments for the NWT.

Some of those families may very well try their luck with the troubled job market down south because the North is an expensive place to live when you don't have a high-paying job. Therefore Yellowknife could easily be facing loses of millions of dollars with their departures.

That's badly needed money in this part of the country.

We still have our anchors. The territorial government, which employs thousands of Yellowknifers, is holding steady in these slow economic times, choosing not to chop jobs as threatened over the past year.

But we do not have any specific commitments from the federal government that could boost the economy in the NWT capital. Social housing money of $50 million for the entire territory contained in the January federal budget may create a blip here. Regulatory and consultation money towards a Mackenzie Valley pipeline, amounting to $37.6 million, will also be small potatoes for Yellowknife.

The headquarters of a promised Northern development agency, which has $50 million over five years attached to it, could make a substantial difference, however. Not only would basing the agency here bring new employees and occupy office space, it would attract more bright business minds and bolster Yellowknife's accommodations and service sector through numerous conferences and workshops.

That's stimulus we could use.

Interviewing children is always an interesting experience.

When I ask a question to an adult most of the time I have a fairly good idea what sort of an answer I'm going to get in return. With children there's a wild card aspect that comes into play.

Children see things from different perspectives and generally aren't afraid to make blunt comments, the kind you learn to tone down as you grow older. As a result, getting an answer from a child can be an enlightening experience.

While working on an article for this week's paper on the NWT School Curling Championship I spent some time talking with young curlers from Fort Simpson who competed in the event.

Competed, however, is almost the wrong word to use in this context. Bompas elementary school and Thomas Simpson school did send seven teams to the championship, and because they were playing against other teams it was a kind of competition. But this was not how many of the young players saw it.

Through the conversations I had with them it became evident that they were in Hay River to curl, but not because there were medals on the line.

As their coach Berni Leader pointed out, even in the finals the teams had no real concept of who was ahead in points even though the students were in charge of posting the scores. The winning team in the little rock final didn't even realize they'd won until someone told them when the game finished.

All of the games during the tournament were like that, said Leader.

The students were there not for glory or bragging rights, but because they enjoy curling and they think it's fun. This is not an Earth-shattering revelation but it is a refreshing break after two months that were full of adult sport competitions in the Deh Cho.

Adults, like children, playsports because they find them enjoyable and fun but in a tournament setting things start to change.

It's easy to see when players cross that line as they become increasingly frustrated or elated depending on how their team is doing. One team ends up smiling more while the players on the other team grimace and sometimes avoid eye contact with each other.

Sports stories about adult competitions involve words like "battle", "struggle", "defeat", "slaughter" and "victory" because, for adults, who wins and who loses becomes paramount.

It's impossible to say when or why winning becomes so important. Maybe the urge to win is always there, even in children, and it just becomes more pronounced over time until it takes most of the fun out of a sport.

Adults can recapture some of what they've lost by watching children at sporting events. Seeing the joy in their faces, regardless of whether or not they're the best player or their team is winning or losing, is enough to remind adults about what's actually important when it comes to sports.

By the time you read this, council will have already decided on the fate of bylaw #2430/L +P/07 section 5.9 (2).

Members met Wednesday to vote on whether to leave unchanged the law which bans drivers 70-years-old or older from getting a cab licence, or abolish it.

Mayor Derek Lindsay announced at Monday's committee of the whole meeting that he would be instigating the vote, throwing his support behind banning it. Since his vote was the tie-breaker that resulted in the bylaw being implemented in November 2007, it looks near certain this bylaw will be no more.

What's particularly refreshing about this story is how it got to this point. One man, Frank Fulop, who's at least 70 (though he won't tell us his exact age) was informed by the town that he wouldn't be able to renew his licence. So he challenged the people who made the law. With the help of Rob Cook, the pair arrived at Monday's meeting armed with a detailed presentation complete with the relevant section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which showed the weakness of the bylaw.

There was also a gathering of Fulop's taxi driver colleagues and concerned residents. The support present there and the growing community support for Fulop's cause influenced Lindsay's decision. It was a perfect example of democracy in action. Here was a small group of citizens banding together to enact change in an intelligent, civilized manner.

Councillor Terry Halifax made a valuable point when he mentioned there was no input from residents when the bylaw was originally voted on. Like so often is the case, residents challenge governments only when there's an urgent problem needing urgent attention.

But for any government to work at its best, for the people by the people, an active citizenry is needed. Our representatives are put into power by the people and therefore they're accountable to you.

