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Cancun not the right climate for MLAs Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, December 31, 2010
Little significant news came from the United Nations' latest climate conference in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month, other than reports that delegates had reached yet another non-binding agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
Still, climate change is very much on the mind of Northerners. Many want to see the government take some form of action toward negating its effects, whether it be tougher emissions standards or more hydro instead of dirty diesel-powered electricity in the territory. Of course, a call for action does not translate into a blank cheque on spending, especially if it appears pointless and wasteful.
Last year's NWT delegation to the conference in Copenhagen, Denmark had that appearance. With five MLAs and three GNWT bureaucrats, it was hard not to write off them off as just another junket-craving group of politicians and bureaucrats seeking to hobnob with international celebrities and opinion makers.
It seemed hypocritical to send such a large group. If we're trying to fight climate change, and air travel is a major contributor of greenhouse gases, it seemed misguided to send eight people halfway around the world, burning fossil fuels all the way.
In any event, NWT residents hardly got their $55,000-worth for the trip. Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger acknowledged as much in an interview with Yellowknifer last month, when explaining why only one GNWT delegate - director of environment Ray Case - was attending the Cancun conference, on the federal government's dime.
Miltenberger deserves some credit for his tacit admission that Copenhagen proved to be a bust. No doubt, the GNWT needs to be kept apprised of international developments, so it made sense to have Case at the Cancun conference - but we don't need a whole bunch of MLAs soaking up the sun in Mexico for that.
We need our politicians here asking questions of our government on how it intends to fight climate change and adapt to its effects at home, and that's the way it should be.
The decision has been long awaited considering the project's proponents submitted their major application for the pipeline six years ago. Those years have concluded with a green light for the project.
Instead of jubilation and mass celebrations, however, in Fort Simpson at least there's an air of quiet acceptance. The decision is good news, the project is still alive, but there are serious questions about how long that status will be maintained.
A lot of large obstacles stand between the dream of a pipeline and a working conduit for natural gas not the least of which are economic feasibility and the current low price of the commodity. There are also the 200 conditions that the board's approval is dependent on and the thousands of permits.
While some are holding out hope many people are taking a realistic view about the chances of a pipeline bringing economic prosperity to the Deh Cho region. As Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly said, no one is holding their breath.
It's good, therefore, to see groups taking steps to ensure whether or not the pipeline is built they have a plan for their economic future. Dehcho Regional Helicopters is a perfect example.
The 100 per cent aboriginal owned company was formed in 2004 by the investment arms of Acho Dene Koe First Nation, the Fort Simpson Metis Nation, Nahanni Butte Dene Band, Sambaa K'e Dene Band and Jean Marie River First Nation. The organizations wanted to capitalize on the exploration and seismic activities that were taking place.
Since then the company has prospered. In 2008 the business purchased its first helicopter for $1.6 million. The NWT Chamber of Commerce named it the 2010 Business of the Year.
Most recently the company's ownership base has expanded to include the economic arms of Pehdzeh Ki First Nation of Wrigley and Liidlii Kue First Nation of Fort Simpson. Every First Nation in the Nahendeh region is now part of Dehcho Regional Helicopters. The company is an example of what can be achieved when First Nations come together and work co-operatively on a solid business plan. While Dehcho Regional Helicopters would benefit if the Mackenzie Gas Project went forward it has other contracts to supply revenue.
If the optimists are right, however, and the pipeline becomes a reality, strong partnerships like Dehcho Regional Helicopters will allow the region to draw economic benefits from the Mackenzie Gas Project.
You've lived with the pipeline's hope of economic improvement, discussed the possible consequences to the environment and how to leave a smaller footprint on the land for decades.
So if you see me around town, I'd rather hear about the pipeline from you. I've got a lot to learn.
The greatest pleasure of my job is being invited into people's lives and communities. At no time is the honour felt more keenly than at Christmas - a time when communities are in full bloom celebrating family and friends and when I'm missing my own on the East Coast. I had the pleasure of feasting and dancing with you at the Midnight Sun Complex, hearing your songs at the Community Christmas Concert in the lovely igloo church and seeing a thoughtful play at the Baptist Church.
The play, Miracle on Mackenzie Road, discusses the consequences of a future in which the Christmas season has been stripped of religion and how the message of Christ is critical to keep it from becoming just another consumerist holiday.
Christ is inseparable from Christmas.
So are children.
While I'm not qualified to talk to you about God or children (I don't have any), I do know the latter's importance to communities. It's often in something's absence that we see its real value, so with that in mind I'll share a story of Christmas from another coast.
Croque is a community drawing its last breaths among rotting fishing boats at the tip of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula. Youth left with the cod and two years ago Croque's K-12 school had three students. The principal/teacher/secretary had to join the three boys, aged 10, 11 and 13, to make up a doubles match in the school's main sport - ping-pong.
The wooded and well-protected little harbour, around which the three boys travelled to school by foot and snowmobile, is beautiful and quiet. But one evening a year something very special happens in Croque.
All foot prints and snowmobile tracks lead to the community hall, glowing with light and laughter over a frozen harbour. It's the school Christmas concert and every soul from Croque and neighbouring Grandois, whose residents keep an axe by the pond from which they gather their water, are there.
