GNWT failing studentsNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, March 6, 2017
The kids aren't alright when it comes to reading, writing and arithmetic.
An analysis of student achievement presented at the Beaufort Delta Education Council board meeting last month in Inuvik showed poor performance and a stark trend among students entering high school ("Dismal student scores show need for fix," News/North, Feb. 20).
Among Grade 6 students, only 37 per cent read and write at an acceptable level (using Alberta Achievement Tests). The territory as a whole averages 50 per cent.
That number falls to 23 per cent for the Beaufort region at the Grade 9 level, compared to 44 per cent for the territory as a whole.
It gets worse when numbers replace letters.
In math, 34 per cent of Grade 6 students in the Beaufort Delta perform at an acceptable level, compared to 42 per cent for the territory as a whole.
Those numbers drop to 16 per cent and 36 per cent in Grade 9, respectively.
That's simply not acceptable. An entire generation of young people face struggles in life because the education system has failed them. For whatever reasons, the current classroom structure and curriculum isn't being bought into by parents, caregivers and youth.
Robert Charlie, representing the Gwich'in Tribal Council on the board, said the issue can be talked about forever but action needs to happen.
"We need to do something, we have to do something," he said. "How many years we've been talking about it, and what have we done?"
He said it's not just about the council or schools or parents but everyone in a community, and that youth need guidance.
"I have to say enough talk," said Charlie. "Let's put some action behind some of the things we already know and see if we can make some changes because we're not helping our kids by letting them take the easy way out, the easy programming."
But what needs to be done? Perhaps a little more focus on common sense and a bit less on outside experts, baseline data and endless consultations.
And yes, it will all come down to money. As we see it, the only real answer is to have more teachers and educations assistants in each classroom to both provide engaging instruction, smoother integration of special needs children and to make sure the students show up and pay attention.
The latter aspect of education is especially crucial in the Beaufort Delta.
Last spring, as the temperature warmed up outside, attendance inside schools dropped to remarkable lows.
"This time of year is not a good time for study," Denise McDonald, then-superintendent of schools for the Beaufort Delta Education Council, said at the time.
McDonald said while community and aboriginal leadership must step up and help encourage students to stay in school, the schools also have to be more responsive.
"Schools need to be more proactive in contacting families," she said, "They can't be so accepting of the way things are."
Here's another thought: why not just ask the teachers what they believe would work?
Our idea of more staff in the classes was derived from informal talks with educators. Why not ask them - individual teachers - what a better education model would be for the Delta? Then attach a price tag to it and see what can be done.
Sounds a bit unworkable? So does the current system.
Housing unit fire marks six steps backNunavut/News North - Monday, March 6, 2017
After reports from Iqaluit's fire chief of a relatively safe and loss-free 2016, it's difficult to cope with the sight of six housing units going up in smoke.
Our hearts go out to the two families of nine people, and the residents of three single units, who lost their belongings and homes.
As residents of social housing, they likely did not have insurance, so we are thankful the community and the Red Cross are able to provide help. These people did not have to find their own temporary housing thanks to the Red Cross, which provides funding for hotels, clothing, and supplies in the immediate aftermath of such emergencies. Residents also made personal donations to bring back a measure of normalcy.
We are also thankful to hear from the mayor that Iqaluit Housing was able to find new homes for the fire victims within the first week of the incident.
Just days after the fire, we heard from Finance Minister Keith Peterson, whose budget address included a note that the territory will see 90 new units built this year.
"But clearly we need more," he said.
This week's fire just moved the progress marker six steps back.
It's hard to catch up to the growing need for housing in our territory. We have homeless people who live in shelters but an overwhelming number of hidden homeless need new units built en masse to relieve the pressure they feel.
As Peterson said, three in 10 Nunavut housing units are overcrowded. Considering Nunavut has Canada's highest fertility rate, we simply don't have the space to provide proper homes for our people.
It's not clear how to speed up progress in this regard. House construction gets more expensive every year, land is expensive and slow to develop, and the government has limited resources.
From our research, Nunavut Housing is experimenting with new-to-Nunavut technologies, such as space frame foundations. These weight-distributing foundations are far cheaper than piles but remove some of the problems, such as heaving and wall-cracking, associated with piles driven into permafrost. Plus, they can be installed by unskilled local labourers.
Homes that are on piles but not driven into the bedrock are at risk of becoming write-offs as climate change erodes permafrost.
