Accessible city good for everybody Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, October 7, 2016
There are leaders and there are followers. When it comes to making Yellowknife more livable for people with disabilities or for our aging community members, it doesn't pay to be a laggard.
The cost of dragging one's heels on accessibility is sometimes expressed in terms of a legal challenge where a complainant wins judgment against the government for its reluctance to adapt.
This is the outcome of a recent pair of cases where a Yellowknife woman won a human rights challenge against the GNWT and the city over a lack of accessibility modifications necessary to accommodate her disability.
Judgments such as these doesn't just acknowledge her rights but the rights of all citizens who live with disabilities whether through accident, disease or the natural aging process.
But a government digging in its heels, aside from needlessly wasting the public purse on lawyers' fees, sends the message that the North is reluctant to adapt to the real, current and future needs of an aging population and people with disabilities.
For many Northerners of retirement age it is an unwelcome prospect to face old age in a community where local governments are not seen to be proactive when it comes to accommodating people with disabilities.
The likeliest response is not to sue the government but simply pull up roots and move away. It would be counter-productive for the North to lose retirement age residents at the same time it is trying to attract new residents.
Last week's public meeting in Yellowknife, moderated by the federal government and the NWT Disabilities Council, was a good but small step forward in making the North more disability and age-friendly.
During that meeting it was suggested that regional disabilities organizations take on a more active role in monitoring and reporting on compliance issues.
While monitoring and reporting are both well and good, municipal and territorial governments need to move beyond what seems to be a get-caught-and-react mentality when it comes to dealing with accessibility. They need to become proactive.
Nearly 14 per cent of the general population lives with some form of disability that affects their daily lives, according to Statistics Canada.
If we don't take care of people with accessibility issues, this segment of the population won't come here and those who are here will leave, taking everything they have invested in the community with them.
Who else deserves city key? Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, October 7, 2016
It's a tradition going back to medieval times and Yellowknife has started its own version.
Olympic bronze medalist Akeem Haynes was awarded a key to the city - actually a plaque - during a ceremony at the Fieldhouse, Sept. 30. The honour was bestowed on him after a week of visiting schools and talking to students during a trip North to his former home to see his mom and other family members.
Haynes was awarded the key, said Mayor Mark Heyck, not only for his athletic accomplishments but to show appreciation for returning to the city and the time he spent with the youth of the community, encouraging them to follow their dreams like he has done.
Heyck said the key-to-the-city tradition began centuries ago when people were given actual keys to city walls, signifying that the person was welcome any time.
Haynes lived in the city from ages six to 12, going to Weledeh Catholic School while his mother worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table before moving to Calgary. He won bronze in the men's 4x100 relay at the Rio Olympics earlier this summer, posting a new national record of 37.64 seconds.
MLA's proud momentDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 6, 2016
It has been less than a year since Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson was elected to his seat, and already his term is looking pretty good.
From expressing a willingness to be a black sheep in the legislative assembly, if need be, to defending the votes he's cast, Thompson's had a solid run so far.
In fact, he hasn't done much wrong yet.
The latest feather in his cap is the opening of Fort Liard's senior housing nine-plex.
Although construction the nine-plex was underway before Thompson was elected to his seat, it is still an important event to mark.
One of Thompson's major campaign points was housing and in particular the need to keep seniors in their communities, where they can enjoy their golden years without having the added stress of being sent to a facility in an unfamiliar location.
It is the best option for the Deh Cho's seniors and it also benefits Fort Liard, where the community reaps the added bonus of having the wisdom of their elders present and available. However, more can be done - and it needs to be, if a statistic from Housing Minister Caroline Cochrane is any indication.
On June 15, Cochrane said the population of seniors within the Northwest Territories is expected to increase as much as 25 per cent within the next five years.
On the same day, Cochrane said the housing corporation currently has 37 public housing units with seniors residing in them in the Nahendeh communities.
Twenty-nine of those units are designed to be accessible to seniors.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the smallest communities are impacted the most.
