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A three-year study into the health of fish in the Slave River will hopefully help put some minds at ease about whether contaminants from the oil sands operation in Alberta are polluting our waterways and rendering fish unsafe for consumption.

That study found that cancer-causing chemicals associated with various sources of pollution are "almost absent" in the Slave River fish populations.

Dr. Paul Jones from the University of Saskatchewan conducted the study, sampling more than 800 fish from the Slave and Athabasca rivers between Fort McMurray and Fort Resolution.

Effects on water quality in the Slave River from downstream resource development has been a controversial issue for years. Upstream pollution has been blamed for cancer rates in Fort Resolution. Lesions found on some fish have also raised fears about the future of water quality.

While protecting the integrity of our waterways and water habitat is vital to everyone, we must be careful to ensure concerns about development are evidenced-based and not fear-based.

That is not to say that the level of contamination in waterways closer to the oil sands is not a problem. Jones described the levels of hydrocarbons in the fish in that region as dramatically higher and other studies have shown a sharp increase in pollutant levels in nearby waters, which pose a risk to us upstream, although the levels are still considered to be within safe levels.

However, future expansion of the oil sands could easily tilt those levels into the danger zone and that is why the GNWT must finish its seemingly never-ending negotiations for a transboundary water agreement with Alberta to help protect us from the side effects of unsustainable growth south of the border.

The study. which Dr. Jones was part of, is a two-year project called Slave Watershed Environmental Effects Program, which is looking for impacts from climate change, pesticides of farming, hydrological changes and industrial pollution on Athabasca and Slave rivers from Fort McMurray to Fort Resolution.

The study involves federal and territorial government agencies, a number of universities, First Nations, Metis councils, the Hamlet of Fort Resolution and the Town of Fort Smith.

With that quality of representation, Northerners can be confident in the results. At the same time, the good news of minimal to no contamination should not be taken as an end of the environmental debate and discussion. Far from it. Instead, this is the beginning.

Establishing a baseline is only valuable if regular and rigorous water testing is ongoing. Beyond that, regulatory authority must be put in place to ensure the testing continues. Should action be necessary, governments or their designated agencies must have the power to act.

All this study is really telling us is that we have some breathing room to ensure the next study reveals far uglier results.

In light of complaints raised about medical travel, including the condition of a boarding home used by Kitikmeot medical patients when they are in Yellowknife for treatment, comes the question of who is responsible for checks and balances on services contracted by the territorial government.

A Cambridge Bay man described his difficulties in arranging a trip to Yellowknife for hip replacement surgery. It is distressing that he was told he did not qualify for a medical escort, funded by the government, when a doctor scheduled him his first surgery back in 2009. Unable to change the decision by Kitikmeot Medical Travel, the man paid out of pocket for his wife and two young children to accompany him. Since the family was not covered by medical travel benefits, he also paid out of pocket for a place to stay.

The struggle for comprehensive medical care continued last February when he needed a second hip replaced. This time, thankfully, he qualified for a medical escort to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, where patients from Nunavut's Kitikmeot region usually go for medical treatment. Along with the medical travel benefits came accommodation at the Larga Kitikmeot Boarding Home, a modern facility with rooms for dozens of patients.

There is no question that boarding homes are a vital component of the medical travel system, with facilities in several cities in the south, including Winnipeg, Ottawa, Yellowknife and Edmonton. They are supposed to be a quiet place for people requiring medical treatment to stay, prepare for treatment and recover following treatment until they are able to return to their home communities.

There are rules in place so that people who stay at the boarding home are comfortable and so that patients receive the services required, which include a clean bed, transportation to and from medical appointments, meals and transportation to the airport. Signs are posted that say there is a zero-tolerance policy toward drinking alcohol on the premises.

The hip replacement patient, who is a recovering alcoholic, said he and his wife were woken up at 6 a.m. one morning by an intoxicated person barging into their room. He said the boarding home was overcrowded, was "really filthy and dirty," that people were seen drinking and intoxicated and that, in general, the rules were not enforced.

To add insult to injury, questions about the state of the boarding home to the Government of Nunavut were referred to the contractor that operates the boarding home. The patient raised the alarm about the condition of the accommodations because, in his experience, "it's not a place for healing."

Since the Government of Nunavut pays the contractor to provide a service to patients who qualify for medical travel, he is quite correct to speak up about its condition.

We are concerned that a government spokesperson dismissed his complaints, saying it is the responsibility of the contractor to ensure proper standards are met.

Ultimately, it is the government's responsibility to ensure that contractors meet the standards set out in the agreements and maintain an environment that promotes healing - not one that supports binge drinking.

We urge the government to take that responsibility seriously and not hesitate to inspect services provided by its contractors.

Far too often, it takes media and/or political attention to convince organizations to do the right thing.

Take Margaret Beauchamp's recent battle with Northern Property REIT. When burst pipes made her apartment unlivable last week, the landlord should have provided her with suitable housing while it had the problem fixed. Instead, Beauchamp was told she could either move to a more expensive apartment and pay the difference, or pay for her own hotel accommodations - either way, the company appeared as if it couldn't care less.

