Pope apology dueYellowknifer - Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Former Catholic Marie Speakman said it best when she said Pope Francis should pay a visit to the territory and apologize for the church's role in what the Truth and Reconciliation is calling cultural genocide that took place in the residential school system.
"It's practising what you preach," she said.
"Someone needs to own up for the abuse suffered by so many generations. I think if you apologize it's something."
After years of hearings, the commission recommended the Pope apologize to residential school survivors, their families and communities for the church's role in "in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children in Catholic-run residential schools."
While Pope Benedict XVI expressed sorrow for the church's role in residential schools, he stopped short of issuing an apology. If Pope Francis wants to do more to repair the damage done in some small way, he should thank God for the opportunity to do so, get down on his knees and beg forgiveness from the residential school survivors because the Pope has much to answer for.
Speakman's siblings were taken away to Grollier Hall, the residential school in Inuvik run by the Catholic Church before being taken over by the GNWT in 1987.
By then, four supervisors were identified as having sexually, emotionally and physically assaulted boys under their care between the years of 1959 to 1979.
It was one of 14 residential schools operating in the NWT at one time or another, and the last to close.
"It's like passing through a door from one world to another world," said Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya, of his arrival at Grollier Hall.
In the words of former prime minister John A. Macdonald, the point of the residential school was to keep children away from their parents to remove them from their cultural identities so that they could "acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."
The representatives of the church were cruel as instruments of cultural genocide.
"When we first went there, they stripped us of our aboriginal clothes and then gave us a bath right away. They put us in cold water and started to wash us and pulled on our hair and because I was crying, I got hit right away," said Alice Perrin, a survivor of the Saint Joseph's Indian Mission, a Roman Catholic residential school in Fort Resolution.
"In order to have me stop talking my Dene language, they'd hit me under the chin and sometimes I'd be biting my tongue at the same time."
So painful was her six-year long experience that she said her handkerchief was constantly soaked in tears.
She's one of more than 150,000 students who attended residential schools in Canada. While Bishop Murray Sinclair, formerly of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith Diocese, apologized for the church's role in 2009, he's not the head of the church. His apology only confirms the history and should pave the way for the Pope to act.
Paying the price for government arroganceEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, June 24, 2015
If there's ever been a majority government with the collective arrogance of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's band of merry dictator wannabes and speakers of half-truths, none come readily to mind.
It came as absolutely no surprise when the Tories defeated the NDP-led motion for urgent reform to the Nutrition North food-subsidy program earlier this month.
But the stances taken to defend Nutrition North, yet again, by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (AANDC) Minister Bernard Valcourt and his trusty AANDC parliamentary-secretary sidekick Mark Strahl, were an insult to the intelligence of those of us who call the North home.
Strahl and Valcourt trotted out the same old tired and misleading contentions that the cost of the infamous Northern food basket continues to fall, while the weight of healthy food items shipped North has risen by 25 per cent.
Apparently, the dynamic duo figure most Northerners, especially Nunavummiut, couldn't be bothered to read Auditor General Michael Ferguson's report on the poorly-conceived program, let alone understand its ramifications.
There's a huge difference in the amount of something shipped and the amount actually consumed, especially when it comes to perishable food and the shipping challenges and delays we here in Nunavut are all-too-aware of.
Those of us who shop at our local stores on a regular basis often see 50-per-cent-off stickers placed on fruit and vegetables a day or two -- sometimes the same day -- after they arrive at the store because they're already at their best before or expiry date.
If I were a betting man, I would lay a good dollar on much -- if not all -- of that 25 per cent has landed in the local dump.
Of course with retailers not required to report their spoilage, we'll never know for certain.
Back in November of 2014, the auditor general, for all intents and purposes, debunked the Tories' claim on the lowering cost of the Northern food basket.
Ferguson pointed out that no less than 30 Northern stores were excluded from the government's calculation, and, on top of that, the feds didn't even know if the prices that were reported were accurate.
