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Teeing off hypocrisy Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, January 21, 2011
The latest controversy aside, there is nothing wrong with giving the Yellowknife Golf Club a break on property taxes or even a share of core funding grants. Many jurisdictions in Canada allow municipalities to grant tax exemptions to not-for-profit corporations - which the golf club is - that better the community, which the golf club does. Formed in 1948, it's one of Yellownife's oldest and proudest facilities, known the nation over for its midnight tee times and carry-along patches of artificial turf. Yellowknife would be considerably poorer without a golf course so it's reasonable to expect city hall to help it remain viable. In fact, in some U.S. communities the community health versus tax waste debate has carried over to private golf and country clubs where only the richest and most elite citizens can enter their gold-gilded gates. The rationale for tax exemptions there is that if those swanky and very expensive to run establishments - even after charging exorbitant membership fees - were to fall into disrepair, property values around the community would plummet and make for a less attractive place to live. Fortunately, we don't have to take that debate to such extremes here. An adult membership to the Yellowknife Golf Club, while at $459 a year is not cheap, is not out of the range of most Yellowknifers who want to play golf. The trouble for the city began after it decided to pick on poor little Yellowknife Garden Collective and its $2,500 budget. No amount of explanation on the city's part can bury the hypocrisy of giving a tax exemption and $15,000 yearly grant to the golf club while demanding $3,000 in property taxes from the garden collective, which owns no actual buildings. Following the backlash, the city realized the error of its ways. Our citizens can now count on the city to support two healthy pursuits - golf and gardening.
Strong legs for the future Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, January 21, 2011 Crazy Legs Contemporary Dance company has graced the stages of Yellowknife for six years, bringing dramatic and emotional performances by residents, to residents. Those choreographed moments will soon be drawing to a close, however. The dance company is giving its final set of performances at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre - the last curtain falling tomorrow. There will be one more appearance at the Snow Castle in March before disbanding. Founded by Darha Phillpot and Karen Wasicuna, the dance company has helped bring a cosmopolitan feeling to our city through music and dance. With a long list of original dance routines and complex and well executed performances, the company has given residents access to high quality and passionate dance that is usually found only in larger cities like Vancouver and Toronto. During its time, Crazy Legs has built on a burgeoning arts scene, giving a strong presence to a sometimes forgotten and extremely difficult art form, all the while providing a place for people to grow as expressive individuals. The dance troupe also served as strong role models for young, aspiring dancers to learn that their dreams of performing on the stage for an audience can be attained, even in smaller cities. Crazy Legs has inspired younger dancers to take to the stage and bring their art to the masses. With that accomplishment, the dance company will live on for years to come.
Setting the record straight Editorial Comment Roxanna Thompson Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011
With temperatures falling close to -40 I stood bundled in my parka and watched as a group of students from Thomas Simpson School carried a television outside and maneuvered it into a space that had been hollowed out of a large pile of snow. Next came the extension cords that fed the television electricity from the school.
The final touch was student Charles Gargan who contortion himself into the hole with the television and mimicked playing Xbox. If temperatures hadn't caused the television to fail Gargan would have actually played a video game from inside the snow cave. All of this work was part of a media art project to play with the stereotype that people in the North live in igloos. Of course if we live in igloos - and we have an Xbox - we must play them there, too. The project was amusing in itself but it raises the very true point that a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions continue to exist within Canada and farther abroad about the North. More commonly held misconceptions, which I have personally heard in southern Canada, include the idea that all parts of the North remain in complete darkness throughout the winter and that polar bears can be found just about anywhere, even in Fort Simpson. It appears that what is needed is a mass education campaign about the differences between the various regions in the North and the North in general. People, at least in the rest of Canad, a should have a better grasp on what exists above the 60th parallel. The campaign could include television ads sponsored by the territorial government that highlight different aspects of life in the North. The possibility of getting more information about the North in geography and social studies textbooks should also be seriously considered to educate people while they're young. The most important component of the campaign, however, is Northerners. Feel free to spend a bit of time for your own amusement leading on anyone you find who believes polar bears roam the lower portion of the territory but when you're done laughing please put them straight. The same goes for any other misguided idea you may stumble across. Playing Xbox in an igloo is probably feasible but people shouldn't be allowed to go on believing that's what all Northern teenagers do for fun.