It was only after Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins got involved that the company begrudgingly agreed to pay for Beauchamp to stay in a hotel until last Friday.

While we commend Hawkins for, as he said, doing his job and standing up for his constituent, it shouldn't have taken an MLA and the subsequent media coverage to get landlords to treat its tenants with respect.

Perhaps this blatant disregard for the well-being of tenants is one of the hazards of having an Alberta-based mega-company as the main property manager in the city.

Northern Property owns and manages 75 per cent of rental properties in Yellowknife, but this monopoly should not mean the company can forgo customer service.

On the topic of failing to respect renters' rights, last December, Northern Property stopped accepting renters who rely on income assistance, citing $250,000 in lost revenue the year before from unpaid rent, which they attributed largely to tenants relying on income assistance falling into arrears and then refusing to leave quietly when served with eviction notices.

Perhaps if the company focused on maintaining its properties and providing higher-quality apartments, the wealthier clients they seek would finally come calling.

According to its own objectives posted to its website, as a real estate investment trust, Northern Property focuses on acquiring cheap, low-maintenance properties that can be rented out to governments and larger corporations under long-term leases in order to provide the best return possible to its shareholders.

Is this really the company we want in charge of housing in a city that is struggling to attract new southern exports and convince young people to return to after they graduate?

The latest batch of nurses to cross the graduation stage in Yellowknife are armed not only with nursing degrees but an innate knowledge of the North one can't learn in school.

The Aurora College Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in Yellowknife churned out its latest set of graduates last week. Those who decide to scrub up at Northern hospitals and clinics will invariably contribute to a stronger health network.

Those who are from the North and working in the North will be able to better relate to those living here and not be surprised by some of the medical issues that may come out of the smaller communities.

As valuable as an education is in learning to be critical-thinking professionals, living within the place you intend to practice has no textbook equivalent: familiarization simply takes time.

If these nurses land local jobs, they are better equipped to hit-the-ground-running than southern transplants - not that this latter set doesn't have the capacity to learn Northern issues, but being from the North means you understand - rather than have to learn to understand - the North.

Also, turnover rates in the nursing field can be high. Filling openings with those already living and educated in the North means a higher likelihood of staff sticking around.

Overall, the more people who can be trained and educated locally who go on to work locally, the stronger they become as a professional network, and in this case, our hospitals and clinics will be all the better for it.

The Deh Cho isn't the type of place most people would associate with significant levels of poverty.

The communities are small and close knit and there are a variety of programs – depending on the community – designed to help people who are having trouble making ends meet.

This isn't, after all, a big city where homelessness and destitution is often starkly evident on downtown streets.

But the Deh Cho isn't a utopia. Signs of poverty are maybe just better hidden here or it's easier to imagine that someone else will help the person who is asking for change for a cup of coffee.

There are also degrees of need. In some cases it could be a family that, from time to time, has trouble paying all of its bills and has to decide between keeping their phone line or putting some food on the table.

Maybe it is an elder on a fixed income with little family support. They have to make their limited dollars stretch as far as possible.

There are also the cases of people who are in need and whose troubles are often publicly known to be compounded by alcohol abuse. These individuals are often the most visible in their respective communities and the ones who immediately come to mind when programs to help the less fortunate are being launched.

But, just as a book shouldn't be judged by its cover, it is impossible to tell just by looking at a person exactly what their state of need is.

For all of these reasons, the reserved coffee program at the Northern store's gas bar in Fort Simpson is an admirable idea.

Especially in the winter months, it is great to know that community members have the opportunity to provide a hot beverage or, perhaps more critically, a bowl of soup or chili to someone who is likely cold and maybe hasn't had much, if anything, to eat that day. And it's so simple. All it costs is a few extra dollars while paying for a purchase at the till.

In the summer, when cold is not a problem, the program still has its merits. A sandwich could tide someone over until the soup kitchen opens or until they have enough money to buy their next meal.

The Deh Cho does have lots of programs designed to help people in need like soup kitchens and food banks and other assistance programs. It should never be forgotten, however, that there are still people who, for a variety of reasons, struggle to make ends meet. A small donation or act of kindness can make a significant difference in their day.

Sometimes Coun. Kurt Wainman deserves credit for an ability to get to the heart of a simmering issue.

"I wish we'd see this many people come out to a meeting dealing with big problems like the gas situation," he said May 14 in the midst of the discussion on a bylaw that would force Josh Tyler's Ready Red's food truck to move off Mackenzie Road.

That comment illustrates one of the most inexplicable things about Inuvik. An issue like a food truck can bring the public out in droves, it is truly not the biggest issue facing the town.

It's also an example of the sometimes poor communications strategy the town has with the public.

The town might be making a sensible decision on Ready Red's from an objective standpoint by suggesting the food truck move to a private, vacant lot rather than continuously inhabit public parking spots in front of the Mad Trapper. Parking in the downtown core is at a premium, and implementing a strategy to deal with street venders is forward-looking.

However, the town has shot itself in the foot with its approach and a lack of action in 2013.