And that's not even taking into account that one report comparing the yearly cost of the food basket was off by 10 per cent.
But let's give them the benefit of the doubt on the reported prices.
We all know there's no way a corporation would be anything but totally honest when it comes to its profit margins.
If Nunavummiut took to raising chickens, Harper would send a barge full of foxes to protect them.
There's no way the present government is going to overhaul Nutrition North with a federal election looming on the horizon.
But it remains staggering that this government continues to dig in its heels and staunchly defend a program that everyone outside its ranks -- with the exception of Northern retailer shareholders -- knows to be ineffective.
If the definition of arrogance is to maintain there are two opinions in this world -- yours and the wrong one -- then this government is taking arrogance to a whole new level and those who can least afford it are paying for the ride
Untying the red tape from minister's handsNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, June 22, 2015
Last November, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger asked a great question in reference to vacant health-care positions in remote communities.
While chairing the Yellowknife stop of his budget dialogue tour he asked, "What good is it to have a position requiring a master's degree sit empty year after year?"
Positions like these sit empty in communities because the territorial government mandates the people who fill them have academic qualifications, but there are no guidelines to determine whether a potential applicant - perhaps one born and raised in the community where they want to work - has equivalent skills to effectively fill these roles. This is a backwards approach to health care in remote communities, where the employment rate languishes at 30 to 50 per cent, mental health and addictions issues are rife and health positions that could address these issues sit vacant.
There may be hope on the horizon thanks to a Deline pilot project where residents will get the chance to receive training for some of these positions, mainly working with elders' programs. The project is in its early stages, according to Health Minister Glen Abernethy but a nascent pilot project is better than what we have now.
Looking west, there is a half-century's worth of practical evidence to suggest this approach to health care works. Since the mid-1960s, Alaska has provided the funding and training so communities and tribal councils can hire their own to fill community health aide positions. These aides, who can train for five different levels of certification, deal with a number of needs from managing prescriptions to treating gunshot wounds -- in the 2005-06 fiscal year, they treated 62 of them.
These employees work under the training and supervision of physicians in regional centres. The minimum requirement for becoming a community health aide is aptitude in Grade 6 level math and a proficiency in English. That's right - one need not even have a high school diploma to become an aide (even though 94 per cent of them do).
According to a study into the program published in the May 2012 issue of the Circumpolar Health Journal, these workers are "uniquely qualified to be connectors to the communities where they work and understand the social context of their patients' lives."
This sentiment is exactly what Abernethy discovered during a recent fact-finding mission across the NWT.
"Everywhere I go, I have heard from people that they don't care about bureaucratic boundaries and regional silos," he said to his colleagues in a recent minister's statement. "They just want the best possible care for themselves and their loved ones."
Yeah, no doubt.
Imagine a government filling vacant health positions, lowering the unemployment rate and better serving its own constituents in one swoop.
The GNWT inherited responsibility for health and social services from the federal government in 1988.
As of the spring sitting of the legislative assembly, Abernethy is still saying his "hands are tied" by the academic qualifications needed to fill roles that currently sit empty in remote communities.
Who knows how long it will take for this pilot program to go from pipe dream to reality. But to give credit where credit is due, Abernethy only took the helm of Health and Social Services a year and a half ago and since then seems to have a keen interest in steering his $400 million bureaucratic ship to waters accessible to the patients it serves.
Until then there is always Alaska's programming, 50 years in the making, to remind us what is possible.
Senate an affront to Nunavut valuesNunavut/News North - Monday, June 22, 2015
The buck didn't stop with suspended senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin. The spotlight on egregious spending has shone North, with Nunavut Sen. Dennis Patterson being called out for filing expenses that weren't quite in line with senatorial business.
