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NorthwesTel's announcement of $273 million worth of upgrades to communications services in the NWT is long overdue.

For too long our remote communities have been forced to deal with sub-par service and antiquated infrastructure that, considering the level of technology at our disposal, unnecessarily further isolates them from the rest of the planet, much of which is tech-savvy.

Over the years, many articles in News/North have made mention of the barriers that exist in the NWT due to the poor quality of Internet and phone services.

Those barriers are deterrents in efforts to recruit professionals to communities, like doctors, nurses and teachers.

Connectivity is just one benefit. Public safety might also be improved if services across the territory are standardized.

Yellowknife members of the legislative assembly have been at loggerheads with their community counterparts about funding a territorial mobile 9-1-1 service due to the fact many communities can't use cellphones.

That argument would become moot if the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission approves NorthwesTel's application to use $40 million worth of a public benefit fund to do the necessary upgrades.

Our smaller communities deserve the same level of connectivity and service as the bigger centres, the rest of the country and many other places around the globe already enjoy.

News of crime, deaths and politics gone awry can fill a fair number of pages in this newspaper each week.

Yet the NWT is fortunate to have many wonderful citizens who volunteer to coach sports, clean up their community, serve meals at the local soup kitchen and even risk their lives to save another's.

Last week News/North featured two such stories of dedicated people who truly do make a difference.

Aklavik's Shaun Firth and Phillip Elanik - Elanik died last year - were both honoured for their bravery on Canada Day. The pair were credited with saving the lives of two children from a house fire in January 2011.

At the southern end of the territory, Fort Smith honoured its citizen and elder of the year. Dixie Penner and Leon Peterson were recognized for their contributions that make Fort Smith a great place to live.

Peterson was commended for choosing to spend the past 50 years devoting his time to everything from municipal politics to curling.

Penner, who was also the GNWT's 2001 outstanding volunteer, has also done her part to give back to the community, most notably helping to establish an animal shelter for the town.

Many communities and the territorial government honour citizens for their contributions at least once a year, but each community in the NWT has its everyday heroes who we all should strive to emulate and who deserve our thanks regularly.

Whether those people live their lives as inspirational role models or put a uniform on every day to safeguard our homes and our families, we should all take the time to express our gratitude and think of ways we can contribute to our communities in similar ways.

The voices of Nunavummiut are being heard loud and clear these days over the high cost of basic necessities at the grocery store.

Protests are being held in a number of communities. Blogs and pictures of sky-high food prices are popping up all over the Internet.

It has been a constant battle to feed the population at a reasonable cost, through the Food Mail program to the transition to Nutrition North last year.

There has been long-term progress. One litre of milk at NorthMart in Iqaluit is $3.79, but in 1973, its price was 52 per cent higher, when inflation is taken into account. Yet the same litre of milk is still 15 per cent more expensive in Iqaluit today than it is in Ottawa. And the gap between the North and southern Canada keeps growing once you leave Iqaluit and head to the smaller communities.

So prices have decreased over four decades but there are still stories of residents going without breakfast, mothers starving to feed their children, and 70 per cent of preschoolers living in homes where there is not enough food.

The territorial government is exploring the strategy of using country food harvested locally as a solution. Turning to Nunavut hunters as providers has long been the way of our people, and it could very well help our territory be less dependent on southern groceries and high shipping rates.

The first step toward finding a solution is to look at the problem critically. Nunavut News/North presents its second instalment in this paper of a three-part series on food security. Next week, we'll focus on where we go from here.

Sixteen youths will patrol the streets of Nunavut this summer through the RCMP's Nunavut Police Experience Program. This will benefit the communities and give young people a glimpse at what life is like on the front lines of justice.

Crime in Nunavut is a pressing issue. According to Statistics Canada, the territory had 13,697 violations of the law in 2010, including six homicides, 202 sexual assaults, 2,418 assaults and 14 robberies.

The youth policing program is an investment in the future generation of police officers of the territory.

At the very least, it will give the youth participants a better understanding of the challenges RCMP officers face, and it will provide the Mounties with more insight into the way young Nunavummiut see the world.

