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City water goals clear as mud Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 27, 2011
That's what a senior official at city hall told Yellowknifer in April of last year about the city's water supply from the Yellowknife River. The statement was made during a line of questioning about the city's proposal to move its water intake to Yellowknife Bay, and build a water treatment plant, expected to cost up to $20 million, near Pumphouse No. 1 on 48 Street. The city currently screens its water for fish and debris at the Yellowknife River intake and chlorinates it at Pumphouse No. 1. The city official explained that because the federal government will likely begin forcing communities to upgrade water treatment facilities within five years, the city was going ahead with building this extremely expensive water treatment plant so as to be "proactive and have it done on our schedule rather than someone else's schedule." The city would likely need to borrow $10 million to finance the project, the official said, which under GNWT rules, should require voter approval much as borrowing for the geothermal project did. As many readers will recall, residents rejected the city's proposal to borrow up to $49 million toward that project last March. Leaving aside residents' fears about arsenic trioxide in Yellowknife Bay for a moment, the city hasn't explained what the consequences are should it decide not to build the treatment plant. Yellowknifer has been trying to get a straight answer from the city on that issue for more than a year with less than satisfactory results. Mayor Gord Van Tighem told Yellowknifer two weeks ago that the plant was needed because of "regulations" adopted by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment - an inter-governmental group of provincial and territorial ministers of the environment - a few years after the E. coli outbreak in Walkerton, Ont., in 2000. This group is responsible for Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, the standard used by communities nationwide. The key here, of course, is the word "guidelines." According to the dictionary, a guideline is "a principle or instruction set forth as a guide," as in something one SHOULD do. Not surprisingly, the water guidelines contain words like "should" and "recommend;" they don't appear to state anywhere that these are rules and regulations that MUST be followed. Nor can we find anything in the guidelines stating it's a "requirement" for the water to undergo a filtration process, as the city's water treatment plant fact sheet insists. Indeed, in 2008, the director of community operations for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, while commenting on the construction of five filtration plants in NWT communities that were experiencing issues with water turbidity, had this to say: "These are guidelines, not laws but we encourage (communities) to follow that ... Some of our communities are very lucky because they have a good quality of water." Yellowknife must be one of the lucky ones considering what our city official had to say about our "perfectly safe, perfectly clean water." If moving the city's water intake to Yellowknife Bay was about saving money it could very well be a worthy venture. The city says replacing the eight-km long underwater pipeline from the Yellowknife River to Pumphouse No. 1 will cost about $10 million, while an arsenic treatment system at the water treatment plant would cost $3 million. Arsenic from Giant Mine is somewhat of a concern but recent tests have shown levels are below the accepted guidelines and there hasn't been any mining activity at Giant for years. But what city councillors need to ask is whether the water treatment plant is necessary at all. Does it need to be built, or is it simply an attractive project for city bureaucrats? If the latter is the case, then common sense would dictate taxpayers would be better served if plans for a $20 million water treatment plant were scrapped and the line to the Yellowknife River was replaced when it reaches the end of its expected lifespan in 2020. Council owes residents answers to these questions.