Seniors in Jean Marie River, Kakisa, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake - even Wrigley, perhaps - do not yet have facilities that would allow them to spend the rest of their lives in their home communities.
It's one more thing on a laundry list of challenges facing the small communities of the Deh Cho and Nahendeh, but this challenge has an incredibly negative impact on the communities that lose their elders, not to mention the elders themselves.
Luckily, Thompson's influence extends to most standing committees as well as the legislative assembly itself. After all, he sits on three of the assembly's five committees - he's a member of the Priorities and Planning Committee as well as the Rules and Procedures Committee and actually chairs the committee on Social Development - and he's an alternate on the Economic Development and Environment committee.
The legislative assembly begins sitting again as of Oct. 13. Without a doubt, Thompson has many different priorities to focus on.
But equal among those priorities is the plight of seniors - and that should not only be a topic of discussion during Senior Citizens' Month.
Fort Liard's nine-plex is a good start. Now it is time to build something for the rest of the Nahendeh.
Poverty has no impact on generosity of spiritInuvik Drum - Thursday, October 6, 2016
When I finished my interview with Richard "Stick" Edwards, a 62-year-old homeless man who has been using the John Wayne Kiktorak Centre since April, I found him stuffing something into my camera bag before I could close it.
He was trying to put in three packages of Dad's Oatmeal cookies, and I didn't know what was going on.
At first, perhaps to my shame, I thought he was playing a joke or offering the centre's goods to me without approval. I thanked him and refused but he wouldn't stop trying to put them in my bag.
"You're going to insult him," centre manager Joey Amos told me, which is when I found out that these three packages of cookies were procured by Edwards and were his property.
This man has very little in material wealth. The cookies were all he appeared to have, besides his clothes.
His only home is the warming centre. And he wasn't trying to give me just one cookie, but all the packages he had.
I gratefully accepted one of the packages, apologizing for any rudeness my first refusal gave off.
It was amazing to see such generosity when an objective look at the situation hardly called for it.
He was admittedly homeless, while I had an expensive camera and voice recorder, drove there in my own car and had just had a haircut. I could obviously afford any cookies I wanted, and he obviously couldn't.
That a person's current status in life has no bearing on human spirit and thoughtfulness was a healthy reminder to me.
The issue of publicly funding homeless shelters is complicated and not one I wish to tackle in this column.
But whatever side of the issue you stand, it is important to remember we are discussing real, wonderful people, not unfortunate statistics.
26 days for MLAs doesn't do the jobYellowknifer - Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Mayor Mark Heyck's frustration over the glacial response by the territorial government to the city's needs is entirely justified.
Bellyaching from below is a common feature of Canadian politics. Municipalities claim neglect by the provinces and territories, provinces and territories complain about inattentive politicians in Ottawa - the trickle-up of griping is nothing new here or anywhere else.
But for the GNWT to tell the city that no changes are possible to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act during the remaining three years of its four-term is beyond ludicrous.
If MLAs don't have enough days in the legislative assembly to debate changes to the legislation - changes that would allow the city to offer energy efficiency rebates to help homeowners upgrade and lower heating costs or allow it to enact a hotel tax to better prepare the city for the deluge of aurora tourists spending millions of dollars in our territory - then perhaps they need to sit for more days.
Our legislative assembly sat for 26 days in fiscal year 2015-2016. The House of Commons was scheduled to sit for 122 days over the same period.
If the territorial government, with its army of 4,700 staff, can't find time to draft changes then perhaps the workforce is too large to work effectively.
It's not like the city dreamed up these requests yesterday. The hotel tax has been on the table for more than 15 years. Charging the surtax on hotel rooms would allow money to be set aside to better promote the city and increase its tourism potential.
Despite near unanimous support from the Yellowknife Hotel Association, then-finance minister Michael Miltenberger scuttled the proposal for a territory-wide tax in 2011, stating most formal submissions to his office were opposed to it.
