 |
|
|
|
|
Subscriber pages
 News Desk
Columnists
Editorial
Readers comment
Tenders
Demo pages Here's a sample of what only subscribers see Subscribe now Subscribe to both hardcopy or internet editions of NNSL publications |
Don't cut our future NWT News/North - Monday, December 13, 2010
Since the 2004-2005 school year ECE's efforts have helped to improve the graduation rates in the territory. According to the 2010 Auditor General's report, aboriginal graduation rates in the NWT have nearly doubled over the years, jumping to a little more than 40 per cent in 2007-2008 school year from a little more than 20 per cent in 2001-2002. Although a notable increase, our territory's overall graduation rates continue to lag behind the rest of the country. For this reason, it is mind-boggling the department would make a funding decision with the potential to jeopardize a successful schooling program that has proven results in graduating aboriginal students. Shifting to a block funding formula from per student funding for Fort Smith's Phoenix School will cut the amount of money the alternative school receives annually by more than $200,000. According to Julie Lys, chairperson of the Fort Smith District Education Authority, the reduced funds might force the school to close, even though it has 57 students enrolled this year. On average since 2007, nearly 10 students a year -- a majority of them aboriginal -- have graduated from the Phoenix School. Part of its success is due to its welcoming students that may not fit in the traditional school model and allowing them to work around family or job commitments. Programs with demonstrated success in helping more students succeed should be at the top of the list for funding and support. On the bright side, Dan Daniels, deputy minister of the Department of Education Culture and Employment, said the funding will be reviewed to ensure the Phoenix School's survival, adding the department sees the value in the alternative school approach. Daniels said the new formula was based on a number of criteria which should be sufficient to cover the costs of the program.
Behchoko priest embraced the Tlicho NWT News/North - Monday, December 13, 2010 Behchoko lost a respected man of faith, a father figure and a devoted friend of the Tlicho people when Father Jean Pochat died on Nov. 28. Pochat was beloved by many in the community. Pochat was a pillar of the community and was an inspiring figure amidst the backdrop of a Catholic Church that had committed many mistakes, particularly with residential schools. He proved he genuinely cared for the people of the North and strove to help them create a better life. Pochat was more than a preacher; he encouraged Northerners to embrace faith and walk their own path. He didn't sit in judgment of the people he served in the name of his religion. Instead he wove himself into the lives and hearts of the Tlicho people. Taking the time to learn the Tlicho language and embrace the culture, Pochat became a friend, confidant and mentor to many people in the region. Former premier Stephen Kakfwi described Pochat as a humble man with a strong presence. We are sure his legacy and memory will live on in Behchoko and around the North for generations.
Learning from others Nunavut News/North - Monday, December 13, 2010 In October, two staff from the Department of Environment and a group of fishers from Pangnirtung visited Greenland to get an idea how its Davis Strait summer fishery works. Pangnirtung's fishery operates mainly in winter, and poor ice has the number of fishers participating declining to about seven from about 100. So there's been a test fishery in Cumberland Sound the past few summers to determine the viability of a summer operation. The Cumberland Sound fishery faces challenges Greenland doesn't when it comes to summer fishing. Greenland's Disko Bay fishery has small boats navigating shallower waters near the community. In Cumberland Sound, smaller boats aren't suitable as the water is deeper, the tides are higher and the fishers have to venture farther from the community to get to the fish. But the difference between turbot quotas - Cumberland Sound's sits at 500 tonnes per year, where Greenland's Disko Bay is at 8,800 tonnes - indicates Nunavut is barely tapping a vast resource just off its shores. Investigating other successful Arctic fisheries is a step towards establishing industry and employment based on a renewable resource. It will also aid the community in making the most of the small craft harbour that should be completed next year, and drive employment at the fish plant. Also in Pangnirtung, artists participated in a series of workshops between September 2009 and March 2010 with a visiting expert from Montreal. They were then asked to create images that "were real to them." The result is a series of innovative and challenging prints in Pangnirtung's 2010 community collection. Though some still feature traditional depictions of wildlife and spirit beings, the resulting artworks also include realistic portraits of the artists, scenes of violence in the community and skyscrapers in Vancouver. The collection also departs from previous ones by having a number of the works printed in Montreal, allowing vibrant colour. New inspiration for artists also fosters industry based on a renewable resource - imagination. As remote as our communities are, it requires special effort, and financial support, to reach beyond our borders and make connections with people who have surmounted similar challenges or have refreshingly different perspectives to offer, be it in printmaking or fisheries. Such connections help artists, and industries, grow.
