Cut post-secondary programs hurt NorthNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, February 13, 2017
Aurora College's social work diploma and bachelor of education programs are gone. Victims of government cutbacks.
The college is also set to raise tuition incrementally over the next two years but will still remain below the $2,400 in financial assistance students receive.
The college is facing a $1.89-million cut with the announcement of the 2017-18 territorial budget last week.
While we generally encourage the GNWT to find efficiencies wherever possible - we certainly can't dig the debt much deeper - reducing post-secondary education opportunities in the NWT is just plain wrong.
Especially in the in-demand social work and education fields. And particularly when the students are from the North and will likely stick around here once they graduate.
An Aurora College social work student who will be one of the last to graduate with the diploma says the cancellation of her program is "shocking."
Shelby Clarke articulated the situation in an interview with News/North after the surprise announcement from the college Feb. 2.
"They're in desperate need of social workers and cutting a program that actually helps people become social workers doesn't really make sense to me," said the 22-year-old Clarke. "And I think bringing counsellors and social workers from down south up here to deal with Northern problems isn't going to work.
"It's important to have people understand the different situations that you're going to be dealing with up here in the Northern communities. If you're bringing people who have no idea, they could really affect it in a bad way if they don't understand what's going on."
If students such as Clarke understand the situation so clearly, why does it appear our elected officials have blinders on?
As the news was just sinking in with tearful students at Aurora campuses in Fort Smith and Yellowknife - where the education and social worker programs are delivered, respectively - MLA Kieron Testart (Kam Lake) questioned Education Minister Alfred Moses in the legislative assembly.
Testart wondered why Aurora College's funding was cut and the two programs nixed before the school's strategic plan has been developed this year?
Moses cited low enrolment and graduation rates, and said Aurora College has the autonomy to make its own decisions. However, it's easy to understand that once the programs are cut, then they have no chance to grow at all.
But then he delivered this bombshell: he encouraged students who want to continue similar studies to do so somewhere else.
The government offers "a great student financial assistance program" and will support any student who wants to get a similar degree from a southern institution, Moses said.
Once they leave, we may never see them again after they've paid off their remissible loans. Well, maybe at Christmas.
Educating Northern students in the North is the best way to ensure they stay in the North and not follow the brain drain south. The latest Statistics Canada figures for the NWT show smaller communities continue to struggle with population loss.
We strongly urge the GNWT to work with Aurora College to reverse this awful decision.
And we really hope Education Minister Moses doesn't truly believe the best solution for educating our youth is to send them away.
Jail needs more than a makeoverNunavut/News North - Monday, February 13, 2017
The territorial and federal governments are finally investing needed funds - $75.8 million - to renovate Baffin Correctional Centre.
The end result will be the death of BCC, and the birth of the Qikiqtani Correctional Healing Centre. But will this be an actual rebirth or simply a rebrand? Knowing the history of the place, Nunavummiut will be crossing their fingers that the new facility lives up to its promise.
Even a hefty financial investment will make difficult work of repairing its reputation within the community.
The media is rarely welcomed into such facilities, so we have had to rely on images of BCC supplied by investigators to get an insider's view of the conditions there. We've seen the images of mattresses on the floors of BCC's gymnasium and cells. We've heard that capacity in individual cells was often doubled, tripled or quadrupled depending on the day. With 57 people at one point sharing two showers, two toilets and three urinals, it's not a stretch to describe living there as a struggle to survive.
Premier Peter Taptuna was warned in 2015 to expect lawsuits over the constitutionality of housing people in such conditions.
The neighbouring Makigiarvik minimum security facility is a luxury hotel in comparison to the current jail. It started housing inmates ahead of its scheduled opening in 2015 because mould was causing a health crisis at BCC.
People will also need to wait and see whether living conditions improve considering the suggestion Nunavummiut will be returned from southern facilities to be held at the new Qikiqtani Correctional Healing Centre. It wouldn't be a surprise if the centre hits capacity immediately upon opening in 2020.
The investment is only a piece of the justice puzzle. With the courts facing shortages of space and judges, delays are allowing serious cases to be thrown out due to rules that require an accused to face justice in a reasonable time. The correctional system is thus feeling the pressure.
If the space and staffing levels can't keep up, it will be hard to see any healing take place. The situation echoes Nunavut's housing crisis: it's hard to focus on progress when everyone is in survival mode.
