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One hundred years, $190 million and counting.

That's how long, at least according to the current plan from the federal government, the arsenic tailings at Giant Mine will be frozen underground.

In other words, the current plan is to freeze it in a giant toxic ice cube under the old mine site and keep it frozen at a cost of $1.9 million a year, until government scientists can figure out a better way to deal with it.

The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) recommended that the arsenic be moved elsewhere, although the where wasn't specifically addressed. That plan was deemed too dangerous. Either way, the arsenic would just be moved and contaminate another site.

This is why Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins has the right idea.

Last week, Hawkins made the suggestion the federal government cough up a few bucks (he suggested $20 million) for a competition to spur on private enterprise to devise a way to deal with the arsenic sooner rather than later. Hawkins said there are ways to motivate people and money is certainly one of the top ones.

The payout could inspire those in the environmental clean-up business to come up with an innovative way to deal with the tailings. In fact, another recommendation from the MVEIRB was to invest in research with the intent of exploring emerging technologies.

One of those emerging technologies could be phytostabilization. That mouthful of a word comes from a 2007 study done by the University of Arizona. According to the study's authors, a vegetative cap could be grown that would help to contain mine tailings.

The theory is that plants, specifically chosen to be resistant to contaminants, would absorb the harmful components of the tailings, and store them in its root structure, lessening the potential exposure to the surrounding environment.

Now, the study was initially conducted for mine tailings in arid and semi-arid climates, but who's to say that the same technique couldn't be adapted to work in the North?

That's where the research funding comes in - if we invest in potential technologies, we can find a way to clean up the mess that's been left by past mining exploits. And who's to say if we do perfect this new technology, we wouldn't be able to sell it to other areas around the world facing the same problems?

We need to invest in emerging technologies such as these in order to help clean up contaminated sites like Giant Mine.

It's better to spend some money now than to throw the problem on to future generations to solve for us.

Many families will gather around a turkey and cranberry sauce this long weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The annual holiday is celebrated on the second Monday of October, which falls on Oct. 14 this year.

But the holiday has some unique Canadian connections, starting with its origin.

The first North American Thanksgiving is credited to Martin Frobisher, who sailed to present-day Newfoundland in 1578, in search of a Northern passage to the east. Grateful to have survived the journey, he held a ceremony.

Throughout history, Thanksgiving celebrations did not always centre on the harvest.

The first one after Confederation, on April 15, 1872, celebrated the recovery from a serious illness of the Prince of Wales, who would later become King Edward VII.

According to the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, between 1872 and 1879, no record of a Thanksgiving Day is found. But from 1879 to 1898, it was celebrated on a Thursday in November.

Throughout the decades, Thanksgiving would be observed in October or in November, sometimes on a Thursday and at other times on a Monday.

In 1957, parliament issued a proclamation, permanently placing the annual holiday on the second Monday of October.

Celebrating the holiday by eating turkey is still popular, although the menu selections can be quite varied. Last year, Canadians bought 3.1 million whole turkeys, representing 35 per cent of all the turkeys sold during the year, according to the Turkey Farmers of Canada. But turkey at Christmas is still the most popular way Canadians eat the bird, with 3.9 million whole turkeys purchased for that holiday, representing 44 per cent of the turkeys sold during the year.

As for cranberries, this country is the second-largest producer of the fruit native to the Atlantic provinces. Highbush cranberries can be found at certain locations in the Mackenzie River Valley.

In the North, the turkey dinner might be replaced with moose stew to give the holiday a unique local flavour.

Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest, as a blessing for your well-being or just taking the time to enjoy the day to be with family, Canadians have many reasons to be grateful.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Jeanne Gagnon is the acting editor for Deh Cho Drum while Roxanna Thompson is on vacation.

After attending a public meeting on the GNWT's proposed anti-bullying legislation, I'm generally in favour of the bill.

The meeting attracted a small group of about 15 people, a number of them local teachers, who had some good things to say about the concepts in Bill 12. They also expressed some reservations about how to implement the bill. While some of those concerns were well placed and well meaning, others might be more debatable.

One of the more poignant parts of the evening were comments from some people, including MLA Daryl Dolynny, about being bullied themselves.