The technology reduces this long-term risk, and saves a lot of money.
The next step for the government is to take a serious look at how it can save money by investing in renewable energy. How much money do we as Nunavummiut consciously burn by powering our homes with diesel-generated electricity. It will take a bold effort to make change in this regard but there are savings to be had there.
Nunavut has 185 housing units coming online by next year. Now imagine saving enough money to build six more.
Questions about class-time cuts should be answered Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, February 24, 2017
The education department's proposed pilot project that will see class times reduced across the territory has not won much support from MLAs seated on the Standing Committee on Social Development.
Education Minister Alfred Moses says the project is intended to both improve student success and teacher wellness, yet MLAs remain skeptical of the project and for good reason.
First, as Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart pointed out, it is not clear how the reduction in class time will benefit students or how that benefit, if it exists, will be measured.
Moses explained that there is no single evaluation model for the program because every school is different and will require individual evaluation for each school. This may be true but the question remains how a project without clear criteria for success could have reached this advanced stage with such gaping holes in the information available.
This also leads to the second cause for concern.
The project is not only optional as far as individual schools are concerned but each school will develop its own approach to the project. Of the 10 schools territory-wide that have submitted project proposals thus far, class time reduction varies from 45 to 65 hours a year.
Presumably, any school that does not participate in the project will proceed according to the status quo. And for all those that do participate, since each school is submitting their own proposals, the number of hours of class-time reduced will not be the same.
How can this be considered an equitable and collective agreement fair for all teachers when teachers will face different teaching loads depending on which school they happen to be teaching in?
Everyone agrees, from parents to teachers to government officials counting the dollars while wondering how to increase the abysmal success rate of NWT students that the status quo is not working. English test scores from 2012 show NWT students are behind their Alberta counterparts in every community, including Yellowknife.
But without a clear sense of how success will be measured or how the cuts will provide equal benefits to teachers across the NWT, MLAs are right to demand better answers from the education department and its representatives.
Wellness centre offers traditional help Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 3, 2017
For all the services geared toward First Nations and Metis in the city, there is not a whole on the table when it comes to medicinal and spiritual help according to their traditional practices, and in their languages.
The Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation is hoping to change that after making a presentation to city council Feb. 13, where it asked for a four-acre gift of land with a 30-year lease, and the waiving of property taxes, so it could begin constructing a multifaceted indigenous wellness centre that would include a sweat lodge, traditional Inuit house and an area to grow plants used in traditional healing.
This comes after hopes of including a wellness centre into construction plans for a new Stanton
Territorial hospital went unfulfilled.
Dr. Nicole Redvers told council traditional healing methods First Nations have used for centuries are "on the verge of extinction" both in the NWT and in Nunavut, while pointing to the alarming tide of homelessness, addictions and youth in crisis among the city's aboriginal population.
The group's plan also includes training for future healers, counsellors and researching indigenous healing systems. The area they have chosen is adjacent to the Fieldhouse and Multiplex, where Redvers points out is close to the North Slave Correctional Centre where many inmates would stand to benefit from such a facility.
The feedback from council has been positive. Councillors obviously support at least the idea of having a wellness centre in the city. Now they have to follow through on land and tax support. The territorial and federal governments must also show support.
Given that there are 5,000-plus aboriginal people living in the city and that Yellowknife is the primary hub servicing mainly aboriginal communities in the territory and Inuit living in the Kitikmeot region, the wellness centre would be a welcome addition to the city.
Not only does the city stands to benefit from the new development but it will be one more facility that makes Yellowknife a better place to live where people can heal and keep traditional knowledge alive.
A call for women to serve in politicsDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 2, 2016
Fort Simpson's Reannda Cli is surprised at how few women are in territorial politics, and frankly, so am I.
When the 18th Legislative Assembly was elected toward the end of 2015, only two women secured seats as MLAs. That's out of a possible 19 seats.
And while that is old news at this point, it still bears mentioning in light of the Daughters of the Vote initiative, which brought women from across the territory together in Yellowknife this month.
Cli was one participant in the initiative. She says she learned more about territorial politics than she expected to - and that includes learning about the numerous barriers women face when deciding to run for office.
Rightly, the legislative assembly has identified increasing the number of women who run for office as a priority. If women don't run, how can they get elected?
