Day shelter resolve a welcome changeYellowknifer - Wednesday, November 9, 2016
It's a positive sign to see improvements to city services so soon after the presentation of the new Yellowknife Homelessness Road Map.
Last week, Health Minister Glen Abernethy announced the Safe Harbour Day Shelter would soon be expanding its hours in order to close gaps throughout the day when people have no access to shelters.
There are no shelter services available in town between the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., noon until 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m., according to the report. The shelter's proposed new hours would run from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., closing these gaps.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services told Yellowknifer last week the department was kicking in an extra $285,000 per year to cover staffing costs for these extra hours. Before they can even think of eradicating homelessness, leaders need to make Yellowknife a safer place for its homeless population. Providing safe shelter options 24 hours per day is critical to achieving this. Good on the territorial government and NWT Disabilities Council for taking initiative on this issue.
Just two years ago, the city went with no day shelter at all because the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority allowed its contract to expire in May without securing a new one until October. The government has come quite a long way from this lackadaisical approach.
Evidence territorial leaders are taking more initiative to improve services for the homeless can be seen in another part of the day shelter contract. The government and NWT Disabilities Council have agreed to include a clause that would allow for the shelter to be moved if a more suitable space comes up at any time during the contract. This means there is no need to wait for the current contract to expire in order to search for an ideal location that is still downtown but not across the street from a condominium building and adjacent to the liquor store.
It's almost as if there is a sea change in how our leaders are tackling homelessness. These new announcements show they are taking the problem seriously. This is encouraging because that is the only way to tackle a serious problem.
Slow down for sled dogsYellowknifer - Wednesday, November 9, 2016
It's no secret that Yellowknife has a robust dog-sledding community.
It's also no secret that this community contributes to the city's sport, cultural and tourism appeal. So it's an absolute travesty that dogsledders have no safe space to train their dogs before the lakes freeze. This lack of space culminated in terrible consequence on Oct. 29, when musher Alexis Campbell's dogs were hit by a gravel truck on Deh Cho Boulevard, killing one dog and injuring another.
According to Qimmiq Kennels owner Jo Kelly, mushers have to cross Deh Cho Boulevard at least twice during training. This stretch of road is used mostly by heavy industry. It's also a popular spot for youth who want to drive fast. Traffic in Kam Lake has increased noticeably in the past decade as well. If snow is blowing, visibility can be low. Even when taking every precaution, it makes sense that mushers still don't feel safe.
This means the onus is on the City of Yellowknife to make sure the area is safe for mushers. At the very least, install signage. So the signs tend to get stolen? Replace them. The city could mandate bylaw patrols in the area during these times of year, or tailor existing laws to improve safety. For instance, the city could designate dog-sledding crossing areas with lower speed limits and increased fines for people caught breaking the law.
Really, anything is better than what the city is currently doing to ensure dogsledders are safe - which is nothing.
A moment to remember those who suffered the horrors of warEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, November 9, 2016
My dad's brother, Bill Greer, had mentioned over a few pops on his last furlough that he believed he just might come home alive at the end of the Second World War.
He was immediately chastised by a few friends and family members for tempting the fates by saying it out loud.
The last words a family member ever heard Bill say were along the lines of don't worry about him because if he was going to get it, it would have happened by now.
The war was winding down and Uncle Bill, who was a spotter and navigator on a hunter killer anti-submarine aircraft, had not seen anything but empty skies and ocean waters during his previous three or four missions.
It was a beautiful day for flying when his aircraft launched skyward.
His crew was off to check areas where the remnants of the once proud German wolf packs were still doing damage to convoys bringing supplies across the
Atlantic.
They had seen nothing and were about to head back to base, when his pilot decided to drop down for a closer look over an area where German subs had been spotted.
The sun was high in a cloudless sky when they began to descend, with light spots dancing over the waters before bursting brilliantly skyward.
Bill shaded his eyes and watched their water dance before having to turn away from their brilliance. A slight bump jolted their aircraft.
Bill's final thoughts may have been on that strange turbulence, when his world exploded in one last blistering flash of light.
The magical dance of the sun's rays meeting the ocean water had blinded the crew to the submarine, initially caught off guard and unawares, sitting on top of the waves.
The thundering crack of its deck gun would herald the end of Bill's life, and those of his crew, moments later.
Everyone in my family knew at the time my grandfather favoured Bill the most of all his children, and he took news of his death hard.
It led him to commit an unpardonable sin for a father a few months later.
The day my father arrived home from the war, there was no one to meet him at the train station.