Supply, supply, supply Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, December 10, 2010
With sparkling clarity, the first clause of the policy statement defines the core requirement for the success of the battered and bruised diamond cutting and polishing industry in the North.
To achieve its goal, the GNWT will: Endorse the mining of diamonds in the NWT only when agreements are in place so that a portion of the rough diamonds will be made available for manufacturing by Approved NWT Diamond Manufacturers.
The policy could have included assurances that the diamonds would be economically viable but putting the supply of diamonds at the top of the policy priorities shows the GNWT has learnt some hard lessons.
Minister McLeod characterized some of the past efforts to help cutting and polishing diamonds get off the ground as "mom and pop" operations, vowing never to get involved with them again.
Closer to the truth is that even the most efficiently run, experienced business cannot succeed if profit margins are too small. The profit margin of Northern diamond factories is determined by the amount and quality of diamonds they are given by Ekati, Diavik and DeBeers. Government and entrepreneurs have lost millions trying to make it work but to no avail.
As was revealed in Yellowknifer's diamond series (see www.nnsl.com/business), these diamond mines have kept the flow of rough to a minimum, some more than others, essentially foiling all the GNWT's efforts to get the cutting and polishing industry on its feet.
What is the potential of the diamond cutting and polishing industry? From January to December 2009, the total value of NWT diamonds produced was $1,447,940,000. Ten percent of that would bring $140 million in value to the cutting industry. Yellowknifer reported Crossworks Manufacturing, the city's only cutting and polishing factory in operation with 11 employees, did $10 million worth of diamonds in the first quarter of operation. Imagine how many would be employed with $140 million.
To date, the territorial government's hands have been tied by the lack of binding agreements with the mines that ensure a proper supply of rough diamonds. The time to negotiate such a deal was when the mines were going through the approval process. The territorial government of the day saw the potential but the federal government was in charge and couldn't be convinced to act on the behalf of Northerners.
Ontario, learning from our mistakes, has such binding agreements with De Beers and its Victor mine in Northern Ontario. A cutting and polishing factory set up in Sudbury currently employs 34 cutters and polishers.
What can the GNWT do now?
Recognizing supply is the key, it must focus all efforts on convincing the diamond mines that growing the cutting and polishing industry in the North is part of their corporate responsibility.
Doing so will not affect the miners' bottom line because Northern manufacturers will pay market prices for their diamonds. Again, a guaranteed, consistent supply is the key to success.
Considering life of the existing mines along with the expanse and potential of the NWT diamond fields, steps taken now to establish a cutting and polishing industry now will surely pay off in the future.
The Sambaa K'e and Nahanni Butte Dene bands have reached an impasse with Acho Dene Koe First Nation and the federal court system has been called into play.
The disagreement is centered on an area of land where the traditional uses of the three groups overlap.
Through their land claims process, Acho Dene Koe (ADK) could select sections of land that either Nahanni Butte or Trout Lake consider to be their traditional territory.
The two neighbouring First Nations, who have joined together to negotiate as one, strongly object to that idea.
Ideally differences like this should be settled through direct negotiations between the parties. As Chief Steve Kotchea of ADK pointed out, the people in the three communities have close ties including bonds of marriage and friendship. It would be best if these ties could be respected and the matter settled "in house."