It's hard not to empathize with Fulop, who has provided a dependable service to Inuvik residents for the last three decades. To have one's livelihood taken away strictly because of age hardly seems fair, not to mention it appears to conflict with the charter. Lindsay is right to point out that unless a cab driver has a specific impairment making them dangerous drivers, they should be free to make a living.

In fairness, governing bodies are sometimes forced to make sweeping, and occasionally seemingly unfair laws in order to deal with a recurring problem. Lindsay said reckless driving among some senior taxi drivers had become a problem and council attempted to deal with it. The bylaw was enacted after an extremely tight vote.

The mayor deserves credit for admitting he may have acted prematurely back in November 2007.

Now let's see how closely the public watches policy development on council.

Hundreds of angry demonstrators and regular MLAs made cabinet capitulate and commit to returning to the drawing board on the idea of board mergers.

In Yellowknife, the government was prepared to combine the public and Catholic school boards with housing and health boards.

The idea of a single school board created an uproar, but the idea shouldn't be abandoned yet. The problem is Michael Miltenberger, the cabinet minister leading the merger plan, took a dictatorial approach. He failed to explain the problems that come with having two school boards.

While having a choice is a worthy ideal, there is money flying out the window from having two boards. Proof comes by way of public schools that are far from full - there were 650 empty seats in 2006. Rather than sharing with the public school board any more than they had to, the Catholic board pressured the GNWT to pick up a $1.6 million tab for five portable classrooms.

While streamlining boards should not mean taking away our right to vote for elected representatives, we should closely examine extraordinary costs and duplication in having two boards.

Once the costs for a Catholic education are determined, it may be time for a plebiscite asking Catholics and their supporters whether they're willing to pay a premium for their religious education. Or whether the majority of Yellowknifers want to continue supporting two boards, thereby giving themselves a choice for their children's education.

Writing off nearly $3 million in debt owed by the Nunavut government to Stanton Territorial Hospital offers yet another reason why the public is losing confidence in Sandy Lee.

The $2.9 million will go toward feeding Stanton's staggering $11 million debt.

The health minister says forgiving Nunavut's debt now is better than "spending more time talking about what has happened for the last eight years" since division.

Tell that to the seniors and middle-class families with huge medical expenses who witnessed the minister turn her back on them. Lee wanted to introduce a supplementary health plan to better serve lower income residents but it would have been on the backs of non-aboriginal seniors and the middle class.

Extended health care and catastrophic drug coverage cost the government $7 million last year, a relatively small piece of the Health and Social Services $308 million pie.

Though she is waving a white flag now, Lee initially chose to ruffle a whole bunch of feathers here in the NWT while brushing off the Nunavut government's fiscal irresponsibility. It creates a perception that the minister is losing control over her portfolio.

Lee is correct when she says programs and services at Stanton will suffer without patients from the Kitikmeot, which seems to imply that those patients would be permanently lost should her department cut services to the region.

But who's got who over a barrel here? It's Nunavut that depends on the NWT for hospital services, not the other way around.

Lee and the territory would be better off if she played hardball with Nunavut rather than with seniors and working families in the NWT.

Sometimes tough decisions need to be made.

Other times decisions are made to look tougher than they actually are, thanks to the spin put out by groups with a vested interest in the outcome.

So it is right now with the Baker Lake concerned citizens committee's attempts to block Areva Resources Canada Inc.'s development of a uranium mine about 80 kilometres west of Baker.

Some developments have been nothing short of incredulous, to say the least.

We all know the best way to attract a crowd in the Kivalliq, no matter what the subject, is to offer free stuff.

We also know opinions solicited in this manner are suspect at best.

So, the concerned citizens committee can honk its horn all it wants about 60 per cent of the people showing up to a public meeting submitting negative comments about uranium mining.

The majority of them - reportedly close to 70 people - likely had no inclination to voice an opinion at all until the Hamlet of Baker Lake provided the Hunters and Trappers Organization with $1,000 to help with the process of gathering public comments.

What an eloquent way of describing the purchase of prizes to buy opinions.

The makeup of the folks who showed up also constituted somewhat of a stacked deck, with many being hunters, fishers and elders.

Areva's proposal is being screened by the Nunavut Impact Review Board to decide whether it should be subject to a full environmental review.

Led by environmental activist Joan Scottie, the concerned citizens committee also wants an investigation into how the Nunavut Planning Commission decided Areva's proposal passed every stipulation in the Keewatin Regional Land Use Plan.

The committee says Areva's proposal should be proven to be approved by the people of the region.

Its suggestion to resolve the issue once and for all is to hold a plebiscite.

