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While some children are free to enjoy their summer vacation frolicking with friends and generally doing the things young people do, others might be worrying more about where their next meal is coming from.

An article in the June 26 edition of Yellowknifer ("Children in need off the radar during the summer") highlighted an issue affecting many children in the city this summer: now that school is out, programs offering free, nutritious lunches have come to an end.

The current program in place, with the largest at Mildred Hall School, provides hundreds of free breakfasts, hot lunches and snacks to students, but only when school is in session. Now that school is out for summer break, many of these children are left on their own.

A 2011 study by Iowa State University found schools that gave healthy lunches provided many health benefits to their students, including a 17-per-cent drop in obesity and 29 per cent experienced an improvement in their health.

Pamela Weeks-Beaton, who runs the program at Mildred Hall, said she was worried that with the summer break, these children, many of whom come from low-income families, will have nowhere to go. This problem isn't exclusive to Yellowknife, it affects many areas across the country.

According to Food Banks Canada, 900,000 people use food banks every year, with nearly 40 per cent of those being children and youth. But the Yellowknife food bank won't allow children due to liability reasons. What option does this leave them?

There are alternatives in other Canadian cities, such as Toronto, Calgary and Halifax with the launch of the Feeding Our Future program in 2000, which utilizes kitchens that see little summer traffic, such as school cafeterias, to distribute free meals during the summer.

So, where is the GNWT in all of this? The current program at Mildred Hall costs an average of $250 per week, or $2,000 for the eight-week summer break. As Julie Green from the Anti-Poverty Strategy Steering Committee points out, the GNWT hasn't made a move to extend funding through the summer, but has no qualms spending $100,000 on a one-night party to pat themselves on the back because the legislative assembly building's mortgage was paid in full.

The GNWT, along with local businesses, should step up to the plate and continue funding nutritious meal programs during the summer because the need for a healthy meal doesn't stop once school's out for summer.

Habitat for Humanity NWT has run into significant roadblocks in its quest to build its first project in the NWT.

Last year, the organization purchased two undeveloped lots on a section of Moyle Drive in the Niven Lake subdivision for $234,000. During a presentation to city council last week, the chair of Habitat NWT's finance committee, Robert Charpentier, alleged the organization was told at that time by then-SAO Bob Long these were the only two lots available in the city.

Now, with construction underway on one of the lots, Habitat volunteers have realized there are significant deficiencies with the properties. Both are marked by steep grades and the underlying bedrock is "rotten." The result: constructing the first foundation went $75,000 over budget, and the contractor on site called it "the worst lot he's seen in the city of Yellowknife," said Charpentier.

Habitat NWT is asking the city to forgive the remaining $120,000 owing on the properties.

Despite the situation, city councillor Cory Vanthuyne raised an excellent point when he said it would be difficult for the city to forgive the money owing on the lots.

Two years ago, the SPCA petitioned the city to donate land for a new shelter, which the city denied.

Habitat NWT made mistakes while purchasing the land - most notably choosing to not order a geotechnical survey - but let's remember this is a volunteer-run organization that is trying to build affordable housing for Yellowknifers.

There are steps the city can take to help. Councillor and contractor Niels Konge proposed the city re-appraise the land now that it's known the lots are of poor quality. This could significantly reduce the purchase price and could be a compromise that's fair for everyone.

Casual observers of the Dehcho First Nations' annual assembly could be forgiven for thinking they were stuck in some sort of a time warp.

At a quick glance, it seems as if next to nothing has changed at the assembles in the past five or six years, except perhaps the locations where they are held. The same topics appear again an again on the agenda. They include the Dehcho Process, the Dehcho Land Use Plan, Edehzhie, the Dehcho First Nations' Master Trust and often the Nahanni National Park Reserve.

Even a quick listen to some of the conversations around the table doesn't dispel the sense that time has stopped passing at the assembly.

Every year, delegates talk about the importance of protecting the land, water and wildlife and rail against the fact that Canada and the territorial government seem to purposefully be standing in their way of doing that and the completion of the Dehcho Process.

Given all of the similarities between the annual assembles, it's no wonder that the bulk of the Deh Cho's population seems to have a very hazy idea of what Dehcho First Nations (DFN) is working toward.

