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More freedom to vote
NWT News/North - Monday, April 5, 2010

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Municipal councils in the North and small community governments across the country have similar challenges. Most notably is the ability of councillors to be perceived as impartial while making a decision.

In municipalities with only hundreds or a few thousand people, councillors often work and volunteer heavily in the community, so decisions around the council table will inevitably overlap.

Hay River council recently experienced an extreme example when three councillors were forced to declare a conflict of interest - a fourth, who was not present, would have also been in conflict -- when dealing with a land sale between the GNWT and the town. Each of the four councillors is employed by the GNWT.

Deputy mayor Mike Maher, who works for the GNWT, said it would be hard for him and the other three councillors to be effective in their roles due to the amount of business the town does with the territorial government. He's right, Eliminating half of council from voting during issues dealing with the GNWT does not make sense, especially considering most items will have no measurable affect on the councillors. It seems far more likely that a conflict would exist only when dealing with the department a councillor works for.

Otherwise the town will frequently be in a situation where half of its elected body will be unable to vote on issues and some will be of even greater importance than selling some real estate. Obviously that is not a situation conducive to an effective and representative government.

According to David Kravitz, with Municipal and Community Affairs, the Conflict of Interest Act does not differentiate between large and small employers and, indeed, the councillors would have been in conflict had they voted on the land sale.

Mayor Kelly Schofield advised as much, but he shouldn't be so willing to accept the definition without question. This is a situation where council should advocate for change so it isn't hampered by overly-stringent legislation in future votes.

Although the Conflict of Interest Act allows a vote to be held as long as two councillors are not in conflict a council cannot be considered effective if that situation arises an a regular basis. Who wants two councillors making crucial decisions?

If four councillors in Hay River are barred from voting on a regular basis it will greatly diminish the democratic process there, and this situation likely hinders other communities as well.

Broadening the definition of employee in the Conflict of Interest Act could solve the problem in Hay River.

Although relaxing definitions in law may result in some disputes going to the Conflict Commissioner, it would also ensure councils are not hamstrung by a sweeping and unnecessarily limiting section of the act.

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High expectations
Nunavut News/North - Monday, April 5, 2010

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Nunavut turned 11 on April 1 and a goal of an 85 per cent Inuit workforce within the territorial government has yet to be achieved.

That has sparked frustration from some quarters, a call for persistence and patience from others.

The latter camp has it right.

Auditor general Sheila Fraser released yet another report in March that shows the Government of Nunavut is bumbling and stumbling, in some ways, on its way to putting Inuit in bureaucratic positions, particularly senior ones.

Nunavut beneficiaries represent 51 per cent of the GN overall, but only 23 per cent among middle and upper management.

Doing her own job extremely well, Fraser pointed out some of the troubling aspects of how the GN functions, even if it just barely functions in some respects. There are close to 800 vacant positions, which is almost 23 per cent of government jobs. It takes 318 days, on average, to fill a position.

The fallout from this shows up in many facets of life, like repeatedly trying to get service from various departments only to be put through to voicemail, not a real human being with solutions to problems. That can be maddening.

Another example of the consequences came recently in the Nunavut Court of Justice, where a GN-filed case over "bad gasoline" has been moving at a snail's pace for several years. Justice Earl Johnson noted that there are many complicating factors in the case, but wrote that one of them was "high turnover of staff in the territorial government."

The GN's goal of reaching 85 per cent Inuit employment by 2020 simply isn't realistic, according to Fraser.

This could be viewed as disheartening, but let's remember that there have been some real signs of progress. The GN's 51 per cent Inuit workforce is up from 42 per cent in 2002. Beyond that, Inuit represent a whopping 94 per cent of GN administrative jobs in the territory. That's impressive.

To keep progressing into the higher-paying jobs with greater responsibility, more training and education is required. That is happening, as Nunavut News/North's Degrees of Success special edition showed just last week, highlighting the growing number of college students and the demand that a burgeoning exploration and mining industry is creating for Inuit employees. To their advantage, there is competition for their coveted skills and services, which will allow them to choose whether to work in the public or private sector. That's a good choice to have.

