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When it was announced Richard Van Camp's novel The Lesser Blessed was to be adapted for the big screen and filmed in the NWT, it created a lot of excitement and opened the doors of opportunity for those with an interest in the film industry.

More than 100 students from schools across the territory auditioned for the film -- one teen from Fort Smith secured a final audition for a lead role -- and a couple aspiring youth filmmakers will shadow the production crews.

Now imagine how many more might have benefited had the film actually been shot in the NWT, where the story is based, instead of moved to Ontario due to budgetary decisions. Unfortunately, despite raising more than $2 million, the production fell $250,000 short of the needed cash to allow filming to take place in Fort Smith.

The missed opportunity once again points to the territory's poor management of the arts as an industry in the NWT. In name, the NWT does have a film commission, but a recent study paid for by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment shows a systemic failure to support the industry.

"The NWT film, video and digital media industry is currently fragmented and there is no co-ordinating body to promote co-operation between members and champion this sector," an excerpt from the 84-page report reads.

According to the report, the industry contributes about $9 million to the NWT economy on an annual basis. Of that, approximately $5 million is in wages.

Of the three Northern territories, the NWT spends the least in terms of program funding to its film commission -- previously a paltry $50,000, now $100,000. Compare that to Nunavut and the Yukon which spent $800,000 and $710,000 respectively. The Yukon Film Commission also has a $560,000 operation and maintenance budget.

Filmmakers in the NWT theoretically have access to substantial funds through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's Arts Council and Industry, Tourism and Investment's SEED grant; in all, more than $3.5 million.

However, SEED money is designed to support commercial ventures and is notoriously difficult for artists to access. In 2010-11, of the more than $3 million handed out through SEED grants, only $32,000 was available for the film industry. The most significant barrier is that film projects must be the producer's full-time job to qualify.

As for the $500,000 available through the arts council, projects looking to make a profit aren't eligible. Neither of these funding sources would have helped the Lesser Blessed either since it was not being produced by a Northern company, even though many consider it a project that belongs to the North.

Unlike the Yukon and Nunavut, the NWT Film Commission has no stated mandate, is not a stand alone entity and its priorities are clouded by the fact it includes arts and crafts as part of the media it supports.

The GNWT needs to take a serious look at how it supports the arts in the NWT.

A good first step would be to develop a comprehensive arts strategy that would guide program funding to support everything from hobby artists to fledgling filmmakers to promoting large commercial ventures. As it stands, the last arts strategy developed by ITI was done in 2004 and is in serious need of updating.

Aside from creating opportunities in film and television, developing a system to promote such visual arts would also have spinoff benefits in terms of tourism. Each year, countless people visit locations where their favourite movies were filmed, not to mention the possible market for souvenirs.

Interestingly, the Government of the Northwest Territories spent $332,446 on video/film production in 2009-2010, in part developing materials for showing at Northern House during the Vancouver Olympics. This represents a four-fold increase over GNWT expenditures the previous year.

The expenditure proves our government understands the value of film in promoting our economy. Now it's time to show the same level of support for territorial filmmakers and film projects that showcase the NWT.

Two Iglulik hunters are alive after a harrowing night on the water in the ominous sounding Fury and Hecla Strait, northwest of Iglulik.

Tragically, a 34-year-old Canadian Forces airman did not survive an attempt to rescue them on Oct. 27. He died after a parachute jump from a Hercules airplane. The location of the hunters was known because they used an electronic locator device, although weather did complicate the rescue effort - Mother Nature always holds the trump card. Just a few days earlier, five hunters were found safe at a camp southeast of Iqaluit. Spotters in helicopters, flying from two coast guard icebreakers, located the hunters. The men had taken shelter to avoid bad weather. The problem is they did not communicate they were safe and did not require assistance.

A few years ago, the Government of Nunavut distributed 100 emergency beacons to communities across the territory. They are available to be signed out by those making trips out on the land. Are you using them?

The first priority on any trip is safety. We all want our loved ones to return in good condition from their hunts or snowmobile trips.

Modern SPOT locator devices will inform others of your location and can relay messages of whether you are in distress or need supplies.