If anyone is looking for evidence that Yellowknife suffers a regulation deficit along its waterfront then look no further than the Giant Mine dock.

The city recently handed a $2,000 fine to a boat owner who realized his vessel wasn't seaworthy enough to launch, and was thus forced to put the watercraft on blocks on the water's edge while trying to complete repairs.

But the bigger problem is in the water. A few industrious individuals appear determined over the last couple of years to turn the area adjacent to the boat launch and nearby Baker Creek into another houseboat community.

The crushed rock spit of land at the mouth of Baker Creek is now clogged with houseboats moored to the shore of Great Slave Lake. One houseboat, the first to appear, is firmly embedded in the creek.

There are six all together right now.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans can create special fishing regulations for Arctic grayling that have miraculously returned to spawn in Baker Creek after decades of contamination from Giant Mine, but the department is seemingly helpless to prevent one person from permanently parking his home in the creek mouth.

The city is equally paralyzed when it comes to houseboaters encroaching on public docks. A houseboat has been tied to a dock at the Giant Mine boat launch all year. Hundreds of taxpaying residents load and unload their boats at Giant Mine each week, yet the city allows one houseboater to turn this dock into a personal mooring pad, preventing other boaters from parking there.

As the city pushes for control over the waterfront through a harbour commission, there has been much talk in recent months about building docks for visiting floatplane pilots or shoreline boardwalks through Old Town and Latham Island, where tourists can buy souvenir T-shirts in boutiques converted from Woodyard shacks.

We suggest the priority should be placed on sites where the city provides public services right now. Giant Mine is a nice boat launch. Too bad no level of government seems able or willing to prevent the Old Town free-for-all from migrating to other side of the bay.

Spray painted, cracked and, in places, charred by fire, the all-but-abandoned mini golf course off of Franklin Avenue looks like a crooked hideout for some Gotham City villain.

No need to shine the bat signal to rid the city of this problem, however. True North Rotary has pledged to volunteer hands-on assistance from among its membership of architects, building supply store owners, lawyers and other friendly neighbourhood superheroes.

Built in 1990 and operated by the Wade Hamer Foundation until 2004, the crumbling concrete course has since been leased to non-profit organizations by the City of Yellowknife.

Jeromy Ball, secretary for the True North Rotary, offered his organization's help after the Yellowknife Women's Society informed the city it would not renew its lease to run the course for another year due to vandalism and financial losses.

Mini golf is among those affordable classic summer pastimes that Yellowknife families deserve an opportunity to experience together. This decrepit course is worth rebuilding and improving.

The landmark was originally constructed with help from 143 volunteers. If True North Rotary members can muster some professional support, perhaps the rest of the community can pitch in with some heroic effort, as well, including fundraising and sponsorship.

If it is too late to rescue the dilapidated course, perhaps these helpful folk can focus their superpowers on building some other recreational infrastructure to give Yellowknife's children a chance for a few fun and memorable smiles each summer.

Some things are next to impossible to comprehend.

I imagine many people in Fort Simpson are having difficulty understanding the vandalism done to the Fort Simpson Judo Club and Open Doors Society in the Fort Simpson recreation centre.

The crime was notable on two accounts.

First was the extent of the vandalism. Whoever did this, whether it was one person or a group of people, went to a lot of effort. Splattering and pouring approximately 60 litres of paint is no small undertaking.

Not only was paint used to damage a lot of the society's resources, the culprit or culprits also strew craft and baking supplies across portions of the floor. The society's space was more or less trashed, to use a colloquial term. The judo club received less damage.

The crime was also notable because of the type of organizations it was perpetrated against.

The Open Doors Society uses the upper level of the recreation centre to offer Playgroup to children ages six and under. The children have a wonderful time playing with toys and books while interacting with each other.

The society also offers the Toy Lending Library from that space. The program gives youth a place to go on weekday evenings during the school year to do activities and play with the toys.

On the other side of the room, the Fort Simpson Judo Club is building the skills and confidence of young people in the village.

