If it ain't broke, don't fix itNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, December 21, 2015
Enshrined in the Sahtu, Gwich'in and Tlicho governments' land claim agreements is the creation of their own regional land and water boards and by all accounts, the system works.
But the Conservative Government of yore must have seen something the people who live in the NWT don't. As part of a deal to push through devolution, the feds added a rider to dismantle the system in favour of a centralized board.
The new model would see the dissolution of the Sahtu, Wek'eezhii, and Gwich'in regional land and water boards in favour of one monolithic land and water board with representatives from each region: one member would be from the Gwich'in First Nation, one from Sahtu First Nation, one from Tlicho Government, two members would be selected from the Dehcho and Akaitcho First Nations, two members nominated by the territorial government and four members, including a chair, nominated by the federal government.
Yes, the devolution deal, intended to give the NWT independence in how it manages its land and water, re-balanced decision-making power away from First Nations with settled land claims in favour of the federal government. There was an outcry. The Dene Nation opposed it. Then-MP Dennis Bevington stood up in Parliament to oppose it. Chiefs and concerned residents across the territory urged Premier Bob McLeod to oppose it.
He didn't. He dealt away powers enshrined in these settled land claims and the feds passed devolution in April 2014. Those who manage the regional boards braced for change.
About a month later, the Tlicho Government and Sahtu Secretariat both filed lawsuits against the federal government, challenging the constitutionality of the move.
NWT Supreme Court Justice Karan Shaner agreed the fed's actions raised a serious constitutional question, so she ordered an injunction that would bar the implementation of the superboard, meaning it would be business as usual until the case reached trial.
Then, an election happened. Canada has a new Liberal government, which appears to be moving fast to reverse the Conservatives' ham-fisted initiatives, sent a lawyer to appear in court Dec. 11 to suspend the Superboard case and say the Government of Canada would begin out-of-court discussions with the Tlicho Government.
Almost a year ago, when the injunction was first put in place, the Tlicho Government's lawyer Jason Madden told News/North, "Canada has to recognize that (with) these treaties, the constitutional architecture up in the Northwest Territories has fundamentally changed. Ottawa just doesn't get to do whatever they want without working with its treaty partners, First Nations as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories. This unilateral behaviour doesn't cut it anymore."
Madden was right.
Ottawa in fact doesn't get to do what it wants. The era of Harper's stunning audacity to butt into the NWT's affairs is over.
We knew our regional land and water boards were working. Every First Nation said so. Former member of Parliament Dennis Bevington said so. Several MLAs in the 17th Legislative Assembly said so. The Dene Nation said so.
Now, the federal government seems to be ready to agree: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Provide dignity and support to people on income assistanceNunavut/News North - Monday, December 21, 2015
Reform cannot come soon enough for the thousands of Nunavummiut who depend on income assistance for survival.
The Government of Nunavut got an earful when the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction gathered in Cambridge Bay in early December. Roundtable members say that the income assistance program is contributing to poverty and has had a detrimental impact on inunnguiniq (capableand contributing persons).
Staff members with the Department of Family Services have heard many comments from income assistance recipients who fear they will have to pay higher rent to live in public housing units and lose some of their assistance payments if they get a job and earn money. That means the program provides an incentive for people not to work, not to better themselves and not provide their families and loved ones with all the benefits of earning a living wage.
Then there is the segment of the population who prefers to live a traditional lifestyle with an emphasis on hunting, fishing and trapping. Astoundingly, the roundtable was told that someone who has the tools to lead a traditional lifestyle wouldn't qualify for income assistance because they have assets -- a snowmobile, qamutik, guns, ammunition, fishing gear, tarps, tools and other necessities of living on the land.
The roundtable heard horror stories about people from Baffin Island who receive income assistance but are so food insecure that they are constantly hungry and are always thinking of their next meal. It has become normal to see people gorging on food when they get it, hoarding food, taking food without permission and packing food to take home with them. That is a symptom of an income assistance program that is not providing enough for people to meet their basic needs.