These $170 gadgets can prevent large-scale ground and aerial searches, which can cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars if aircraft and personnel have to be scrambled from Ontario, Manitoba or Nova Scotia. These electronic marvels can literally be the difference between life and death - your own or that of a family member or a soldier who courageously goes looking for you in perilous conditions. Don't allow it to be a needless search, or needless loss of life.

What some call a racial slur for Inuit was recently in national headlines - the word "Eskimo" popped up on a Saskatchewan Conservative politician David Anderson's website, prompting a backlash from some regarding the use of the word, but after the video was taken down the question still remains: Is it OK to say Eskimo?

Some Alaskan Inuit call themselves Eskimos, and the term is still in common use in the U.S. and among many southern Canadians. The Eskimo Inn still stands in Inuvik and many football fans cheer on the Edmonton Eskimos CFL team each year.

Despite its position in the common lexicon, many Inuit in Nunavut consider the term Eskimo a racial slur and its use a sign of ignorance. The video on Anderson's website was decried by Mary Simon of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

A few years ago, a viral music video, "Don't Call Me Eskimo" by Arctic Bay rappers Northerners With Attitude, offered thought-provoking views on modern Inuit life and dismissed the term Eskimo along with other archaic stereotypes about the North.

Though Inuit is generally acknowledged as the politically correct term in the North, the GN, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq were silent as the video linked by Anderson permeated national news. It's time for Nunavut's leaders to take a stance on this divisive issue.

Premier Bob McLeod has mixed his cabinet with rookies and experienced hands heading into the next four years of territorial government.

Few are surprised Michael Miltenberger is returning as finance minister, although McLeod's choice to keep him at Environment and Natural Resources is bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially here in Yellowknife.

Miltenberger confidentially handled the finance portfolio during the 16th assembly but ruffled many feathers during his tenure as environment minister. First, he angered aboriginal groups by decreeing an end to the Bathurst herd caribou hunt while he was off in Denmark hobnobbing with world elites at a climate change conference, and then he tried to ram through a revamped Wildlife Act that rankled both aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents alike. He was unable to get this bill -more than 10 years in the making -- passed, which leads us to wonder how effective he will be this time around.

Two other returning cabinet ministers, Jackson Lafferty and Robert C. McLeod, are also carrying on with assignments they held during the last assembly: Education, Culture, and Employment for Lafferty; and Municipal and Community Affairs and the Housing Corporation for McLeod.

It's Lafferty's task once again to wrestle with the NWT's pitiful graduation rate. Only 55 per cent of the territory's adult population hold a high school diploma, according the NWT Bureau of Statistics. The territory will have to do much better if it aims to be self-reliant in a post-devolution world.

Robert C. McLeod was well-liked as a cabinet minister in the last assembly but his decision not to fund a 911 emergency phone system until tiny communities like Colville Lake and Paulatuk had cellphone service was viewed by some as an attack on Yellowknife. A moratorium on cabin development on the Ingraham Trail during McLeod's tenure at MACA was another sore point.

Hopefully, this veteran minister realizes that trying to create an equal playing field for all 33 of the NWT's communities is not always possible or desirable, especially if 70 per cent of the NWT's population can benefit from 911 right now.

Cabinet newcomer Tom Beaulieu is an interesting choice for the Health and Social Services file, in that he's an experienced former senior bureaucrat but also an MLA representing two small communities, Fort Resolution and Lutsel K'e. It remains to been seen how he responds to Yellowknife's varied and continuously escalating health and social services needs.

For the Yellowknife delegation on cabinet, Premier McLeod has taken two of the previous government's most effective critics and handed them some very tough assignments, although for different reasons. Glen Abernethy will struggle to maintain a profile in Justice and the Department of Human Resources. Dave Ramsay, on the other hand, after eight years lobbing grenades from the opposition benches has been put in charge of completing work on the Deh Cho Bridge - one of the most controversial projects undertaken during the 16th assembly and an issue Ramsay feasted on more than any other opposition member.

In his other portfolio, Industry, Tourism, and Investment, Ramsay will be expected to revive the city's flagging secondary diamond industry, convincing mineral exploration companies to reinvest and developing a thriving tourism industry. These are just some of the problems the Kam Lake MLA will face over the next four years.

On the face of it, with Premier McLeod, Ramsay and Abernethy at the cabinet table, it would seem Yellowknife is well represented in this 17th legislative assembly. Surely, time will tell.