It's only with close observation and visits to multiple assemblies that it becomes apparent progress is being made. The Dehcho Process, the Dehcho Land Use Plan and Edehzhie are all moving toward completion – although in most cases, very slowly.

DFN has little new to show from year to year because the processes it is involved in are by nature very detailed and, therefore, take a lot of time to work through.

While DFN may not have many major developments to announce, what it does currently have is the solidarity between the member groups. Except for Acho Dene Koe First Nation, which broke away years ago, all of the member First Nations and Metis councils had representatives or leaders at the assembly. In many ways, that is more important than flashy developments.

As long as Dehcho First Nations is able to stay united and keep all of its members, it will have the size and clout to be able to continually push the federal and territorial governments for progress on different fronts. There is, after all, strength in numbers.

One year soon, maybe not next year or the year after that, DFN will be able to make a big announcement and celebrate at the assembly. It may the protection of Edehzhie as a national wildlife area or the completion and acceptance of the Dehcho Land Use Plan.

At that point, all of the years of slow progress and familiar updates will be worth it, as well the fact that the members of DFN stayed together and saw their course through to the end.

It might be time for Inuvik council to employ a little more openness and honesty about a simmering public problem.

Last week, the lid started to come off regarding what we here like to refer to as "social problems." That's the problem with large numbers of people hanging around the downtown core, drinking in public, and generally being regarded as a nuisance.

The topic came up at two meetings, and many of the councillors were filled with indignation and vented about the issue of "public drunkenness and loitering." Yet not one noted during the meeting that many of these people are the town's growing number of homeless people. That was acknowledged after the meeting in informal discussions.

Instead, the meetings were filled with ominous talk of crackdowns and increased enforcement. Councillor Kurt Wainman went so far as to refer to the people as "ravens." Somehow I don't think he was referring to the astonishing intelligence and adaptability of the bird. It's always easier to depersonalize and demonize problem segments of the population when you're looking for a way to, let's be honest here, get rid of them.

In the tumult of discussion June 24, one councillor made the comment that a camp should be established at Hidden Lake and the downtown troublemakers could be moved there. It was unclear afterwards exactly who made that suggestion in the jumble of conversation and no one was in any hurry to own up to it afterwards.

When those kinds of ideas are being bandied about at a public forum, it's usually a good sign things are getting out of hand.

I understand perfectly why many people take offence to the antics happening downtown. I'm not too fond of the growing numbers of people hanging around the core either. However, for the most part, these people are relatively inoffensive from what I've seen. I've lived in places where I was distinctly nervous about walking the downtown areas and where the local police had some very colourful and choice names for the street people which can't be repeated here.

I believe most of our street people lurking downtown are the same ones using our homeless shelter at night. Since they can't stay at the shelter during the day, they must find other places to go and things to do to occupy those empty hours.

That makes the dilemma, at least partly, a social services problem.

I suspect some of the public outrage is also motivated by guilt. As Mary Ann Ross, a noted social issues advocate, told me, many of these people are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, cousins, etc., and they remind us too bluntly of what any of us could become.

So my question to people here is simple. Where do we expect these people to go during the day, other than somewhere out of sight and hopefully out of mind? And what are we prepared to do about it?

Last year, after a young girl came a heartbeat away from drowning at Long Lake Beach in Fred Henne Territorial Park, a Yellowknifer editorial pointed to statistics showing why lifeguards should be reinstated.

Considering last week's tragedy it seems worthwhile repeating them. According to the Lifesaving Society of Canada, 500 people drown in Canada each year. Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under 10, and 65 per cent of children younger than five were alone when they drowned. Of all drowning deaths, 59 per cent of the victims were engaged in recreational activities.

At the end of the editorial we argued since, it was an election year at city hall, the lack of lifeguards at Long Lake ought to be a campaign issue. Alas, nary a word was uttered as far as we can tell. And now the inevitable has happened. Seven-year-old Lodune Shelley was around the same age as the girl who nearly drowned last year, as were the three children who were rescued from Long Lake by a pair of older girls in 2003 - the first summer the beach went unsupervised.

But unlike those before him, there was no narrow escape for Lodune. He is dead, gone forever, and his family is shattered beyond grief.