It is fitting, then, that the assembly hosted Daughters of the Vote, an initiative from Equal Voice Canada, which gave politically inclined women like Cli a chance to speak with women who have run and held positions in the past, as well as women who currently hold political office.
The various workshops Cli participated in aimed to break down some of the barricades women may feel they face when considering whether to run. Those barriers vary from familial obligations to simple confidence issues.
In order to for more women to enter politics, first they must see a political career as a viable option. Thankfully, the first step toward that goal is taken when initiatives like Daughters of the Vote take place.
Frankly, the Northwest Territories has a fairly dismal record of women running and being elected to the legislative assembly.
That being said, those who do get elected can be seen as role models for the rest of us.
Whether you agree with their politics or not, MLAs such as Julie Green and Caroline Cochrane - one developing a reputation as an outspoken critic of GNWT decisions when she feels the need, and the other having a seat on cabinet - seem to show women have a real say once they actually get a seat at the territorial table.
It seems that the majority of the struggle is getting women to the table to begin with.
That's not surprising, considering how many different factors can discourage women from putting their names forward - from traditional expectations of women to be caregivers and look after the family to the re-election of Dehcho MLA Michael Nadli, who was convicted of domestic assault but released from jail just in time to run in 2015. The political climate in general can be seen as unfriendly to women.
One barrier that should be addressed is that of attending initiatives like this to begin with.
It would be ideal to see localized workshops held in smaller communities to encourage women to put their names in for a political seat. While there's value to holding these workshops in Yellowknife, that doesn't help women whose work, family and fiscal obligations mean a trip to the capital is not possible.
It would also be great to see high schools facilitate similar workshops for students in junior and senior high. After all, Cli's interest in politics started with school politics.
There is plenty of time left before the next territorial election. If increasing the number of women who run is indeed a priority for this assembly, we will hopefully see more workshops like Daughters of the Vote in the future.
Lighting the competitive fireInuvik Drum - Thursday, March 2, 2016
There are too many youth sports happening these days to keep up with them, and that is a great thing.
Few pursuits at that age are more educational or fundamental to development.
Learning to operate as a team, play your position, delegate tasks, divide the workload and perform under pressure are key skills in the working world.
Sports teach youth to embrace the natural spirit of competition, which appears in all aspects of life.
Economic competition seeks to constantly lower prices and improve products.
The free competition of ideas progresses science and finds truth in the world.
Even competing with ourselves serves to make each of us the best version of ourselves we could possibly be.
Competition drives us to be better than the other person applying for a job, a better suitor for a desired spouse and a better person compared to who you could be, should you not compete.
Your skin colour, social status and background all don't matter on the court. All that matters is your ability to perform.
This is the same for competition in the entrepreneurial world. No one cares what the person who made the iPhone looks like. They just love the iPhone.
Sports teach the difference between talent and hard work.
Everyone has talent. Not everyone gets out of bed and puts it to use.
It doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't do anything with it. Someone much less "smart" might be the one staying up all night, putting in the time and changing the world.
In so many ways, the world's talent is squandered because people aren't encouraged to use it.
Youth learn this early in sports. You can dipsy doodle like a rock star all day but the person hustling every shift and sweating buckets is going to have a bigger positive impact on the team.
There are few places where youth get such a raw simulation of the competitive environment of the real world as youth sports.
I guarantee the people who emerge as leaders there will go on to be leaders in adulthood. The hustlers will go on to be hard workers. The dipsy doodlers better learn that won't take them far.
It's good to see all the competitive pursuits youth have in Inuvik.
Light those fires early and they will do great things.
NWT needs a treatment centreYellowknifer - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
On March 30, 2016, Stanley Abel Jr. punched and kicked his uncle to death over a missing bottle of liquor.
On Feb. 17, NWT Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau sentenced him to five years in prison for manslaughter. Abel Jr. doesn't remember what he did and said he wishes he could take it all back.
During the sentencing, Charbonneau pointed out that a lack of a treatment centre in the territory is "an additional obstacle for those trying to seek help for addiction issues."
People such as Abel Jr. need access to addictions treatment so tragedies like this don't happen again.
After the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre on the Hay River Reserve closed in 2013, the lack of treatment options in the territory has remained a recurring issue. In October 2015, Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli asked about this in the legislative assembly.
Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy's response was one the assembly has heard time and time again:
"In the Northwest Territories, treatment facilities have failed every time we have tried to open one," he said. "They've failed because of staffing reasons, high cost, $420 a day compared to southern facilities at $155, safety issues ... and under-utilization."