The boys don disguises as they go through their elaborate skits and warm all hearts in a conspiracy - for one evening they pretend there are more than three boys and they all still live in a busy little harbour where swarms of children jig rock and outnumber the gulls.
It's not true and most return home to remember their children are in Alberta and the proud traditions and culture formed over a century in their little corner have little place in the modern world.
But the play and a few moments of wonderful make believe, crammed shoulder to shoulder in a little hall, is as great a Christmas gift as any.
During final deliberations on the 2011 budget last week, Wind lamented council's apparent inability to influence the budget outcome.
"I can't recall one item that we were successful in shepherding a reduction for," said Wind, who added they have done little better in past years.
Mark Heyck, who's been a city councillor three years longer than Wind and can recall years when there wasn't a tax increase, took aim at Wind and two other dissenting councillors, Paul Falvo and Cory Vanthuyne, for not taking a stand earlier in the year on items such as the new Fieldhouse and Curling Club maintenance costs.
Regardless, no matter how much some councillors argue that budgeting is a year-long process, it's hard to ignore that after three weeks of deliberations, council couldn't find one cent to cut, not from next year's budget nor from the raft of user fee hikes coming into effect Jan. 1.
Coun. Bob Brooks somehow managed to define next year's tax increase as some sort of victory - that we should be happy it's only 3.99 per cent and not 4.2 after council voted in favour of a $50 increase to business licences and a nine per cent hike to tipping fees at the dump.
All councillors applauded administration for presenting them with the aforementioned 3.99 tax increase and not the truly outrageous 7.2 per cent hike predicted during last year's budget deliberations, seemingly forgetting all together that 3.99 per cent is still the second highest property tax increase foisted upon ratepayers since 2005.
Since then, taxes have gone up by a combined 24.57 per cent; spending at city hall has more than doubled to $61 million from $30 million 10 years ago, even though the city's population - at 19,700 - has been at a virtual standstill for the last seven years.
Residents have, by and large, supported most of the building projects in recent years, including the Fieldhouse, the Multiplex, and Somba K'e Plaza, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to rationalize spending that's often two per cent higher than the inflation rate, and with municipal wage hikes that far outstrip those even in the territorial government. At some point city council must say no, if just to safeguard the investments already made.
Was there nowhere council could find savings in next year's budget? Does the city need to spend $35,000 to replace three-year-old cameras in bylaw patrol cars, or hire four more employees? Is there really no other way to fund repairs to the historic Wildcat Cafe, which the city says will cost $500,000 to complete?
If city councillors bristle at the suggestion that they're merely rubber stamping administration's yearly wish list, they ought to do more than rubber stamping budgets and fee increases.
This perception isn't helped when administration goes ahead and announces hikes to garbage and tipping fees before council even has a chance to vote on them. Or, as Brooks did, make preposterous arguments that to do so was necessary so people had "as much notice as possible."
There's a wide void to fill if council colleagues want to prove Wind wrong. Right now council appears as helpless as a babe alone in the woods when it comes to controlling costs and reducing expenses at city hall.
First, valued readers, since this is the final edition of Kivalliq News for 2010, let me wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and peace and prosperity for the new year.
It's hard to believe I'm now starting my 13th year as editor of this newspaper.
It's been my pleasure to serve you since 1998 and, hopefully, there's a few more years remaining in the tank.
I'll see you in 2011.
On another note the excitement was rekindled in Rankin Inlet earlier this month, when members of the consultant group, FSC Architectures and Engineers, leading the feasibility study on an indoor sports and recreation facility, were in the community from Nov. 29 until Dec. 1.
The study will look at a host of issues for the new facility, including the wants and needs of everyone in the community who would use it.
Once completed, the study will also attempt to identify groups interested in partnering with the Nunavut government to develop the facility and a host of other issues, such as site selection, conceptual designs and of course costs, among others.
Representatives from numerous sports and organizations had a chance to meet with the reps to discuss what the complex could house to help support and develop their particular interests.
All in all the experience was very positive, but Rankin residents are reminded of that one key word in all of this - feasibility.
There are few, if any, residents walking around who do not realize the community desperately needs this facility.
And that could be truthfully said under current conditions, let alone taking into consideration the projected growth of the community during the next decade.
But, as we in Nunavut know all too well, need does not always translate into acquisition.
A number of things have to happen for the recreation complex to progress from study to reality, not the least of which are viable partnerships and the hamlet itself taking a lead role.
We've identified the need as a community, and we must pull together as a community to make it happen.
If we wait for others to go the extra mile in making this facility a reality, we'll be waiting a very, very long time.
And that's where the hamlet must play an integral role in leading the quest.
From continued lobbying, to co-ordinating, planning and providing as much capital and in-kind labour as it possibly can, mayor-elect Pujjuut Kusugak, hamlet council and staff members must be front and centre in continually trumpeting the need for, and benefits of, the facility, and identifying sources of revenue it can generate once constructed.
We've seen this project progress from the dream of former administrations to the point where an actual feasibility study is being conducted.
But we can't afford to rest on our laurels.
