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Fly less zone
NWT News/North - Monday, October 5, 2009

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Northern Canada's air war has recorded its first major casualty.

Canadian North is suspending its operations in Hay River as of Oct. 25, resulting in five employees losing their jobs, two of them full time.

Cartoons

Passengers also have fewer flying options; the airline announced it has suspended its flight between Calgary and Yellowknife and has reduced the number of flights between Edmonton and the capital.

Canadian North, owned by the Inuvialuit and Inuit, isn't out of the woods yet. Tracy Medve, the airline's president, said more cuts may be coming.

It's a difficult situation for everyone involved. Employees are now faced with the uncertainly; for some, their next day of work could be their last. Senior executives like Medve are also facing tough choices, deciding what services to retain and which staff to lay off.

It's safe to say the announcement did not come as a shock to most Northerners. Both Canadian North and First Air have been foreshadowing that job losses and service reductions were inevitable due to an oversaturated market caused by the incursion of WestJet and Air Canada.

Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Canadian North's honest and forthright handling of the turbulent situation should keep it in high standing with Northerners and help it retain the customer loyalty necessary to restructure and bounce back.

Depending on your school of thought, the heated airline competition can be viewed as a positive or negative. Regardless, we can all agree it's a shame when Northerners lose jobs and Northern businesses struggle with an uncertain future.

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Senator's statements an insult
NWT News/North - Monday, October 5, 2009

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Senator Ethel Cochrane should have done some reading before insulting the people of Inuvik and the Beaufort Delta.

Cochrane, visiting Inuvik on Sept. 23, said the North must prepare for the pipeline before it's too late.

"We've got to get our youth educated ... we have to get businesses prepared," she said.

It is tiresome to have ignorant southern politicians travelling to the North and show just how ill-informed they are. Inuvik residents and businesses have been preparing for the pipeline for many years, only to have to wait in utter frustration.

What the senator should have said is that it is inexcusable for Ottawa to have so poorly equipped the regulatory bodies overseeing the pipeline. The lengthy delays signal that they clearly need greater resources to get the job done.

She should have expressed her sympathy for the fact that many who have graduated from training programs for the pipeline must go south to find jobs; entrepreneurs who have invested money for equipment can't find work to recoup their investment; oil and gas activity in the North has hit a brick wall as companies take a wait-and-see approach to the pipeline in favour of their previous investment strategies.

She then should have lamented the shrinking and now questionably-viable Inuvik Oil and Gas Petroleum Show. Promising to pick up a shovel and start clearing the route would have held more value than telling Northerners they need to prepare for the pipeline.

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Iqaluit should set a better example
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 5, 2009

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When the U.S military set up shop in Frobisher Bay in 1942, environmental stewardship was lax compared to today's standards.

Broken tools, vehicles, leftover chemicals and anything else that had outlived its usefulness was dumped on the tundra, out of the way of operations. The military went away, but left its garbage behind to contaminate the soil.

In 2008, the City of Iqaluit began an effort to rid the city of a build-up of scrap metal. Old vehicles and their discarded parts had been collecting in the town for years due to the prohibitive cost of shipping the scrap south for processing. Last year, to take advantage of an offer by a southern company that wanted scrap metal, the city designated the old military dump site in the West 40 area as a collection area for old vehicles and other scrap.

As the site was already contaminated, and was slated to be cleaned up by the city the following year, the Nunavut Department of Environment "cut them a bit of slack."

The site was already a disaster, so what harm could a little more pollution do?

Vehicles incompletely drained of fluids were crushed, leaking more chemicals onto the tundra. People took advantage of the free dumping and pitched hazardous scrap at the site instead of paying a fee for its proper disposal at the city dump. One Iqaluit businessman characterized it as "a free-for-all."

Now fresh spills of oil, battery acid, antifreeze and brake fluid have been added to the soil at the site. Better monitoring and regulation of the site could have prevented this.

It can be argued that the use of the site for crushing and temporary storage of the cars will ultimately benefit the city, as Iqalummiut will finally be rid of the metal scrap on this year's sealift. That, plus the clean-up of the West 40 site scheduled for next year, will leave the city cleaner than it was before the collection and crushing of the cars at the site.

But by adding to the area's contamination, Iqaluit has just added to its upcoming clean-up job. It also has set a bad example, indicating it's OK to pollute as long as you clean up after yourself.

In this day and age, when so much time, money and effort is still being put into cleaning up sites in the North contaminated in the shortsighted 1940s and '50s, emphasis must be put on minimizing environmental impact in the first place. The less damage that is done, the easier and more effective the clean-up will be.

Northerners should be leading by example by demonstrating respect for the environment and competent stewardship of our land.

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Trail needs emergency phones
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 2, 2009

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The Pat McMahon Frame Lake Trail is a great part of Yellowknife but, unfortunately, it can also be dangerous.

There have been three reported sexual assaults on the trail since 2008.

The need for emergency phones along that scenic stretch of Frame Lake was raised at a public meeting last week. Ecology North urged the city to install the phones and a Northwestel representative said the company was open to such an idea.