It happens Editorial Comment Aaron Beswick Inuvik Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011
That's the nature of stuff ... it's going to break and make us miserable.
It usually happens at inconvenient times and results in other stuff breaking (which is expensive). On Nov. 15 the utilidor system froze up between Mackenzie Road and Kingminya Road. The town responded with steamers to melt the ice clogging the water lines, but the steamers broke, one after another as temperatures dropped to -24 C. Then the 40-year-old concrete water line split along a 250-foot section. As a result, 11 residences and one church went without running water for between two and 11 days. No doubt a miserable situation, seeing as we've all become accustomed to hot showers, clothes washers and the like. But it was probably also pretty miserable working in -24 C weather trying to fix that water line. So here's to the contractors and town works employees who struggled with frustration piled upon frustration. The town is conducting an internal audit to see if there's any way this miserable situation could have been avoided ... and so they should. But we should keep in mind that a few days without water isn't the end of the world, that stuff breaks (especially in extreme environments) and we only have two recourses - fix our stuff and learn from our mistakes. That's what the town is doing. Good on them. Coming and going Editorial Comment Aaron Beswick Inuvik Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011 So I'm heading back to Nova Scotia. It's nothing against Inuvik - family commitments call. I was only here for a month and figured I owe you all a "thanks" for the good time. People lead good lives up here and have built a well-organized, compassionate community in an unforgiving land. It warms the heart to see. In my stead will be Kira Curtis - a young woman who loves life and can't wait to learn about your lives. So take care and keep being good to one another. My only regret is not getting to nap on the banks of that mighty river as it rolls to the sea under a summer sun. Rules of the road Yellowknifer - Wednesday, January 19, 2011
But our distaste does not extend to the city's right to regulate cab companies and their drivers in order to ensure safe operation and compliance with the law. City inspectors ensure cabbies have a driver's licence, know their way around town, provide receipts to their passengers and display their permits in a place where customers can see them. The city also ensures cabbies have not been convicted of serious criminal offences, such as aggravated assault, murder or drug trafficking, which makes perfect sense. Hence, it's almost certain Ahmed Makaran, 57, faces an insurmountable challenge. The Yellowknife cabbie lost his taxi licence last month upon his conviction for assaulting a fellow taxi driver with a tire iron at the Shell gas station last February. Even more alarming, he had customers in his car at the time of the assault. He then drove them to their destination covered in the victim's blood. He is currently appealing his loss of his taxi licence to city council, to whom his lawyer insisted earlier this week that his client didn't actually break the rules because he was convicted of assault with a weapon, not aggravated assault as written in the city's taxi bylaw. Good luck with that. His lawyer - and city council - must surely know that the bylaw also states that no taxi licence shall be issued to a driver who has committed "any" Criminal Code offence while on duty. Makaran would have been better off showing genuine contrition to council in his own words rather than hire a lawyer to make lame arguments for him. Acknowledging that he acted in a reprehensible way and expressing regret for his actions would have helped his image, if not have aided in restoring his cab driving privileges.
All hail the general Yellowknifer - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Sporting four leaves on his epaulette, General Walt Natynczyk marched into Yellowknife last week to show his troops the personable side of his battled-hardened character. Natynczyk, Canada's chief of defence staff, has served our country nobly, having completed tours in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq, and now oversees operations in Afghanistan. He was in command in the efforts to help flood-ravaged Winnipeg in 1997. Less than a year later, he and other Canadian soliders were aiding Ottawa during the infamous ice storm. He's been tested in dire situations and has proven his mettle. With that in mind, his presence before staff of Joint Task Force North further lifted morale in a place where momentum among our men and women in uniform is growing. The Yellowknife reserve unit has already surpassed its rate of recruitment by filling 27 positions, putting it ahead of pace to reach 60 reservists by 2014. These are part-time soldiers who train on weekends and holidays. Possessing a knack for strategy, we hope Natynczyk fully recognizes Yellowknife is in a key position to help defend the top-third of Canada. Arctic sovereignty is a pressing concern for our federal government. Placing an even greater number of full-time soldiers and a Northern training centre here in our city would be of great value. Not only would it assist in Northern search and rescue missions, but we'd be in a better position to respond to disasters such as oil spills as industry and navigation of Arctic waters increase across the North.