There needs to be real effort and change, not only at the correctional centre, although there is plenty of work to be done there. The government now has to find the people - mental health and addictions professionals and so on - to keep this ball rolling.
If the renaming doesn't translate into helping inmates heal, the name will simply be fresh lipstick on a pricey pig.
Spot device: get it, use it Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, February 10, 2017
Northerners, as group, are a fairly resourceful bunch when out on the land. They have to be to enjoy the outdoors in freezing temperatures and harsh weather.
That said, people can count on their survival skills for only so much when in a jam and cannot call for help.
Last week bore witness to the tragic death of Antoine Betsidea, a 46-year-old father of eight from Behchoko, who perished after becoming separated from his hunting party near MacKay Lake, about 350 km northeast of Yellowknife. Despite a desperate search in blizzard conditions, his body was not found for three days.
It hasn't been confirmed whether Betsidia was carrying some sort of communication device when he went missing but he did not contact would-be rescuers.
Yellowknifer has been peppered with cautionary tales dating back several years about people out on the land without functioning communications equipment, such as a satellite phone or Spot device, that can send GPS co-ordinates to loved ones and police.
Last summer, a cabin owner nearly 100 km east of Yellowknife got turned around when he decided to walk after damaging his ATV on a trail. What followed was a stressful and exhausting 32-hour ordeal - for him and his family. He was saved after climbing a hill and finding just enough reception on his cellphone to call his daughter-in-law.
His ordeal might have been much shorter had he been carrying a Spot or satellite phone, which don't require towers to send transmissions. Having one of these devices (and spare batteries) is not enough; friends and family should know when and where you are venturing into the wilderness.
These devices are affordable. The GNWT and community governments should ensure some are available to be checked out and returned for those who can't buy them. It would be a lot cheaper than calling in search and rescue crews costing tens of thousands of dollars.
The northern wilderness is beautiful but unforgiving. Northerners should never be without a communications device, even if only for a few hours on a short hike from civilization.
Too often, that is the last mistake anybody makes.
Housing First intake tool needs refining Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, February 10, 2017
No system is perfect but it's best practice to plug the holes early before it starts showing cracks.
Housing First has been hailed as a proactive program that provides the city's homeless with a roof over the heads, even while dealing with severe mental health and addictions issues.
Other models focus on treatment, counselling and training ahead of housing but for many homeless in Yellowknife the immediate concern isn't a need for self-improvement but survival.
That's why it is important to get people off the streets first and deal with some of the health and addictions issues later. Unfortunately, as pointed out by the Yellowknife Women's Society, which runs Housing First, as well as SideDoor Youth Ministries, the vulnerability assessment tool used to prioritize placements for the program tends to favour older clientele over youth who haven't live long enough to experience chronic homelessness.
The assessment also requires candidates to be able to articulate information about themselves to complete the diagnosis - something Denise McKee, executive director of the NWT Disabilities Council, says is not always possible as some candidates are "so off the grid" they cannot communicate their problems.
The tool is helpful but needs to be refined to meet the needs of homeless people in the North. With a few tweaks it can be very useful in getting our society's most vulnerable to a safer situation.
A house dividedDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, February 9, 2016
The legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories has rarely been as divided as it is on the topic of the territorial budget.
Ministers returned to the house Jan. 31 professing the need for fiscal restraint on the heels of an all-cabinet trip to a mining conference in B.C.
That didn't jive well with regular MLAs, some of whom have already grilled cabinet on the expense. It was a rocky start to an assembly that seems to have only grown rockier.
Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson and Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli are united with regular MLAs against the proposed budget.
In a strongly worded budget address, Thompson cited the harmful nature of cabinet solidarity as a barrier to true consensus government.
The need for ministers to work together with regular members was an issue both Thompson and Nadli pointed to.
For Nadli, a sticking point was recent major investments such as the purchase of NTCL assets and the 2015 purchase of Cantung Mine.
Being told the government needs to focus on fiscal restraint doesn't sit well, it seems, when that same government turns around and announces surprise purchases of million-dollar assets.
As Nadli said, a lack of communication and transparency does not bode well for the relationship needed in order for a consensus government to work.
Thompson summed up the budget divide rather well: cabinet cuts are aimed at the eventual funding of "megaprojects" such as hydro expansions, all-weather roads and capital purchases.