A grim warning Editorial Comment Roxanna Thompson Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, May 26, 2011
The evening news and online news sites were soon showing the images of devastation. Whole neighbourhoods had been reduced to little more than piles of ash with blackened concrete foundations marking where homes used to be. As people looked at the scenes of everyday life that had been turned into a post-apocalyptic nightmare, some may have been thinking there, but for the grace of God, go us. It's very true. A look around the Deh Cho reveals an uncomfortable truth. The forests that surround our communities that are part and parcel with a Northern lifestyle are also the very things that would lead an out-of-control forest fire right to our very doors. For the most part it is something that people don't think about very often. Sure, forest fires are a yearly summer occurrence in the region but few every get close to communities. You might see a plume of smoke on the horizon and smell the smoke in the air when then wind is in the right direction but that's about the extent of it. Slave Lake has shown that forest fires do have the potential to threaten and damage communities. A few lessons should be gleaned from Slave Lake's misfortune. Firstly, community governments need to have an up to date emergency preparedness plan that meshes with the broader territorial government plans and residents need to know the basics of what it entails. This information would assuredly be distributed if a community was in potential danger but a lot of panic and confusion could be avoided if residents already had an idea of what to expect. Currently, for example, few if any residents of any Deh Cho community probably known what measures would be taken in the case of an approaching fire and what they should do at each stage. This information is especially important considering that all Deh Cho communities only have one-road access, if that, to their community. People would have to leave before it was cut off or use a means by air or water to get out. The fire has also shown that both communities and individual homeowners have a responsibility to do what they can to reduce the risks of wildfires to their communities. Every Deh Cho community now has a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. It is up to local governments to ensure that the documents are actively used to help protect the communities instead of leaving them on a shelf to collect dust and become fuel in the event of a fire. Homeowners aren't off the hook either. There are a variety of measures that can be taken to make properties more fire safe. None of them will stop a forest fire but they could help slow one down. The lessons from Slave Lake need to be used to ensure if the worst happens in the Deh Cho all precautions will have been taken and residents will be prepared. Forget normality Editorial Comment Samantha Stokell Inuvik Drum - Thursday, May 26, 2011
One can only guess not too many, but that is exactly what is happening to one dead man in an urn and three of his (living) friends. They're driving from Chicago to Inuvik to tee off at midnight on June 21 – the longest day of the year. It's quite incredible and a testament to the man in the urn's character that these men, senior citizens all, are willing to travel on the road for 17 days together. It's one thing to be friends, another to live together and a completely different experience to travel together in cramped spaces for almost three weeks. Think of the adventures and memories they are making along the way – how many of you reading this story have driven across the continent? It's enough to make anyone bitten by the travel bug jealous. Northerners are known to be open to driving long distances, but usually it's about the destination and big box stores, not so much the journey. But really, these men have it right. The journey is what it's all about, in both road trips and life. And the men, knowingly or not, are creating a whole metaphor for life: the long road with the (24-hour) light being their goal at the end. So why not enjoy the ride? Forget social norms and hit the road! Take a risk! Don't follow the crowd! Success comes to those who step off the beaten path and into the unknown. Please pardon the cliches. Before people start proclaiming all sorts of crazy plans, it's time for a reality check. The one thing that can make or break all of these plans – whether it's hitting the road, becoming premier, swimming the best you can or simply surviving horrible events – is support. Support of family, friends, mentors, teachers. Before the crazy plans take flight, take a moment to check in with those who know and love you. Are you far enough away from normal that your plan is unique, but close enough that your loved ones aren't freaking out? Then you might have a plan that will make your life special and maybe, after you pass on, your friends will remember you not with sadness, but with joy, that they got to spend time with you at all and maybe gained inspiration from the life you led. Don't regret that you have to leave. Regret what you haven't done. And by the way, the definition of normal is conforming to the average. Who wants to be average? Forget normal and do what you need to in this world to achieve the happiness you have every right to experience.
You are worth $27,000 Yellowknifer - Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Some 4,800 residents - more than 10 per cent of the population -- remained off the census list after Statistics Canada reported the territory's population at 37,600. The mistake was attributed mainly to inexperienced census takers hired from down south who were unfamiliar with NWT communities, where streets and addresses are not always clearly defined. Indeed, there are dozens of homes on side roads and bush trails along the Ingraham Trail and Highway 3 that would be difficult to find if one didn't know about them. A proper census count is crucial to the territorial government's ability to fund programs and services. Every person counted in 2001 represented $17,500 in federal grant money; that amount has now climbed to $27,000. Stats Canada appeared to have done a much better job with the census in 2006, but at least one reader has already complained her home address is missing from the bureau's data base, and can't complete her form. The importance of an accurate count to the GNWT's budget means it's critical residents make sure they've been counted. If 10 people shrug off their duty, it costs the rest of us $270,000. Make sure your neighbour gets counted. Make doubly sure you and your family get counted.
