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Do you hear that sound?

It's Industry Minister Bob McLeod fiddling while the NWT's secondary diamond industry burns down.

The minister told MLAs in the legislative assembly March 11 that Arslanian Cutting Works - the latest diamond polisher on the brink - made "threats" during closed door negotiations earlier in the day, causing the GNWT to pack up and flee.

While McLeod didn't elaborate on what threats were actually made, we do know Arslanian is unhappy with a policy clause that forbids NWT diamond polishing plants from selling surplus Northern-mined rough diamonds to polishing plants outside the territory.

"We're not going to take a knee-jerk reaction to some threats that were made on a moment's notice," said McLeod.

It's strange he would say that when it could be argued the minister responded to a similar set of urgent circumstances when he agreed to bail out Discovery Air in January with $34 million from the shadowy Opportunities Fund.

Was there not a threat - at least an insinuated one - if Discovery didn't get the money, the airline would've folded and put 275 residents out of work?

If McLeod deemed it necessary to bail out one company with millions of dollars to save jobs, why wouldn't he agree to relax the rules for another in crisis? Presumably, the latter action wouldn't put the government on the hook for any more money.

The government won't say but we expect the fear is if polishing plants are allowed to sell unprocessed diamonds, they will scale back their workforce and turn into diamond brokers at the expense of laid off workers. Surely a properly written agreement could prevent that.

One thing is for sure: If McLeod insists on continuing this game of chicken and does nothing, Arslanian and its New York investors may well shut the doors to two Yellowknife plants and shed another 37 jobs.

And then what? Can the NWT still claim to have a secondary diamond industry with only one small plant - Crossworks Manufacturing with 11 workers - left operating in the city?

The global economic crisis has been blamed but the decline in the polishing sector began long ago. In 2005, polished diamonds accounted for 65 per cent of NWT's manufacturing shipments - about $50 million. The polishing industry has been nosediving ever since. This speaks volumes about the territorial government's inability to protect and market this sector, even in the best of times.

Turn to Page 9 of today's Yellowknifer to read McLeod's remarks from just three months ago at the official launch of Crossworks.

He uses words like "emerging" and "vibrant" to describe the industry. McLeod clearly isn't keeping himself well-informed on this file, and in light of last week's failed negotiations, continues to underestimate the problem.

Likewise with Mayor Gord Van Tighem. Mr. Don't-Rock-the-Boat is just on orange alert. Sorry, but he should have been at red alert since at least late January when Laurelton closed its doors and laid off 25 people.

City council likes firing off resolutions aimed at the GNWT. Why not draft one extolling the territorial government to save the secondary diamond industry?

McLeod and his cabinet, meanwhile, must move into crisis mode and avert far reaching damage to the city's and territorial economy.

The GNWT's so-called diamond policies touted by McLeod are killing the diamond polishing industry. It's time to give it a reason to survive.

Credit should be given where it's due, and those who devote their time and energy to projects that benefit their communities deserve a lot of praise.

These days, everyone seems to have a busy life and schedule, but some people find time to devote to community-minded projects. One current example is the group of residents in Fort Simpson working to further the Heritage Centre project.

The building - the former Sacred Heart rectory located on the village's main street - is the pet project of the Fort Simpson Historical Society and the Open Sky Creative Society. Looking at the building in its current state with boarded windows and faded, peeling paint, it's hard to see what the project's enthusiasts see.

In their imagination, and now in blueprints, they envision a museum, gallery and gathering place. The basement will contain an open space for meetings, performances and coffeehouses while the ground floor will house a museum. Upstairs, there will be room for art displays and offices for both societies.

Transforming a 98-year-old building to suit a new purpose is no easy task. The project has been in the works since before 1995.

Over the years, the project has hit a variety of snags, including obtaining the land for the building and raising the funds to complete the necessary work. On more than one occasion, it seemed like the project was about to reach the tipping point and roll successfully towards completion, but in each case, another problem arose and led to further delays.