The number of people impacted by the current system is overwhelming. More than 50 per cent of Nunavut's population needs income assistance for at least a portion of a year. Almost 60 per cent of the population lives in public housing. Without major changes to policies, that likely won't change because the income assistance program creates a defeatist culture, not providing the tools people need to improve their lives and provide for themselves.
It is shameful that the income assistance program robs people of their self esteem, restricts them to a singular existence focused solely on surviving in poverty.
The good news is officials with the Department of Family Services have said everything is on the table, so to speak. There is a willingness to introduce exemptions for assets and earnings, so the income assistance rate will not be immediately reduced for people who wish to better themselves and the rental cost of public housing doesn't increase.
There is also expected to be a new emphasis on job training and skills development, so people on income assistance can prepare to enter the workforce.
These changes are urgently needed if there is to be any hope of transforming a large segment of the population to become healthy, capable, independent, contributing individuals, as is the desire surrounding the theme of inunnguiniq.
Council proves it can say no Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, December 18, 2015
Typical human behaviour dictates the more time individuals spend in one-another's company, the better they look to each other and the more sympathetic they become to their respective needs.
Going against these basic instincts can be like walking straight into gale-force winds. Nonetheless, our new city council appears yet unaffected by the steady headwinds generated by city bureaucrats and their budgetary demands.
Administration has made a habit of asking for a property tax increase every year, and historically, its attempts to persuade council to implement one is mostly successful. This year's proposed 2.87 per cent increase and a number of projects, however, sparkled a little too brightly for this council's liking.
This time councillors drew their scythes and trimmed it right back down. The result? A back-to-the-basics, zero increase budget.
Doing so required them to endure a lecture from Mayor Mark Heyck who criticized some of their attempts at frugality as being "troubling" and "rash." He even whipped out a child's imploring letter in an attempt shame council into supporting his pet project - a $570,000 splash park near Somba K'e Civic Plaza.
Heyck has far more experience in municipal politics than anyone else on council, having served a previous term as mayor and three more on council. But this familiarity with city governance can also make it harder to say no to an ever growing wish list of expenditures.
The city depends on property taxes for spending like a child depends on its mother for food - we don't want to go into a state of deprivation - so the onus is on councillors to justify their cuts to ratepayers.
Cutting for the sake of cutting, or achieving zero increase, is just as unacceptable as over-spending but as usual there was plenty of fat to trim, and Yellowknifers have been quite clear that the cost of living is a top concern.
Spending hundreds of thousands on a splash park, tourism kiosk and softer flooring at the Fieldhouse does not heed that message.
This budget, for residents, is not like opening the latest, greatest toy on Christmas morning. It's like unwrapping a package of socks.
But behind the seemingly unexciting gesture, is the fact that somebody cares about ensuring one's basic necessities are met.
Bridging the generation gap Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, December 18, 2015
Young and old got together at Avens Manor earlier this month when Walter van Bochove celebrated his first birthday Dec. 6, creating a mutually beneficial link between the last generation and the next.
The one-year-old benefits because he's introduced to the idea that he may seek advice, assistance or conversation from elders outside of family and school.
The 22 elders who attended also benefit from socialization. Avens officials say seniors can feel isolated from time to time when they can't socialize, same as the rest of us. Considering that everyone who attended was there by choice, it's safe to say they enjoyed the event.
The children who attended the event enjoyed themselves too.
"It is cool (to mingle with seniors) because they know stuff we don't," said eight-year-old party-goer Inais Jackson-Grau. "They can tell stories about stuff they know and how they used old machines like telephones."
There are already school and day care centre programs that take children into Avens Manor. This is a good thing. But it's different to have it promoted within the family, because it introduces the idea that this may be done outside of school hours of one's own accord.
From time to time, young people may wish to seek the wisdom of experience from outside school and work. Bochove now knows another option and hopefully that lesson will be shared with others.
Ice road delays have impactDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, December 17, 2015
With warm weather delaying ice roads and bridges for weeks at a time, the communities of Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake may not have a road open by Christmas.
Currently warming trends are rampant in the Northwest Territories, with predictions of more of the same as the winter progresses.
Those who have lived in the North long enough can see the effects the changing climate is having. A land that once relied on winter to provide access out of many Northern communities may have to adapt.