He spoke with obvious emotion about how difficult it is to even discuss the subject openly due to fear and social stigma.

Others in the audience remembered how they too had been bullied, often with no one to turn to who would actually take steps to deal with the matter.

One young woman recalled how she had tried to turn to school officials, including a principal, to help end her torment, with no success.

I'm a little torn on that issue, since I remember much the same thing going through school. My personal recollection is that school, especially in the junior grades, is where the law of the jungle prevailed. To quote from one of my favourite movies, A Christmas Story, public school in particular was where people were sorted into bullies, toadies or the nameless, faceless rabble of victims.

I also recall thinking that much of this should have been pretty obvious to the school staff, who turned a blind eye to the bullying unless it escalated to some significant physical level.

As an adult, I can now see where that perception was likely somewhat misplaced, but I still have no doubt that many school officials were taking their cue from the NHL refereeing code that says "let them play and sort it out themselves."

Too often that simply breeds more violence of whatever nature. There's got to be a better balance between letting children handle it themselves and intervening in a constructive fashion.

As another spectator pointed out, too often inaction on bullying at the childhood level leads to the behaviour continuing into adulthood.

That's why Ontario, my home province, has introduced some stern anti-bullying and harassment at the workplace legislation in the last few years. When you reward bad behaviour with a blind eye, it becomes harder to fix later and requires more drastic steps.

While I appreciate the trepidation expressed by some teachers at the public meeting about having to assume more responsibility for policing bullying, I don't agree with it.

Children spend a good chunk of their lives at school, as adults do at a workplace. Bullying in either location is simply not acceptable. If it indeed takes a village to raise a child, it might also require a school to help stamp out bullying.

The law of the jungle must end now, and not later.

Last Thursday's town hall meeting on public safety in Yellowknife, hosted by the Department of Justice, highlighted the myriad issues that contribute to the critical situation now faced by residents.

The issues go something like this: the realization that Yellowknife sits at the top of the Canadian heap in the Crime Severity Index; social issues, such as alcohol and drug abuse; marginalized citizens of our territory who carry the horrific legacy of residential schools and play out destructive cycles; little to no help and financial commitments for people and programs that need and offer vital services to heal at the root; and government departments seemingly disconnected from each other.

Meanwhile, on a day-to-day basis, on the street level, everyone who lives in Yellowknife experiences the consequence, some benign and some violent and extreme, via criminal activity that makes the rest of Canada look like a utopia.

There is no department or agency solely responsible for solutions, no overlord that will magically solve the problems Yellowknife society faces.

Here's a snapshot.

Yellowknife Mayor Mark Heyck said, at the town hall meeting, that the city is currently looking at funding RCMP officers with a mandate to police the downtown area.

Justice Minister Glen Abernethy said, "We're looking at funding additional (RCMP) positions."

Meanwhile, RCMP Insp. Frank Gallagher, likely the safest person walking around Yellowknife, insisted in an interview last week, "I definitely have enough police officers."

Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society in Yellowknife, said at the meeting, "Talking about more police or closed circuit cameras or things that are responses after the harm is done do not make us safer."

Conflicting points of view are entirely normal when faced with a mess. Everyone has their agenda to fulfill.

Two things are clear.

Although Gallagher balks at the thought of increased staff and received applause at Thursday's meeting when he said, "We can arrest, arrest, arrest, but that won't solve the problem," the fact is that more officers won't, de facto, result in more arrests. It simply means more police presence, more control in current high-risk areas.

The second glaring issue is the lack of a group approach, and, specifically, the absence of the Department of Health and Social Services. Where was the voice of Health Minister Tom Beaulieu - the man without a plan responsible for closing a treatment centre - on Thursday night?

When Gallagher moved to Yellowknife and took charge of G Division in April this year, he told Yellowknifer, "I'm still getting my feet wet. I'm in meetings all this week with different groups. I want to know what they expect from their police before I do anything."

Who did he meet with and what were the results of those conversations?

Multiple voices, multiple points of view, and multiple levels of responsibility - this begs a task force. A task force that brings together all the players: the City of Yellowknife, the GNWT - both Justice and Health - non-profits that struggle to offer programming under lack of funding or spending cuts, and citizens.