Well, then fine. Give Yellowknife the power to enact its own hotel tax where there is support for it.
Too often, the GNWT excuses its inaction by pointing to so-called opposition in smaller communities or to difficulties applying legislation that might work in Yellowknife but not in the communities.
This was the excuse offered up in 2009 by then-municipal and community affairs minister Robert C. McLeod when he refused to move on a 911 emergency phone service even though the government's own study showed it would be easy to implement in larger centres.
The territorial government has increasingly turned to Yellowknife taxpayers and its city government to prop up agencies of government that ought to rightfully be the responsibility of the GNWT, whether it be to provide funding for the day shelter or demanding that the city build a new water treatment and making the city pay for it.
City administration is far from perfect but if the GNWT refuses to get out of its way the least it could do is give the city the tools to succeed - or fail - on its own.
Muddied waters show no factsEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 5, 2016
I allowed myself to be dragged into a conversation I was trying to avoid this past week.
Discussion soon turned to argument, which was how I saw it going when I first hit my internal mute button.
Once things calmed down, however, a word I have grown to loathe during the past decade, "privilege," was once again hurled in my direction.
At least this time the accusation didn't have its usual companion, "white," along for the stinging journey.
I was thankful for that much.
The original discussion, turned argument, was on numbers showing two-thirds of Nunavut graduates failed the Alberta standardized diploma exam this past year.
Everyone in our little ethnically- and gender-mixed group had an opinion.
They ranged from the "dumbing down" of Nunavut's curriculum, to the pros and cons of social promotion, and the merits, or lack thereof, of a Grade 12 graduate having 70 per cent of their final mark come from classroom work and only 30 per cent from exams.
The discussion on classroom work and the grades given to students I found, pretty much, irrelevant, since we had no idea what actually constitutes a course-work grade, and even our own Department of Education, apparently, has no idea what the average classroom grade was for those students who failed the diploma exam.
But, that's the evil of numbers to begin with.
In the hands of just an average spin doctor, they can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say, and facts be damned.
So while the auditor general's note in 2013 showing Nunavut students followed over a three-year period had, on average, a 30 per cent higher grade from the classroom than from exams is troubling, without a clear picture of how the marks are arrived at, they're just numbers.
I made the mistake of admitting I had a soft spot for classroom grading due to my own high school experience.
I was an all-star goalie on a small school team challenging for a provincial title for the first time in its history, and I could make no sense out of physics or French in my academic course load.
So I volunteered for everything in both classes, slapped more chalk brushes than I could count, and took everything worth extra credit for three very long years.
Being able to do that to obtain a minimum passing grade and remain on the team was, I was told, privilege.
It may have been athletically granted, rather then by the colour of my skin, but privilege nonetheless.
However, what a black-and-white assertion fails to take into consideration, is all the years of dedication to hockey that stripped away a significant portion of a normal adolescence (a more than fair trade in my books).
While so many of my friends did teenage things to build up a pile of lifelong memories, I worked out, attended countless practises and team functions, did my homework by flashlight at the back of the bus on road trips, and worked extra jobs to help my dad afford having a goalie for a son.
If it was privilege, it was privilege well earned.
That is why, without a crystal-clear picture of what is being discussed, educational systems included, it is only talk.
And numbers bereft of the understanding needed to decipher them speak loudest, without saying anything at all!
Empty shelves are Canada's shameNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, October 3, 2016
There are about 18 organizations offering meal programs or food bank services in the NWT. And business is brisk in these places. Too brisk for some.
One study in 2014 showed across the three territories, there was a 247 per cent increase in the use of food banks between 2008 and 2014. Nationally, the increase was 24.5 per cent over the same period.
"Across the (NWT), there is a widening gap between those who are prospering and those who are struggling," Food Banks Canada quoted a GNWT study in its HungerCount 2014 report.
"Poverty disproportionately affects vulnerable members of society, including single-parent families, people with low education levels, elders, people with disabilities, and those with addictions or mental health issues. Children in poverty are especially vulnerable when their basic needs are not met," the report states.