Those opposed to uranium mining also question why the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Hamlet of Baker Lake - which both support the Areva proposal - should be looked upon as the voice of the people.

Well, that's why we vote for elected bodies to deal with such matters.

If you don't trust elected officials to deal with issues, and want plebiscites conducted on every matter that deals with public interest, why have elected representatives at all?

Much of the rhetoric being used by the committee in regards to tailings and contamination is decades old.

Yes, there was a time the word of a mining company wasn't worth much, but those days are gone because of severe restrictions, numerous review processes and site monitoring the companies must now adhere to.

Areva's proposal will help Baker evolve and prosper, if it ever reaches fruition.

Elders can pine for things to stay the same, and hunters and fishers can want their agendas followed, but that won't help young families own their own homes and become financially stable.

That comes with well paying, secure jobs with solid benefit packages and that's what Areva will be offering.

In fact, Areva is offering a brighter future in a monitored environment that respects the land and all those dependent upon it.

Why were students in Colville Lake denied education time? Because Public Works and Services couldn't get its act together quick enough to fix a faulty furnace?

For at least two weeks the small 23-student school has been intermittently disrupted when the furnace cut out.

It is unacceptable that Colville students' education suffered because of a problem as simple as a broken furnace. Every missed day, every missed class counts.

Even on days that classes were not cancelled students would sit in colder than ideal conditions, a factor that would make it difficult to learn. Math doesn't get easier when you can't feel your toes and fingers.

According the school's principal, problems with the furnace began two years ago and then became chronic earlier this month. Two years is a long time to deal with faulty equipment, especially a heating system in a community that relies on a furnace for most of the year. Oil furnaces require annual maintenance, especially when one reaches the 15-year mark. The furnaces are designed to last for at least two decades, if properly maintained.

The unreliability of the unit in Colville Lake school had obviously reached the point where it should have been replaced, but it took a couple of years of hardship to get to this point.

The fact that Public Works claims not to have heard of the problem until Feb. 5 of this year speaks to poor communication between the department and the building maintainer.

It also means the department needs to take a close look at its regular maintenance and replacement schedule.

The school's principal did all he could to try and ensure classes went on by trading late-night and early-morning shifts with the building maintainer to restart the furnace when it failed. He even set the threshold to cancel classes at a chilly sub-room-temperature of 15 C.

The Department of Education should intervene and take up the cause with Public Works in such instances for the sake of keeping teachers happy.

Here's a principal who, while filling a vital role in Colville Lake, has been saddled with a significant hurdle in a learning environment.

Teachers already take on many volunteer and extracurricular activities. It's too much for the government to expect them to serve as tradespeople on a casual basis as well.

Remote communities deserve the same attention as bigger centres like Yellowknife, and this problem screams of neglect.

When Premier Eva Aariak and her cabinet met recently to set their government's priorities for the next four to five years, they flagged two areas in need of urgent improvement, among others: communications and the meeting the needs of the most vulnerable Nunavummiut.

The gravity of the latter issue was made clear by the YWCA and Agvvik Society's attempt to arrange operational funding for its new shelter for homeless women.

Sivummut House will supplement the YWCA's existing 21-bed Qimaavik shelter for women fleeing abuse. As of last October Qimaavik was 97 per cent full.

The YWCA went to the Department of Health and Social Services last September with a funding proposal. After five months of meetings and examining proposals and budgets, Health and Social Services told the YWCA its proposal didn't fall under the department's mandate.

The department said it told the YWCA this earlier. In that case the message was not delivered.

Now a few months away from its opening date in April, the YWCA and Agvvik Society have to start all over again in seeking operating funds, this time from the minister whose responsibilities include homelessness, housing and the Qulliq Energy Corporation.

Granted, over the past five months the government has been in flux following an election, a temporary distribution of portfolios, and a redistribution of portfolios after the appointment of a final cabinet minister.

But homeless women are arguably the most vulnerable people in Nunavut. According to the November 2007 pan-territorial report on female homelessness, "You just blink and it can happen," women are among the fastest-growing groups in the homeless and at-risk populations. Homeless women "couch-surf" with friends and family, or sacrifice other necessities of life such as food or medical care or trade sex for shelter, putting themselves and their children at risk.

With better communication between the government and the public, the YWCA would not have had to wait five months before finding out they were looking for money in the wrong place.

The shelter's struggle for funding highlights two of the issues the new territorial government admits need fixing and has made its priorities.

What remains to be seen is whether progress will be made in the next four to five years. But operational funding for Sivummut House is a necessary step in the right direction.