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What is often forgotten in the debate about Yellowknife's downtown day shelter is why it opened its doors in the first place.

Shelter staff are not there to rehabilitate anybody. They are not jailers or addictions counsellors.

There is no medicine, detox services or any other programming at the shelter. Only coffee, some couches and chairs, and a warm place to hang out and use the washroom.

That's not to say Yellowknife does not need addictions services, far from it. It's an absolute disgrace considering the number of addicts who come to this city from all corners of the territory that there is no clinical detox centre here.

But that's a different fight. Right now, as far as Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins is concerned, the fight is about who should be running the day shelter. After two days of hammering Health Minister Tom Beaulieu about a need for "new leadership" at the shelter, Hawkins insists it's nothing personal. Lydia Bardak, who told Yellowknifer last week she "is the John Howard Society," the organization currently holding the contract to run the shelter. Bardak is the day shelter's public face, and she can't help but feel attacked.

It's clear after three years at its 52 Street location, there are still plenty of unhappy people when it comes to the day shelter. As of yesterday, Yellowknifer's online poll had received more than 1,200 votes - 81 per cent of them opposed to Bardak's leadership at the shelter. Hawkins accuses shelter management of being too lax in enforcing rules, that public drinking, fights and sex acts are frequent outside the shelter.

He suggests the Tree of Peace or the Salvation Army, which has expressed an interest in running the facility, would do a better job. But would it? In the same spirit of what the day shelter is now?

It's hard to imagine any organization having much luck instilling order inside and outside the facility when most of the clientele are intoxicated or mentally ill. And if they did rule with an iron fist, would any of these people still come? Or would they merely go back to loitering in bank lobbies and defecating in alleys like they did before the shelter opened?

No doubt Bardak tolerates more misbehaviour from her clientele than most people. But extreme patience would seem an invaluable asset in this job. This is something she deals with every day, and has been doing for many years. It's certainly worth exploring options, and Hawkins is right to point out problems when they do arise, but it's hard to think of someone more dedicated to caring for the needs of the city's downtrodden than Bardak.

Meanwhile, Hawkins is playing a risky game when he tells the health minister the day shelter should be closed until a new organization can be found to administer it. Given the government's reluctance to provide permanent funding to date, it's possible the territorial government could just call the day shelter a failure and close it down for good. After all, that's what the GNWT did following a beating incident at the Somba K'e Healing Lodge - a treatment centre outside of Dettah - in 2000.

MLAs should pay heed to how important the day shelter is to downtown businesses next time the issue comes up for debate in the legislative assembly.

The Nunavut Midget Territorial Hockey Championship was an interesting clash in what's right, and what's wrong, with the territory's most popular sport this past weekend.

From a competition standpoint, Team Iqaluit was head-and-shoulders above the other teams at this year's event.

The Iqaluit squad was undefeated on its way to the championship banner, winning all but one of the games by the mercy rule.

Minor hockey often changes from year to year, however, and any community can be a strong contender in a given year in any age group, although the larger communities do, of course, have an advantage due to their larger numbers.

Iqaluit aside, there were a number of highly-competitive games played this past weekend, including a pair of great games in the round robin of Coral Harbour vs. Arviat and Rankin Inlet vs. Arviat, as well as Rankin vs. Arviat game for the bronze medal.

The number of kids who played this past weekend, how hard they competed, and the fun they all had were check marks on the what's right with the game in Nunavut.

On the opposite side of the ledger, there were a number of significant injuries during the tournament.

At least one was the result of bad sportsmanship in what would be classed as a dirty hit at any level of hockey.

The others, however, were the type that have the potential to make the game, itself, look bad, when that's not actually the case.

Bodychecking in hockey must be taught. Players have to learn how to properly give a hit and, even more importantly, how to take one.

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to not have injuries because of the way our current territorial is set up.

Too many players come from communities where they do nothing for the majority of the year but scrimmage against each other, usually with little contact and no coaching.

Then they're dropped into the middle of a tournament which the top teams take very seriously.

The teams from Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, especially, are well-coached hockey playing machines when it comes to bodychecking.

