Liquor board leaves hefty tabYellowknifer - Wednesday, May 13, 2015
According to the NWT Liquor Act, $7,500 is a justifiable cost to transport a four-person liquor board panel to Yellowknife to hand down a $100 fine.
Between airfares, honorariums, accommodations and other expenses, taxpayers footed a bill far higher than what establishments typically pay when the liquor board fines them. Sam's Monkey Tree received a $5,000 fine in 2011 for serving and allowing intoxicated persons on its premises but most fines are in the few hundred dollar range.
Last month, the board handed the Raven Pub a $100 fine after a two-day hearing for serving three drinks at once to a customer. The legal limit is two.
Clearly liquor oversight is necessary but it is coming at a cost that is unnecessarily excessive and mind-numbingly archaic.
NWT Wildlife Act infractions - even Fisheries Act violations, which are federal -- are heard in territorial court. It would make sense if Liquor Act charges toward licensed establishments were heard in this court as well, particularly since this court is already on the travelling circuit and can hear cases where the establishments operate.
It should be noted that individuals charged under the Liquor Act - for unlawful possession, as an example - appear in territorial court when charged.
There are three options for liquor inspectors today: give out a warning, provide a ticket depending on the violation, or bring the case before the board - as was seen with the Raven. Either way, these matters are dealt with outside of the court system.
The liquor board told Yellowknifer other business is conducted at the same time as these hearings in order to cut down on expenses and excessive travel, which takes place approximately three times a year. To this, we say why is there even a liquor board? After all, the territory doesn't need a board to give people their driver's licences.
Surely, in a territory of 43,000 people, there is enough political oversight in the legislative assembly to ensure the NWT Liquor Commission conducts its business fairly without having to resort to a board of appointees travelling the territory to hear cases and issue permits.
In fact, with its decision Monday not to grant a liquor permit to the Warrior Strong and Five Star Fight League event this Saturday - an event that was expected to draw more than 800 attendees this week before organizers cancelled it - the liquor board has shown itself to be as rigidly-minded as any paper-pushing bureaucrat in love with red tape.
Fight organizers clearly made mistakes but to throw an event attracting hundreds into chaos over a late liquor application without trying to resolve the issues seems high-handed beyond reason. After 30 years, does the liquor board not know what the seating capacity is at the Yellowknife Arena?
It's time to put this archaic dinosaur to rest and adopt a liquor licensing system that respects the citizens it supposedly represents.
Support shouldn't end at 19Yellowknifer - Wednesday, May 13, 2015
The perception of what youth is has been extended in society, so it stands to reason it would also be extended for those who care for foster children.
Health Minister Glen Abernethy is proposing changes to the NWT Child Care Act that would allow youth in permanent foster care to continue accessing support until age 23. This is up from the existing cutoff age of 19.
Tammy Roberts, executive director for the Foster Family Coalition, says this will support a "neglected" segment of the youth population, and fill in a grey area between adolescence and adulthood that leaves youth vulnerable to homelessness and more likely to take part in criminal activity to survive. The hope is to give youth counselling and financial support so they can have the means to continue their schooling and become self-reliant.
Supports are needed more now than they were decades ago. Teenagers cannot walk out of high school and into a good-paying jobs anymore.
Post-secondary education is necessary for that now.
Extended foster care is one of many changes the GNWT says it is making as part of a new homeless youth strategy that focuses on prevention. Careers and jobs are just the start. Many of these youth also have mental health issues that slow down their development, making them vulnerable to homelessness. They also need access to counselling programs they may not be able to afford on their own.
There is a lot of cynicism about the government's ability to institute affective policies and programs, some of it well-deserved.
But at the very least, extended foster care tries to answer society's concern for the welfare of vulnerable youth and put a safety net underneath them.
Tootoo Train staying at New Jersey stationEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, May 13, 2015
While it was still to be announced at the time of writing this piece, it had become known in certain circles that Rankin Inlet's own Jordin Tootoo has re-signed with the New Jersey Devils.
Length and terms of the contract were not known at the time.
While the move will have many Kivalliq hockey fans jumping for joy, it should also put smiles on the faces of Devils fans everywhere.
In the Kivalliq, especially Rankin, the dream stays alive that one memorable day Jordin Tootoo will be driven around his hometown, with lights flashing and horns blaring in salute to the Stanley Cup sitting next to him.
It would be magic!