A project that is underway is making Fort Simpson a little bit greener.

The Department of Public Works and Services is installing a wood pellet boiler as part of its central heating plant in the village. The system supplies heat for the two schools and the recreation centre. There are a number of benefits to this addition.

Firstly, because the boiler will limit the use of the oil burner to the coldest winter days, the plant will use approximately 90 per cent less heating fuel. Heating fuel is a non-renewable resource while biomass matter, such as wood pellets, is renewable.

Secondly, by reducing the amount of heating fuel that is burned, the new wood pellet boiler will result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 947 tonnes per year, according to the department. Greenhouse gases are undesirable because they are linked to global warming.

The third benefit is less immediate. The changes to the plant signal an opportunity not just for Fort Simpson, but for the whole of the Deh Cho.

There are currently no made-in-the-NWT sources for wood pellets. To keep the plant supplied, the government will award a tender to a company, of which there are some in the NWT, that transport wood pellets in from Alberta or B.C.

It seems ridiculous that a region as rich in forests as the Deh Cho would have to rely on wood pellets from elsewhere, and that's where the opportunity lies. A wood pellet production plant would be an ideal industry for the Deh Cho.

This avenue is already being explored as an article in last week's edition outlined.

A wood pellet production demonstration project has been running at Checkpoint for the past year. The plant created wood pellets made from NWT-sourced material. Those pellets are being tested for their viability as a heating fuel.

If the results are favourable, it will be a green light for first nation business entities and entrepreneurs to look into the possibility of opening a plant. This is not to say, however, the path will be an easy one.

Government officials pointed out that a wood pellet manufacturing industry has to be supported by a forestry industry, and the cost of doing business in the North would put business at a disadvantage compared to their southern competitors. People in the Deh Cho, however, aren't strangers to facing and overcoming adversity in order to make a project work.

The installation of the wood pellet boiler in the Fort Simpson central heating plant could be just the beginning for the Deh Cho.

With some hard work, determination and innovation, the boiler could one day be burning pellets produced in the Deh Cho; an industry that would benefit the local economy as well as the environment.

There's a battle that's rumbling through the streets of Inuvik.

It's been bubbling for a few months now as the "have" organizations prepare to protect their right to money against the "have-not" organizations when it comes to bingo profits.

The various organizations, associations, charities and societies of Inuvik always need money it seems. You've seen it on street signs, at bake sales and in newsletters stuffed into your children's backpacks – the asking for money for trips, uniforms, new equipment.

The one constant source of funds are the bingos run through New North. When they're good, they're really, really good and when they're bad, some of those groups end up having to pay New North to run the bingo.

Proposed changes by the lottery licensing committee will have the profits evenly distributed by all groups. At first glance, it seems this could be a bad idea – what about those groups that work hard for their money? So hard for their money?

But then, things sort of start to make sense. Maybe it's not the advertising or number of supporters playing your bingo. Maybe it's the reason everyone argues in the first place – the dates for the bingos. Saturdays in the winter, Friday- government paydays, any day with cheques, days when there are many people in town or cold days will always generate more income for those groups lucky enough to get those dates. The groups that end up with a Monday in July will in no way generate as much money, no matter how much energy they put into their bingo.

It's either feast or famine right now, but with the proposed changes the groups that work the most bingos will receive the most money. Groups will be able to plan for the future knowing they will make a certain amount. Want to go on a trip and need $10,000? Work five bingos and you're there!

Already, groups are being divided between winners and losers, different factions in town trying to protect their territory. Why can't we all just get along? Work together? Share the wealth? Steal from the rich to pay the poor? Communism over capitalism?

Inuvik is a small community. There's only so much money to go around and most people participate in multiple groups and organizations. Why not share the wealth? Why bother pitting groups against one another, feeding jealousy in the community?

There are certainly other issues related to how bingos are run, but, surely, making a fair distribution among all the groups can only benefit the community.

Some patients aren't showing up for medical appointments at the hospital and that's a problem.

Stanton Territorial Health Authority's 2010-11 annual report states that for the one-year period ending in March 2011, 4,537 appointments were missed at the hospital. Of that number, 321 were for surgeries, one of the most expensive procedures at the facility.

