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Monday, November 16, 2015
Woman medevaced from Aklavik snowmobile trail
A woman is in hospital in Edmonton after she was found injured and unresponsive on a snowmobile trail on Nov. 11 in Aklavik.
In a news release, RCMP stated the woman was found by police and nursing staff at about 10:30 a.m. on a trail near JJ Stewart Road. She was medevaced to Inuvik and then transferred to Edmonton, police stated. The NWT RCMP Major Crimes Unit is involved in the investigation.
The victim's name has not been released.
NWT Arts Council exhibit tour
The NWT Arts Council will take its 30th anniversary exhibit on the road to several communities across the NWT. The exhibit, which showcases over 200 previous arts council recipients and features music, film, photos, writing samples and a digital component, according to a news release. The council was founded in 1985 as an advisory board to support and promote the arts.
Hamlets get ready for elections
While most of the NWT is focused on the territorial election set for Nov. 23, eight communities are getting ready for hamlet elections next month.
Elections for mayors and councillors will be held on Dec. 14 in Aklavik, Enterprise, Fort Liard, Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Tuktoyaktuk. The nomination period opened Nov. 2 and closes Nov. 16, according to the Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) website. Advance polls run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7.
NWT Seniors' Society releases survey results
The NWT Seniors' Society has released the results of a survey conducted with candidates running for MLA to get their views on issues affecting older adults. Slightly more than one third of the candidates responded, according to a society news release.
Candidates expressed support for extended health benefits, aging in place, safe and affordable housing and lowering the cost of living.
Many candidates agree that equal access to territorial government programs and services by all older adults should always be the goal, but only 55 per cent support the establishment of an NWT seniors' advocate.
A feast for the community
Acho Dene Koe/Fort Liard
A community feast will take place Nov. 21 thanks to Kathie McLeod, who will be cooking and organizing the event.
The community also held its Dance Mania contest, a video dance party, on Nov. 7 at the school gym.
Storytelling contest opens
Deh Gah Got'ie Koh/Fort Providence
Fort Providence's community library is holding a storytelling/writing contest. Entries may be written or recorded and must be handed in by Dec. 10.
Winners will receive an iPad Mini. Age groups include five to 12, 13 to 18 and 19 and up.
Beginning Nov. 12, adult soccer will be running at the recreation centre gymnasium from 9 to 10 p.m. each Thursday for ages 16 and up.
Community invited to remember at ceremony
Ulukhaktok/Holman
Helen Kalvak Elihakvik School's annual Remembrance Day ceremony was held on Nov. 10, with the school closed the following day for the holiday.
A letter went out inviting all community members in Ulukhaktok to join, "in taking time to show our appreciation for those who have sacrificed and who continue to sacrifice to protect our freedom."
Remembering together
Ikaahuk/Sachs Harbour
The community of Sachs Harbour was invited to Inualthuyak School on Nov. 10 for a Remembrance Day ceremony.
"I invited the whole town to come and we're going to celebrate this at the school," principal Lawrence Berger said before the event.
A light lunch was to follow the ceremony and the school bus picked up the elders to return them home.
Students read In Flanders Fields and there was a video presentation, Berger said.
Recognizing roots in service
Tsiigehtchic
A number of things were planned for Chief Paul Niditchie school to mark Remembrance Day in Tsiigehtchic.
"We're doing something a little bit different this year in that we're going to be honouring all of the special constables," principal Sonia Gregory said prior to the event.
"We have a number of people from the community, some no longer with us, some still in the community, who served as special constables."
As well as a page in the ceremony's program dedicated to the special constables, Gregory said two members would be honoured guests – George Niditchie Sr. and Frederick Blake Sr.
"We're going to be, with the rest of the special constables, reading out their names and any kids in the school that are descendants of theirs will be coming up and laying a poppy," said Gregory.
After looking into the family trees, Gregory said they realized only one or two students are not descendants of special constables but would also like to go up and lay a poppy at the ceremony.
Students show remembrance
Tuktoyaktuk
The RCMP and Junior Rangers were at Mangilaluk School for the annual Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 10 with all students and community members invited.
The students prepared posters and read poems for the event.
Younger students also spent the week making Remembrance Day crafts, said junior kindergarten teacher Jennifer Russell.
Crafts included poppies made from cupcake liners.
South Slave school board wins award
South Slave
The South Slave Divisional Education Council is one of the winners of this year's Canadian Innovators in Education Awards.
The council won the third-place $5,000 prize for its Leadership for Literacy (L4L) initiative.
In 2006, standardized testing revealed that fewer than 50 per cent of students were meeting Alberta standards.
