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Reveal those bonuses
Yellowknifer - Friday, July 17, 2009

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Because of its distance from Canada's major centres, Yellowknife has been challenged in its attempts to attract workers, tourists and business but that may change now that access to the city is improving by air.

By opening passenger airline service to the NWT capital this year, WestJet has done more than any government policy or Northern-based airline could in drawing people north. In decreasing the cost of travel here with its low-rate fares, WestJet has made the prospect of living in Yellowknife and doing business here more feasible. Ours is a city and a territory that relies on affordable transportation. In providing it, the airline is helping open up the North.

The effect of the discount airline's service to Yellowknife so far - in this exceptional time of economic recession - has been to drive fares down and retain traveller's interest in flying.

Overall passenger traffic at Yellowknife Airport, according to airport manager Steve Loutitt, has increased by only hundreds of people. Loutitt told Yellowknifer, however, that in the context of the economic recession "we would expect passenger volume to go down."

In the midst of the economic downturn, "everyone's talking about declines," said Loutitt, pointing out that other airports have typically experienced declines in passenger traffic on the order of seven to 10 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Such results are a good sign for Yellowknife. Stable passenger numbers now, in a city with an exceptionally high cost of living, and in a time of recession, mean that passenger traffic could very well show great increases once the economy recovers.

Gripe as they may about losing business in the short term, Northern airlines should ultimately benefit from increased passenger traffic into Yellowknife.

As decreased airfares help highlight the NWT capital on the map, Northern airlines can gain by fulfilling their role as passenger carriers throughout the North itself, from the central hub of Yellowknife. Rather than complain, territory-based airlines must make the most of the increased passenger traffic that WestJet's low fares have encouraged.

First Air's Mike Olson told Yellowknifer last week retailers should also be worried about the incursion of a low-cost airline like WestJet because it may encourage residents to take cheap flights south and purchase goods in places like Edmonton. That's a glass-half-empty point of view. There's also an argument to be made that residents who are saving so much money on airfare will have more to spend at various Yellowknife businesses.

Competition should be embraced, not shunned.

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Backyard tourists
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, July 16, 2009

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Deh Cho residents are lucky.

Summer's here and with it has come the annual migration of people who are taking summer vacations. In these economically uncertain times, however, not everyone can afford to escape to far-flung destinations.

But if you live in the Deh Cho you may be in luck. The beauty of living in the region is you don't have to go very far to see and do things people living in southern Canada would have to travel far from home to experience.

Residents of the Deh Cho have a backyard full of vacation destinations whether they just want to get away for a night or the weekend or if a longer stay is in order. We have the luxury of not having to go far to get away from the hustle and bustle of jobs and daily responsibilities.

But living close to these natural wonders often means we take them for granted and are often the last to use them. Two celebrations scheduled for this week will draw attention back to our gems.

The first is a park expansion community celebration that will take place in Fort Simpson on July 16. Dehcho First Nations and Parks Canada are getting together to celebrate the recent expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve.

At the event, members of the public will have the chance to see and possibly meet a number of big name guests from the federal government including Chuck Strahl, the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, as well as Jim Prentice, the minister of the Environment and Parks Canada.

The celebration in Fort Simpson will hopefully strengthen the fact the Deh Cho has reason to be proud of the expanded park and should take the opportunity to visit it if possible.

Also coming up is a Canada's Parks Day event in Fort Simpson on July 18. This is the 20th anniversary of the day that showcases parks and historical sites across the country.

The size of the park doesn't matter. They can be national, provincial, territorial, regional or community parks. The Deh Cho is home to a range of parks, each with its own attractions and unique features.

If these events aren't enough to rekindle an interest in local parks, lakes, rivers and other great destinations the tourist traffic should be.

The summer season draws tourists to the Deh Cho. They come by plane, truck, car, motorhome and even motorcycle. Tourists are great for drawing attention to aspects of the Deh Cho that long time residents have learned to take for granted.