He walked miles to the family home and entered to see his father sitting at the kitchen table.
My grandfather looked up, stared at his son for a moment and said, "It should have been you."
Those words burned inside my dad's heart for the rest of his days.
As horrible as those words were, such is the power of war to bring out the ugliest aspects of the human race both off and on the battlefield.
Lives are lost and destroyed in the name of freedom, bodies maimed, families torn, minds twisted, nerves forever frayed and scars left to burn on the inside.
The cost of freedom - and the lives we lead that so many find ways to be offended by today - was high.
We can never repay the lives lost or destroyed, but we can remember.
We can take the time this coming Sunday, and every Nov. 11 for the rest of our lives, to pay our respects to those who bled on the battlefield, lived the rest of their lives with broken hearts, or were haunted to their dying day by images too horrendous to even talk about.
If we don't remember, we are doomed to repeat ... lest we forget!
Taking from the poor; giving to the rich?Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, November 7, 2016
It's all about the bottom line.
Despite the hot air expended by politicians or how much rational sounding baffle-gab by various officials, the amount of money families on income assistance actually get to live on is all that matters.
So it's with some concern we watch another messy roll-out of a GNWT program in which we are left to either believe the minister in charge or the people lining up against him.
In the Oct. 31 edition of News/North (Perpetuating Poverty? Page 11), critics called changes to the income assistance program nothing more than clawbacks.
"It's just the opposite of Robin Hood," said David Poitras, former chief of the Salt River First Nation. "Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, but this way here, they're robbing from the poor and giving it to the government, I guess."
Poitras said he has had discussions with people afraid to voice their complaints.
However, Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green raised the issue in the legislative assembly and also with News/North.
It all started back in August when the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) eliminated the program's food and clothing allowance for children under the age of 18. The change was the result of increases to the federal Canada Child Benefit (CCB) program, according to the department.
The CCB program changes came into effect in July and replaced the former Canada Child Tax Benefit, the national Child Benefit Supplement and the Universal Child Care Benefit.
Green said while the new CCB payments do increase overall household incomes, that doesn't mean low income families no longer need the income assistance food and clothing allowance.
"The rationale for the government to provide Canada Child Benefit was to alleviate poverty among children," she said. "So what has happened here is that those same children who live in poverty are not getting the full benefit of the federal money because the territorial government has reduced its funding to them. So the federal government gave with one hand and the GNWT took away with the other."
ECE Minister Alfred Moses countered Green's claims, stating the NWT hasn't reduced funding to families.
"When we restructured the program, the Federal Child Tax Benefit was included in the assessments. We took those assessments out ... the NWT's contribution, hasn't changed," Moses said according to Hansard.
"It does look like the funding went down for food and clothing, which, in fact, it hasn't. Actually, more families are getting more money."
Not so, said Karen Wilson, housing director for the YWCA, who noted the elimination of the food and clothing allowance for children has already had a devastating impact on NWT families.
"If the federal government deemed it fit to give extra to children for children's well being, why is the territorial government taking the food money out?" Wilson said.
Given the minister's statement that it could look like the funding went down, he would be wise to get his staff to figure out why that perception is there.
But if the perception is a reality for those on assistance, then a reversal of this policy is called for.
Because as of the writing of this editorial, we are left siding with the critics of the GNWT.
Most recipients of income assistance have nowhere else to turn. We remind the GNWT that the Trudeau Liberals were elected with a mandate to give more more to families with children.
To deny NWT families that extra money would be wrong.
The GNWT and Minister Moses need to fix this mess and demonstrate their new bookkeeping methods do not clawback cash from income assistance recipients, leaving them with less.
We call on Minister Moses to prove that "more families are getting more money."
'I don't beat around the bushes'Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, November 7, 2016
Cece Hodgson-McCauley has again been honored for her tireless work to improve the aboriginal condition in the NWT.
Oh, and to "build that damn road" - the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension from Wrigley to Inuvik.
For decades, her frank, unvarnished columns in News/North and its predecessors have both encouraged average people to "get on with" making their lives better.
She has called for better use of our resources, both large and small, and better connection between the communities in this vast territory.
In the Oct. 31 edition of News/North ("She's a big force to be reckoned with," page 3), readers learned of the latest accolade to come her way.
Hodgson-McCauley had won this year's Indspire Award for politics. Indspire is an Indigenous-led registered national charity that invests in the education of Indigenous people. It is the largest non-governmental funder of Indigenous education.
The annual Indspire Awards "recognize the success of individuals who have the discipline, drive, and determination to set high standards and accomplish their goals."
