Big price tag for a big problemYellowknifer - Wednesday, April 26, 2017
There is no denying $147 million is a huge number.
There is also no denying homelessness in the city is a huge problem, and complicated too.
Eradicating homelessness doesn't end with popping people into homes and walking away. It involves working with each and every individual, determining his or her needs and providing support.
Some people might need a place to crash while they are in between jobs, while others are living on the street with such severe addiction and mental-health issues that they will need intense support for the rest of their lives.
According to Alina Turner, the city-hired consultant who came up with this figure, there are at times
approximately 1,500 homeless people in the city.
This is a huge and scary number but consider this: about 70 to 80 per cent of these people experience short-term bouts of homelessness and just need temporary help.
About 10 to 15 per cent are "episodically" homeless, which means they might need help more frequently. The remaining five to 10 per cent are the people who pretty much permanently live on the street and in shelters.
This is why Turner's estimate covers more than just housing - it includes the construction of 240 units, rent support for 127 units, a rapid rehousing program, expanding the case management system as well as construction of about 160 supportive housing units.
So no surprise it will take $147 million to tackle this problem. Yellowknifer would in fact be more skeptical if Turner tried to convince the city this could be done cheaply.
So far, the city has been going about managing this issue in the right way - it's quantified the problem and come up with an estimate on what needs to be done to fix it. Now that the city has come this far, it's time to start chipping away at it.
The $147 million is projected to be spent over 10 years, which works out to about $14.7 million per year. With a sound plan, raising that kind of money seems feasible.
The lion's share will need to come from the territorial and federal governments, so hopefully Premier Bob McLeod, housing minister Caroline Cochrane and MP Michael McLeod are paying attention to what is happening in city hall right now.
Yellowknife will definitely need all the support it can get.
Northern solution to cost of living problemYellowknifer - Wednesday, April 26, 2017
The cost of living in the North is high, there is no question about that.
Between skyrocketing utilities, high building costs and high shipping costs for building materials from out of the territory, the cost of housing is a problem in particular. This also puts pressure on fulfilling the demand for public housing.
A pair of companies - one in Yellowknife, the other in Hay River -- is striving to meet the challenge by building homes right here in the Northwest Territories.
These homes are built for the North's long, cold winters and the territorial government is throwing its support behind them.
To meet demand for the hundreds of people in need of housing, and also support northern businesses, the GNWT contracted Yellowknife's Energy Wall and Hay River's Concept Energy Services to build 39 units.
It makes more sense to have businesses in the territory come up with solutions to Northern issues such as housing.
Not only is it good to support business but those businesses have a better understanding of
problems like high costs, extreme cold and long distances.
Disarming a stereotypeEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Stereotype. It's one of those words people, for no explicable reason, still psychologically recoil or shy away from almost instantly.
And it's often a grossly misunderstood term, thanks to its overused association with racism, especially when viewed through the eyes of those who see racism everywhere they look; sometimes real, but mostly imagined.
The word's biggest crime, should we choose to view it as an entity, is it tends to oversimplify all it describes. We can't, in good conscience, blame the word for its constant misuse.
The word actually began to become somewhat of a joke in terms of its literary value, thanks, mainly, to overuse, misuse, misapplication and the peculiar habit of people all-too-readily attaching it to fictional characters.
This is a word that, at one time, had quite a little sting behind it when launched in your direction. Or, at the very least, it would leave you baffled as to what, exactly, was meant by that?
For example: Is that Darrell the writer? Why, yes it is. Boy, talk about a stereotype.
Now, if that didn't have you scratching your head in bewilderment, if not lying awake in bed at night analyzing it to death, you, for better or worse, have not a care or concern in the world.
In fact, should a conversation like that not affect you on any level, I would not hesitate to say you have the disposition of the stereotypical Hobbit.
For all the abuse the word has suffered during the past few generations, nothing has disarmed its veracity so completely as its constant association with fictional characters.
It's hard to take the usage of any word too seriously once you've heard someone say Archie Bunker is your stereotypical middle-aged white guy.
I mean, come on. Anyone who makes such a statement, with any level of sincerity attached to it, is a mental midget who should be ignored at all costs and never touched, lest their affliction be contagious.
That much is understood, but, for the word, the damage has been done. You are now officially entitled - with no fear of any type of repercussion from the would-be white privilege adjudicators - to giggle to yourself every time you hear the word used for the rest of your adult life.
Those who think, or who actually believe, everyone involved with performing arts are gay, are to be congratulated for the proper use of their stereotyping abilities, even if they may be a little lacking in other areas of concern.
Those who look at folks in the world of performing arts, however, picking up on their habits and tendencies, noting how they view and react to any given situation and surmising what path they will choose if ever confronted with such a situation again, have, despite what they may think, failed grossly in their attempts to stereotype.
What they have done, in fact, is unwittingly taken their first baby steps into the much darker world of profiling.
The truth of the matter is that stereotype was never intended to be an intimidating word. It was made so by those who go out of their way to create monsters, and many of them are damn good at it.