The council issued a challenge to the superintendent and teachers – improve results and exceed the Canadian average in literacy.
In less than five years, student achievement rates have risen to 79 per cent in reading at or above the Canadian average.
Based on those results, the same drive and commitment were transferred to indigenous languages and cultural programming. Linguistic fluency has risen by 18 per cent.
The $25,000 first prize went to the Instructional Leadership Team of the Central Okanagan School District in Kelowna, B.C.
The second prize of $10,000 was awarded to the district-wide blended learning system of the Sun West School Division in Rosetown, Sask.
A feature-length article on the three award winners will appear in the December issue of Reader's Digest.
The Canadian Innovators in Education Awards recognize teachers, principals and administrators who develop innovative teaching and learning programs.
Former broadcaster to speak at museum
Thebacha/Fort Smith
Former CBC journalist Patti-Kay Hamilton is to be featured at the speaker series at the Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre in Fort Smith.
Hamilton will be speaking on Nov. 19, beginning at 7 p.m. Her talk is entitled Trapline to Deadline.
In 2012, Hamilton retired after three decades working as a reporter and producer with CBC North.
During that time, she won numerous honours, including the Gabriel International Award for excellence in broadcast journalism and the Canadian Broadcaster's Award for a five-part series on family violence called Behind Closed Doors.
Major Christmas sale in Fort Smith
Thebacha/Fort Smith
The MAX Christmas Sale is being held once again in Fort Smith.
The annual event is set for Nov. 21. The sale is sponsored by Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre.
Numerous charges follow altercation
Mittimatalik/Pond Inlet
A man was arrested on Nov. 9 in Pond Inlet with a long list of charges, including kidnapping, careless use of a firearm, assault, resisting arrest, theft of a motor vehicle and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
An RCMP news releases states an officer responded to an altercation outside the health centre at 11:15 a.m. After a brief foot chase, police arrested an adult male for assault on a social worker.
Subsequent investigation revealed that earlier that day, the accused had entered a residence and removed a youth without permission of the parents. At one point, said the RCMP, a firearm was discharged, but there were no injures.
The health centre altercation caused the elementary school in Pond Inlet to go into lockdown for precautionary reasons. The subject left the child and was eventually arrested.
The matter is still under investigation.
– Stewart Burnett
Election scheduled Kitkmeot Inuit
Kitikmeot
Inuit beneficiaries 16 and older in the Kitikmeot region are being asked to go to the polls Dec. 14 and vote for two new vice-presidents.
Incumbent Attima Hadlari of Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk's Jayko Palongayak are vying for the position of vice president of wildlife and environment at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.
The five candidates vying for the currently vacant position of vice president of economic development at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association are Taloyoak's Charlie Lyall, Gjoa Haven's Peter Akkikungnaq and Joseph Aglukkaq and Cambridge Bay's Bob Aknavigak and Jean Evalik.
Both terms are for four years.
A board member for Cambridge Bay will also be elected. The candidates for that position are Jeannie Evalik, John Kaiyogana, Margo Neglak and Andre Otokiak.
– Michele LeTourneau
Health programs to be audited
Nunavut
The office of the auditor general has announced it will conduct an audit into Nunavut's health programs and services, with a report due to the legislative assembly next spring.
The auditor general took a hard look at financial management practices of the department in 2011 when it was the Department of Health and Social Services, encompassing what is now the Department of Family Services, and made several recommendations.
"The audit found that the department's annual budgets do not reflect how and when the department actually intends to spend its funds. Its budgeting process does not use work plans to determine what services will be provided, what they will cost, and whether choices will have to be made to stay within its spending target," stated then-auditor general Sheila Fraser, noting, "the department has a history of overspending its budget and needing more funds from the legislature to provide required services."
The just announced audit will put Department of Health and Social Services programs and services under the spotlight.
The most recent work by the auditor general in Nunavut was a report on the correctional system.
In that instance, a report to the legislative assembly concluded "that the Department of Justice has not met its key responsibilities for inmates within the correctional system. We concluded that the Department of Justice did not adequately plan for and operate facilities to house inmates, and did not adequately manage inmates in compliance with key rehabilitation and reintegration requirements."
A performance audit is an independent, objective and systematic assessment of how well government is managing its activities, responsibilities and resources.
Community gathers to remember
Kugluktuk
The community of Kugluktuk gathered at the community complex to commemorate Remembrance Day together Nov. 11.
About 60 people attended, said Alison Harper, who organized the ceremony for the Hamlet.
Participants included RCMP officers, Canadian Rangers and Junior Canadian Rangers.
Elder Alice Ayalik lit the qulliq and elder Ada Ogina said the opening prayer.