Sometimes, however, this proves impossible. The situation in the southwest Deh Cho is ramping up to be such an occasion.
One of the primary problems, and the reason that an agreement cannot be reached at this juncture, is that ADK, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake are on completely different pages.
ADK refuses to negotiate its asserted boundary on the basis that it was established by its elders and represents Fort Liard's traditional land. Any land claim that is settled will only affect the ownership and management of sub-surface resources, according to
ADK. Traditional uses of the surface of the land, which ADK seems to believe is the primary concern, will remain unchanged for residents of the three communities.
Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte, however, don't even accept that ADK's asserted boundary represents its traditional land use area.
Having ADK claim portions of their land, regardless of whether hunter and trappers can continue their activities, is unacceptable, in Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte's views.
The result of the boundary overlap could very well be a drawn-out court case and a cooling of relations between the three First Nations regardless of interconnecting family ties.
One or more groups will be left feeling that they lost some of their traditional land when the land claims are finally settled.
The legacy of this disagreement will affect Deh Cho politics for years to come. It's an unfortunate interruption of the region's goal to attain a land claim of its own.
Whether we are tourists or professionals, we come and go - while few stay.
Editing a community newspaper is a privilege.
Our stories, other than our children, are our most precious possessions. We create our individual stories with our lives and colour them with our imaginations as they become memories. Those stories are passed down through generations to form our culture and while we are their creators, it is through our stories we see and make sense of the world.
To be entrusted with the telling of a community's tale is no small honour.
Having come from the East Coast, you'll have to be patient with me. I'm here to learn your lives and retell them, but I know little of life in the North. Mine is a fishing and farming culture, not an Arctic one.
As well, I'll need help learning what is happening in your community; what its issues are and what you'd like to know more about. Keep in mind advice or correction is always welcomed at a newspaper. Even a rebuff, whether it be a phone call or a letter to the editor, is a reminder the community takes ownership of the newspaper and considers it a venue for discussion.
In return for your patience, I'll try to be an honest broker of your tales and help your campaigns to get more for your community.
But life isn't only about work - in the meantime I'll be adding your culture's wisdom to what I've taken from the East Coast. I look forward to seeing, whenever the sun returns, the wilds which surround us. Northern Newfoundland, where I spent the last four years, shares a similar terrain, but its animals differ. There are caribou, but no wolves, cod but no pike, moose but no muskox.
What the land shares in both places, so far as I can gather, is a tight-fisted generosity - survival came easy to no one. But cultures, like people, grow from what is expected of them, not what is given to them. So cultures surviving in a rough land create tough and resourceful individuals.
This too is a gift.
That's how much the City of Yellowknife has budgeted to purchase and install new computers in bylaw vehicles next year.
It seems a bit rich.
Another $35,000 has been earmarked for new in-car cameras for the municipal enforcement department. The existing ones are four years old.
When Yellowknifer wanted to know the rationale for those expenditures, a brick wall initially went up. The head of the bylaw department simply said, "I have no interest in co-operating with you for this story."
Mayor Gord Van Tighem was more accommodating, explaining that the city usually replaces all electronics after three years, especially equipment that is frequently exposed to hot and cold temperatures.
At least that gives the public some sense of justification for the expenditure. We rely on our elected city councillors to go over the $26.4 million capital budget line by line, as they have done this week. We trust they will weed out the "Cadillac" purchases. Institutions, like city hall, have a tendency to go for the items with bells and whistles.
A good example of the brakes being put on such extravagant behaviour came in 2008 when some city councillors voiced their opposition to purchasing new $2,500 laptops just because the ones on hand were three years old.
Some councillors said they could use their own personal computers, one said he only required a laptop when he travelled for municipal purposes while others said they don't use the city's laptops at all. There were also a few who said the existing computers should be updated or repaired.
It's good fodder for debate, and it often comes as a result of asking questions which is what councillors are elected to do and journalists are paid to do.