Citizens who have experienced first hand a terrifying break-in and an assault, and spoken publicly, citizens such as Kelli Hinchey and Deanna Leonard, who said Thursday, "We need to not be afraid." Citizens like Sandra Lockhart, who, as a woman who has experienced sexual violence and addiction, said, "It's racial profiling that's going on, we're just not saying it. We know the people that are drinking downtown are of aboriginal descent."

Gallagher told Yellowknifer in July, "We don't want to be a reactive police force. We need to be proactive."

The real task, Bardak added, is preventing crime and healing those affected by it.

Well said. But until those people who are paid to lead actually lead and the rest of us contribute, it's all just more and more empty words leading nowhere. It is time to pull this city out of the nowhere nightmare.

Nunavummiut who are pointing to former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau's condemnation of the Parti Quebecois' (PQ) proposed charter of values as proof of his sensitivity to minority rights, while being a full-fledged advocate of language protection and distinct-society designation, are missing the point.

Parizeau is a separatist. Period.

This is still the same man who blames ethnic votes for the failed 1995 referendum on Quebec leaving Canada to become a sovereign state.

Parizeau couldn't care less about the rights of people in Quebec's public service to wear "overt" religious symbols such as hijabs, kippa and "larger-than-average" crosses.

Who exactly, I can't help but wonder, gets to decide the average size of a cross or crucifix? But I digress.

Parizeau is not concerned with individual rights, but, rather, the impact the proposed charter is having on the political landscape.

Those following this battle for the right to free expression realize the majority of PQ supporters back the charter, while the majority of everyone else do not.

As he wrote in his highly-publicized column in Le Journal this past week, he's worried federalism is presenting itself as the defender of minorities in Quebec.

In short, he's worried the proposed charter will tip the scales against the PQ (read separatists) for a very long time in the court of public opinion, especially among those with voting rights in Quebec.

The ironic part of Parizeau's written tirade is that federalists - especially in this great democratic nation of ours -- should defend minorities.

Heaven help us in the North should they ever go in the opposite direction.

While no doubt he is enjoying the bluster over the proposed charter -- blustering himself over possible legal challenges if the charter is adopted -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have made the federalist point crystal clear by body-slamming his senior federal minister in Quebec, Denis Lebel, for saying there was nothing in the PQ's proposed charter that upset him this past month.

And, as often is the case lately with the Tories' travelling medicine show, while Lebel shrugged his shoulders in indifference, Jason Kenney, minister of multiculturalism, was shooting across cyberspace with a turban on his head to protest the charter.

Here's hoping the Tories come back down to Earth soon and, at least, look like they're on the same page.

Some would have you believe this is a little argument, in a militant province, aimed primarily at Muslims, with next to nothing to do with the rest of us.

But things have a way of growing once they take root.

If you overlook the annexation of Austria, the seeds of the Second World War sprouted in Poland.

Rights top the list of things you don't truly appreciate until they're gone, and they have a bad habit of following each other out the door once one is removed.

In Canada, you can put a punk rock video of protest on the Internet if you don't think a church leader should support a politician's campaign, and suffer little more than accusations of bad taste aimed more at your music than your message.

In Russia, that landed two feminist punk rockers two years in prison for hooliganism.

Stomping on people's rights is a song best not played, even in Quebec.

Imperial Oil's decision to increase natural gas prices to commercial customers in Norman Wells is nothing short of callous.

As the community nears the end of the gas supply to the community - the scheduled shutdown is 2014 - residents and business owners alike are scrambling to find alternative energy. The cost of converting away from natural gas is going to be expensive and extra costs are something businesses just don't need.

Imperial isn't raising the price of gas because it is costing the company more to produce. Its justification is simple: force users to switch before the deadline.

When business owners said they don't need any more incentive to switch than the fact the gas supply will soon run dry, Jennifer Watson, with Imperial Oil in Norman Wells, said history has shown a reluctance from the business community to convert.

Her corporate spin on the situation ignores why business owners have remained on the system despite the deadline being this year for commercial customers to switch.

While the Town of Norman Wells sought a community-wide solution to the energy crisis, it asked commercial customers who had not switched away from natural gas to remain on the system. It wanted to ensure a customer base for a district system being drafted by Dalkia, a company from Europe specializing in energy solutions.