The regular members, on the other hand, want strategic investments that meet the needs of constituents and can save the government money in the long run.
Thompson says regular MLAs had "limited success" in their negotiations with cabinet. Nadli says cabinet members aren't putting in a genuine effort to collaborate with MLAs.
From what we've heard from other MLAs so far, regular members generally seem to agree.
The reckoning we are seeing on the floor of the legislative assembly has been a long time coming.
For years, MLAs have criticized the government for not prioritizing the needs of the territory's many small communities.
Time after time, MLAs question cabinet members on a lack of communication and consultation.
Cabinet needs to take a hard look at its approach to consensus government. While that's happening, cabinet members should also take a look at their own spending and weigh that against the pressing needs of the rest of the territory.
Proper consultation takes into account the needs of everyone. And while cabinet members may have a tough job prioritizing social and fiscal needs against a bottom line that's not as high as anyone would like, that is in fact the job they signed up for.
Cabinet members clearly need to stop pretending to consult and instead need to actually listen to the other elected members of the assembly. They need to put words into actions and show regular MLAs they do indeed have the best interests of everyone at heart.
Life experience wanted, no training necessaryInuvik Drum - Thursday, February 9, 2016
During our talk about the potential Beaufort Delta Detox Centre, one thing Joey Amos said that resonated with me is not all the staff should need to be certified with whatever the government requirements are these days.
Instead, some can be people who are from here and have overcome addiction themselves.
In my opinion, the best life skills coaches are the ones who have been where the client is and can empathize with them.
This struck true for me growing up in speech therapy. Why would I take the advice of a speech therapist who doesn't stutter? You might have read a book about it and know all the terms and can repeat the list of advice you were taught, but I don't think you have any idea.
Maybe that's teenage angst, but I think education is a far more complex topic than just attendance at formal institutions. Who knows more, the person who walked that path, or the person who read a book about walking that path?
I think there's a place in the world for all types of education, and what's appropriate varies wildly depending on which field we're talking about. I want my doctor to have gone to school, not just be someone who's had a lot of surgeries.
In recent years, the bubble of post-secondary education and credential requirements has more and more began to seem like a racket.
Almost every industry has become pay-for-entry, with the government mandating certain credentials are needed for certain job types and the only way to get them is to go to a government-mandated education centre.
The same market-strangling, and therefore price-increasing phenomenon is apparent all over society, notably in the taxi business, where Uber has now upset the apple cart.
Industries usually lobby for this, because current players are grandfathered in, it strangles the marketplace to new entrants and it puts up a barrier to competition, so prices can remain elevated.
Everyone wins, except the consumer.
This relationship is getting more and more stressed as knowledge decentralizes and formal institutions lose relevance in the modern world.
For some of these softer fields such as addictions counselling, I say forget the credentials.
I don't know if the castle guards would allow it, but in my opinion, someone from Inuvik who has overcome addiction is an infinitely better counsellor than some 25-year-old recent graduate from the south who knows all the book smarts but not a lick of what it's like being addicted in the North.
Budget good for YellowknifeYellowknifer - Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Now this is a budget. It was a surprise last week to see a number of items people have been asking for - things the territorial leaders have recently insisted are not on their radar - magically get funding.
Finally, the territory is going to get 911. There is $616,000 set aside for implementation, which is scheduled to happen at some point during the next 14 months. This is a key development.
The city witnessed last year the cost of not having 911 - a fire destroyed Fitzgerald Carpeting and the person who tried to call the fire department resorted to actually driving to the fire hall in person because he didn't have an emergency number handy.
Whether 911 would have saved the structure is something we'll never know but it's absolutely true that in emergencies, seconds matter.
The two-year fight over junior kindergarten might be finally over. The territorial government announced Friday it would find the money to fully fund the program, which has experienced a fitful start over funding debates, although questions do remain.
What's more, the budget includes $520,000 for a sobering centre, which will give the city's homeless population a safe place to sober up.
It's hard to think of a time Yellowknife has fared so well in the budget - it's almost as if this is an election year.
Leading up to the budget, a group of regular MLAs, including several from Yellowknife, held a news conference to announce they opposed some of its spending proposals and brought up the possibility of blocking its passage if they can't come to an agreement. The group wants to eliminate job cuts that would affect programs and services and are hoping to see money go toward small-business incentives and mental health-care, among other things.