For the most part the two teams play within the rules, but they're far more skilled in delivering and taking bodychecks than their competition.

The players on the other teams then try to hit more when playing each other, but, without the same skill sets, injuries are bound to occur.

There is nothing Hockey Nunavut can do to address the problem by changing the format of the territorial. It has to be addressed at the community level with more people getting involved to coach the kids correctly.

Proper coaching will not only improve their overall skill set, it will also lower the risk of injury in a sport that comes with enough inherent risk simply because of its physical nature.

Once again, more people have to get seriously involved to help a sport take the next step in our territory.

It's something Hockey Nunavut can help with, but not do on its own.

Better coaching equals better hockey, better and more equal competition, and safer playing conditions, and that's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The NWT Electoral Boundaries Commission is looking at ways to ensure people of the NWT are being represented fairly in the legislative assembly. Presently there are 19 seats for MLAs - seven of them in Yellowknife.

A recent report penned by the commission presents three options for changing districts throughout the NWT. Options for 18, 19 and 21 ridings have a common theme, increasing the number of districts in Yellowknife or reducing the number of ridings outside the capital. From a numbers standpoint, the recommendations make sense - calling for the amalgamation of low-population ridings and more balanced representation for Yellowknife, where nearly half the territorial population resides.

This is one case, however, where logical analysis will not yield the fairest results. Communities in the NWT are set apart by long distances and that separation can be measured in more than just distance, but by cultural, linguistic and ideological differences as well.

In the 18- and 19-district options, the riding of Tu Nedhe, which has the smallest population compared to every other district, would be amalgamated with communities in the Monfwi and Deh Cho ridings - creating an eight-community riding. The 21-seat option would combine Tu Nedhe with Ndilo and Dettah.

Former Tu Nedhe MLA Steven Nitah, who lives in Lutsel K'e, said an eight-community riding would be difficult to represent considering the extensive travel involved in addition to the cultural differences. Tom Beaulieu, the sitting Tu Nedhe MLA, is also correct when he says the change would diminish the Chipewyan language and culture in the legislative assembly.

Because there are fewer than 800 people in Lutsel K'e and Fort Resolution, the Tlicho communities - comprising Whati, Wekweeti and Gameti - in the proposed new riding would represent the majority of voters with nearly 1,000 residents. The MLA elected from this riding would likely be from the Tlicho region. That is not to say that a Tlicho representative would not fairly represent the needs of the other five communities in the riding, which would also include Enterprise, Kakisa and Fort Providence, but Tu Nedhe constituents are better served by a person from their region.

In the same vein, it would not be fair to Dettah and Ndilo, both with close access to the capital, to be represented by an MLA from communities that likely have greater needs when considering infrastructure and isolation.

Although smaller communities are always wary of Yellowknife holding too much power in the legislative assembly, adding one district in Yellowknife to balance out the number of constituents in high-population ridings such as Weledeh, which has more than 3,000 people, would be a good compromise.

With an extra riding, Yellowknife would still have less than half of the seats in the legislative assembly, which would be representative of the territorial population. It would also alleviate concerns of the balance of power favouring the city, which has one-tenth the needs of the smaller communities, to quote Nitah.

Besides, the heavy decisions have and will always be in the hands of cabinet, who outnumber regular MLAs in the assembly, and cabinet has always maintained a balance of members from around the territory.

A vague and underwhelming draft oil spill preparedness and response agreement between members of the Arctic Council was leaked earlier this month.

The draft agreement states the nations must maintain national systems to respond to spills. It also requires minimum levels of clean up equipment to be on hand. There are other requirements in terms of identifying spills and international co-operation, communication and dispute settlement.

Most lacking are actual detailed guidelines on how to manage a response in the Arctic operating environment.

There are an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the circumpolar Arctic, making up about 13 per cent of the world's total undiscovered reserves, according to a 2008 United States Geological Survey report. There is potential both for huge economic gains and huge environmental catastrophe.

If a pipe bursts in the Arctic, how is a spill contained and who foots the cleanup bill?