Why, as Coun. Terry Halifax inquired, did the town not take steps when Tyler first opened his trailer for the summer season in 2013? And why did the town not act over the winter months, before they sold him a business licence for 2014?

None of that makes sense, if, as Mayor Floyd Roland said, there were complaints last year. Nor should the town sell a business licence for a returning operation if there is knowledge of plans to make major changes, such as what is spelled out in a draft bylaw which would force Tyler to move the food truck.

"It just looks bad," said Matthew Clark, the vice-president of the Inuvik Chamber of Commerce. "And it creates a split in the town."

He's right, and it has resulted in some heated rhetoric on both sides.

Before the meeting, Tyler told two different media outlets he wanted to "bring a mob" to town hall. That's an unfortunate choice of words because some members of council are rather sensitive to usage of the word "mob."

Some decent communication from the start between the town and the business owner might have staved off what's become a messy situation.

As much as people would like a world entirely free from discrimination, such a place isn't possible - not as long we have private property and a market economy.

Yellowknife's largest landlord, Northern Property REIT, raised the ire of the NWT Human Rights Commission last week after announcing it was no longer accepting tenants receiving income support from the territorial government.

The company erred by basing its discrimination on people's source of income rather than on how much they made, their credit rating or their references.

From a human rights point of view, Northern Property would have been well within its rights if it instead said it was following its application process in all cases, regardless of where income is coming from.

After all, it's no more a human right to receive housing from a private sector landlord than it is a brand new Lamborghini from a local car dealership. If you can't afford it, you're not entitled to it.

The problem, as identified by Northern Property, is that there is no guarantee tenants will be able to pay their rent once the government income support payments stop. The company claims to have lost $250,000 in unpaid rent in 2013, a "high number" of those arrears coming from income support recipients.

Most tenants collecting income support have their eligibility assessed on a monthly basis, just as most of those tenants have their rent paid by the GNWT directly to their landlord, up to $900 for a single person.

One thing is clear: if residents are being denied housing, for whatever financial reason, it inevitably falls on the government, not the private sector, to come up with a solution.

According to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, there are 320 families on income support, with the average time receiving payments being eight months.

If the GNWT can't offer landlords proper guarantees against the financial risk renting to cash strapped tenants, where are these people to go?

Coming off income security with one wage earner and facing an average rent of $2,000 per month for a multi-bedroom family apartment from a private landlord is crippling. The experience of Northern Property indicates many people fail to meet their rental obligations. In fact, the $2,000 monthly rent may well discourage people from looking for work if it means losing a stable place on income support.

So what's the solution?

The majority of people in public housing do not collect income support, but are instead low wage earners or on a fixed income.

As people coming off income security are likely to be on the lower end of the salary scale, it appears the only answer is more public housing.

It's either that, or watch as more people are thrown out onto the street or leave the North for affordable rent or accessible public housing.

Far too much of the rhetoric surrounding what may, or may not, follow in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been sadly adversarial in nature, and will undermine the efforts of those trying to build bridges between peoples, both home and abroad.

Why anyone would go off the deep end over a few voices claiming forced residential schools weren't really that big a deal, our aboriginal population should just get over it, and the Government of Canada has grossly overpaid for the injustices done those affected by such schools is beyond me.

Please! Consider the source. They're idiots!

They spew nothing but derision, divisiveness and distrust in their comments -- always posted anonymously online -- based on their own personal feelings and twisted points of view.

They have no facts to substantiate their claims, nor any understanding or compassion toward the issues being debated with them.

They don't want to understand, represent no one but themselves, and certainly do not speak for the average Canadian.

They are guilty of possessing, in abundance, one of humanity's worst traits, that of ignorance.

But those angered enough by their words to respond in-kind, on a public forum, are guilty too.

In their anger, they're guilty of allowing themselves to believe (or at least wonder if, maybe) deep inside, all non-aboriginal Canadians feel the same way.

It's a fool's game and they're playing it.

Far from building bridges, they put up walls when claiming Canadians attempted genocide -- cultural and actual -- against them, renounce their Canadian standing in the name of being indigenous peoples from a variety of sovereign nations, and claim racism and anti-aboriginal teachings were embedded in Canadian school curriculums for generations and still exist today.

We get enough of that from people who should know better, like commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair and his "... All Canadians have been taught to believe in the negative stereotypes of Canada's indigenous people in our public schools and that long-term racism needs to be brought to a halt."

Well, here's one Canadian who sure wasn't taught that in his school.

Sinclair's credentials might be impeccable, but, unless he has divine power to look into my heart, I strongly resent his implication.

And can we please refrain from the incessant usage of the term colonialism when referring to today's Canada?

If you want to discuss something that truly holds people back -- any people -- let's talk first-past-the-post and non-party politics.

Through immigration, Canada has become a vast collective of cultures and we're stronger for it.

Colonial Canada? No sale. Not for awhile now.

But, I must have missed something.

I thought this process was about healing, awareness, reconciliation, equality and coming together as peoples.

Yet most of what I hear today is aggression, which may burden some average Canadians with guilt or shame for acts they played no part in.

But in the majority, they will kindle nothing but resentment, indifference and disconnect.

Is this the best we can do?

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