Throughout all of these tribulations. members of the two societies have stood by the project and pressed forward after each setback. Some members have been with the project since the very beginning.

Now, with a recently-signed contribution agreement worth $250,000, the societies are once again in a position to do work on the building and move the project forward. When it's completed, the Heritage Centre will be an asset to the community both as a place that can be utilized by local residents, but also as a tourism attraction. At that point it will be clear just how much the volunteers involved in the project have given to Fort Simpson.

Another ongoing example of individuals who volunteer to better their communities is visible in this year's spring carnivals.

The carnival season kicked off in the Deh Cho this week with the Beavertail Carnival in Fort Simpson. Next on the calendar is the Deh Cho Bison Jamboree in Fort Providence from March 22 to 29.

The carnivals bring fun and excitement to many community members and help residents get through the last stretch of winter before spring arrives. The carnivals, however, don't run themselves.

Organizing a successful carnival, like this year's Beavertail Jamboree, takes time, dedication and fundraising. Everyone involved in these carnivals should be recognized for the valuable service they're providing for their communities.

It's been a few weeks since three energy experts showed up to town to hold a meeting on the future of electricity in the NWT.

I still find myself a tad haunted by that meeting, mostly because frankly, it was a waste of time. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Most of the comments made in the meeting, one way or another, emphasized my point.

My definition of a discussion is when two or more people engage in an intelligent conversation. No doubt there was some intelligent debate on display, but pretty basic questions from the audience couldn't be answered.

For example, when one man asked why the Power Corp.'s last general rate application cost $2.2 million, there was no explanation forthcoming. Maybe these experts aren't NWT Power Corp insiders, but someone on hand should have been able to answer such a question of fundamental importance. How that money was spent probably would speak to people's perception that there is, in fact, waste and mismanagement within the ranks of the government-owned company.

It's hard not to be terribly cynical about the public consultation/discussion process when it appears the government has gotten itself in such a mess it's now grasping for straws. It's trying to save face.

Furthermore, what was the government and the host panelists expecting from the March 4 crowd? Everybody wanted the same thing: Give us reasonable energy rates that we can afford, and do it with the least amount of damage to the environment. If the government doesn't know that by now, it's going to take more than three energy experts to enlighten them.

Where are the government's ideas on how to provide sustainable, efficient and reliable sources of electricity? Sure, there were some loose ideas thrown around, but nothing to hold on to. The audience really didn't have anything to work with. If there was some solid proof of investigation put on the table, maybe you'd have yourself a discussion, and maybe audience suggestions could be seriously applied.

What were they expecting residents to show up with - blueprints for a nuclear power plant?

It would be interesting to see how that discussion forum will end up being communicated back to the government.

But maybe after all is said and done, our government isn't really interested in engaging us and really doesn't give a hoot about our thoughts or ideas. Its record on handling the supplementary health program and board reform speaks for itself.

My bet is the next public discussion the government decides to host in Inuvik, you'll have an awfully hard time filling the seats.

Premier Floyd Roland seems to have a one-track mind. No matter what question he's asked, he can somehow manage to fit the words "devolution agreement" in the answer.

That's looking more and more like an excuse for not getting things done.

His most recent attempt to hide behind those words came in talks about bringing federal government jobs to Yellowknife. Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay expressed concern over dozens of recent job postings for Indian and Northern Affairs being located in Ottawa and Quebec rather than in the North. Too many government jobs related to Northern development are located near the capital when they should be in the NWT.

But when Roland addressed the issue, even though he ultimately agrees with Ramsay's point of view, he couldn't help but play his favourite card. A devolution agreement still needs to be reached, he said, before Northerners can lay claim to these jobs.

We echo Ramsay's sentiments when he responded by saying, "devolution or no devolution, the positions should be in the North," along with the badly-needed millions of dollars they would mean for our economy.

The premier needs to make headway on these matters rather than hanging everything on an agreement that hasn't yet been reached.

Yellowknife is a diverse city. Last Canada Day there were individuals from 31 countries sworn in here as Canadian citizens.