Red Pederson spoke about being able to come to Canada because of the war, said Harper. Pederson then read the poem In Flanders Fields.
"The ceremony was for those that want to remember. We had a lot of kids that attended and they're learning about (the freedoms that we enjoy)," said Harper.
The wreath-laying ceremony was conducted by Baba Pederson.
All those in attendance watched the Ottawa ceremony on the big screen.
Engagement tour wraps in Iglulik
Iglulik
Community engagement meetings across the Qikiqtani region relating to Phase Two of the Mary River Project have been broadcast live, thanks to funding in the Mary River Project Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement.
IsumaTV and NITV joined to broadcast the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's tour for the project, which visited Arctic Bay, Clyde River, Hall Beach, Iglulik and Pond Inlet.
The project, called Qikiqtani Voices, aims to bring community capacity and infrastructure to help the North Baffin communities participate in the ongoing dialogue and consultation about the Mary River mine.
The website hosts a page for each community with live streaming from each community's radio station, as well as archived radio shows, video interviews and other documents.
Content is available 24/7. People who could not attend the open house meetings can register for an account and upload the recordings themselves.
Computer game with a goal
Nunavut
An action-adventure computer game to help youth deal with stress, low feelings or anger is being test-drived in Nunavut.
The Department of Health is looking for youth age 13 to 18 to try out the game.
Called SPARX – which stands for Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-factor thoughts – the game takes the player on a journey travelling through a wild fantasy world of seven different territories. The game player's mission is to restore the balance and save a virtual world from sinking into despair.
The interactive award-winning game's interactive fantasy setting helps youth "learn skills to deal with feeling down, depressed or stressed."
"You just may end up feeling better and, in the process, you'll be helping out your friends. This is because once SPARX is tried by a few youth it may be adapted so that all Nunavut youth can play. Have your say to make this happen," stated Department of Health communications specialist Ron Wassink in a news release.
Youth are encouraged to learn more about SPARX and discover how to get involved in testing the game by talking to a mental health worker in the community.
Christmas coming early
Kivalliq region
A number of Calm Air staff will be on their way to Chesterfield Inlet and Rankin Inlet to make the holidays a little brighter for students and school staff in the two communities.
The airline will be hosting its annual Calm Air Christmas dinner at Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet on Dec. 8 and Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik in Rankin Inlet on Dec. 9.
In addition to the great holiday dinner with all the fixings, Calm Air traditionally brings a Santa Claus-sized bag of presents to be randomly drawn from during the feast.
Calm Air announced it would begin hosting the annual holiday dinner in two communities this year, instead of one, shortly after its 2014 visit to Arviat.
New hotel officially open
Kangiqtugaapik/Clyde River
The Ilisaqsivik Society officially opened the Naujaaraluit Hotel in Clyde River on Nov. 7.
All of the hotel's profits will go to supporting Ilisaqsivik's community programs.
More than 300 people turned out for the grand opening, enjoying food and visiting the new building.
Instead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Ilisaqsivik's board of directors created a snow block, called a katak, traditionally used as the door to an iglu and pushed it aside, representing the official opening of the hotel.
Donated hockey equipment arrives for new season
Naujaat/Repulse Bay
Good hockey Samaritan Barry Hickman has been continuing his efforts to ensure every youth in the Kivalliq region who wants to play hockey has the opportunity to do so.
Hickman, a retired RCMP officer who spent time in Nunavut during his career, has been shipping pallets of used hockey equipment to Kivalliq communities for the past few years from his British Columbia home.
The gear is distributed through Hickman's program, Northern Dreams: A Smile One Skate at a Time.
He is helped in his endeavour by J&R Hall Transport Inc., which trucks the gear to Winnipeg from British Columbia at no charge, and by Calm Air, which flies the equipment free of charge into the Kivalliq communities.
Hickman arranged for five pallets of gear to be brought to Rankin and four pallets to Naujaat earlier this month. The shipments also include figure skates.
The retired Mountie has also had preliminary discussion with Naujaat recreation co-ordinator Rodney Taparti on delivering running shoes to the community.
Cadets to compete in Manitoba
Kangiqliniq/Rankin Inlet
The 3019 Rankin Inlet Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps will be trying to duplicate its success in Shilo, Man., when it sends a team of cadets to compete at the drill-and-skills competition in Iqaluit next month.
The Rankin corps captured the recent Northern Cadet Challenge in Shilo. It will be joined in Iqaluit by members of the Naujaat drill-and-skills team. Naujaat took home the 2014 cadet challenge in Shilo.
Listed below are the Rankin cadets who will compete in Iqaluit from Dec. 3 to 6.
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