While the Devils are not a playoff team this season, they're nowhere near full rebuild mode.
Jersey has a stud of a young goalie between the pipes, a steady defence and a solid, if not spectacular, core group of players. They were stung, more than anything, by a lack of offence this season.
New general manager Ray Shero will move quickly to address that problem.
He will probably draw upon his depth of young players on the blue-line and New Jersey's first round pick (sixth overall) to swing a pair of deals to add firepower.
In fact, one hot NHL rumour has that sixth overall pick heading to the Maple Leafs as part of a package that would make a Jersey boy out of a certain Mr. Phil Kessel.
Should Jersey address the lack of offence without moving any core players, Rankin fans may be on the edge of their seats during the Stanley Cup playoffs sooner rather than later.
It was a big day for Tootoo when then-GM, and now club president, Lou Lamoriello went behind the bench this season.
Uncle Lou increased Tootoo's ice time and, for a bit, had him on a line with Travis Zajac and Mike Cammaleri.
That meant power-play time for Tootoo.
And, while he may not have lit the league on fire, Tootoo responded well, ending the season in double digits for goals scored and showing improvement in his play.
In one month of play, from Feb. 20 to March 20, Tootoo tallied five goals and added four assists.
That type of production, over a six-month season, is not chopped liver.
There are naysayers over Tootoo's re-signing, and most of them reside in the house of analytics, which show a decline in possession for Tootoo and his linemates.
But what that doesn't show you is, playing on New Jersey's top line, Tootoo found himself continuously facing almost every team's top defensive pairing and checking line for the first time in his career.
And that, folks, requires a bit of adjustment.
Tootoo went to the Devils' camp on an invitation this past season, made the team, and had one of the most complete seasons of his career while other "bigger name" players sat in the press box.
And, of course, we all know the Tootoo Train has a few other skills readily available when needed.
All in all, a happy day for Rankin, a good day for the New Jersey Devils and a great day for the Tootoo Train, who earned this contract, big time!
The 2015-16 NHL season just started to look like a whole lot more fun!
Give a whoop about consultationNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, May 11, 2015
Parks Canada has plans to offer a cool opportunity to whooping crane enthusiasts.
The federal organization has scheduled tours of the endangered animals' Northern habitat, either by hiking or helicopter tours. The trips are priced from $1,330 to $3,820 depending on the package and will run at different times from May 25 through Aug. 20.
At least, that was the plan. While whooping crane habitat tours look interesting on paper, several First Nation groups are crying foul over what they are calling a lack of consultation.
"We were all pissed off with having no consultation on the issue," said Ken Hudson, president of the Fort Smith Metis Council.
"Yet Parks Canada was proposing it as something that was just going to go ahead."
So now, according to Hudson, Parks Canada has agreed to consultations. Unfortunately, the federal government has not spoken to media to give an update on the status of these consultations - or the whooping crane tours.
According to the Parks Canada website, heli-hike tours scheduled for May 25 through 28 have been fully booked. It's anyone's guess as to whether those in charge of the project think they will be able to speed through the negotiation process within two weeks. It's also anybody's guess as to whether anybody has contacted the people who have invested the more than $3,000 it costs to go on these tours to let them know if they've been postponed.
Patrick Simon, a Deninu Ku'e First Nation band councillor, has concerns about the fundamental nature of the tours.
"We do have concerns in regards to the disturbance of the bird," he told News/North last week.
"We didn't feel that they were doing it in a way that would minimize or limit the effects that the activity would have."
Parks Canada is clearly in a bind for patently avoidable reasons. How often do we hear First Nation leaders reminding governments proposing to do work on traditional lands of their duty to consult? It's like a broken record.
It was only a month ago that researchers in the South Slave halted a study to accurately diagnose tuberculosis in wood bison because these same groups had concerns over lack of consultation. It would have been a valuable study. Now, it looks like it might not happen at all.
With Northwest Territories tourism on the upswing, does Parks Canada want to find itself in a position where its inconveniencing people who have invested thousands to come visit the territory because they weren't proactive about First Nation consultations? How embarrassing.
First Nations have established the need for consultation over and over again and it's about time the government respected that.
Widespread appetite for art created in NunavutNunavut/News North - Monday, May 11, 2015
It is a monumental occasion for filmmaking in Nunavut, which bodes well for the future of the arts in the territory.