It is a word well beyond its best-before date, if it ever actually had one, and it better serves today's society as a conceptual punch line for an Archie Bunker joke than any other use.
And, there are still plenty of other words out there we have to deal with on a daily basis that are designed to hurt, humiliate and silence, and there are no shortage of people willing to use them.
Send in the clowns!
Cannabis culture comingNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, April 24, 2017
Perhaps a year from now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will channel American President Donald Trump and admit legalizing marijuana was harder than he thought.
The Liberal's bills, introduced April 13, set in motion new regulations and restrictions on cannabis that will end 94 years of what is widely considered failed prohibition.
The bills are now being scrutinized by the provinces and territories, who will oversee the distribution and sale of cannabis. However, details are few on what those jurisdictions are planning to do.
One key detail for the NWT is that Canadians will soon be able to buy online and have the product delivered by mail or courier if there is no regulated retail network in place. Could this pose problems for any community that might want to try and expand booze bans to include weed?
Not only are there so many federal government departments involved — Health, Justice, Revenue, to name a few — but the provinces and territories face the same multi-departmental hurdles. Anyone who believes all this will result in tidy new rules for us to live by in just a little over a year must be smoking something.
In the NWT, there is an interdepartmental working group on marijuana legalization. A very quiet working group.
"We will be better able to respond to media requests once the group has met and the initial review has been completed," stated a Department of Justice spokesperson in an e-mail to News/North's sister paper, Yellowknifer.
The department did not include a time line for the group to conduct this review. Yellowknifer also reached out to Justice Minister Louis Sebert and Premier Bob McLeod for comment but none were forthcoming.
One MLA is urging the justice minister to start talking publicly. Kieron Testart (Kam Lake) wants to know how the territorial government is going to tackle sales and distribution of pot.
Testart correctly noted the tax revenue generated by legal marijuana could help our cash-strapped government. He also said he believes regulating the legal sale of marijuana will make communities safer by taking away profits from the black market - mostly from the south - that funnel weed into the territory.
With so many questions from people eager for answers, the no comment from the premier and justice minister shows a lack of leadership. Is this an indication, as Testart believes, that the GNWT has a lacklustre attitude towards marijuana legalization? That would be very unfortunate, as this is something that can help heal a few of the territory's wounds.
How? Well, youth and adults are clearly obtaining marijuana at present. No time for politicians to shove their heads in the sand.
That means they are breaking the law and buying an unregulated substance from criminal organizations ultimately run by outlaw bikers and street gangs. If someone is caught with marijuana - a drug that has been so widely used by people from all walks of life for decades - their lives can be ruined with a criminal record.
Then there is this: If people are bent on using some form of drug, it would be so much better to have them stoned than drunk.
That is undeniable.
While the abuse of any substance is harmful, recreational use of marijuana has been a long time coming in Canada. And as it will open so many doors - while also creating problems of its own, for sure - we need to be confident our leaders don't have any half-baked plans.
Premier McLeod wants to increase transparency and public interaction with his government? This is the exact time to do just that.
Suds and wine better than bootlegged liquorNunavut/News North - Monday, April 24, 2017
Now that, at long last, the Department of Finance is preparing to retrofit the Iqaluit liquor warehouse to sell beer and wine directly to customers - instead of forcing them to order a shipment from Rankin Inlet - residents in the two other regional centres are wondering if they should have the same at-will access.
May 1 plebiscites in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet will ask voters if they want beer and wine stores locally. The government doesn't have to obey the result but if the votes are yes, and the Iqaluit store works, we should expect to see more beer and wine stores in Nunavut.
It's hard to ignore the evidence that beer and wine stores have proven effective in reducing the use of hard liquor in Greenland. Even better, crime related to alcohol fell, too.
This is a good thing, especially considering how the RCMP doesn't keep statistics on crimes involving alcohol in Nunavut because, as far as they can tell, pretty much all of them involve alcohol. For the most part, it involves hard liquor, much of it sold through bootlegging.
Can beer and wine have a negative effect on people, and on families? Certainly. But is it as problematic as hard liquor, at least the way hard liquor is consumed here? Likely not.
Drinking a 40-ouncer in one shot is a recipe for disaster. Who hasn't seen someone beyond drunk on our streets, even outside the grocery store? From our experience covering Nunavut's courts, trouble gets more serious once the vodka starts flowing. Too many families have been broken because of liquor's 40 per cent alcohol content.
Depending on who you ask, government officials estimate a bottle of vodka costs $180 to $300 from a bootlegger. Buying alcohol from a store should reduce the amount of money put into the black market, and keep that money in the pockets of the people who need it.
There will still be a market for bootleggers, as some people will maintain a desire for hard liquor, and they'll want it right away.
But the mission of the government is to reduce harm, and every step in that direction will help. In this regard, MLA Paul Okalik's resignation over the issue was short-sighted. He was right that addiction treatment facilities are needed. But they've always been needed, including during the years he was health minister. They are one part of the solution.
Another part is offering drink that contains less alcohol. Another is reducing the amount drinkers spend.