The fact some tourists brave our roads pulling heavy fifth wheel campers should be enough to prove there are things in the Deh Cho worth exploring.

The summer season is short and nice days this year seem to be in short supply. While the sun's shining residents should take a look around and rediscover what the Deh Cho has to offer.

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We need a detox centre
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, July 16, 2009

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Call me naive, or whatever you want, but I'm still pretty disturbed about encountering the burned remains of a makeshift tent on the afternoon of July 4. The other one sitting right beside it, with a ragged tarpaulin covering a roughly-built frame, was still intact, filled with only a mattress and a pile of garbage.

It's not as if I wasn't aware that homelessness exists in town, but the mess and desperation I encountered there with the firefighters was a shock to my system. It just seemed so fundamentally wrong.

It turns out the two men who were taken from the scene by RCMP officers were living there and left intoxicated. The RCMP investigation suggested they were responsible for the fire, though there was no malicious intent.

So here's two drunk men living out of tent in deplorable conditions. It appears a pretty fitting model to describe a serious problem facing Inuvik currently.

It's no secret drug and alcohol abuse destroys lives. Both are prevalent here. There are few vacancies at the shelter.

I interviewed a nurse in late June who spent several months working at the Inuvik Regional Hospital. He has since moved on to a hospital in Ottawa, but while here he worked mostly in the emergency room, where he said he was shocked by the number of patients he received that incurred injuries while drunk. Many landed there still intoxicated.

His story will be told in the next edition of Inuvik Drum.

Not only did this man say a detox centre is urgently needed for Inuvik, but he also stressed the importance of counselling in the process of healing.

That is, once the individual goes through the initial stages of detox and lands back in the community, he or she is monitored or has a established support group. As it stands now, the closest place for Inuvik residents (and Delta residents for that matter) to get access to detox treatment is Hay River. But what happens when many of them come back? They are just placed back in the same destructive situation. The vicious circle starts again.

This isn't the first time the idea of a detox centre has been thrown around in Inuvik. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation plans to set aside money from the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Impact Fund, if the project ever becomes a reality. The idea of the fund is to offset socio-economic problems that might happen given the foreseen economic boom. They also envision a holistic community approach to healing.

To be sure, a detox centre serving Inuvik and surrounding region wouldn't be cheap, and it would need government funding along with a lot of thought put into how it would work.

First it would take a solid base of concerned citizens to get the ball rolling, which is generally the case in this type of deal.

Anyone who thinks homelessness here is an isolated problem and the fallout from it don't really affect them are only kidding themselves.

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Hope for diamond workers
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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Yellowknife's secondary diamond industry has been upgraded from terminal to critical, but it's still on life support.

Arslanian, a Montreal-based diamond polishing company with a branch set up in Yellowknife, permanently laid off its last 35 employees just last month.

Fortunately permanently turned out not to be permanent at all as five workers have already been rehired and another 14 are expected to resume positions at the plant later this month.

With indications that global demand for diamonds started to rebound during the second quarter, there seems to be a light at the end of this recession, for Arslanian at least.

Bob Bies, the plant's director, said he hopes to have the 35 employees working again by sometime in autumn, and to return to 50 jobs - the original size of the staff - within the next couple of years.

The first 19 rehires will be possible without going to the GNWT for help, but further hiring may require assistance from the territorial government in ensuring there is an adequate supply of rough diamonds.

Yellowknife's "diamond row" has almost become a ghost town, with Laurelton, Sirius, Deton'Cho and Canada Dene Diamonds all closing their doors over past few years.

We're down to Arslanian and Crossworks, which employs 11 people.

The plant employees - unlike the many fly-in, fly-out diamond mine workers from the south - live in Yellowknife, bring us greater federal transfer payments, pay local rent or taxes, and purchase local goods and services.

We need more of these jobs, and we therefore need the government to do its level best to be flexible in dealing with the diamond polishing operations.