No-shows cause longer wait times for other patients, have a negative impact on staff schedules, and drive up medical care costs.

Whenever there is doubt that an appointment will be missed, contact with the hospital or clinic beforehand would allow for someone else to take the available time slot, if the hospital is prepared to get another person in place.

Kay Lewis, Stanton's CEO, said there is a need to educate the public about the importance of not missing appointments and how an absence affects the care of other patients as well as increases costs.

Stanton should take a page out of the book from the private sector. Adam Dental Clinic, for example, makes it a priority to call each patient at least 24 hours before their appointment as a reminder.

It also gives patients a chance to cancel, allowing the office ample time to book someone else and avoid a wasted appointment.

The clinic's owner told Yellowknifer that no-shows are now a rare occurrence.

Whether the hospital uses existing administrative staff or hires someone to keep tabs on appointments, patients can use something in addition to the education Lewis would like to provide - a reminder phone call.

The City of Yellowknife has a duty to maintain streets and has a bylaw in place to fine litterers, but how far should it go to try and quell a problem bred solely of ignorance and laziness?

City councillor Paul Falvo's proposed refundable five-cent tax on takeout containers is motivated by noble intentions - to lessen litter on city streets and encourage the use of things like reusable coffee cups - but ideas of this nature would be better left to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The city's duties are to maintain Yellowknife's growth in a responsible way, and to keep municipal infrastructure running. It has bylaws in place to deal with speeding within its jurisdiction, to deal with some neighbourly disputes and to deal with some minor aspects of maintaining order in the city.

Expanding its mandate to environmental monitoring and policy-creation is unnecessary - the Department of Environment and Natural Resources already has such a mandate, and the staff with expertise to fulfil these duties. If the City of Yellowknife thinks there should be more done to encourage recycling, it should, as the largest municipal government overseeing the largest community in the NWT, be able to lobby the GNWT to create such policy. That will allow city hall to concentrate on the issues that rightfully fall within its powers.

They really had no other choice.

Perception and, yes, jealousy can be powerful foes in the North.

And nowhere does that ring more true than with a successful hamlet trying to improve itself even more.

Throw hockey into the mix, and you have a daunting task on your hands.

The first problem faced by those who took on the challenge of coming up with the predesign for a community complex in Rankin Inlet was the perception in some corners that this was all about hockey.

That segment of people in Rankin is divided into two groups.

There are those who have nothing against hockey -- and realize the community does need a new arena -- but don't want other areas of community life overlooked in the process.

They realize the value in having additional recreational facilities and a community hall that can accommodate cultural and traditional activities, while at the same time, representing the pride and stature of a growing regional hub.

They're not vindictive, greedy or overreaching.

They simply want a venue that reflects the diversity of their community and offers something for everyone, and for that, they are to be commended.

The other group is comprised of people who have no affinity for hockey and are sick and tired of Rankin being called Hockey Town.

To them, too much time, energy and (most of all) money are already being spent on a game that's contributions to the community are grossly overrated.

The members of this group are openly critical of anything having to do with furthering the sport in Rankin.

What people in both groups have in common is a vote, the ability to sway public opinion and, in some cases, a financial say in what goes in Rankin Inlet and what doesn't.

One would be hard pressed to find a member of the committee not affected by two of the three commonalities.

So, in the big picture, not only did a predesign for a complete complex make sense for the project moving forward in the future, it was, pretty much, imperative to popular public opinion (and support) at the community level.

However, public opinion at the community level and good sense often come to a screeching halt when they enter the political arena.

Then it becomes, if I may borrow a line, time to play the game.

Whether denied publicly or not, it really came as no surprise to anyone who understands this particular game when the MLAs dumped the $500,000 for planning and design from the Government of Nunavut's (GN) capital plan.

It really doesn't matter if the move was prompted by jealousy over Rankin's continued prosperity or the success of its hockey program, petty politics, the true belief many other hamlets have more pressing needs, or distrust in Rankin's contention it wasn't expecting the GN to pay for the entire complex.

What does matter is the ball is back in Rankin's court and, hopefully, a revamped arena-only approach will get the promised support.

Then the local planning committee can roll up its sleeves and get down to the business of raising private funding for the rest of the complex.

Its members never really had any other choice.

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