Essential service or frill? Yellowknifer - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 The recently-suspended midwifery program was popular in Yellowknife, and those protesting its suspension have reason to do so. But with a health budget consistently in the red and a fully-staffed hospital, is it something Yellowknife absolutely needs right now? Yellowknife's lone midwife saw 36 patients in 2009. The position cost the GNWT $116,000 per year or just over $3,000 per mother. For a position that monitors the health of expectant mothers, provides counselling, offers prescriptions and help care for the newborn, this seems like good value for those dollars. However, with the health budget already stretched thin over the department, and a hospital staffed with nurse practitioners, obstetricians, and physicians, midwifery staff could be seen more as a frill than an essential service. Two midwives remain in Fort Smith, a community far from a facility like Stanton Territorial Hospital. This is where the midwife is most valuable, and perhaps the outlying communities is where the program should have its focus, if it does continue. A study to determine the exact health and economic benefits of the program is necessary to warrant its existence in a health care system struggling to climb out of debt. Though the study currently being taken by the GNWT costs nearly as much as funding for the position, its results should be valuable to the next legislative assembly. If there is a sound benefit, both in maintaining health standards and creating efficiencies, to having the program in Yellowknife, and across the NWT, by all means it should be kept alive. However, if it is not saving the government money and is not proving itself absolutely necessary, it may not make sense to offer it as a government service in every region.
Time for less thumping and more signing Darrell Greer Kivalliq News - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 When it comes to replacing words with action in the Arctic, WikiLeaks helped confirm what many of us have felt for a very long time. Most of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's talk about Canadian Arctic sovereignty is little more than chestthumping to win votes. The observation, from the American Embassy in Ottawa, was contained in a diplomatic cable sent under the signature of Ambassador David Jacobson this past year. It concluded the Tories have made successful political use of promises to beef up Canada's presence in the Arctic, but the Harper government has done scant implementation on pledges like increasing surveillance over the Northwest Passage. It's hard to argue with the ambassador's contention promises of armed icebreakers and Arctic Ocean sensors made in 2006 have long since been forgotten. The cable also claims Harper did not bring up the topic of the Arctic once during several hours of meetings with Jacobson in 2010. If true, that's hardly the behaviour one would expect from a prime minister who regales himself with useitorloseit rhetoric when it comes to Canada's North. Knowing the number of countries drooling over the prospect of an open-to-all Northwest Passage (Uncle Sam included) -- and/or gathering 'evidence' to stake a claim to Arctic property - this is not the type of approach that instills confidence in those who happen to call the North home. Throw in the fact the opening of the longpromised Nanisivik Naval Facility on Baffin Island has been pushed back to at least 2016, and there's nary a new fixedwing searchandrescue plane to be seen overhead, and one gets the impression our government isn't exactly chomping at the bit to heighten its presence up here, military or otherwise. Now that the Tories have a majority government, we should find out in short order if Arctic sovereignty truly is important to the country, or just to the Conservatives when they need to garner enough votes from the naive among us to retain power. There's no arguing the fact any number of issues can delay a construction project in the North. And, there's no denying the search-and-rescue treaty being signed by the Arctic Council should help strengthen Canada's sovereignty claims in the North and help in the event of a major Arctic disaster. But four Twin Otters in Yellowknife and Buffalo or Hercules aircraft sitting in Winnipeg or Trenton, Ont., are still not adequate in responding to the needs of a growing Arctic population, especially in Nunavut. There's been a lot of talk about a lot of improvement in the North for a decade, but talk still remains a cheap commodity on this planet. Harper spokesperson Andrew MacDougall can claim the Tories have backed up their talk with action all he wants. And maybe he thinks stating Northern operations can be challenging is telling us something we don't know. But, at the end of the day, we need less chest-thumping and more cheque-signing to see tangible improvements in the North. Harper should be quite familiar with the problem of hoarding cheques. No matter how much you try to protect them, if you don't use them, you often lose them.
Send money soon NWT News/North - Monday, May 23, 2011
Cut off from its gas supply the town has had to fly in propane and a new system to help keep the heat on. Financially, the situation is far more than the community of 800 can handle. With a 2011 balanced budget of a little more than $5 million, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, to manage the situation is well beyond the community's means. Although exact costs have yet to be announced, Mayor Dudley Johnson told News/North earlier this month the bill for supplying propane to Norman Wells for 21 days during regular maintenance periods at the oilfield in past years has cost the town almost $370,000. As of Friday, the shutdown reached its 21st day and Johnson initially told News/North the community's reserves of natural gas would only last a maximum of eight days. It was only quick thinking and a lucky break - primarily pressing old, unused fuel storage tanks into service that fortunately held up to standards -- that has prevented the situation from becoming much worse.