New bag policy will hurt those who can least afford it Darrell Greer Kivalliq News - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 While the Northern store had good intentions in introducing its 25-cent charge on plastic bags this week, one has to wonder when these types of initiatives will stop being forced down people's throats. It's bad enough we're constantly being told what we can and can't do by every level of government - most often without having a say in the matter - but do we really need the corporate sector telling us how to live? There's no doubt a handful of save-the-world types will be all giddy over the initiative, and those with high incomes really won't care one way or another, but for those who have to count their change before heading to the store, those quarters are really going to add up over a year. Those who know how landfill sites work in most Nunavut communities realize plastic bags are the least of our worries when it comes to what rests in those large plots of dead land. You can say we have to start somewhere, but the only benefit this project will produce is maybe - and it's a big maybe - we'll see a few less plastic bags on the ground in communities and out on the land. When it comes to the environment, thanks to our dependence on diesel-powered generators to keep our lights and heat on, Nunavut has one of the biggest carbon footprints in the world, per capita. If companies want to get all save-the-world on us, maybe they could look at a fund to support research and/or construction of alternative energy sources for Nunavut and really make a difference when it comes to what we're putting into the environment. That may actually gain some weight during the next few years if the Nunavut Power Corp. is successful in hiking its rates in the territory. A 21-per-cent hike to start just might encourage that line of thought rather quickly. The Northern's trying to heal a gunshot wound with a Band-Aid and this initiative will take money from the pockets of those who can least afford it. True, a couple of free bags were given to households to start the initiative this week, but it won't be long before they're lost, used for something else or just plain worn out, and people will be shelling out 99 cents to purchase new bags. And, unless you're totally disconnected from reality, most people know many of those six or seven plastic bags needed to tote our $700 grocery orders home find their way into kitchen and bathroom garbage receptacles in numerous households. Yes, true again, those biodegradable kitchen catchers are readily available at your local Northern store for a premium price. But if you're one of the people living below the poverty line, biodegradable bags come in a distant second to such luxury items as powdered milk, juice crystals and frozen mystery meat to put food on the table for your kids. Then there's the question of hygiene and germ transference when it comes to the bags, and we know of a few organisms that would giggle at the thought of not being able to survive in a Northern store recyclable bag. Hey, we're all for most initiatives that help our environment, but this one has a lot of holes in it for Nunavut. It's easy to shrug off quarters when you have big bucks in your pocket, but not quite so when you're struggling to make ends meet.
Lost and found NWT News/North - Monday, January 17, 2011
There were 88 calls for searches in 2010 compared to 60 in 2009, according to Jack Kruger, RCMP G Division's search and rescue co-ordinator.
In those two years a mere eight searches were resolved with the help of a personal location device and eight people died -- seven of them in 2010.
Between 2007 and November 2010, Kruger said 211 of the 221 searches conducted could have been completed more quickly if travellers would have been carrying a personal locator.
Costs associated with searches vary depending on geography and distance, but as Kruger told News/North, a GPS locator reduces the costs considerably. As an example, he said a search on Great Slave Lake without a locator can last for days and cost more than $25,000 due to time and personnel. With a personal locator -- which costs close to $170 for the device and the annual subscription fee -- a rescue can take approximately an hour at a cost of less than $1,000.
If saving lives isn't motivation enough, the financial math is clear and should provide sufficient incentive for the GNWT to expand programs that provide locator devices to travellers.