By vandalizing these two organizations, the perpetrators were effectively attacking the children of Fort Simpson.

The perpetrators of this crime, no matter how old they are, should be ashamed of themselves.

If it turns out that young people were the vandals, they should be doubly ashamed of themselves for doing something that would negatively affect their peers.

While surveying the damage, staff and volunteers with the society suggested if the perpetrators are caught, they should have to clean the mess they created as a type of restorative justice. This is an excellent idea.

The person or people who committed this crime clearly need to take a lot of time considering what they did and why.

Having to clean up multiple litres of paint might be just the thing to help them understand the implications of their actions and deter them from similar vandalism in the future.

Editorials usually provide comment and opinions on a timely news story, but inspiration for this particular editorial came from a lack of news on an important issue – the fact that Inuvik's natural gas well is still running out and as of yet, no viable long-term solutions have surfaced to public ears.

The news that the Ikhil well's supply of natural gas is quickly running out originally came out more than nine months ago. Since that time, the only concrete solution that has been presented to residents is a temporary mixture of propane and air – dubbed synthetic natural gas – that will be delivered to the community by truck and will cost roughly twice as much as natural gas did when the Ikhil well was running at full capacity.

The one public meeting that has been held on the subject was on April 10, when roughly 200 people filled the community hall in the Midnight Sun Complex to listen and pose questions to a panel of town officials, GNWT employees, along with members of the Ikhil Joint Venture, Inuvik Gas and ATCO Midstream Ltd.

Granted, that was not an easy meeting and tempers ran high. However, this does not excuse the lack of community consultation or even community outreach since that time.

Granted, town officials, especially Inuvik Mayor Denny Rodgers, have been open to discussing the issue. The problem is, very little new information has come out since that time. Sure, few various options have been presented, but absolutely no actual long-term plan has been offered and presented to the public from any level of government.

It has become abundantly clear there are no plans for real public consultation to come up with solutions to this mess, and so it's about time that those involved in the process of switching Inuvik to the synthetic natural gas, or looking for a natural gas long-term solution down the line, come up with some concrete plans.

After all, any long-term solution will take time to get in place. Even if a fully-funded natural gas project was announced tomorrow, it could take two to three years to bring fuel to the community.

On the other side of the energy spectrum, replacing natural gas with wood pellets or some other alternative would mean switching out furnaces and developing a new supply chain. These things take time, and that is exactly what the people of Inuvik are running out of – that and natural gas.

The next heating season is currently about two months away and people need to be able to budget and plan for how they will pay their energy bills come the fall.

Mike Kalnay, NWT area commissioner for Scouts Canada, said illegal settlers are becoming a problem in the Ingraham Trail area, where he's seen the number of buildings go to 10 or 20 from one or two about 10 years ago.

We've heard eyewitness accounts of dozens of shacks, huts and small buildings that have been constructed on Crown land that has not been made available for leases in areas around Yellowknife and beyond.

It's a growing problem with no easy solution. Some might call it out of control already.

The Scouts Canada situation is just a microcosm of the greater issue. An aboriginal person put up a building on the organization's leased property last year after getting permission from the Yellowknives Dene. The squatter's cabin recently burned down in a fire and the Scouts are unsure whether he will rebuild.

The response from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's regional manager of land administration, Karen Polakoff, didn't offer official intervention. Instead, the Scouts were told to either give the cabin owner rights to the land and allow the cabin owner to apply for a lease, or take legal action in civil court.

Permission to put up a structure by the Yellowknives Dene does not apply because they do not have "any authority legislatively or otherwise to authorize any activity on federal public land," Polakoff said.

That essentially leaves Scouts Canada on its own to solve the problem - either with meaningful discussion, costly court action if another building is erected, or by doing nothing. The person who had put up the building is likely hoping nothing will happen, which seems to be the case for the owners of dozens of other structures that have been put up in the bush over the last few years.

At least the Government of the Northwest Territories is trying to curb the incidence of squatters through the trespass enforcement strategy by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Following a 2006 survey which found more than 60 illegal cabins, a crackdown in 2008 resulted in some people leaving voluntarily, said Bev Chamberlain, former director of lands administration.