What we hope more than anything is that the overall result will be a reduction in crime - especially the extreme cases where the perpetrator doesn't even remember the attack - and healthier people. This should be the measure of success.
We expect voters in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet will say they want stores in both hamlets. It's the right move.
But the next move will be to push the government to support the healing needed by so many who find solace in alcohol. It's an election year, after all, and a push for treatment facilities is an issue we can get behind.
Arsenic anonymous
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 21, 2017
Nineteen eighty-nine was a banner year. Among events that shook the globe were the fall of the Berlin Wall; the march of protesters in China at Tiananmen Square and their clash with Communist China broadcast live on television; the Exxon Valdez oil spill along Alaska's pristine coastline which sparked a generation's environmental activism.
In the excitement of the day, it appears a 1989 report on Kam Lake water quality may have fallen through the cracks.
Nearly 30 years later, Dr. Andre Corriveau, the territory's chief public health officer, has issued a health advisory based on the report recommending no one drink, swim in or eat fish caught in the waters of Kam Lake.
The issue is the potential for consuming arsenic from the lake. Longtime residents know Kam Lake is no Fountain of Youth but visitors and more recently established residents are likely only to see a pretty lake when wandering by. Many people may have no idea that a gold mine had once operated on the rise of land above it and that tailings from the mine had been percolating into the lake for decades.
In some respects, Corriveau's health advisory is an absurd afterthought after so many decades lying there mostly neglected by officialdom, its toxic legacy just barely hidden beneath the surface.
Even after all these years, Kam Lake's reputation is no more rehabilitated than Frame Lake's, which gave up its fish, beach and diving towers back in the early 1970s.
But, after dusting off that musty old report it's understandable why the health department would rather be safe than sorry - with findings showing arsenic levels at more than 50 times the Canadian guidelines for drinking water.
It was the best data Corriveau had so he was right to raise the alarm.
But Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart is also right to demand better of the territorial government when it comes to staying up-to-date on the water quality of the larger lakes in the immediate vicinity of the city.
As it turns out, Miramar Mining, as part of obligations for remediating the old Con site, has much more current data on water quality in Kam Lake. Its 2016 report, filed with the Mackenzie Land and Water Board, shows arsenic levels are now about 20 times higher than the accepted standard for drinking water.
Alas, as governments all too often demonstrate, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and no one apparently thought to ask. The latest Miramar report likely would've remained buried too had the health department not stumbled upon the 1989 report.
Considering how Yellowknife is a modern city with a fairly transient population of people in it, it is incumbent on the GNWT to ensure the public health officer has current and relevant water quality data for area lakes so he can do his job.
It's not like Kam Lake has gone unnoticed by the people living here. Despite its murky past, or perhaps in ignorance of it, many people still enjoy the lake. There has been more than one fishing derby on the lake in recent years and it is a popular place to hike and explore.
If the water in Kam Lake, or any larger lake surrounding the city, is unsafe to drink, swim in or take fish home to fry, Yellowknifers need to know without relying on the chance find of a document that's apparently been collecting dust since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Arts and culture festival needs a true fiscal hero
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, April 20, 2016
The annual general meeting for the Great Northern Arts Society painted a grim picture of the organization's state.
It's no secret money has dried up in Inuvik. Every organization and society tells the same story.
Money is not flowing in the North.
Still, there are some bright spots, such as the 100 People Who Care Inuvik group, which recently started up and makes quarterly donations to charitable organizations.
All of this underlines the fundamental role a strong economy plays in society.
When things are good, it is easy to say no to projects, slap regulations on businesses and crank up the taxes to skim a little more off the top.
But when the drought hits, people realize what a survival situation life can be.
A society lives and dies on the back of its economy. It is not some disconnected entity. The economy cannot be separated from the rest of society.
"Business" and "profit" have become dirty words in some modern social narratives.
But if profitable business doesn't exist, neither do the arts, charities, food banks, you name it.
Consider Robinson Crusoe on his deserted island for example.
The humans washed up and stranded there must first catch fish before they can start painting. Nothing happens if they don't find food and water first.
From there, they can start saving superfluous food to free-up the time and energy needed to build, say, a net that allows them to catch more fish at once. This increases their productive capacity, frees their labour and the development of an economy follows.
Similarly, arts organizations and the like exist today because our society can feed itself already and people have the luxury to invest superfluous resources into these sort of organizations.
Let's not forget who puts food on the table.
Inuvik isn't dead yet. It might have to adopt Aklavik's slogan of 'Never say die' if this economy keeps up, though.
There are still opportunities here and available resources. Look at the Muskrat Jamboree queens raising over $178,000. It can be done, but there's no doubt it takes more work than it once did.
Local arts are an important part of the area's cultural history and a source of income for the artists themselves. It would be a great shame if the dwindling economy took some of the region's culture down with it.
The task is now with the Great Northern Arts Society to do everything it can to make its case for survival.
As resources shrink, sponsors get pickier. No one has the right to funding. It has to be earned, and that will be a bigger job now for the society than ever.
The Great Northern Arts Festival needs a big hero, or many small ones.