Clearly the GN must do a better job of recruitment and retention overall. Fraser did find that the Department of Education is doing some things right by filling jobs more quickly - 43 days on average - and has working strategies to recruit Inuit educators. The government should pay close attention and adopt some of the successful tactics employed in that department.

In the meantime, while we shouldn't let go of our objectives, we have to take a step back and realize how far we've come. There's a long road ahead with many classroom and office-based lessons to learn, but, day by day, we're getting there.

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Power to nowhere
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 2, 2010

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If NWT residents automatically go into convulsions every time they hear a politician talk about paying for mega-infrastructure projects they'll get a sympathetic nod from us.

Almost everyone, except for Premier Floyd Roland and the Deze Energy Corporation - a joint venture partially owned by the NWT Hydro Corporation, which in turn is owned by the territorial government - wants to see the proposed expansion of hydro power from the Taltson River dam go across Great Slave Lake at the Simpson Islands rather than go all the way around the lake to supply electricity to the diamond mines.

That way, the transmission lines can be linked with the Snare hydro grid, and supply power to Yellowknife, the diamond mines, and Avalon's proposed rare metals processing plant at Pine Point.

But Roland and NWT Hydro insist this is a bad plan. Roland said it would add $40 million to the $500 million already estimated for building transmission lines to the diamond mines. To deviate from their desire for a 690-km route all the way around Great Slave Lake to the east and across what one day is supposed to be a national park at Fort Reliance would put regular hydro customers on the hook and not just the diamond mines, says Hydro Corp.

There is something really odd about all this. Going across the Simpson Islands at least kind of makes sense, but will cost residents tons of money; Deze Energy Corp's proposed route doesn't make sense at all, but our premier insists it's the only plan that will work.

Diavik just announced its entry into the underground mining phase, and has approximately 10 years to go before exhausting its supply of raw diamonds. Subtract the number of years needed to build the $500 million hydro transmission lines and how viable is that customer exactly?

There's no guarantee there will be more mines on the barren lands in the future and there's no guarantee that the existing diamond mines - Diavik, Ekati, Snap Lake, and, perhaps Gahcho Kue in the coming years - will purchase the hydro power unless it can be produced cheaper than the diesel shipped to the mine sites.

So the whole proposition is doubly alarming bearing in mind that the GNWT has a sizable ownership stake in Deze Energy Corporation, which means the government will ultimately be liable should any problems arise.

Sound familiar? Two years ago, Roland brushed aside criticism of the government's concession agreement with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, saying it would be a "worst-case scenario" should the company falter.

Well, it did and now NWT residents are on the hook for $165 million and counting. What will Taltson expansion cost us? Can the government be sure taxpayers won't take the fall, regardless of which route is chosen?

We must remain skeptical of mega-projects that aren't being held up for intense scrutiny, especially with a premier at the helm who seems to know as little about building hydro lines as he does about building bridges.

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Showing up matters!
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, April 1, 2010

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School attendance, as stories in this week's edition outline, is a problem that affects all levels of education.

From elementary through to high school and college, students in the North, including the Deh Cho, have a hard time making it to school on a consistent basis. Research by the working group for the territorial government's Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative has found that in general, across the territory, a large majority of aboriginal students miss the equivalent of two years of school by the time they reach Grade 9.

That's a lot of missed lessons and a lot of catching up that students have to do in order to be on par with their classmates. Poor attendance can slow down the progress of entire classes, and makes it harder for students to graduate.

In the Deh Cho, a number of recent initiatives have set their sites on addressing attendance issues. In Fort Liard, the community's Youth Justice Committee sponsored a poster competition. Students were challenged to develop posters to encourage their peers to stay in school and attend classes.

Brittany Berreault, one of the contest winners, even admitted to not having the greatest attendance record. Some of the causes of absenteeism include staying up late, which makes it hard to get up in the morning, and peer pressure. When some students drop out, it influences others to do the same, Berreault said.