According to a Department of Transportation map of road conditions in the Northwest Territories, much of the territory is currently inaccessible due to closed roads.
That includes communities further North as well as ones in the Deh Cho.
Transportation staff are feeling the effects as well, as weather pushes them later into the season and requires them to devote time and effort to building ice roads and bridges.
It is good timing, then, that the newly elected members of the legislative assembly are in the process of determining their priorities for the next term.
Foremost among those should be infrastructure.
As winters warm up, the government should be proactive and look at finding solutions to the potential problems a changing climate can bring.
That could mean seeking out alternatives to ice roads and bridges in order to reduce the isolation of small communities such as Nahanni Butte -- because if years like this are any indication, the communities that rely on the ice could see even lengthier periods of being cut off from the rest of the territory as transportation crews wait for temperatures to drop and ice to thicken.
Transportation crews are already working as hard as they can to open the roads. The problem, then, lies with the resources and solutions available.
The territory needs a contingency plan in the event of a future winter that may see southern ice roads not open at all. That is not out of the realm of possibility.
Better infrastructure assists with other issues these communities face as well. Shorter periods of isolation may have a less-damaging effect on the mental well-being of some youth and residents. It would also mean less money shelled out for services and food.
If the new government were to increase its infrastructure spending, that can also lead to a boost in the local economy as more local jobs become available and attract workers to stay in the North.
The government already spends a lot on infrastructure. But from the eyes of communities in the Deh Cho, those dollars are rarely seen.
It is time to put the money where it counts -- and where it is most needed -- in order to head off future difficulties.
Students learn vital social media lessonsInuvik Drum - Thursday, December 17, 2015
Young people aren't the only ones who need a reality check when it comes to use of social media.
Earlier this month, workshops were held with students in Inuvik and communities across the Beaufort Delta about the consequences of sharing information on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Not all of those consequences are bad by any means, but, according to those interviewed this week, a lot of it was news to the people who attended.
Nothing shared on social media is truly private, no matter how many disclaimers you copy and paste to your Facebook status. Snapchat keeps hundreds of photographs on its servers and will release them to police if warranted in the case of an investigation. But that's only on one level -- a corporate one -- in which there is an important difference between customer and user. Customers are the ones who pay Facebook for the information it gathers on millions of people. Users are those who provide that information for free.
On another level, one that is perhaps more disconcerting, the point of social media is to share things. So, by nature, whatever a user shares is no longer under their sole control. Sending risque photos to a significant other is all well and good until the relationship goes sour and you can't take them back. Everyone from celebrities to regular people have been in the news for their struggles with this situation, and yet many people don't think it could ever happen to them.
In the most extreme cases involving those under 18, the people involved in spreading those photos (or the people who pay for their phones) are involved in police investigations for child pornography.
These incidents are troubling and stand out, but compromising behaviour on social media is far more insidious.
Examples of posts made to groups on Facebook that blow up and are then quickly taken down are rampant, especially in the North where the platform is so useful for keeping in touch and running what amounts to an unofficial marketplace.
The examples that stand out for me are those in which someone posts a strong opinion online about an issue of public interest but then declines to be interviewed about it, as if posting to a group with thousands of members is somehow less public than saying it to a newspaper reporter. That post may seem more transient by nature -- it will get bumped down and lost in the next tide of outrage or excitement -- but it nonetheless exists forever on a server somewhere or in screenshots taken by interested parties.
Social media is a hugely useful tool that allows people to reach far beyond the confines of their communities to the wider world, but it is also a dangerous medium that lulls users into a sense of false security as they sit comfortably in their homes using their various devices.
It allows people to say things they wouldn't say face to face and feel like they are contributing without doing anything more than clicking "like."
People can't expect children to behave responsibly online when they see the adults in their lives failing to do so.
A fork in the roadYellowknifer - Wednesday, December 16, 2015
These early days of Liberal government suggest it intends to keep promises made on the campaign trail - at least those that contrast most with positions taken by its seemingly hard-hearted Conservative predecessor.
The promise to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women is case and point. Canadians have long called for one in light of more than 1,000 homicides and 164 missing women as of 2013. That former prime minister Stephen Harper refused to undertake an inquiry in all his nearly 10 years in power is an inexplicable failure of duty for him and his government.