That describes Cece to a tee. Oh, and did we mention she's 94 years old?
Congratulations and we look forward to many more columns.
Problem is teachers can't speak InuktitutNunavut/News North - Monday, November 7, 2016
Inuktitut in classrooms is a hot topic in Nunavut this month but the real problem is being ignored.
Last month, South Baffin MLA David Joanasie told legislators a constituent complained to him that a Grade 8 student in one of his constituent communities was told not to speak Inuktitut. The excuse? The student might be bullying but the teacher can't understand the language.
Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik backed him up, saying he heard similar accounts of teachers banning Inuktitut in Iqaluit classrooms.
But a Department of Education investigation found the alleged incident never happened. The Cape Dorset district education authority also says it's not happening, that teachers are not banning the language.
The DEA says that if the story were true, Joanasie should have told them - not all of Nunavut - so they could deal with it before it became public. There's a communications protocol and Joanasie should have stayed quiet.
Did it happen? Was it a lie? A rumour? A misunderstanding? Whatever the case, Joanasie and Okalik were quick to raise their voices, as the tales told to them were reminiscent of a not-so-distant past.
Residential schools were designed to assimilate students - remove children from their families and their culture. The government policy and teacher practice was to prevent Inuit students from speaking their language, both to satisfy the policy and maintain discipline.
Today, the school system is disciplining David Joanasie for defending his language, and the incident is a distraction from the real problem.
The Government of Nunavut's role is to strengthen Inuit culture and the Inuit language. Yet in our classrooms, Nunavut is failing.
NTI vice-president James Eetoolook expressed his concern last month in an interview with Nunavut News/North's Michele LeTourneau, saying the government is not doing enough to change the fact that the vast majority of teachers do not speak Inuktitut.
Start with the fact that the government's budget for advertising teacher jobs is spent mostly in the south.
Add in Nunavut's abysmal high school graduation rate - which is linked to the amount of Inuktitut learned in school - and it's hard to see how Nunavut Arctic College will grow its teacher education program. At the current pace, the program will need decades to graduate enough Nunavut-trained educators to tip the balance from an English school system to an Inuktitut system.
By then, it may be too late. The territory's teachers are not only teaching students to be English, they are teaching young parents to be English. When young children speak English at school and home, how does Inuktitut stand a chance?
It will require real efforts to find Inuktitut-speaking teachers - and substitute teachers! - real power for community leaders in administering education, and real faith in students. Let's start by accepting that staying silent - or telling our students and MLAs to do so - will not develop the knowledge needed to win this fight.
Homelessness money well spent Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, November 4, 2016
The price tag associated with the 11 recommendations found in the Yellowknife Homelessness Road Map Action Plan might strike some as scary.
Initiatives proposed within the plan are a sobering centre, managed alcohol program, more bed space at the city's overnight shelters, a street outreach program, more money for Housing First, a committee to help frontline agencies collaborate and the creation of a 10-year plan to address homelessness.
Pulling off all of these recommendations will likely make this a multi-million dollar project. The report itself identifies the need for approximately $1.8 million in funding but there are a few recommendations - such as a central intake location for at-risk people and the sobering centre - with costs to be determined.
It might be tempting to focus on costs but there is a different set of numbers that might be more beneficial to see - a cost-benefit analysis for programs such as these. What do they save our government in policing, ambulance, hospital and court costs?
When there is no safety net for at-risk people, they end up cycling through the courts and health-care system again and again. It's expensive to use ambulances, emergency room beds and hospital resources as shelter for people who are found passed out in the cold. Same thing goes for the court system. Many at-risk people end up in the court system for one thing or another, do their time and are eventually released with conditions - such as abstinence from alcohol or scheduled to check in with a parole officer. But if these people don't have access to treatment programs or other life-management programs, they are only being set up to break those conditions. Breaking conditions leads to more charges, taking up more police time, court time and jail space - all of which is very expensive -- when really what these people need is help.
There are no hard numbers to determine how much money could be saved through this new homelessness action plan but it's not difficult to see how money spent on it is a great investment.
Time to turn the page with the police Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, November 4, 2016
It was an agonizing 15 months for Yellowknifer reporter John McFadden but on Oct. 21 he walked away from the Yellowknife Courthouse a free man.
He was arrested in July 2015 for obstruction of justice for taking photos of police searching a van with stolen plates. He wasn't taking those photos with the intent of obstructing justice. He was taking them because police activity on public streets is in the public interest. Considering the police are publicly funded to enforce laws and keep the peace, it is fair to expect any reporter would be curious about any police activity he or she sees on the street.