The community must continue to pound away at the necessity of having such a facility, and be prepared to do anything and everything within its power to make it a reality.
Just as applies to many of those who will eventually use it,
only a real team effort will lead to success.
The closure of the Arctic Tern Female Young Offenders Facility will mean 13 staff members and their families will have to decide to leave the community they call home or look for other work. If they do decide to relocate to Yellowknife their length of stay will be unknown as they wait for the government to build a new youth correctional facility in Fort Smith.
Nine other positions will be eliminated all together.
Although the government will endeavour to find new government jobs for those laid off, there are no guarantees.
For Inuvik, the closure means a loss of income in the community, fewer people paying for goods, services and paying taxes and a smaller pool of potential volunteers.
The Department of Justice has demonstrated poor foresight and planning when it comes to Arctic Tern. Since 2003, when the new Youth Criminal Justice Act came into effect, the facility has been underused. In fact, when the new act was passed, the 14 offenders housed at the facility were released. Considering the new act emphasizes community rehabilitation over jail time, it should have been obvious Arctic Tern was at the end of its short life. We could argue the territorial government should have been aware of the possible changes to the act and held off on construction of the $6.2 million facility, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. At the time, a young offenders facility for girls was needed.
Unfortunately, since then Arctic Tern - a 14-bed facility - has become a money pit, costing the territory's taxpayers upwards of $2 million each year to accommodate few inmates. This year the average has been fewer than one per day.
We have to ask what has the government been doing for seven years? While departments have been struggling to find cost savings, including controversial proposals such as cutting respite care funding; encouraging the mergers of health, housing and education boards; and creating a user pay system for supplementary health benefits, the GNWT could have acted to save nearly $14 million over seven years.
Better yet, that money could have been reinvested into services the territory actually needs. Mayor Denny Rodger's request for a rehabilitation facility -- the territory only has one such facility located on the Hay River Reserve -- is an excellent recommendation. Locating a rehab centre in the North would allow people in the Beaufort Delta and Sahtu regions to access addictions services closer to home. It would also open up jobs, maybe even a few positions that would allow some Arctic Tern employees to stay in the community.
Even now that the Arctic Tern facility is set to be closed the GNWT has no definite plans.
Bureaucrats could not say if a new building will be constructed in Fort Smith or if the existing women's jail will be renovated to accommodate both youths and adults.
According to Colin Gordon, director of corrections for the department, there isn't a guarantee the new facility will be built as it has not been granted building approval from the GNWT. There are also no definite plans for how to use the soon-to-be vacant Arctic Tern facility.
We wonder if our government's elected officials and bureaucrats would handle their personal affairs with similar disregard? Allowing millions to be wasted every year and not developing a solid plan to make use of a multi-million facility is a blatant waste of taxpayers' money. Moving young female inmates to the young offenders facility in Yellowknife -- built to house boys -- will mean more money spent on upgrades to separate the two.
Our government must demonstrate better planning when spending our money or we fear what will happen once it gains access to resource dollars.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing to list as threatened two populations of bearded seals and four subspecies of ringed seal, including one found throughout Nunavut waters. The NOAA cited diminishing sea ice and reduced snow cover as a reason for the listing.
But ringed seal populations are healthy and abundant, the territorial government stated in a press release, adding it disagrees with the logic of listing ringed seals as threatened without data showing the population is declining.
The import of seal products into the U.S. is already prohibited by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, so the proposal, should it go forward, would not have direct implications on the sale of Nunavut seal products. But, as Environment Minister Dan Shewchuk pointed out, the proposal would provide ammunition for animal rights groups opposed to seal hunting of any kind, and might affect sales in other seal product markets.
As Qikiqtani Inuit Association President Okalik Eegeesiak said, "It's just another indication that somebody far away who doesn't eat seal or depend on seal is making decisions that affect our lives once again."
Such a proposal doesn't harm the U.S., while allowing them to pretend to be concerned for fluffy photogenic Arctic wildlife. (It's unlikely we will ever see an international campaign to save the sculpin.) Of course, if the U.S. were truly concerned for the fate of wildlife dependent on Arctic sea ice, it would take action to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and help alleviate climate change. Instead its senseless idea to declare seals threatened and further harm a source of income for cash-strapped hunters only adds insult to the injuries of climate change Inuit face every day.
Last week, new mayors were elected in Pond Inlet, Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven. Madeleine Redfern, former executive director of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, takes over the Iqaluit mayor's office from Elisapee Sheutiapik, and there's a new president for Nunavut Tunngavik.
All have big shoes to fill, and a lot of work on their plate.
New NTI President Cathy Towtongie is tasked with restoring confidence in the office, especially where it concerns spending. She's off to a good start by taking a voluntary $20,000 pay cut and declining the use of a company car.
We wish them all the best of luck in their new jobs in the new year, and remind them that being accountable will put them in good stead.
Corrections
Also, wrong information appeared in Friday's Yellowknifer News Briefs ("GNWT and city holiday office hours," Dec. 24). Municipal offices were closed on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28 and open for regular office hours on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30. Yellowknifer apologizes for any confusion or embarrassment caused by these errors.
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