The situation for many is dire. And it's also heart-wrenching for those trying to help the needy.
As reported last week in News/North (Sept. 26, "Food bank bare") yet another charity has been forced to make a public plea for help.
The stock at the Inuvik Food Bank is rapidly depleting as the group is on its last legs financially. The food bank's one-time sponsorships and recurring fundraising activities are not keeping up with demand in a community where 10 per cent of its residents show up to make withdrawals of boxed milk, canned stew, eggs, corn flakes, canned tomatoes and tuna.
In the first seven months of 2016, the Inuvik Food Bank has spent a little more than $60,000 but has taken in just over $30,000, said treasurer Margaret Miller.
The organization typically spends around $100,000 per year. The food bank gets no ongoing funding from any governmental sources, with all its money coming from donations and fundraisers.
"Now that the funds aren't there, we are having to cut down considerably," said Miller. "Unless we get some fresh money we won't be able to continue at the rate we're going."
There are many reasons why so many people can't make ends meet. A lack of jobs, expensive housing, shoddy social safety nets, mental and physical disorders or just plain bad luck. But the bottom line is people need to eat.
Nobody should be starving in a country as wealthy as Canada. This should be a no-brainer for the Trudeau government.
Instead of trying to solve the world's problems, our jet-setting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - he of the 'sunny ways' mantra - has an obligation to attend to matters at home first.
But until the feds get moving on this issue, it's up to all of us to help our neighbours out when need be. And the Inuvik Food Bank needs donations of cash or appropriate foodstuffs now.
Alternatives being found to diesel-generated electricityNunavut/News North - Monday, October 3, 2016
A long winter filled with days that have more hours of darkness than light should not be an absolute deterrent to the pursuit of renewable energy alternatives.
Nunavut is too dependent on diesel-fuel generated electricity. Power plants in many communities are already past their best-before date, with potentially catastrophic results if an entire hamlet experiences a power outage at an inopportune time.
One has only to look at what happened in Pangnirtung to realize how vulnerable some hamlets have become on their power plants. Qulliq Energy Corporation crews were scrambled onto early morning flights with backup generators to partially restore power after there was a fire in the electricity generation station. It was months before a chartered heavy-lift helicopter brought in the necessary equipment to get life in the hamlet fully back to normal.
Renewable energy projects, as they exist today, might not have been able to provide enough power to meet the needs of the entire community but it would have been something.
Qulliq is now turning some of its attention to renewable energy options, particularly following a Northern summit on the topic held in Iqaluit Sept. 15 to 17.
There are several options worth pursuing. A pilot project using solar panels on a Qulliq building in Iqaluit is returning encouraging results. Analysis of their performance exceeded expectations. At least one community in Nunavut uses solar panels to run its community freezer during the summer, keeping country food frozen for residents to use later.
Harnessing energy from the wind is another option actively being investigated. A wind mapping study, completed earlier this year, looked at capabilities in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Arviat and Sanikiluaq. It will be followed up with installation of wind monitoring equipment. Communities such as Rankin Inlet, where there is wind for days at a time, seem like good prospects for wind turbines, perhaps as large as those used at Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories to offset the cost of diesel fuel.
It is encouraging that, as time passes, the technology used to convert solar and wind energy into electricity is getting better and better while the costs of the infrastructure to capture the energy is dropping.
Then there is the option of hydroelectric power plants, using water to turn turbines which create the energy to create electricity. Given that all of Nunavut's communities are situated near water, perhaps there are possibilities worth exploring.
Besides cost savings, what is making renewable energy options most attractive is the federal government's desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Ottawa's growing joint-funding programs to replace fossil-fuel based generation with cleaner technology.
None of this will happen quickly. An agreement on a research project was the biggest accomplishment of the Arctic Renewable Energy Summit last month.
We are confident there will come a time when renewable energy will provide a more affordable, reliable alternative to diesel-generated electricity, even in the dark days of Nunavut winter.