Director Zacharias Kunuk's epic 2001 film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was named last month to the number one spot on Canada's All-Time Top 10 List by the Toronto International Film Festival.
The stunning cinematography shot on the land in Nunavut, including a memorable scene of an Inuk runner being pursued through snow, ice and water, certainly influenced the judges this year and 10 years ago to heap accolades upon the production.
The film piques the interest southerners are increasingly giving the North -- and Nunavut in particular -- and the recent award may very well result in new audiences viewing the 168-minute production now. Despite the fact the film's dialogue is entirely in Inuktitut, with English subtitles, it is at once a captivating and amazing work, dramatic, informative and inspiring, with all the roles being played by people from Iglulik with no previous acting experience.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner not only received immediate success, earning almost $4 million at the box office as the top grossing release of 2002, it was the first feature film to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut and won at least 17 awards at film festivals around the world, including the Camera D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
The success of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and the recent popularity of other artists from Nunavut demonstrates the large appetite people across Canada and beyond have for what is being produced in the territory.
Cambridge Bay throatsinger Tanya Tagaq just received nominations for her album Animism by the Western Canadian Music Awards in the categories of independent album of the year, top aboriginal recording, top world recording and the year's top spiritual recording after winning the 2014 Polaris Music Prize and the 2015 Juno Award for aboriginal album of the year.
Her success has inspired dozens of young women in Nunavut to learn throatsinging, tapping into the knowledge of elders and joining arms with a partner to feel the vibrations as they perform.
Nunavummiut can look to other success stories for inspiration, among them aboriginal recording artist Susan Aglukark and Iqaluit band The Jerry Cans, which performs a unique mix of Inuktitut country swing, throatsinging, and reggae. Nelson Tagoona of Baker Lake is finding wide success with his unique blend of elemental hip hop beatboxing with traditional Inuit throatsinging. There is growing financial support for artists in Nunavut and established products, like prints made in Cape Dorset studios or carvings created in numerous communities, continue to fetch high prices in southern galleries. The Nunavut Film Development Corporation alone awarded $1.13 million in funding to 34 projects in 2013-14, triggering a total production volume of almost $5 million.
The future is bright for the arts community in Nunavut. It takes courage, creativity and connections to achieve success. But it is refreshing to observe there is a ready market anxious to see more of what Nunavummiut have to offer.
City raises the drawbridge Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 8, 2015
Arguably, the greatest issue facing mayor and city council candidates in the last election was poor communication between residents and city hall.
There was a growing sense among the public of the moat being dug between them and the people who provide city services. Residents complained of difficulties getting staff to respond to their concerns. Several candidates reported getting an earful on the subject while going door-to-door.
"I hear that at every second door I'm knocking on," said Linda Bussey during a candidates' forum held a week before winning her seat on council.
Mark Heyck, the eventual winner in the mayoral race, promised to maintain an open door policy if elected.
The city has made some efforts to live up to that promise since then. A year after the election, more than 200 city staff were given customer service training in an attempt to turn the page on the "horror stories," as Coun. Niels Konge called it, of rude interactions with the public.
Alas, less than six months before the next municipal election, city staff are being denied an opportunity to show off their revamped customer services skills. That's because their names, phone numbers and e-mails have been removed from the city hall website - replaced with general departmental phone numbers and an e-mail filtering system that supposedly takes e-mails but doesn't provide an actual e-mail address.
It doesn't stop there. If one is looking for an e-mail or phone number for the mayor or a city councillor, they're not going to find it on the city website.
This is a gross departure from the previous website that had virtually every city staff member listed by function and department, along with their phone numbers and e-mails.
A city official explained the new contact directory was built with "better customer service" in mind, so that citizens won't be distracted by dozens of contacts and be able to get to the person they need to talk to quicker.
Most councillors, of course, are not buying administration's buzzword logic. They shouldn't be blamed if they were to suspect this move has less to do with "better customer service" and more with city bureaucrats' desire not to be bothered by residents while at work.
Fortunately, not all levels of governments in the territory aspire to become a faceless monolith. The GNWT revamped its online staff directory a couple years ago but still lists staff phone numbers and e-mail addresses. And contact information for trustees and senior staff at both public school boards are readily available on their websites.
Mayor Heyck, who didn't comment for our story was quick to take to Twitter to defend the city's new system after it was published May 1, insisting mayor and council can still be contacted "directly."
