Public housing an investment in city's future Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, June 26, 2015
Communities are strengthened when their most vulnerable members are provided with support to improve their station and pursue their ambitions.
This is exactly what can be achieved through a new joint venture between NWT Housing Corporation and the Department of Education Culture and Employment, according to which 55 private sector apartment units in the city are to be leased for public housing.
Another 10 units each are being converted in Hay River and Inuvik, as well.
The territorial government is contributing $1.5 million toward the leasing program and this represents money that will come back to taxpayers in the long term.
Close to 200 individuals and families are on the wait-list for public housing in the capital, including more than 100 one-bedroom apartments, about 60 two-bedroom apartments and more than 25 three-and-four bedroom units.
The 55 apartments will be leased by the housing corporation, which will then charge tenants according to a graduated rental rate set according to income.
With the stability and security an affordable apartment provides, about one quarter of NWT residents now on the wait list will have the foundation they need to achieve their goals, such as entering the work force and stepping away from income assistance.
That represents money saved for the GNWT and more people contributing to the economy.
Those in need of public housing ought to recognize the program as a sign Northern society believes in their potential and cares about helping them to realize it.
This encouraging message stands in contrast to the decision made last year by Yellowknife's largest landlord, Northern Property REIT, which barred people on income support from renting from the three-quarters of Yellowknife's residential properties owned by the company.
Rental companies must remember that tenants in public housing today may well be regular renters down the road.
Skate park deserves a home Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, June 26, 2015
Many will scratch their heads when posed the question 22-year-old skateboarder Taylor Thomas is asking these days: Where's Yellowknife's skate park?
The answer: Tucked behind fences near St. Joseph School away from the watchful eye of society.
"You do get a lot of kids here doing things that they probably shouldn't be doing," said Thomas of the park he says is of no use to boarders, as it's characterized by cracks and ramps that have risen away from the ground.
People are more likely to get into trouble when congregating in the hidden corners of a city. Any new skate park should be in a central, well-lit location easily viewed by the public. Not only would this deter any of that questionable behaviour but it would simultaneously showcase the activity to a broader audience, adding to the character of our city.
This is not the first time the idea for a new skate park has been broached. In 2011 moving the skate park was considered during budget deliberations but fell short because the proposed location - between the tennis courts along the McMahon Frame Lake Trail and the pool - would be disruptive to tennis players.
But as Yellowknifer reported earlier this month, the city already has the two most important ingredients within its clutches: a young, dedicated advocate, and a mayor willing to listen.
Although projected costs vary - depending on the breadth of the project - between $40,000 to $500,000, passion is what drives these kinds of projects to completion.
Awake the languageDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, June 25, 2015
The role language plays in our world is incalculable. Without it we wouldn't be able to share history, express how we feel, or share our feelings or opinions about any given issue effecting our community or the world around us.
Indeed, it would be a different world without it. And for many aboriginal people across Canada, theirs is a terrifying reality that the spoken languages that have shaped First Nations people for centuries could someday fall dormant.
Dahti Tsetso is hesitant to say South Slavey is dying, or needs to be revitalized, despite the name of the program she's in to learn the language. The Aboriginal Language Revitalization Program, offered by the University of Victoria and in partnership with the Dehcho First Nation, the region's education council and Fort Providence, is giving the young mother of two the chance to wake a sleeping giant.
The language, she said, will never die. Despite her limited knowledge of South Slavey, when she began the program to become a fluent speaker, something awoke. The exposure to it she had while growing up planted the seed of the language in her. It lay dormant, and is now awake in her.
The reality is, however, fewer people are speaking the language than ever before. Government statistics on language show a 20 per cent drop in use over the last 20 years in the region. And with more than half the speakers older than 50, it indicates younger generations, who may speak the language with limited ability, aren't taking it up as a regular form of communication.
The program has 17 students, the vast majority of students from the Deh Cho, who are immersed in the language with the goal of becoming fluent speakers. Students are to speak it as much as possible and are told to refrain from using English at all when they're stuck, having been taught survival phrases to help them grasp the language better when they may not know what something is.
Preparing students to speak the language, it does more than just strengthen its presence in the communities. With a number of language instructors in the school system nearing retirement, the program is training the next wave of South Slavey speakers to carry on the work being done by current language instructors in the classroom.
Not only does it connect young people to the language, an integral and important part of having the strongest connect to tradition and heritage possible, it bridges a growing gap between young generations and elders. With a number of elders who speak only South Slavey, it helps to build a stronger, more culturally-driven community.
Because of the program, Tsetso is hopeful she'll be able to carry on the language and pass it on to her children when they get older. This, in itself, speaks volumes to the importance of this program in the Deh Cho.
Respecting identityInuvik Drum - Thursday, June 25, 2015
Like many people, I've been following the intriguing story of Rachel Dolezal with considerable interest.
Dolezal is the American woman who was president of a local chapter of the NAACP, despite being born Caucasian.
She was raised alongside African-American youth and says she identifies strongly with that culture.
The story has raised many controversial issues, not the least of which is the transracial concept, where a person born to one race clearly identifies him/herself with another.
Now, Dolezal took that notion to extremes by trying to alter her physical appearance, but the concept is certainly worth thinking about.
The tragic thing is that someone like Dolezal felt it necessary to attempt to alter her racial identity in order to follow where her heart led her.
There seems to be little suggestion that she wasn't doing an effective job as president of the local chapter. The only issue is what colour of skin she was born with. That is something that makes me profoundly uncomfortable.
It occurred to me almost immediately that it could certainly apply here in the North.
Any number of people from the south come North because they identify with the lifestyle, or have an affinity for aboriginal culture and traditional practices. They want to experience the chance to live, however marginally, off the land by hunting, fishing and trapping.
More power to them for that, and certainly there's no reason why they can't have something significant to offer the evolution of the North.
Some may take it a little too far. I've heard people say because they were raised near an aboriginal community or territory that they're "basically aboriginal."
I won't pretend to speak for people of aboriginal descent, but I think that crosses what's likely a blurry grey line.
Other people go out of their way to adopt aboriginal styles of dress to show where their affinities lie. Sometimes it works, generally when people adopt the dress as much out of practicality as for show, such as sealskin mitts or boots or a lightweight summer parka cover to fend off the insects.
As the saying goes, imitation is often the most sincere form of flattery, although I suspect many people don't quite see it that way.
I see no reason to think that someone, as with transgender issues, can't feel as if they were born to the wrong race.
I do think, though, the transracial notion is going to take some time to gain any widespread social traction.
Aboriginal people everywhere, but especially here in the North, are justifiably protective about their culture, history and heritage. They may well resent any efforts by a perceived outsider to intrude on their culture, and that's understandable.
On the other hand, aboriginal peoples have a long-standing and noteworthy history of taking in people of other cultures and ethnicities, so it may not require too much adjustment here in the North.
On Aboriginal Day, Lillian Elias spoke proudly of that long history of adoption, showing the tolerance is already there.
What's needed is a mutual respect, and that's going to take some time to develop in many places.
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.