Unfortunately, that gamble did not pay off. Dalkia's proposal included a rate increase so large as to make it unfeasible.

Now, commercial customers still relying on natural gas are being penalized for complying with a request from the town which in turn was attempting to find a better solution to the natural gas problem.

But it's not just business owners who are suffering. Councillor Nathan Watson told a public meeting that spreading the increased cost between residential and commercial customers wasn't reasonable because businesses, unlike residents, have a means to recuperate costs.

Of course, he is right, and in the face of a huge increase from the supplier, the town's decision makes sense. However, where does everyone think businesses compensate for additional expenses? Obviously, it's by increasing prices to their customers, which means it's not just businesses who will feel the pinch. Residents will more than likely see an increase to the cost of living.

Imperial Oil has agreed to provide the community with funds to help convert away from natural gas. They insist the company is seeing no net benefit from the cost increase.

If that's the case, business owners should be given a choice.

Lorraine Tremblay, a Norman Wells business owner, said as much when she suggested Imperial Oil should forget the punishing rate and let customers keep their money to pay for their own conversion.

Not only would that have been the mark of a good corporate citizen, it's an option based in fairness.

It's been one year since Diavik's wind farm started supplementing some of the diamond mine's power and it's off to an auspicious start.

The numbers speak for themselves. Three million litres of fuel have been saved. Fuel tanker truckloads have been reduced by 100 per year. Twelve thousand fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions entered the atmosphere.

At its maximum, if only for a short time, the windmills produced 58 per cent of the mine's power needs. Diavik is hoping the farm will deliver an average of 10 per cent of the power, up from the current seven per cent.

You can trust Diavik isn't going to invest $31 million into a project that is solely environmentally responsible.

The investment also means they are committed to making it work.

The result is a business case for wind energy, and one that is showing promise.

The windmill farm is expected to pay off Diavik's capital cost in eight years.

It is an innovative endeavor that proves wind power can be a wise investment, an example that hopefully prompts other companies to see the worth in similar sustainable energy projects.

After years of chronic underfunding comes millions of dollars and a new emphasis on education for adults.

Nunavut Arctic College announced recently it has overhauled its Adult Basic Education (ABE) programming, using $11 million in federal funding.

Included in the new initiative is the ABE Essential Skills program, which incorporates Inuktitut and is designed to teach skills needed in the workplace and for coping with the unique challenges of life in Nunavut.

This is welcome news, simply because resources for adult education have fallen far short of what goes to the regular school system, which is only now seeing improvement on persistently low graduation rates.

Too often to compensate for systemic failure, high school students having problems are put on the path of least resistance so that they can at least complete Grade 12. Although there are some who excel and meet the minimum requirements for college and university, those students are in the minority.

Educational success is hampered by a lack of acknowledgment in the education system of the cultural differences at work. Southern culture dominates the curriculum. Southern students grow up in southern homes where parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters practice the same southern culture.

But Inuit students grow up in Inuit homes and culture, changing as it is. Inuit students have the added requirement to learn how southern culture works - its values, expectations, rituals - as opposed to growing up immersed in it. Unless the daily influence of Inuit culture is to be ignored, as was the destructive mandate of residential schools, Inuit students should not be expected to learn a southern curriculum at the same rate as southern students.

This leaves two options. Option one is to convert the school to an Inuit-based curriculum that meets nationally accepted academic standards. This is a slow process already underway. The second option is to abandon the notion of the 12 years to graduation or fail and focus on Inuit students meeting nationally accepted academic standards in a more reasonable time frame. That option could be put into place much more rapidly.

That neither of the above options are in place now shows in the low graduation rates and will continue to do so. Every high school student that didn't graduate in the past two decades can benefit from ready access to adult basic education to help them find work.

The new programming at Nunavut Arctic College recognizes the importance of traditional living and has tailored its offerings to be more practical for adult students.

Instead of opening a textbook with the intention of learning math, students are being presented with a situation in which they have to use English and math skills to solve a problem.

The steps being taken to improve adult education are indeed encouraging. A continued emphasis is needed so that adult education offerings reach close to the same level as the emphasis and funding provided to the regular school system, until the need is reduced by higher and more meaningful graduation rates.

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