That said, there is a fork in the road awaiting our newly minted prime minister Justin Trudeau - one that will lead this inquiry to either failure or success.
The first model is the royal commission, a politically expedient procedure famous for diverting attention from the present and punting it safely out of harm's way into the future. Royal commissions guarantee reams and reams of information will be gathered and stuffed into a book bound for some lonely corner of a dusty shelf in the National Archives in Ottawa. It will recommend much but affect nothing. In other words, it will be a complete waste of time.
What exactly has been improved by the Romanow Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada?
The future of public health care remains as uncertain as ever despite the federal government's pledge to cough up an extra $40 billion for it.
Or what about the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that concluded 20 years ago, chaired by the NWT's Georges Erasmus? Many of the pledges offered then had no realistic chance of getting off the ground. Where is the aboriginal parliament or the aboriginal peoples' university?
The more successful and indeed, most responsive model, is the recent truth and reconciliation commission.
While royal commissions tend to be top down - experts talking to experts preparing reports for experts - the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools was successful because of its attempts to reach grassroots organizations and regular people.
These interactions gave this commission a sort of legitimacy and critical momentum never enjoyed by previous royal commissions, which never traveled as far and in seeking truth and practical solutions.
This was abundantly clear in the Northwest Territories, which the TRC visited widely and often, whereas royal commissions largely stayed clear.
There is much to be learned about the truly appalling figures on missing and murdered aboriginal women and the more grassroots voices are heard, the clearer the picture will be.
Setting up a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women will be an arduous process but one deserving of its aim if Trudeau and the Liberals are truly serious about stemming the tide of death and sorrow so many aboriginal families in this country have experienced.
Format change a good one in RankinEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, December 16, 2015
A wise person once said you can't please all the people all of the time, and nothing rings truer with the way the new format in the Rankin Inlet Senior Men's Hockey League has been going this year.
As a hockey official, I have a bird's-eye view of what happens on the ice during hockey season.
And I have the added advantage of viewing the situation with no worries over who wins.
With, perhaps, the small exception of one 'B' team not being able to ice as many players as the other two squads on a regular basis, the league's move to an A and B Division this year has been a great success so far.
I really would have thought the success of adding a recreational division to the Calm Air Cup mixed slo-pitch tournament this past summer would have opened more minds to the benefits of having a B Division in Nunavut's best senior men's hockey league.
First off, it has done this old zebra's hockey heart a world of good to see some guys I haven't seen for years out on the ice playing, competing and having a blast.
Many guys in the B Division now get a heck of a lot more ice time than they did as a third- or fourth-line player in one combined league.
There can be no arguing the fact the hockey in the B Division is not as "good" as that being played in the A Division.
But the B Division's hockey has, in its own right, been every bit as competitive as that of the A Division.
It may not be as smooth or as fast, but who cares? That's not the point.
The division has guys on three teams giving it their all game in and game out and the majority of the matches are darn close on the scoreboard.
Crowds for the B Division have also been every bit as big as those for the higher group, so far, and most players, who were miserable over their lack of ice time this past season, are having a blast.
And that is the point: a competitive division of players having fun, showing up almost every night and staying physically active.
On the other side of the ledger, the A Division has the vast majority of Rankin Inlet's best hockey players spread over just three teams.
The hockey is fast, uber-competitive and highly entertaining on most nights.
You can believe me or not, but, the truth is, the amount of perspiration on my referee's uniform as it hits the washing machine following every 'A' game tells me a lot more about the level of hockey being played than it does about how long I've been officiating this great game.
The few guys who still complain about the new structure of Rankin's senior league are, in reality, putting their own wants and beliefs over what works for the game.
And that's one of the biggest problems with team sports today.
There's too many people involved who put themselves above the game.
The truth be told, our region's biggest senior men's hockey tournament of the year, the Avataq Cup, would benefit in a big way from adopting the same format as the Rankin senior league.
The vast majority of mercy games would be gone, the fans would get a lot more competitive games for their money and, set-up correctly, both divisions would have plenty to play for.
Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