Ten years ago we were told the issue was not related to cost nor the territorial government's liability should someone drown while a lifeguard was present at the beach. Indeed, Phil Lee, the former North Slave superintendent for parks under the old department of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, insisted it was not a lack of will preventing Long Lake Beach from being staffed with lifeguards but a scarcity of lifeguards from the city who were qualified. The city, which supplied the lifeguards from Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, didn't have anyone who could work at the beach, which requires a special open water certification.

But things changed the following year. Suddenly, Lee was saying it was territorial government liability at issue, even while then-mayor Gord Van Tighem insisted it had the lifeguards the territorial government needed.

The true reason for the about-face, however, is revealed in the legislative assembly's Hansard from May 27, 2004 when Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins questioned Brendan Bell, the minister responsible for parks at the time, about the GNWT's new-found aversion to providing beach-goers with lifeguards.

The government had taken over responsibility for lifeguards at the beach from the city some years before. Until 2004, it had split the costs evenly with the city. The city's insistence on seeking "full-cost recovery" that year was a deal-breaker for the GNWT, Bell insisted.

The cost of providing lifeguards for a season? Twenty-one thousand dollars. The government offered the city $15,000 but that wasn't enough for the city, according to Bell.

So because the city and territorial government couldn't come to an agreement over the remaining $6,000 - out of the millions of dollars in programming they do each year -- lifeguard services came to an end at Long Lake Beach. Nine years later it remains the case, and now a Yellowknife family is putting to rest their seven-year-old son. The irony that both Bell and Hawkins worked as lifeguards at Long Lake before going into politics will probably not mean much to them.

We will never know if having lifeguards at Long Lake last Thursday would have saved Lodune Shelley's life but as Hawkins attests, lifeguards, unlike most parents and caregivers, are trained to watch for signs of drowning, which are not always obvious to people, and can whistle swimmers back to shore when there is trouble. They are also trained in CPR.

On Friday, Mayor Mark Heyck told Yellowknifer the city is willing to re-examine the issue. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, now under Kam Lake MLA David Ramsay who we were told was not available for comment, was less forthcoming.

Back in 2004, Ramsay led Yellowknife MLAs in drafting a letter to Bell calling on him to come up with the additional money needed to pay for lifeguards. He agreed that responsibility for lifeguards should be transferred back to the city, but he didn't want to see another summer go by without them.

"It could prove to be a bad thing not to have lifeguards there, that's for sure," said Ramsay at the time.

How prescient. Now that the shame of it all has come full circle, will he be the politician who finally acts?

If parents in this city have their way, nothing less would be acceptable.

The setting sun transforms the sky into a brilliant orange as I start my stroll around the dusty streets of town.

I walk down the road that leads to the dump and instead of enjoying the moment away from the office, I'm saddened by what I see. Pieces of product packaging, plastic bags and other junk haunt my every step and distract me from enjoying Rankin's beauty.

I keep walking until I come across the Rankin Inlet cemetery and discover it too is not immune from the garbage problem plaguing the hamlet.

Next, I climb the rocky hills in the area where once again I find packaging flying around. There are even a number of large discarded items, including a worn boogie board, on the rocks.

When I get to the dump, I realize part of the reason for the garbage takeover is some areas of the fence surrounding the mounds of discarded items have fallen over.

As a result, lighter pieces of garbage are escaping from the area and rolling toward the water's edge.

The hamlet should look into getting this fixed immediately for the sake of the environment and residents.

The other reason there is so much junk floating around town (and most Rankin residents are aware of this) is that there are no lids for the garbage barrels.

This means every time someone puts out the trash, they're actually providing the birds and other animals with a buffet dinner.

I think the hamlet should work on fixing this issue although, if people want to keep using the barrels, they might have to get creative. Some of the bins have been warped and won't take a one-size-fits-all type lid.

Nonetheless, when they do find a solution, the hamlet may want to institute a rule that requires residents to use a garbage can lid or face the risk of not having the garbage picked up.

This will ensure that residents quickly catch onto the new ways.

In the meantime, I encourage residents to construct their own makeshift lids.

Once these two problems are addressed, residents can take the initiative to stop littering and make an effort to have a cleaner community.

Everyone should also gather together for another big community cleanup.

It will take some time and a lot of bags, but it will be so worth it in the end.

Imagine walking down the roads and not seeing pieces of junk caked into the dirt. What a wonderful sight that would be.