Abernethy doesn't seem to get it. Even if it is expensive, even if it is underutilized, even if it's cheaper to send people south, a Northern centre needs to exist. By sending people down south for treatment, vulnerable people are put in a position where they have to navigate bureaucracy to get help.
People have to uproot their lives for it. Also, sending people from communities to a southern city like Edmonton can be a shock unto itself, which can make it that much more challenging for patients to succeed.
Desperate times call for drastic measures and when it comes to alcoholism in the territory, these are definitely desperate times. The territorial government needs to recognize that and commit to nothing less than a Northern treatment centre.
Lost without communicationYellowknifer - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Two missing hunters on the land - two different outcomes. Joe Black, a 65-year-old with a lifetime of experience being on the land, did the right thing once he became separated from his companions by staying with his snowmachine after getting stuck.
After a two-day ordeal on the frozen Barrenlands 150 km northeast of Yellowknife last week, a search and rescue team found him alive and brought him back to civilization and into the loving arms of family members desperate for some good news.
It was a different story for Antoine Betsidea, 46, whose body was found earlier last month after getting lost in a blizzard - also while hunting on the Barrenlands.
Surviving alone in such a place requires exceptional skill and a bit of luck. Both men were undoubtedly skilled hunters but unfortunately for Betsidea, his luck ran out.
As Dave Taylor, Yellowknife zone commander for the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, reminds us, odds of eventual rescue and survival are greatly increased when people are carrying walkie-talkies, a SPOT device, flares or GPS.
None of these items appeared to be present in either case.
Travelling on he land is essential for many people in the North - yet unforgiving. It really is a matter of life and death that people think of bringing a means of communications with them before venturing on to it.
As we said in the Feb. 10 editorial following Betsidia's death: Too often, not having a communications device is the last mistake anybody makes.
Path of traditional music is often narrow by natureEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
I was asked this past week to expound upon my thoughts on how popular music has changed during the past few decades, and how it can be a musical trap to have one's music defined as cultural or traditional in nature, especially among indigenous artists.
How popular music has changed during the past few decades is a deep, broad topic of discussion and best left for another day.
I remember reading a story on Susan Aglukark when her career took off with the release of her O Siem single from the album, This Child, which rose to the top of the Canadian charts and eventually went triple platinum.
I remember her talking about not really understanding what the term 'with a bullet' meant as her music reached more-and-more listeners, and how she wasn't going to concern herself with being 'the flavour of the month' as long as her music continued to do well.
As everyone in these parts is fully aware, Aglukark went on to have a very successful musical career without sacrificing any of her true self.
The work Aglukark has done in the past few years in putting a focus on literacy and art, taking up the battle against the monster that is suicide and, through her Arctic Rose initiative, lending a helping hand to those dealing with food-insecurity issues in the North has been an exclamation point to a career that still resonates with many fans.
Aglukark is a rare talent. During the days she was riding the top of the Canadian charts, she had enough strength in her music and delivery to be known as a true crossover artist, which is no small feat when dealing with the 'here today, gone tomorrow' world of popular music.
A precious few artists seem to have the talent to crossover musical genres and charts naturally, while others, even the great Bob Dylan, have to make a concentrated effort to achieve such a lofty goal.
Dylan was lustily booed, especially while touring England, after he broke out the evil electric six-string at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 in support his new album, Bringing It All Back Home.
Even the Beatles risked fan alienation as their music progressed into studio art through the era of Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Once an artist is cemented into a particular category, it's a long, hard road to try and be accepted by fans of a different genre.
The gamble has often proved itself to be a recipe for a complete career meltdown.
Passion, conviction and commitment to the material they write and perform are often what separate run-of-the-mill and successful artists, no matter what the musical genre.
Your ears would have a hard time, for example, believing the sincerity of a Boy George performance of the Delta blues.
Once the music of a developing artist is classified, without reservation, as being that of a particular genre - especially traditional stylings - that artist had better be committed to, and passionate about, the path they're on if they hope to achieve any level of commercial success.
Being placed inside the musical box comes a lot more easily than breaking free of its confines, and that rule of thumb is one that developing talents, especially those in traditional or cultural settings, had better take into consideration before ending up on a narrow musical path that offers a lot more restriction than may first meet the eye.
Musical food for thought.