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Better days ahead for mineral sector
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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These are trying times for the NWT's mining and exploration community.

Spending on exploration for minerals and assessing the potential of mineral sites is forecast to drop to $28.4 million this year, according to Natural Resources Canada.

That's close to an 80 per cent fall from $133.1 million spent in 2008.

Yellowknife's business community is feeling a painful pinch from that extremely steep decline. There has been a falling demand for planes and helicopters. Job cuts and reduced hours have resulted.

Grocery orders are also down, one retailer reported.

One can easily conclude that all sorts of other businesses are also coping with the downturn, from hotels to vehicle rentals.

Yet some business executives are expressing optimism that things will start to turn around before the end of the year.

It's a question of whether enterprises can keep a lid on expenditures and losses until that point. Some are tightening belts while others, like Buffalo Airways, are looking abroad. Buffalo began sending planes and employees to Turkey in November to shield itself from the economic downturn.

In these tough times, businesses may have to look far afield or diversify. Innovation and creativity could very well be the key to staying afloat.

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A chance to capture elders' knowledge
Editorial Comment
Kassina Ryder
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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My grandmother has often said to me, "Listen to me now because someday I'll be gone." Usually we have that conversation when I'm in my hometown packing to return to Nunavut for the summer after a year of school.

My procrastination and, in her opinion, lack of proper packing skills drive her nuts, and she often ends up re-packing what I've packed, which drives me nuts. But I've learned one valuable lesson from her over the years: the woman is usually right. And not just about how to properly pack a tub.

"The light is too dim to read by, Kassina. You're going to end up needing glasses," she's warned.

I am now practically blind and I definitely need glasses to see properly. She taught me that when leaves on trees turn upside down, it means it's going to rain. She also taught me the value of owning a sewing kit (my sewing skills are limited to replacing buttons, but that in itself has proven invaluable over the years.)

We can all learn from our elders, and multimedia workshops such as the Inuusivut program offer young Inuit a chance to capture this knowledge on film. While the project is initially geared to healthy living, the skills students learn during the workshop can be applied to any number of themes.

Inuusivut instructor Stacey Aglok MacDonald said she first got into filmmaking during a project with Nunavut Sivuniksavut whereby students interviewed the leaders who helped initiate Inuit land claims agreements. Projects that encourage youth to speak to their elders, to ask them questions and listen to their answers in their aboriginal language are invaluable. And the ability to use a video or regular still-shot cameras can be used in many different ways, as youth across Nunavut have shown. The "Don't Call me Eskimo" video from youth in Arctic Bay is a perfect example of the endless possibilities filmmaking can provide.

Another instructor of the Inuusivut program, Qajaaq Ellsworth, mentioned the possibility of training youth to set up their own self-sufficient multimedia workshops in their home communities.

A multimedia workshop in every community would help to teach the outside world about the North, and teach the communities about each other.

Each community in Nunavut is distinct, and while some cultural traditions are similar, language dialects and other customs are very different. Sharing stories is the basis for traditional knowledge, and filmmaking offers the opportunity to share stories on a large scale. It also provides a way to protect and encourage Inuktitut and other aboriginal languages. Youth who participate in multimedia workshops have the opportunity to capture Inuktitut stories on film and preserve them for future generations. Soon, many elders will be gone and now is the time to sit down and ask them to tell their life story.

So to everyone who reads this and owns a videocamera: go interview your grandparents. You won't regret it.

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Justice for Keisha
NWT News/North - Monday, July 13, 2009

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The death of Keisha Trudel was a tragedy fueled by foolish choices.

Her death has irreparably marred more than one life. For years, or maybe for the rest of their lives, her family will struggle to come to terms with losing her. The boy responsible for her death will surely forever regret and question the choices he made leading to the fatal car crash that claimed the 16-year-old's life.

A number of factors that speak to systemic problems in the North contributed to the tragedy.