Another initiative to improve attendance comes from the regional level.

In February, the Dehcho Divisional Education Council staffed the first of two regional school counsellors. The purpose of the positions is to work with the staff in the schools to try and build a bridge between the schools and the homes. The counsellors are also working with families to see if there are ways to support them in the effort to make their children more successful at school. Attendance is one of the major issues that will be addressed, said Nolan Swartzentruber, the council's superintendent.

Both the poster competition and the regional counsellor positions are positive steps in addressing the issue of attendance. Real success, however, will only be seen if these initiatives and others are purposefully tied together.

Inconsistent attendance is caused by a number of factors - including family situations, prior negative experiences with schooling, poor student motivation and relations with schools and teachers. It's only when all of these areas are addressed as a unit with a co-ordinated plan that significant change will be made.

Everyone agrees that student success if crucial to the future of the Deh Cho. Parents, educators, administrators and students themselves will have to work closely together to make sure that the best possible outcome is reached.

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Who's listening?
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, April 1, 2010

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At first glance it appeared all the relevant players attended the March 25 presentation on homelessness held at Aurora Research Institute. Present were social workers, police officers, even a doctor from the Inuvik hospital.

But when the discussion began among participants it became clear to me that there was no territorial government official among us. People complained about the difficulty of accessing government money to help those at risk. Some said what little money that can be accessed is difficult to get because some of it, for example, is tied up in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and some can be found at the NWT Housing Corporation.

It would have been nice to have a territorial government official present to help bring some clarity to the table.

It's too bad there wasn't a knowledgeable bureaucrat present because it was a really thought provoking forum. The presenter Julia Christensen, a McGill PhD student, spent the last three years hitting the streets of Inuvik and visiting our shelter talking to the homeless. Her project also involved doing the same thing in Yellowknife. Her hope is to tell their stories in a comprehensive report on homelessness in the North. From this she'll also be looking to make policy recommendations.

It's no secret that the territorial government's priority doesn't rest with the homeless in this area anyway. The most obvious example is that our cramped shelter, which is funded mainly by the territorial government, is now looking to the town for help in paying its property taxes. Apart from having no detox centre here, there are not enough substance abuse or mental health counsellors to deal with the load.

I was completely ignorant of many of the numerous factors contributing to homelessness up until last Thursday. Many of our shelter users are not even from Inuvik. For whatever reason, whether they're banished from their families or communities, they end up here. The same goes for Yellowknife. Because of this fact, there are many MLAs who like to argue that homelessness isn't a territory-wide issue.

What was also missing from the March 25 forum was a homeless person. In a context such as this it would have been great to hear that person's story firsthand.

Governments generally only respond to what the key middle-class voters tell them to do. This obviously isn't as important to people as supplementary health coverage or electricity rates. That might explain why we have a shelter that's underfunded and a town that can't offer the kind of long-term support people with addictions need.

One promising thing that came out of this presentation was that participants seemed committed to starting an advocacy group to work on behalf of the homeless. It will be interesting to see where that initiative goes.

There are those that argue that the government shouldn't always be relied upon to solve our problems. That's fair enough. But I believe the least our government can do with my tax dollars is to provide basic services for people who need it the most.

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Time is ripe for tourism promotion
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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Unlike most new taxes, a hotel room levy proposed by the Northern Frontier Visitors Association has the approval of many of the city's hotels. City council voted in favour of the tax last week, and will forward its support to the NWT Association of Communities.

Yellowknife's hotels have good reason to support the tax. Amounting to one to two per cent of a guest's nightly bill, revenues raised from it will go towards promoting the territory as a tourist destination at an ideal time.

Flights to Yellowknife are at their lowest, most affordable. The economy, globally and locally, has just emerged from a recession; and this country is, after all, marketed abroad as a country of winter, wild outdoors, and highly valued aboriginal art. Moreover, Canada's reputation as a destination for Northern recreation has hit a high this year with the recent Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, complete with an inukshuk logo, a uniquely Northern emblem, to headline it all.