It looks like, so far, the budget is a document of compromise. While it's encouraging to see the MLAs put up a united front to make themselves heard, Yellowknifer worries they might be at loggerheads over too little.
There are still three and a half weeks left in the budget sitting. That's plenty of time to work with cabinet and find more room to compromise.
But regular MLAs shouldn't be afraid to take a moment and consider the fact they have achieved some early successes.
It would be positive to see some compromise on the other side of legislative assembly as well.
The value of coming togetherYellowknifer - Wednesday,February 8, 2017
When gunshots rang out Jan. 29 in a Quebec City mosque, all of Canada heard them.
The attack, allegedly committed by a Laval University political science student with extreme right-wing and white nationalist views, took six lives and injured five more.
The attack was germinated by hate but has instead sewn a wave of tolerance and love across the nation.
In Yellowknife, some 150 people stopped by the city's Islamic centre to hold a vigil and express support for the Muslim community here. The importance of solidarity in times like this is more than symbolic. It strengthens the fabric of our community.
Quebec City imam Hassan Guillet gave a eulogy at the memorial for the victims last week. It's worth the time to read it in its entirety but this excerpt is great advice on how to move forward:
"We should start changing words into actions. We should build on this tragedy," he said.
"God gave us a lemon. Let's make lemonade out of that. Let's make lemonade. Let's build on this negative and have a positive."
Yellowknife did that last week in response to the tragedy in Quebec and it was beautiful to see.
Now, let's continue to take Guillet's advice and make sure all of the city's residents know they are welcome here, they are safe and they are supported.
Classic artists can still inspire artistic successEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, February 8, 2017
I had an interesting discussion with a couple of folks this past week about the importance of classic rock artists still doing their thing, despite their advanced age.
It's a multi-layered process, depending on whether one is looking through the eyes of a fan, a critic, or, in some cases, a combination of both.
Classic rock, for the most part, trails only hoedown fiddle music in the Kivalliq, in terms of popularity.
Even square dancing, on a day-to-day basis, can't compete with classic sounds or a smoking hot fiddle player in this region.
There can be no arguing the fact, when one looks at sales numbers, a substantial market still exists for the artists of yesteryear.
And you also have their influence on young artists still honing their craft, and learning the importance of melody, structure, arrangement and lyrical content.
It's hard to believe groups like Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Eminem are inching ever closer to having the classic tag around their collective necks.
However, the true classic brand is the trademark of groups that got their start in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
Anyone who doubts a group comprised of guys all pushing, or past, the age of 70 can still be relevant, or deliver a strong rock performance, need look no further than a copy of the Rolling Stones recent concert in Cuba.
And while they're at it, they can grab the Stones' latest studio album of classic blues tracks.
Yes, junior, those old guys still know how to rock.
There's an element of nostalgia involved with it, of course, but so what?
One of the coolest things about attending these concerts, or watching them on your favourite electronic device, is the multi-generational composition of their audiences.
As long as they still deliver the musical goods, they introduce whole new generations to their music with every tour and that, valued readers, is a very, very good thing.
There are more collaborative efforts between artists these days than we've seen in quite awhile, and a number of Nunavut artists often employ that approach with their craft.
Musical genres can often come together to create special pieces of musical artistry; from Nazareth's still-scorching-after-all-these-years rendition of Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight, through RUN-DMC's take on Aerosmith's Walk This Way, and the Clash's version of the '60s staple, I Fought The Law, to East Coast legend Matt Minglewood's heart-wrenching ballad, The Patriot's Song, which was actually nicked from an Irish poet.
These, and many more like them, are artistic templates for modern collaborative artists smart enough to pay attention.
That can ring especially true for anyone fusing aspects of traditional Inuit music with stylings as far ranging as hip hop, techno pop, rock, folk and country.
The wheel doesn't have to be reinvented, just restyled into something fresh and alive.
For one of the original examples of taking an established musical style and making it your own - in sticking with our Rolling Stones theme - go back to the Stones' Voodoo Lounge and prepare to have your senses heightened.
The works of classic artists are a virtual treasure trove of musical approaches that, with a pinch of talent, can broaden the sonic horizon of any collaborative artist and help provide them with a blueprint to success. The notes are still playing, they just need to be transcribed with a little pizazz!