Alcohol continues to be a major problem among youth of the NWT. In 2002, an NWT Bureau of Statistics survey indicated 34 per cent of residents 15 years of age and older consumed five drinks or more when they drank.

Compounding the problem of excessive drinking is the tendency for people in the NWT to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. In 2007, according the NWT Bureau of Statistics, 768 charges of impaired driving were handed out.

Trudel's family is outraged the offender in their daughter's Nov. 23, 2008 death in Fort Smith did not receive jail time as part of his sentence, going as far as to call the judge unsympathetic.

Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said she was not convinced jail time would result in rehabilitation.

It is difficult to argue in favour of jailing a teen who did not intend the unfortunate event that left a person dead. But, make no mistake, what happened was not entirely an accident.

These youth made a choice to drink underage, the offender still got behind the wheel and the risk was compounded by lack of seatbelt use.

The offending teen's prohibition from driving for five years and the 240 hours of community service should be standard in cases such as these.

However, the drinking prohibition for two years is an insult. The boy is 17 years old, under NWT law he is not allowed to drink until he is 19. His drinking ban should have lasted for at least as long as his driving ban.

As for the year-long curfew, the harshness of this condition will depend on the enforcement. Essentially, for the next year the boy will be under house arrest. His conditions state he will not be allowed to leave his home unless he is accompanied by a guardian, in need of medical attention or has written approval from his probation officer.

Restrictions on movement imposed by the courts have been ineffectual or come under heavy criticism in many past cases. The public needs assurance that monitoring of offenders is stringent and those who break conditions of probation will face severe consequences. Criminals cannot be allowed to make a mockery of their sentence.

In this case, a full-time jail sentence - exposing the teen boy to hardened criminals - may have done more harm than good.

However, forcing the boy to serve weekends in a cell for the nine months of jail time the Crown prosecutor requested would have sent a stronger message.

Yet, the sentence has now been passed. In December, Keisha's mother, Sharon Allen, told Deh Cho Drum: "I pray to God that (the offender) learns from this and moves on with his life."

In light of the irreversible consequences of his actions, the best we can all hope for is that the offender and other young people have learned a lasting lesson. Any sign to the contrary should be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.

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Showing up for work
Nunavut News/North - Monday, July 13, 2009

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How reliable are Northern workers?

Recently a geography professor at a conference on economic opportunities for the territories said the "great challenge" for the North is finding a way to accommodate the flexibility of traditional culture within an industrial economy.

He said that, in particular, the North needs to encourage a culture of reliability and dependability among its workforce.

We would argue Northern cultures value reliability and dependability as much as others, if not more so.

When survival in a harsh environment hangs on such things as getting up with the dawn to spend hours perched over a seal breathing hole and sharing the catch with those unable to hunt, co-operation and teamwork become as valued as individual fortitude.

But retention problems are widespread in the North among both aboriginal and non-aboriginal workers.

That's not surprising when you consider that, for a Northern worker, wage-based work can mean working outdoors in a harsh environment, spending weeks or months away from home and family and trying to get along within a culture not your own.

Other factors, such as substance abuse, or the North's astronomically high birth rate coupled with lack of child care also contribute to absenteeism.

These problems obviously have to be overcome to increase the number of long-serving employees.

The professor noted exploration companies have particular problems finding employees as their work season coincides with the brief Arctic summer -- those few months of camping, hunting and fishing which, for some, are worth far more than a few weeks' wages.

Anywhere else in the country, the poor economy and fear of unemployment would help keep an employee on the job, regardless of their personal difficulties.

But the North is so short of skilled labour, it's still a sellers' market up here. The labour pool is small, but is expected to grow, as every year more and more students stick it out and finish high school.

It falls on employers to woo potential workers by offering training, child care, counselling, seasonal breaks ... whatever it takes to help a worker stay on the job.

As the professor said, finding a way to accommodate such flexibility will be key to the economic advancement of the territories.