Done well and in a timely fashion, advertising would capitalize on all these advantages.

As visitors to the NWT and tourist spending actually declined from 2008 to 2009, it makes sense for hotels to favour the tax as an investment in new business. The key question now is how to promote the NWT. Ads must do more than highlight fishing and northern lights. The territory's parks, festivals, recreational events and aboriginal culture must be also be promoted and the city and other communities must be equipped and ready to deliver.

If the tax is in fact an investment, it must deliver good returns. Otherwise it will just be another tax which no one needs.

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Creature comforts
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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Fred Henne is the largest and busiest campground near Yellowknife. Aside from its proximity to the city, one of the other reasons for its popularity is its amenities such as a large beach, a boat launch, kitchen shelters and showers.

For years, the GNWT has been attempting to woo Yellowknife residents to campgrounds farther down the Ingraham Trail -- Prelude Lake and Reid Lake -- in order to free up Fred Henne campground spots for visitors to the city.

It has tried the stick, hiking campground fees and tinkering with long-term camping lotteries. Now comes the carrot: the promise of flush toilets and solar-powered showers at Prelude Lake and Reid Lake by 2011.

You can argue that camping is supposed to be roughing it in the bush. You can argue that the point of camping is to get away from civilized amenities and be self-sufficient on the land. But that style of camping is available a short trek in virtually any direction from town.

People who use the territorial campgrounds do so because they're looking for a wilderness getaway with a measure of comfort. They want to relax, not test their mettle against the challenges of nature. In short, they want flush toilets and showers.

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Putting communities ahead of individuals
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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With hamlet days looming on the horizon for Kivalliq communities, the debate over what constitutes an appropriate prize for the various events is starting to pick up once again.

There are many in the region who subscribe to the theory that bigger is always better when it comes to prizes to be won - but is it, really?

The problem with the debate - which is the same problem with many Northern debates - is that many people who don't agree with that particular theory are afraid to speak up publicly.

After all, you don't want to be the one who puts the kibosh to free airline tickets, $15,000 bingo jackpots, or $500 prizes for making it across the community hall with a pop can hanging from your butt cheeks, now do you?

The question resting at the centre of the debate is; at what point do the prizes make the events overly competitive at the cost of family fun?

And, like it or not, it's a legitimate question.

The idea of these celebrations is to end the winter blues, welcome the arrival of spring, bring the community together, promote participation and a healthy lifestyle, and provide families with the chance to have some quality time together while enjoying some good old-fashioned fun.

However, too often the success of a community's celebration is judged on the amount of money, or size of the prizes, paid out to the winners of the various contests.

If you have any doubt about that, just ask any rec co-ordinator who has had his or her ears turned red by the diatribe of unhappy prize-winning campers.

Now we're not saying give away sticks of chewing gum, but do we really need prizes big enough to have people do almost anything to win?

Can we not get together as a community and enjoy some fun-filled-times together without the promise of a free flight to Winnipeg?

How much is a cake decorated to look like a toilet with a chocolate log on the inside (use your imagination for that one) really worth?

Maybe it's time for a few communities to promote the family and community aspects of the celebrations a whole lot more, lower the value of the prizes and see how the people respond.

Or, maybe a hamlet could have 50 per cent of each cash prize donated to a charity or non-profit organization of the winner's choice.

So, for example, someone wins $250 for a particular event and they keep $125 and donate the other $125 to the local food bank.

They win a little money, along with having some great family time together, and a worthwhile community entity also benefits.

That would certainly be one way to promote the community-spirit angle.

We can all agree it's a sad commentary if the only way we can coax people out to take part in our hamlet day celebrations is by offering mammoth prizes.

Surely we can come up with ways to put enough in the pockets of our participants to keep them happy without ruining the spirit of these events.

After all, hamlet days are supposed to be for the benefit of communities, not individuals.