However, Yellowknife isn't the attraction for immigrants that it was during the 1950s when gold mines boomed with workers from different countries, like Italy and Germany, for employment, as Ryan Silke's Miners' Tales column in last Friday's Yellowknifer reminded us.

Yellowknife has been strongly shaped by immigrants and continues to be, although territorial regulations these days make it more difficult for new citizens to settle here.

While the economic downturn has robbed the North of jobs over the past few months, the good times will return when commodity prices are back on the upswing - not to mention what the Mackenzie Valley pipeline or a highway extension could mean. As it is, filling service positions in Yellowknife still remains a challenge.

In the Yukon, the Yukon Nominee Program speeds up the process for permanent residency for successful applicants. Yellowknife and the NWT could benefit from a similar program, and there has been talk among our territorial politicians of following that model. Now is the time to act so we'll be in good position when the economy is red hot once again.

It is not just the economy that would benefit, however. Immigrants are an essential part of making our city diverse ethnically and culturally.

Let's ease their way into our community for the good of us all.

I have been quite supportive of many changes made to hockey during the past few years.

The game is more fun to watch with most of the hooking and holding removed, and the moves to have players keep their helmets on during altercations are long overdue.

However, other areas of the game are being attacked by those outside the sport, and some of the recommendations coming from those quarters will prove themselves quite dangerous if implemented.

The latest hubbub comes from a study led by York University on bodychecking in hockey.

The folks of higher academia, upon completing a thorough study, boldly proclaimed bodychecking is associated with an increased risk of injury in minor hockey.

The study reviewed research from Canada, the U.S.A. and Finland and cited bodychecking as a leading cause of injury in minor hockey in those countries.

The next study is expected to confirm tackling is closely associated with injuries on a football field and if you're beaned with a baseball thrown at 70 m.p.h., it hurts.

The followup to this ground breaking study is to suggest bodychecking not be allowed in minor hockey until at least the bantam age group.

Why do these folks fail to grasp the desire of youth to play competitive sports that involve some risk of injury, and why do they have an obsession to attack hockey?

Where are the studies suggesting sponge balls be used in Little League?

Where are the studies recommending youth be forced to play flag football until high school?

And can we please ban those skateboards and Rollerblades before someone gets hurt?

We need to focus on training enough qualified coaches to teach our younger players the proper way to give and take a bodycheck.

Adults who have been driving for many years are the worst to teach proper driving skills because of the bad habits they've developed.

If bodychecking is eliminated until kids turn 13 to 16, more serious injuries, and lots of them, will result.

Many kids have played for eight to 10 years by the time they reach those ages.

The list of bad habits they will form by that point from playing with no fear of being bodychecked by another player is a lengthy one -- skating with their head down, cutting into the middle (trolley tracks), looking down into their skates to retrieve a poor pass, bending over while facing the boards to dig for a puck, etc.

Add to that the elevated levels of testosterone from finally being allowed to bodycheck, and you have hockey's version of a train wreck waiting to happen.

There are many hockey moms and dads who understand this, but there are others who do not and that's where the danger rests.

Those folks, who often had no exposure to the game until their kids took it up, can be swayed by such biased studies to put pressure on minor hockey associations to change their rules.

There is no such thing as creating the perfectly safe arena without totally destroying the sport.

Now there's a concept these researchers should study for a while.

Health Minister Sandy Lee's dithering on the territorial government's proposed milk subsidy shows a greater concern for the bottom line than the health of Northerners.

Lee's comment that milk is not part of a traditional diet may be correct but it is no excuse to do nothing. People's diets have changed since the introduction of the supermarket. While country foods are still consumed, so are chips, pop and frozen dinners.

Here's the key point: pop and chips are much cheaper to buy and therefore are becoming more commonplace in the Northern diet than healthy food choices.

The result is an increasing level of obesity, diabetes and other diet related health issues in Northern children and adults.

Nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin D and calcium are essential to healthy bones, vision and organ development. Vitamin D - found in sunlight - is also said to protect against disorders like multiple sclerosis and is more difficult to come by during the dark Northern winters.

Lee argues that there are other subsidies presently in place to offset the high cost of living in the North. She cites the NWT power subsidy, nutritional food promotion program and the income support food basket as examples.

Although all valuable programs, they fall short of meeting their intended goal. For one, children don't run on electricity; two, at $6 to $9 a litre in remote communities, some people who don't qualify for income support still can't afford milk; three, it does no good to promote food people cannot afford.

Then there is food mail. It's Indian and Northern Affairs' and Canada Post's program that apparently reduces the cost of food in the NWT. A lot of retailers in the territory already use it, yet people still pay ridiculously high costs for anything healthy.

Another of Lee's weak arguments is that the GNWT should not focus a program on one product (what about the power subsidy?) and there are other ways to get the same nutrients that milk provides.

As the health minister, one would think Lee would know a little about health. A nutritionist interviewed by News/North agreed that traditional foods, such as fish heads, can provide the same nutrients as milk. However, that same professional added that acquiring those traditional foods can be difficult -- not to mention not everyone is eager to enjoy such delicacies in their diet. Vegetables and fruit are not always available in the communities either.

Yes, the $1.5 million price tag for the milk subsidy is steep, but it's nothing compared to the cost burden for Northern families forced to choose between the health of their children and paying the bills.

In some communities the cost of milk is outrageous. Nearly $10 for two-litres is a travesty that the government must address.

If Lee doesn't want to apply a subsidy to one product maybe it is time to implement a program that subsidizes the price of milk and all other healthy foods by imposing a sugar and fat tax.

Doing more to promote healthy diets will help offset escalating health costs incurred by the growing number of obese and diabetic individuals in the NWT.

A proposed European Union ban on sealskins threatens to destroy the market for sealskins.

Even though European legislators have added an exemption to allow Inuit to trade seal products for cultural, educational or ceremonial purposes, commercial sales would still be banned.

About 11,000 skins - the entire 2008 Nunavut inventory and leftovers from 2007 - were unsold in January at the annual fur auction in Ontario.

Prices will fall, and, as a result, the Government of Nunavut may drastically cut what it pays hunters for the skins.

Hunters have seen this happen before, in the 1980s when a ban on white-coat seal products in Europe made sealskin unpopular. It's worth noting that the white-coat ban also included an exemption regarding Inuit hunters, but communities were still hit hard by the market crash. Prices dropped as low as $15 a pelt by the mid '90s.

But then the global money market began booming, and the demand for luxury items surged. Fashion designers began featuring real fur, including sealskin, on the runways of Europe. Sealskin sales and prices bounced back, averaging around $70 a pelt in 2005.

But fashion is fickle. The impending ban in Europe has once again made seal unpopular, even though politicians apparently have no similar qualms about leather or silk.

Other seal products have few ready markets. The meat is not popular; Atlantic sealers sell it to be ground up for animal feed. The Asian market for seal penises as aphrodisiacs shrivelled when Viagra came out. And though seal oil is a good source of the omega-3 fatty acids that are a health food trend, omega-3 is also available from fish oil and flax seed oil.

Though designers in Russia and Turkey often use seal in their clothing - and the Russian and Norwegian markets should be explored as alternatives -- the one steady market for sealskin that has endured is that of Nunavut's seamstresses, crafters and artists.

Traditional clothing is arguably superior to those made of modern materials. After all, it has been refined and adapted over thousands of years for protection against one of the harshest climates on Earth. Sealskin mitts, for example, are far warmer and more comfortable than any synthetic product on the market.

Contracts to supply items of winter clothing to mine workers, explorers, or even the Canadian Forces would economically benefit both hunters and craftspeople while helping sustain traditional skills.

As European parliamentarians prepare to vote on a sealskin ban on April 1, which coincides with Nunavut's 10th anniversary, one thing is for certain: Inuit ways are far more enduring than European fashion.