Respect your elders isn't a phrase that everybody holds dear.
That was reinforced during the NWT Seniors' Society's symposium on the abuse of seniors. More than 100 participants assembled to tackle the issue on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Explorer Hotel.
There was mention of the varying forms abuse can take: verbal, physical or monetary. The aged among us are sometimes a target for those looking to swindle some cash, including family members who can prey on parents or grandparents.
Imagine not only coping with the natural struggles of ageing, but dealing with a cold Yellowknife winter while your joints and muscles start to give you assorted aches and pains. Sometimes it's just easier to stay inside for long stretches of time since mobility can be limited. Then consider many seniors who stay in Yk gradually lose their friends to the lure of warmer southern locations. Isolation can creep in.
It is isolation that makes seniors even more vulnerable to abuse. As was pointed out at last week's symposium, support networks are critical for elders, and convincing them to reveal their troubles can be difficult.
While the NWT Seniors' Society is to be congratulated for raising the profile on this terrible situation, it will take a community effort to detect signs of seniors who may be deprived or wounded by unscrupulous individuals.
While it's still almost four months before the new Nutrition North food subsidy program replaces the federal government's old Food Mail Program, it seems more and more people are getting a little antsy over whether major retailers will actually pass the savings onto consumers.
Still others worry the bigger stores will increase the price on items not included in the subsidy to boost their profit margins even more.
Those in the region who use individual ordering under the old system will find they have a lot more work to do under the Nutrition North program.
Under the new program, individuals will have to pay the full cost of freight on their food orders and submit their receipts and paperwork to receive the subsidy.
Many are concerned this is the first step in eliminating individual orders and placing the program entirely under retailer control.
The rates of subsidy were published on the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) website this past week, and they vary wildly across the Kivalliq.
The program is divided into two categories, with Category A listing the bulk of what qualifies under the new approach.
The subsidy given to products in Category A is substantially higher than those in Category B.
On the low end of the Kivalliq subsidy pole is Arviat. Residents there will only receive a subsidy of 20 cents per kilogram on Category A items and 5 cents on Category B items.
The complete list of category items can also be found on the INAC website.
In Baker Lake, the subsidy rates will be $1.40 and 30 cents, respectively, while in Chesterfield Inlet it will be $1.50 and 40 cents.
Folks in Coral Harbour will be subsidized to the tune of $3 and $1.90, while consumers in Rankin Inlet should see subsidies of $1.40 and 30 cents passed along.
Repulse Bay gets a subsidy of $3.20 and $2.10, while Whale Cove rounds out the region at 70 cents and 5 cents respectively.
For people in the region to be convinced the new program will benefit them in the checkout aisle, INAC has to have a foolproof system in place to monitor the subsidies.
The department also has to ensure the system employed at local retailers to show how much consumers save is easily understood.
If, for example, the in-store system only shows consumers a combined total of the money supposedly saved instead of an itemized list, we'll bet dollars to doughnuts many customers will still doubt they're receiving the full benefit of the program. There are many consumers and smaller retailers across the Kivalliq who still maintain there was nothing wrong with the old Food Mail Program, except for those who were able to abuse it by having goods subsidized that were never on the approval list.
They maintain a better approach would have been to close the loopholes in the old program and disqualify any merchant caught abusing the system from using it again.
To them, the government has accomplished nothing more than to replace a small group of bandits with the spectre of corporate greed.
Only time will tell if they are correct.
Corrections The Dec. 6 News/North story "Residents have their say on new Wildlife Act" should have stated that the current requirement for a resident hunting license is two years. Under the proposed new Wildlife Act, the residency requirement would drop to one year from two years. Also Women's Association of NWT president Terry Villeneuve is currently in her third term as president. Wrong information appeared in "Board members allege conflict of interest" Nov. 29. On the front page, a headline should have referred to the NWT Metis Alliance. News/North apologizes for any embarrassment or confusion the errors might have caused.
|