But he misses the point. People don't want some anonymous window popping up with the City of Yellowknife logo blazoned atop of it when e-mailing city council. They want their individual e-mail addresses. And their phone numbers would be great too. Maybe they want to c.c. all of council. People can't do that now unless they already have their e-mails.
The city has come along way since the days of muzzled directors and silence that marred the previous administration.
But with an election looming and votes on the line, one might expect Heyck to persevere in continuing to make small steps toward engaging "all sectors of this community on an open and transparent basis," as he put it last election, without resorting to taking two steps back.
North is ripe for entrepreneursDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, May 7, 2015
We live in a world of incredible opportunity. Pioneers have explored every corner of the earth, but man has yet to come any closer in satiating his fellow's demands. Each step on that path to discovery only spreads the horizon further.
A career fair in Fort Liard's Echo Dene School gave students in the Deh Cho an idea of what kinds of opportunities they could pursue after high school.
Principal William Gowans said there are few job opportunities in Liard, which doesn't even have a hairdresser.
But there's a job opportunity. And anyone with a pair of scissors and a bit of initiative can corner the hairdressing market there in one fell swoop.
Where there is need, there is opportunity.
Public school needs to place a higher priority on financial and entrepreneurial education.
We are taught to get good grades, get into college, get good grades there and then find a "career" working for somebody else.
Rarely are we taught to grow up to be the employer or learn how to manage expense sheets.
Nothing is wrong with working for someone else, but to create new jobs, we need leaders. And that goes for the Deh Cho, too.
Small communities in this region show incredible entrepreneurial potential. Anything that you want but can't find locally is a future business opportunity.
The unique perspective that Dene people of the North can bring into the business world offers two advantages: they can cater to their own people's demands better, and that traditional Northern authenticity is much sought-after in the south.
Entrepreneurship aligns with the values of freedom, resourcefulness and using the land that are championed in the North.
It's with entrepreneurship that freedom of lifestyle is achievable and in 2015 we can still dream of being adventurers.
Schools need to focus more on stimulating children's minds in a way that can teach them how they can best serve others and create something out of nothing.
Not everyone needs to go to college, not everyone needs to excel in school. All that matters is your ability to improve the lives of others.
Everyone needs to find a way to serve each other.
In the North, we have the abundance of resources.
We have the need for services.
We have bright, creative, eager young people.
Now where are the entrepreneurs?
Sad to see the need for second food bankInuvik Drum - Thursday, May 7, 2015
Inuvik now has two food banks open. While that's good news in some quarters, there's an argument to be made that it's both shameful and embarrassing.
The members of the Midnight Sun Mosque, with some help from the Muslim Welfare Centre in Toronto, opened the Arctic Food Bank over the weekend.
The official opening came May 2.
Without doubt, those two organizations should be applauded for stepping forward after recognizing the need for another food bank here in town.
It's the need for a second food bank that's disturbing.
With a population of a bit more than 3,000 people, and being a regional government sub-capital, it seems astounding that there should be the kind of social needs such as those demonstrated in Inuvik. But no one who lives here should seriously argue that there isn't.
The economy in town has been in a flat line for some time now, perhaps a couple of years or more. Energy costs have increased precipitously over the same period as employment has fallen and businesses have closed.
The high cost of transportation to reach or leave Inuvik is also a compounding factor. Chances are there are some people who might want to leave to look for more opportunities who don't feel they can afford to, and thus are left in limbo. It's a hellish existence if you can't afford to live where you are and you can't afford to leave either.
While people are accustomed to a boom and bust economy here, many are saying it's perhaps the lowest ebb they can remember.
The municipal council is well aware of how precarious the situation is becoming. That's one of the points raised in its recent economic strategy report, which seeks fresh ideas on how to bolster the economy.
It's not quite clear whether the territorial government has quite the same understanding, although Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay reiterated the need to diversify the economy during a recent visit.
So it's not at all surprising that there's a huge need for services such as a food bank.
The long-established Inuvik Food Bank has done its best to keep with the demand, but it's been a Herculean task to manage that with modest funding.
Margaret Miller, one of the directors of the Inuvik Food Bank, said she is very happy to see the Arctic Food Bank open.
"We're complimentary services, not competing," she said. "I only wish we have this much food at our location."
While there's no easy solution to all of this beyond a total re-imagining of the town's economy, it's clear that Inuvik residents will continue to rally together to assist one another while they wait for better days.