Canada's own regulations in this respect are weak. Companies drilling for petroleum in the Arctic are liable for up to $40 million of the costs. Compare this to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico that leaked an estimated 4.9 million barrels, and which its owner, BP, said cost close to $18 billion to clean up. The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off the southern coast of Alaska which leaked between 257,000 and 750,000 barrels (the amount is still debated) cost Exxon $2 billion to clean up.

Needless to say, the current cap on cleanup costs is grossly inadequate, especially given that Canadians will have to foot the bill if no one else will.

With such reserves in the Arctic, there will surely be pressure to access them. Given the two spills just mentioned, the issue is a highly political one, but the Harper government has repeatedly shown its willingness to relax environmental regulations in favour of bolstering the country's economy. In the 2011 federal election, Canadians agreed with this set of priorities enough to give the party a majority government. It is likely the government is just as antsy to get oil flowing in the Arctic as the companies hoping to drop their drills into the sea.

Despite the Conservative hardline economic ideology, having much stronger environmental regulations governing Arctic offshore oil drilling is imperative for the country, the industry, the environment and the companies involved.

Should offshore drilling commences in the Canadian Arctic, and a spill happens, there is the question of how to battle it. Common practices in the south, such as using booms to contain spills, are problematic. What if the oil is gathering beneath sea ice? As well, what if sea ice is impeding ships that are on their way to respond to the spill? There are serious logistical issues specific to the Arctic climate that require a high level of response. The details must be hammered out and framed in legislation.

International agreements are difficult to reach. The Arctic Council is made up of Canada, the U.S., Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway. This year Canada is taking over as chair.

The Canadian government needs to use its chairmanship to push for greater certainty that Arctic waters will be protected and those polluting them will be held accountable.

That can only be done if Canada's own policies measure up to the threat of an Arctic ocean spill.

If law enforcement officials are going to go through the trouble of installing expensive video cameras and microphones in police vehicles and jail cells, they should make sure the recording devices are being used and that they work properly.

The same logic applies to investigating complaints from the public. If a member of the public complains that a bylaw officer assaulted her while taking her grandchildren to the Santa Claus Parade - in front of dozens of bystanders - the police should interview any witness who steps forward.

The consequence of not doing any of these things is an increasingly cynical public who assume this is business as usual when police investigate themselves or the people with whom they have a close working relationship.

The list of missing recordings is starting to get a bit long. In 2010 a video recording from a Fort Simpson jail cell that purportedly shows an RCMP officer assaulting a prisoner went missing before the officer went on trial. The same year, a police officer in Yellowknife was acquitted of assaulting a prisoner after relevant video footage had been deleted.

Last week, we learned neither dashboard cameras on bylaw vehicles nor microphones on uniforms captured the altercation between the bylaw officer and the grandmother on Nov. 17. The RCMP, meanwhile, inexplicably failed to interview a witness who said he witnessed the bylaw officer trying to drag the still seat-belted woman from her truck.

It doesn't matter how seemingly frivolous the complaint is, or how plausible the excuse might be when video or audio equipment goes missing or doesn't work, police credibility suffers when evidence disappears.

"They're just covering each others back," the daughter of the complainant in the Santa Claus parade incident said of the investigation.

Strong words, but what would municipal enforcement and the RCMP expect when they don't follow procedure.

Other excuses will have to found by those who have blamed the high cost of renting retail space for the demise of downtown.

Often in the past, business owners and observers have suggested that economic considerations were among primary reasons for empty storefronts, hundreds of square feet of vacant commercial space and shuttered doors.

Not so, say a commercial property leasing executive and a Yellowknife realtor. Compared to other class "A" buildings in Edmonton, Toronto and Saskatoon, Yellowknife prices are on par, if not less expensive.

City councillor and realtor Adrian Bell has personal experience with renting retail space and said the price per square foot is now about $20 less than it was 10 years ago. As well, the director of leasing for the western region at a major national management company said the market is steady in Yellowknife at a reasonable price, unlike other markets where the cost goes up and down based on trends. Sidney Waskiewich of Dundee Realty Management also said operating costs in Yellowknife and Edmonton are similar.