• Miranda Scotland is interim editor of Kivalliq News while editor Darrell Greer is on vacation

The Minister's Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness wrapped up its tour in all regions of the NWT this spring, speaking to the public and gathering advice about how the Department of Heath and Social Services should combat addictions.

This is because what is currently being implemented isn't getting the desired results.

Change is needed, a movement to more traditional methods of healing, not more of the same. Developing more treatment centres such as the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre on the K'atlodeeche First Nation Reserve near Hay River - which offers addiction awareness programs based on aboriginal values - was one consideration brought forward by NWT residents to the 13-member forum.

While it is well-funded and well-executed, it is not suited to the needs of the 30 communities with substance-abuse issues.

It has a vacancy rate hovering around 50 per cent, presenting an illusion that addiction is not, in fact, ripping families apart in the territory.

In reality, it is not culturally-relevant to a diverse territory, and also, not everyone wants to face their demons surrounded by the walls of the treatment centre.

Allowing people to heal away from the draw of the liquor stores and bootleggers, bringing them back to their traditional roots through community-operated on-the-land programs, holds more value.

Elders help out on the land, leading participants through treks, stories, meal, games, dances and prayers.

They are not compensated for their work, which is something the forum is recommending the health minister consider. These elders do not fit the mould of the academic world but many of them hold knowledge equivalent to or more than that of any degree.

There is currently no value in place for services offered by elders, which is at odds with efforts to strengthen the culture. Elders' skills hold considerable value and paying them for the important work they do is not only fair it shows the people of the NWT that their traditional knowledge has worth.

The forum members have presented their report of recommendations to the health minister. The people of the NWT were asked for their collective knowledge about addictions and the most effective way to prevent these diseases. The people have spoken. It is now time to act. This report must not be allowed to collect dust on a shelf.

James Van Camp is reportedly the first person of Tlicho heritage to become a medical doctor. The 31-year-old from Fort Smith recently graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta and started his residency in rural family medicine in Grande Prairie, Alta.

This is a triumph for Van Camp and the entire NWT. With his strong connection to the North and to his aboriginal culture, Van Camp's goal that he will return to the North to practise medicine will benefit the people of this territory.

Van Camp was candid explaining how he did not always pass tests in school, but that his parents instilled the importance of a good education in him and his siblings. He is a role model to aboriginal youth of what can be achieved when you put your mind to something, no matter how arduous the road to success.

There is a severe shortage of aboriginal physicians in the North, coupled with the fact that aboriginal people's health is historically poorer than other Canadians. Hopefully Van Camp's story will not sit on its own, but be followed by other aboriginal residents who garner these critical skills and return home after their training is complete to care for the people of the NWT.

As Canada Day celebrations are held from coast to coast to coast today, no where is there more reason to feel hope and pride than in Nunavut.

Nunavummiut are poised to recognize the 14th birthday of the formation of the territory during Nunavut Day, on July 9. The amount of progress that has been made since division from the Northwest Territories is simply extraordinary. There are many people who have played significant roles in the development of Nunavut as the land of the Inuit people.

Each of its regions has its own strengths and unique contributions to the territory as a whole. There is a solid mix of traditional hunting, fishing and trapping activities, along with more modern ventures, including a healthy mining, construction, exploration and arts and crafts industries and a robust civil service, which employs hundreds of people in branches of the territorial and federal governments. Although there is still work needed to meet the government employment goals enshrined in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, progress has been made and must continue to be made.

The creation of Nunavut marked the beginning of autonomy for the Inuit people, an opportunity to manage their own destiny and chart a future filled with prosperity and independence. The result is a plethora of Inuit-owned companies which hold dear the teachings of the elders -- to respect the land, to take only what is needed and to experience and take pride in the result of hard work and perseverance.

There are challenges, without a doubt, related to food security, the incidences of substance abuse which lead to addictions, and the need to adapt to more modern technologies.

However, on the occasion of Canada Day this week and the advent of Nunavut Day next week, it is important for Nunavummiut to pause and take stock of the many accomplishments made with an eye to making the territory even stronger in the future.

It is a time to recognize the unique people and lifestyle of the North, the territory's unique system of self-government, a prosperous economy, its continued growth and development, while respecting its history and traditions.

There is much to celebrate.

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