To date, Patterson has paid back a claim for travel to a charity fundraiser, a bill for social media monitoring paid out to a person already on his staff, as well as a non-senate related trip to Pangnirtung. What's left is just under $14,000 in legal fees to suss out an answer to a very important question: is anyone even eligible to be a senator in Nunavut?
Under the Constitution Act of 1867, people without property are forbidden from being appointed to the Senate. Patterson wanted to know whether the building he owns in Iqaluit constitutes "property" even though he doesn't own the land on which it sits.
Patterson's question alone provides an answer although probably not the one he was looking for. Namely, that Nunavummiut ought not support the existence of an archaic institution that effectively disenfranchises its people because they lack the colonial concept of surveying land and building hedgerows around it to call their own.
Under the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, in keeping with Nunavummiut values and traditions, people cannot own land within Nunavut municipalities.
The very existence of an upper chamber in Ottawa is an affront to Nunavut and its nomadic and egalitarian heritage. Its property ownership rule is just one more nail in the coffin for a Senate that has long outlived its usefulness.
Last year, the Senate carried an operating cost of more than $100 million - a cost borne by taxpayers, even though a majority of people can't explain what it is the Senate does.
Something about sober second thought, right?
The fact is, the upper chamber welcomes those who have served their time, pleased their leader and can now welcome a six-figure salary well into their golden years - retirement for senators isn't mandatory until the age of 75. And, golden those years will be.
A staunch Conservative - and not shy about it - Patterson's appointment to the senate was not inconspicuously linked to his party affiliation. He was appointed in 2009 on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
This is the way the Senate has been filled since the beginning - with the exception of Alberta where senators are elected - and Canadians are sick of it, especially when senators are being caught fleecing taxpayers for even more than what they're already entitled to.
Now, Canadians are rightly seeing red, and its not because of the carpeted floors of the Senate chamber. It's because the vast majority of us will never be gifted the opportunity to flutter through those doors and onto the tabs of the nation.
The cost of mining Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, June 19, 2015
The six-member NWT Mining Industry Advisory Board held its first meeting recently with Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay. He said the board would be important for the "frank advice" it could offer on encouraging mining and mineral investment in the NWT.
The board is entirely composed of mineral industry players. There can be little doubt this board has the depth of knowledge to offer sound advice, and there may be no better time for that advice than now.
Yellowknifers recently saw Tyhee Gold pull up stakes on its Yellowknife Gold project north of the city, essentially closing the book on one of the GNWT's much-touted near term mining projects.
At the same time, TerraX Minerals Inc. has been valiantly raising exploration capital for its gold project, also north of the city, and last week announced a further $4.5 million in funding to keep the wheels turning.
Some projects perish while other projects flourish, at least as well as can be expected in today's difficult commodity market. Spokespersons for both companies cite difficulties in raising cash as the main barrier to moving forward faster, if at all.
So what is the advisory board going to advise on when it comes to attracting investment to the NWT?
On the face of it, it's very simple: when commodity prices are high enough to justify the extra cost of exploration and development in the North, then investors will put money into those exploration companies working in the North.
If the board has advice on how to make working in the North less expensive so investment is feasible even when commodity prices are down, let's hear it.
But if the board is going to hold up the bugbear of the GNWT's regulatory environment as a hindrance to investment, it should explain exactly what it means by that.
The North has seen too many examples of what goes wrong when the regulatory environment is lax. The Giant Mine cleanup -- now to cost taxpayers upwards of $1.5 billion -- is only the most blatant example of how terribly wrong things can go.
On a smaller scale, we can turn to the abandoned Snowfield property approximately 50 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife on Drybones Bay. NWT taxpayers are on the hook for more than $200,000 in clean-up costs at the site thanks to the exploration company's inability to finance site restoration.
The territory needs a strong regulatory environment that will prevent abuses such as this, not a more slack set of regulations to encourage investment while damning the environment.
The North does not need investment that cannot finance its own clean-up. Minister Ramsay, take that proposal to the board for frank advice.