What this means is that the focus can now turn to the greater issues affecting the occupancy of downtown retail space, such as atmosphere and attractiveness.

Bell rightly points out that consumers want to have a sense of security when they are shopping. People are driven away from the downtown core when they are confronted by panhandlers, when unsavoury individuals are loitering outside of stores and when there is public drunkenness.

Now that the high-cost myth has been dispelled, the debate can focus on the real reasons for what is plaguing commercial space in the city's core.

Imagine waking up one morning to find that a fence had been built through the middle of your backyard.

Your house is on one side, but on the other is your garden and the playhouse you built for your children. You can still access the now-divided side of your yard, but people on the other side of the fence keep looking at you as if you don't belong there.

Now imagine that people on the other side of the fence find a valuable resource on what used to be your yard; buried artifacts, perhaps. They are now profiting from the wealth those artifacts are generating while you are getting nothing, not even a say into how your former backyard is being dug up.

If this happened to a homeowner today they would be irate. It's easy to imagine them marching angrily into the office of whomever put up the fence and quickly launching a lawsuit.

This analogy is one way for people to get a sense of how the members of Acho Dene Koe First Nation in Fort Liard are feeling. The First Nation has traditional land in the southwest NWT, southeast Yukon and northern B.C. People were using the land long before the provinces and territories were created and borders were placed.

The First Nation, however, now has three jurisdictions to deal with as it tries to get recognition of its aboriginal rights and title to the land.

The way in which aboriginal people across Canada had the land they were using taken away from them through the colonization process is well known. Most Canadians, however, think of this as something that happened early in the country's history.

For Acho Dene Koe, this story is practically a recent event. Treaty 11, which the First Nation is a part of, wasn't signed until 1922. There was no sign of the NWT-B.C. border until it was cut through the trees in 1956.

Acho Dene Koe members have every right to be upset about the way they have been treated and their land has been divided. They also have every right to have the provincial and territorial governments in question join them at negotiating tables in a timely manner and work to address the issues surrounding the traditional land.

There is no chance the borders would be erased but the actions that are taken from now on by the provincial and territorial governments can show sincere remorse for the legacy that was created by colonization.

According to the current detachment RCMP commander, Inuvik has a bit of a drug problem. Go figure.

Staff Sgt. Jerry McKenna said he's been unpleasantly surprised to see the scope of the local drug trade since he's arrived here, and especially in the last six months.

The drugs of choice, he said, are crack and regular cocaine, which, at least as far as I know, are among the more costly "recreational" drugs you can buy.

There's nothing terribly surprising in the idea that Inuvik has a drug market. There's no reason to think that it should be different than any other municipality.

The extent of the trade here and the drugs of choice might be a bit more perplexing. It's not unreasonable to ask exactly how the drugs are getting here in the kind of volume that McKenna seems to be describing. Inuvik, after all, fits most people's definition of being in the middle of nowhere.

Residents here know that's not so true anymore. Jets fly into town regularly, after all, and there's a steady flow of traffic during the winter on the Dempster Highway and the ice roads. Still, it's not the most convenient place to ship drugs.

If they're being manufactured locally, that's also troubling, because like any other small town, everybody seems to know everybody's business – or at least thinks they do.

During a visit I made to the town of Moosonee, Ont. several years ago – a town not unlike Inuvik – a tour guide who had lived there for many years put it best:

"If you haven't heard a rumour about your neighbour by 6 p.m., you start one yourself," he said.

So, if the drugs are being manufactured locally, people here know it's happening.

Even more bewildering to me is that this drug trade is thriving in a town that's supposedly flat-lined economically. I know everybody has their own particular – and sometimes peculiar – priorities for where they spend their money.

Seriously, though, people here are spending that kind of money on crack and cocaine while simultaneously complaining about how bad things are in town? Where, pray tell, are those funds coming from? From McKenna's description, this is no small-time trade here. Instead, people are finding it provides quite a comfortable income, if they're not outright getting rich on it.

I just don't understand it, and I don't think Inuvik residents want to become known as a drug hub either.

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