The emergency phone system - which has a blue light atop each phone station to attract greater attention when danger lurks - is a common sight on Canadian university campuses to enhance student safety. It would make sense that the city would install the phone system on the McMahon Trail for the sake of its citizens.

Although a police spokesperson has questioned whether the RCMP or Municipal Enforcement would be responsible for fielding the calls, the RCMP have staff working all hours and has a dispatcher in place. It would only make sense that the Mounties do it.

Prank false alarms and vandalism may result, but the safety of Yellowknifers outweighs any inconvenience.

The emergency phones may act as a lifeline for someone in desperate need of help, particularly in an isolated area of the pathway. Better lighting would be advisable, too.

Even if a person is attacked and cannot reach a nearby phone, a bystander would be able to make a timely call for help.

Once safety improves, more Yellowknifers will use the trail, and an increasing number of people using the route will further add to a feeling of security.

It's a worthwhile investment.

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Mines can't ignore First Nations
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 2, 2009

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It sometimes takes strong words or lawsuits for First Nations to get the attention of business and industry.

It shouldn't be that way.

There's more to doing business in the North than dollars and sense. Avalon Rare Metals has shown good judgment by renaming its rare earth elements site in consultation with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. The Thor Lake site is now known as Nechalacho, or "a point where you can almost dock."

Ndilo Chief Ted Tsetta lauded the company for approaching the Yellowknives "early in the process," pointing out that the area is valued for its sacred and historic significance.

Avalon's gesture acknowledges the meaning the land holds for the people who have been here for many generations.

Companies can no longer expect to put up fences, blast rock and overturn the soil while telling aboriginal people to stay away.

Regulatory regimes and court precedent are now in place to give First Nations a say on ancestral lands.

Aboriginal people are establishing their own companies to take advantage of contracts and jobs. They are also signing partnerships to ensure proper environmental practices.

All mining companies and other industry players would be wise to make full consultation and co-operation a standard practice up front.

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Culture camps are essential
Editorial Comment
Tim Edwards
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 1, 2009

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On my first day on the job with the Deh Cho Drum, I went across the Mackenzie River with a class from Bompas Elementary School in Fort Simpson. This week I received photos from Jean Marie River, which depicted a group of youth and adults out on the land sharing knowledge about hunting and fishing with each other.

I find these camps to be not just a lot of fun, but also so very valuable - not only for preserving culture, but for sharing it with people like me. I'm not aboriginal, but growing up in the North has instilled a sense of respect in me for the NWT's myriad of cultures.

These camps cement that respect and teach me volumes of information about the land that I, too, call home.

How to make jam, how to butterfly fillet a fish, which berries I can eat, how to canoe correctly, how to make bannock - these are all things that work their way into my own camping trips with friends.

They are also things I have learned by being out on the land with the people who have lived here long before non-aboriginals arrived.

I appreciate that, and the hospitality I am treated with when I go on these adventures. It's hard not to feel like an outsider sometimes, but on my trip across the river with Bompas I felt very welcome.

I also see the immense value these trips offer for aboriginal youth. It's hard for me to imagine the youth not being filled with pride when they see the immense amount of knowledge that is still very alive in their culture.

It is important that this is kept alive, because no one knows the land like the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories. If that knowledge were to ever disappear, the North would be lost without it.

Before coming to Fort Simpson, I wrote an article on a possible new species of cisco in Great Slave Lake for Yellowknifer. In that article, two biologists had found specimens of a cisco that vastly distinguished itself from known species of cisco.

They teamed up with some Dene elders and the elders were able to show them a veritable jackpot of these fish at one of the first places they checked. It is old knowledge like this that helps everyone understand the ecology of the North.

In the same vein, it is knowledge like this that will help us preserve the ecology of the North. That is another reason it is so vital to pass this knowledge along.

Keep the culture camps up and keep offering as many as possible, because that knowledge will serve everyone well.

Editor Roxanna Thompson will return later this month.

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Curling club can be saved
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, October 1, 2009

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There was something refreshing about the meeting held Monday evening in the bar room at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex. The focus of the gathering was simply to come up with ideas to generate revenue for the ailing curling club.

About 50 residents, mostly current and former members of the club, showed up and they meant business. Participants formed small groups and talked with one another. As far as I could see everyone had something to say and the audience seemed genuinely interested in sharing ideas.

Community gatherings like this one are quite rare, where people are moved enough by an issue to want to unite to achieve a common goal. Monday's gathering appeared to be exactly that.

The curling club deserves a lot of credit for making it this far with about 201 members last year, about 70 of which are youth members who don't pay a fee. In the past the club sustained itself with a six-month bingo series licence granted by the town. But because of demand, the town had to cut back on issuing licences and the club didn't get one this year.

There's no question that the club can't depend on bingos to sustain itself. Club members should have to find ways to generate more revenue and there were a number good ideas on Monday.

But at the same time maybe the town should reconsider supporting the club, especially when you consider the need for more organized recreational activities for youth.

Last year the club managed to attract 70 youth members. The town might not want to invest a significant amount of money to develop the youth program like it does with the minor hockey program because membership isn't high enough to warrant it.