The pages of any Yellowknifer newspaper will likely include multiple stories involving RCMP. A good 90 per cent of these stories are positive. Yellowknifer prints stories about liquor and drug seizures, drug busts and results of drunk-driving blitzes. It also helps the police do their job by printing notices about missing people and the RCMP tip line.
But none of this means Yellowknifer has any intent of shying away from controversy. If, like McFadden discovered in March 2015, the police don't properly warn the public about a serial sex assaulter attacking people in the city, the newspaper is going to ask tough questions in order to get that story. This isn't because the newspaper has a vendetta against the police, it's because the public deserves to know when it has been put at risk.
Most of the time Yellowknifer stories will not negatively affect the RCMP's public image but every once in awhile, they will. And when these stories do get written, we hope individual members don't take it personally.
Dedicated few make big impactDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, November 3, 2016
As the face of Table Tennis North, and arguably its biggest advocate, Thorsten Gohl wears many hats.
He's a coach, a teacher, a marketer and an organizer.
That's the reality of many of the Deh Cho's most ardent recreational facilitators.
For Gohl, the past year of work in Fort Providence has finally culminated in the development of a territorial table tennis championship.
While that in itself is a huge accomplishment, Gohl's biggest impact is on the children and youth he has come into contact with over the past year.
Although he's been based out of Fort Providence, Gohl took table tennis all across the Northwest Territories last year, into the most remote communities in the Deh Cho.
Now, Gohl is leaving Fort Providence in order to focus on that tournament in Yellowknife.
The gap he leaves behind will be felt keenly by all the schools in the Deh Cho but most significantly by Deh Gah School.
Thankfully, one of the wonderful things about the Deh Cho is the passionate recreation staff it attracts.
And Deh Gah School has staff who are incredibly determined to provide opportunities for their students.
One such example is Beth Hudson, who has a helping hand in many of the community's activities.
Now that indoor soccer season is upon us, Hudson is helping to get students ready for an upcoming tournament in Fort Liard.
Another example is Nimisha Bastedo, the school's on-the-land teacher, who helps to run many hands-on programs for students at Deh Gah School. Some of those include canoe trips, culture camps and a bison hunt for high school students last winter.
These are just a few of the many people in Fort Providence who, with the support of their community, enrich the lives of everyone.
The mark Gohl has left can be seen in the table tennis talents developed by student-turned-coach Mikaela Vandell.
Vandell, who just graduated from Deh Gah School, has recently secured a position on Table Tennis North's board of directors, where she was voted on as a member-at-large as of Oct. 21.
With Gohl's help, Vandell started playing table tennis a few years ago and twice represented the Northwest Territories at the Arctic Winter Games.
She hopes to become a coach for the 2018 Arctic Winter Games that will be taking place in the territory.
Inspired by Gohl's encouragement, Vandell has gone on to become an inspiration to others.
"I wish I could do more for the Deh Cho region, especially Fort Providence," is what Gohl told me before he left.
But thankfully, the legacy he leaves in the region will be one that endures.
An easy star on your resumeInuvik Drum - Thursday, November 3, 2016
It was a lonely scene when I stopped in at the open house for the Gwich'in Regional Youth Council Oct. 27.
Just community wellness intern Patricia Louie was there, with pizza and refreshments at the ready for any interested youth
Some of that could be blamed on the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada meeting happening that same evening in the Midnight Sun Complex.
I was hoping to talk to some young people set out on a leadership path, but it was not destined that night.
Hopefully, the turnout does not represent overall response Gwich'in youth council recruiters will receive.
It's a fantastic opportunity and should be jumped at by any Gwich'in youth.
What are the costs? Everything is paid for. You get to visit different communities, network with big shots, take free classes that improve your professional abilities and play a role in leading your community in the coming era of Gwich'in self-government.
It's about as much of a gimme on your resume as you could get. Anyone with a seat on a youth council like this will get a virtual gold star and special consideration in any future jobs they pursue.
The networking opportunities are as big as the resume, too. Want a big-time job in any of these Gwich'in organizations one day? These are the people you want to be rubbing shoulders with.
All of these benefits come in addition to the important role played by the council and its members in supporting Gwich'in culture.
I'm confident the council will find the eight members it seeks.
But I wish there would be a little more obvious competition for those spots and more of a desire from youth to fill them.
Maybe they just need to get the word out more.
At the end of the day, I hope that pizza didn't go to waste.