Just the same, the town itself is at the mercy of third parties. Norman Wells can claim no fault in the break of the Rainbow Pipeline, owned by Plains Midstream Canada. The rupture in that pipeline allowed more than 4.4 million litres of oil to spill in northern Alberta and caused the closure of the line, which halted the supply of fuel from Norman Wells. Now, concerns with other portions of the Rainbow Pipeline and the Slave Lake, Alta., fire have delayed repair and cleanup efforts, which means it is uncertain when the gas will be turned back on.
For the time being, Norman Wells will be forced to pick up the bill until compensation from other levels of government comes through. In the past that has proven frustrating for other NWT communities.
Hay River knows first-hand what it is like to endure a lengthy wait for emergency compensation. Following the 2008 flood, which caused widespread damage on Vale Island and the Hay River Reserve, victims were still waiting for compensation a year later. Similarly, Fort Good Hope had difficulties following a 2005 flood which caused $1 million worth of damages.
Johnson told News/North last week it could take up to two years for the community to receive compensation. Mayor Dudley Johnson said the situation is costing the town $15,000 per day - plus the cost of fuel . That means after nine weeks the town will have spent more than one-fifth of its total budget. Using up $1 million from any community budget so early in the fiscal year is a devastating blow.
That is money taken away from routine services and funds, and the town will be in a terrible position when unexpected events happen in the future.
Members of the community are in a state of panic according to Jim Ulch, manager of the Heritage Hotel. It's a reaction that is to be expected; it's obvious to everyone there is only so much financial burden the town can manage before it runs out of resources.
We expect our territorial government to step in to ensure the gas stays on in Norman Wells but it must take that step soon.
Two years is too long to make the people of Norman Wells wait for reimbursement for this emergency. A relief package must be in place in months, if not weeks. If not, when the current state of emergency is resolved, the community may not have the finances to cover the cost of doing business.
That would be a second disaster for the town, and one it should not have to face.
The official opening of the Piqqusilirivvik learning facility in Clyde River may mark a turning point in cultural pride. Its establishment acknowledges traditional knowledge and traditional ways of learning are as important as conventional schooling in the lives of Inuit.
Culture is passed on not only through what you learn, but how you learn it. Piqqusilirivvik is not a conventional school, with classrooms and desks and chalkboards. Elders and students will live together in the same building for a substantial length of time, away from distractions. Elders will teach by example and students will learn through observation and practice. Language, philosophy and customs will be passed on through demonstrating traditional skills. This adds up to a thorough grounding in what it means to be Inuit.
At the centre's opening celebrations, Miriam Aglukkaq of Gjoa Haven described it as "a place for Inuit who have forgotten their Inuit ways."
Settlement, relocation, church missionaries, residential schools and satellite TV are among some of the factors that have played a part in eroding traditional Inuit culture. Piqqusilirivvik is a step towards shoring up its banks.
The 2,200-square-metre building contains sewing rooms, a gathering hall, a library, and a food preparation room which doubles as a skin preparation room, complete with a walk-in freezer and stainless steel surfaces. Elders will serve as instructors, advisers and student counsellors.
Its first group of 26 students from various communities will arrive in late August or early September. They will live and work with 14 staff.
The Knud Rasmussen folk school in Sisimut, Greenland, established in 1962, was used as a model, and the principal of that school as well as other Greenlandic dignitaries, attended Piqqusilirivvik's opening.
During the breaks between semesters in summer and winter, the Knud Rasmussen school opens its dormitory to tourists and offers short cultural programs. An arrangement like that at Piqqusilirivvik may help offset some of the operating costs associated with the facility.
Becky Kilabuk, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's youth representative, said at the opening ceremony she has met many youths who feel they are on the outside looking in at their culture and "do not have a strong sense of who they are."
While this centre is a valuable tool in the fight against this kind of cultural disconnect, youth don't have to travel to the $23 million facility in Clyde River to spend time with elders and observe how they do things. Elders are in every community and they are the territory's most valuable repository of knowledge. It just takes a willingness to turn off your iPod and brush up on your Inuktitut.
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