But maybe that's the push the club needs to take the extra step to get more youth involved and make the club sustainable for years to come. That would mean more after-school curling programs, more coach development programs, more help with subsidizing local bonspiels.

Obviously the lease that the club negotiated with the town in 1997 has to be revisited. On top of paying an annual $15,000 rental fee, the club is required to pay all of its utility costs plus a percentage of the complex's overall utility bill. Last year's bill came to $95,000.

Most likely the club will find a solution and get the support it needs. But it would be a shame if the curling club fell apart.

Anything that brings people together for a good cause should be valued and preserved and it would be a disservice to the community if the club was forced to fold.

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How to ban everything
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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In the debacle over the city's wild rules for parks and facilities, it's clear councillors fell asleep at the wheel. They were caught up in the debate over Tin Can Hill, and most overlooked the parks bylaw they were voting on.

This shows that a lack of attention in council chambers can have alarming consequences.

It also shows that city administration sports an incredibly tinnish ear at times when dealing with public concerns.

Take the memo issued to city council Friday, for example - a public document that presumably was drafted, in part, to alleviate concerns among city councillors and the public. That document outrageously described the act of visiting city parks and facilities as a "privilege." Explain that one to the city's ratepayers who have watched their property taxes rise 12 per cent over the last four years for the privilege of paying for these facilities.

Undoubtedly, city staff must deal with a variety of boorish and sometimes criminal behaviour in our parks, arenas and at the library and swimming pool. Undoubtedly, much of this bad behaviour is committed by a small group of repeat offenders.

Administration wants to update its parks and recreation facilities bylaw so it could ban these troublemakers. Under the existing bylaw, the best the city can do is hand out a ticket, although a potentially steep one of up to $2,000 if the offender is convicted in court.

To ban troublemakers is reasonable enough. The city's problem began after it started dreaming up a laundry list of prohibited activities, many of them already covered under the Criminal Code or other federal and territorial statutes. Others were merely bizarre.

Propel a plastic ball? Ride a toboggan? Do anything which is likely to attract a crowd?

Some 21 prohibited activities were added to the existing list, which begs the question: Is there anything else they would probably ban but hadn't thought it up yet? How about no person shall throw live piranhas into Frame Lake?

It's a sad day when bureaucrats try to make up rules for everything. As one councillor pointed out, why not ban prostitution and drug deals in parks if you're going to ban people from uttering threats and carrying knives?

Fortunately, there are three rounds of voting required to pass bylaws. Before the proposal's third reading, angry residents were shouting their opposition en masse and even holding ball games on city hall's lawn in a show of frustration.

Councillors finally awoke and responded to the public outcry.

Council and city administration have done some excellent work for citizens over the years, but bylaw 4542 certainly isn't one of them.

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Time to answer the call
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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The slow, but steady, exodus of top hockey people from Hockey Nunavut and a number of local minor hockey associations is becoming more than a little worrisome.

The loss of the former president of the Rankin Inlet Minor Hockey Association (RIMHA) and Hockey Nunavut board member, Justin Merritt, will be deeply felt this year.

While Merritt has let it be known he is willing to work with new board members to get them up to speed, that's not an overnight process.

Hockey Nunavut president Donald Clark will also step down during the zone's annual general meeting in Rankin this coming month.

Clark, well known in Nunavut's hockey world in just about every capacity - player, coach, official and administrator - has done an outstanding job during the past few years and his leadership will be missed.

Hockey Nunavut has struggled the past few years to attract strong executive members from all three regions, and it remains to be seen who will step up to fill the void this year.

Having gone through a dark and difficult time in his life, the rumour mill has former president Mike Courtney of Iqaluit expressing interest in rejoining Hockey Nunavut.

Should he show up at the AGM in Rankin and get involved as a board member again, it would partially offset the loss of Clark and Merritt.

The Kivalliq, Rankin is not alone in its determination to run a solid hockey program, and all share a common dilemma: too few people doing too much work.

In Arviat, Ronnie Suluk has worked diligently to strengthen its minor hockey association, trying to fill the rather large skates left behind by Graham Gavin.

Baker Lake's minor hockey program receives a huge boost for the 2009-10 season with the return of Jim Kreuger to the community after a year's absence.

The nod to Kreuger is not intended to take anything away from the volunteers who kept the program running this past year, but, overall, a step backwards was evident.

For those who convince themselves one person can't make a difference, the job Chris Jones did with the Whale Cove hockey program this past year was nothing less than impressive.

His continued presence bodes well for the Whale program, if he receives strong local support.

In the early stages, it appears Rankin is rallying to live up to its moniker of Hockey Town and not let its minor program regress.

More than 25 people attended the first RIMHA meeting of the year earlier this month, with four female volunteers forwarding their names for executive positions.

A small number of hard-working people who love the game have devoted many years to our various hockey programs.

But, as with everything else in life, change is inevitable.

No region in Nunavut prides itself more on its hockey programs than the Kivalliq.

But, for that pride to continue, the call has gone out for others to step up and work hard to keep our programs strong and vibrant.

Should that call fail to be answered, our pride, the game and our kids who love to play it will all take the fall.