"We think we are doing all we can at this point, given our resources," she said.

That is the crux of the problem. Many of the areas where squatters have put up structures are very remote, only accessible by air or a long hike from shore during the summer, or by snowmobile in the winter. Just the logistics of examining a structure, determining it is unauthorized and posting a notice to remove the building is challenging. There is a 30-day period from the notice of trespass and another 30 days from a notice to vacate. If the final notice is ignored, the matter goes to court, where it can be tied up for months.

The logistics and the history are making the situation unmanageable. Some cabin owners realize that, because it is difficult to kick them out, the authorities just end up granting them a lease. As a result, squatters are seen as people who have no respect for the law while they play out their options.

Meanwhile, legitimate leaseholders are feeling frustrated after observing that squatters have it easy. Leaseholders make a significant investment, must pay taxes, must obey environmental regulations for waste disposal and must make their lease payments. Squatters make a small investment, don't pay taxes, thumb their noses at environmental regulations and don't have to pay a penny to any level of government.

Until there is a change in responsibility for the lands in question - either through devolution or establishment of aboriginal self-government so that First Nations can manage the land and collect lease payments - it is up to the existing regulatory authorities to take meaningful steps to address the issue.

Cracking down on squatters and forcing them off the property they illegally inhabit is the only option to prevent the practice from becoming even more widespread.

It's time a strongly-worded message be sent to those who feel immune from the long arm of the law and methods must be developed to have them removed forthwith.

For one brief moment earlier this month, most of the hockey talk around the Kivalliq was on the game itself and what may come to pass, thanks to Rankin Inlet's Jordin Tootoo signing with the Red Wings.

Lost in the excitement of Tootoo signing with Detroit was the brain-numbing chatter on the insane amount of money being thrown at hockey players these days.

The biggest free-agent bucks this year were thrown at New Jersey forward Zach Parise and Nashville Predators defenceman Ryan Suter by the Minnesota Wild.

The two received 13-year, $98-million contracts to take their considerable hockey skills to the North Star State or, if you prefer, the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

And considerable skills are, indeed, what both possess. But $98 million worth?

While both are star players in the NHL, neither are of the superstar level one would historically equate top dollars to.

And, even then, $98 million, really?

The problem with the amount of money being thrown around by NHL owners - who continually figure out ways to circumvent the very rules they staged a lockout over to get in place - is that it can actually ruin the game for you if you dwell on it too much.

That's especially true when it comes to players who have no-trade or no-movement clauses in their contracts.

If you've signed on the dotted line for whatever amount (you put your number here: $10 million? $40 million? $98 million? $104 million?), at least have the inner-fortitude to play for whatever team wants your services bad enough to dole out that kind of cash.

In fact, with rumours swirling around another work stoppage during the current negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA, it's hard to fathom just what else the players may feel they deserve.

A small city perhaps? Their own planet?

But, to cut the NHL players some slack, it's all a matter of perspective.

If you have an annual salary of about $90,000, you probably feel pretty good about the amount of bacon you earn.

That is until you realize a number of Canada's top executives bring that home in one single day at work.

Suddenly your bacon tastes a little sour.

Which is why, if you're a hockey fan, you're far better off to focus on how Tootoo now has a legitimate chance to bring Lord Stanley's mug to visit Rankin one day.

Or, how Minnesota's signing of Parise and Suter will affect the balance of power in the Western Conference. In fact, nothing will turn you off the game faster than paying too much attention to a group of billionaire owners arguing over revenues with a group of multi-millionaire players.

Unless it's a story about two European players wanting to win the Stanley Cup so bad, they're willing to pay the price and party until the wee hours of the morning, in the middle of the playoffs, to obtain their goal.

Such a tale of devotion to the sport we Canadians place above all others just warms your heart, doesn't it?

It's not as easy to be a hockey fanatic as it once was, and, if we here in the Kivalliq are to remain the hotbed of hockey lovers in Nunavut, the challenge is to keep our eyes on the pucks, not the bucks.

Let's go Red Wings!

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