Last year the Nunavut government made 20 of the devices available to each of its communities free of charge. It's a move that should be copied in the NWT, and it seems steps may have been taken in that direction.
A pilot project in Hay River last year provided GPS devices to travellers, according to Earl Blacklock, spokesperson with the Department of Transportation.
The department is now in the process of analyzing the effectiveness of that project to determine how many people used the technology. Blacklock said depending on the results the GNWT might consider expanding a similar program into other parts of the territory. Lutsel K'e and the Beaufort Delta hunters and trappers associations also provide GPS locators.
But making the units available is only half the battle. The other half of the equation is getting people to use them. Kruger said many people who find themselves in trouble on the land suffer from what he calls the "invincible factor;" they are those who take off without proper gear, without enough fuel and, in many of the cases -- 46 between 2007 and 2010 -- have been drinking. Those attitudes and behaviours obviously have to change.
Both the government and the public have to share the responsibility of keeping people safe and saving taxpayers' dollars on unnecessary lengthy searches. So far in 2011 there have been two searches and we're not even a month in. Let's make this the year we think a little smarter before heading out into the wilds.
A three-hour power outage in Norman Wells caused by a malfunction with Imperial Oil's equipment on Dec. 21 drove home the reality that in three years the town will no longer be able to rely on its own natural gas supply for power and heat.
Then what?
The community will be discussing power options and has some tough decisions to make. Converting to a diesel electrical system will come at great expense and there is a question as to how long the community would even need such a system.
By 2018 Norman Wells might have access to natural gas from the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, assuming the project moves forward. But can the community bank on an unknown? It's difficult to believe that a contingency plan is not in place when all parties have known that the natural gas supply is dwindling.
For years Norman Wells has been contributing millions in royalties to the federal and government, yet is being left in a lurch.
At the very least a plan to replace the community's power system should have been put in place and paid for by Ottawa, where our federal politicians have reaped the benefits of Norman Wells oil.
With more and more ships plying the Northwest Passage every year, and oil exploration drilling already being done on the Greenland side of the Davis Strait, action needs to be taken to both reduce the risk of accidents and improve our ability to respond to them before one of the worst case scenarios becomes reality.
Oil spill kits or "Arctic community packs" have been delivered to 15 communities in Nunavut, sea cans full of the same basic equipment used to contain and clean-up oil spills, tailored to communities' specific needs. The kits are meant to be used as a method of first response in the first 24 to 48 hours after a spill.
But all the first-response equipment in the world is useless if no one on site in an emergency knows how to use it.
Despite most agreeing the people to be trained should be firefighters, public works employees and Canadian Rangers, there is still as yet no concrete plan of how training will be delivered in the communities, and the Canadian Coast Guard says it's still facing a lack of volunteers stepping up for the as-yet unscheduled training.
Expecting volunteers to take on the job is part of the problem. The federal government should pay people to take relevant training and compensate them if they lend a hand in a real emergency.
Of course, the first step in battling oil spills is preventing them. Our waterways need charts updated and better ice navigation information. Also, there should be regulations on what kind of ships can operate in the Arctic and what kind of training their crews should have.
But how hard can it be to plan to put a few trainers on a plane (or a boat - after all, it is the coast guard) to the communities next summer?
If the problem with the training is a question of budgeting dollars and cents, perhaps someone should remind the federal government that the money spent on the kits will be largely wasted without it.
Nunavut's communities are coastal - with the notable exception of Baker Lake - and the bulk of the Inuit livelihood has been provided by the sea for thousands of years.
The lengthening of the open water season has increased interest in Nunavut's marine resources; job training and infrastructure are necessities if Nunavummiut are to take part in the burgeoning fisheries industry. Kimmirut's Johnny Itulu and his colleagues in the fishing master fourth class and bridge watch programs underway this winter are well-positioned to benefit from the industry's development.
The territory's future may lie in its fishery. The Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium will have a valuable role to play in helping us take advantage of the opportunities to come.
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