If this board intends to raise concerns about the NWT's regulatory environment in relation to investment, be specific about those concerns. If they bear out public scrutiny, the public may well be the first to support a regulatory adjustment.
But a vague complaint about regulations hindering investment is neither welcome nor useful.
Tax hikes a bitter but necessary pillDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, June 18, 2015
The old saying goes that there are two things in life that are certain: death and taxes.
And sure enough, property owners know that every year around the same time, they will receive a bill in the mail.
As municipalities grow and provide more services, taxes increase accordingly. It should come as no surprise for residents who enjoy walking on municipal infrastructure, using municipal facilities or even just flushing their toilet.
All of those things are made possible because of taxes.
And yet, many residents in Fort Simpson still fall behind, whether by choice or circumstance.
This week, the village is deciding whether to raise residential taxes by three per cent or do away with part of a 20-year-old tax rebate that puts tens of thousands of dollars back into the pockets of people who pay their taxes on time.
The village already has a tax problem. Dozens of people have fallen behind on property taxes and utility bills. Dozens more are in danger of falling behind, according to village council.
The village must tread carefully when it makes its decision. Rolling back the current rebate could hurt the amount of money they currently bring in, as people who are up to date on their taxes lose incentive to pay on time. At the same time, increasing taxes - while often necessary - won't encourage anyone to pay their bills and will likely only cause already-unpaid sums to grow.
Incentives are fine if you balance them with education and a good community discussion. If the government was more public about the breadth of its services and what tax evaders might miss out on, that alone could be an incentive. For instance, council has discussed whether the village can shut off water to those who don't pay their taxes.
There's no real mechanism to force people to pay their fare share of the taxes they owe. That needs to be addressed above all, or else property owners will continue to take advantage of the village.
Nobody likes making tough decisions. But it's time to crack down on taxes.
The village needs to hold an open discussion with the community to figure out a solution that is fair for everyone.
What to do with bearsInuvik Drum - Thursday, June 18, 2015
News the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, along with Inuvik RCMP officers, had to kill a young grizzly bear on the outskirts of Inuvik last week should trouble some people.
While it's not the first time a bear has been destroyed because it's threatening to become a nuisance to residents, there is reason to question how this latest incident developed and what triggered it.
The bear, estimated at 113 kilograms and rather thin, was likely a two-year old that had just been given the proverbial boot by its mother. In an effort to establish its own territory and to find food, the bear literally would have followed its nose to Inuvik.
There it found some bounty in the garbage boxes along Wolverine Road and nearby Bompas Road. Unfortunately, residents in those areas don't have the same access to bear-proof dumpsters other people in town do.
The bear did what bears do, which is to eat whenever they find food.
To a young bear, Inuvik likely looked like a buffet.
Since the scavenger could get into the garbage, it did, and returned repeatedly.
Bears, like most people, have a lazy streak. If there's an easy way to do something, they'll find it. They also have excellent memories when it comes to finding food.
ENR and the RCMP did the right thing by trying to frighten the bear off at first. For a few hours, it looked as if they would be successful.
Unfortunately, the bear returned and wasn't going to be deterred this time.
Twice, it was driven away only to return again.
On the third occasion, the tough decision was made to destroy the animal because it wasn't showing much fear of people.
The bear suffered a gunshot wound to its abdomen. That meant ENR officers had to track it into the bush and finish it off because a wounded bear would have compounded the problem.
That shooting, as described by an ENR spokesperson, sounds unnecessarily brutal, and perhaps indicates a need to refine the techniques of dealing with wildlife.
However, the major point that remains to be answered is why, when much of the town has access to bear-proof dumpsters, residents on the fringes of town, closest to heavy bush, don't, and have to use their own bins.
It's not a certainty that this bear would have shambled off if it hadn't been able to raid residential garbage, but it's a likely scenario.
So perhaps it's time for the Town of Inuvik to reconsider its garbage policies.
