Democracy at a price Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 28, 2017
After discovering contaminated soil during a Con Road construction project, city administration suggested to council that some of the responsibility, such as cost, for environmental cleanup ought to be borne by owners of the condominium adjacent to the contamination site.
Their reasoning went as follows: there appears to have been a fuel spill; the condos near the spill use heating fuel; therefore, there must have been a spill related to those condos and the owners should pay up.
This theory ignores the history of industrial use at the site where the condos now stand. Local historian Ryan Silke took the time to explain to Yellowknifer that a commercial trucking depot and warehouse operated in the area from 1959 into the 1980s.
Silke is a very knowledgeable person but it stands reason that it would be best to get this information confirmed by an official source - such as city hall where local property records are kept.
Alas, when Yellowknifer asked to see documents on the land in question the newspaper was told to fill out a form and pay a $100 filing fee to get the information.
The city will argue this is the cost of providing a service. Somebody at city hall is going to have type in the name of the property and retrieve the electronic record, or - God forbid - walk into a room somewhere and pull the paper file. Then scan it. And after all that, e-mail the file.
To this we say, why don't you just make that $500? Or how about $1,000? Why not charge $100 every time a city official grants an interview with media? After all, time is money.
If the city, whose budget has doubled since 2006 even though the city's population has not, finds itself short on cash, perhaps it should charge an additional service fee every time it interacts with a member of the general public. Perhaps charge an extra $10 when someone stops by to purchase a snowmobile licence. Or another $50 to buy a permit to build a fence.
A meeting with the mayor or senior administrative officer should definitely cost a fair penny. The city might want to consider charging admission for council meetings as well. After all, it costs money to staff these meetings and draw up an agenda.
Or, perhaps the city will realize that it exists solely for the people it serves, and when the media asks it questions it's to provide the people with answers.
And when the city demands money for information, it's not sound fiscal management it is exercising but an attempt to squelch questions it doesn't want to answer. And that's not democratic, accountable or transparent.
Flying in witnesses waste time and money Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 28, 2017
The wheels of justice turn slowly and at great expense apparently.
The system demands due process for all involved, from the accused being charged and having their day in court to witnesses giving testimony, to judges deciding guilt or innocence and doling out sentences or acquittals.
This is all perfectly understandable.
What is not is flying witnesses halfway around the world to testify against a man who is not even facing criminal charges.
This is what happened earlier this month when the Department of Justice flew two accident victims from Japan to testify in a careless driving case.
Genanaw Tamene, 44, is accused of striking the two tourists with his vehicle at a Franklin Avenue intersection last summer. The maximum penalty for careless driving under the Motor Vehicle Act is six months in jail, a $5,000 fine or both.
To properly prosecute this case the department felt it necessary they appear in person.
Otherwise, they would have to rely on testimony by video, and worst of worsts - operate outside of business hours due to the 15-hour time difference with Japan.
Someone should be charged for the careless waste of money.
If the courts can't think out of the box every so often while watching their costs, then the justice system is in more trouble than people think.
Finding one's pride and meaning in lifeInuvik Drum - Thursday, April 27, 2016
The stories that Sarah Jerome and Jordan Peterson told of their path to finding what it means to be proud to be Gwich'in are universal, though the circumstances are different with each person.
Everyone, no matter heritage, home or upbringing, embarks from birth on a constant journey to find meaning and identity.
For some it might come more naturally, and others struggle for years to answer the 'why' to everything.
Identity and meaning are vital to human achievement and progressing the world in a positive manner.
The absence of such grounding can cause at best listlessness, and at worst suicide, when the person sees no point to continue and no pride in existence.
Consciousness can flip on a dime and people are closer to each end of the spectrum at any given moment than might be assumed.
Peterson, in his speech at the 25th anniversary for the Gwich'in land claims event, explained how Gwich'in teachings differ from area to area.
What it means to be proud to be Gwich'in to one person might not be the same to another. The teachings one holds valuable might not be the same as another's.
Jerome too offers no one path or 'right answer' to finding out what identity is and why a person should be proud of his or her heritage.
That's a task every individual must answer alone, and it is a fluid concept, changing with the times and circumstances.
Jerome, for example, now finds meaning in not letting her weakening sense of hearing hold her back.
Identity and pride don't have to come from some grand event or a difficult childhood such as some of those in residential school experienced. It doesn't need to spawn from a bad beginning at all.
For many, though, overcoming an obstacle is key to their identity. For others, it is simply passion that drives their meaning, finding what makes them tick and diving head-first into it.
The question of how to find pride and meaning in life is as old as humankind for a reason. It is not due to be answered conclusively any time soon.
As wise as elders may be, they cannot tell youth what their identity is. They can only impart their stories of how they found their own identity and put the question in youths' minds.
Still dealing with the intergenerational effects of residential school, youth may find it difficult to articulate their identity in rapidly changing circumstances.
But it's no surprise many Northern leaders past and present, many responsible for negotiating land claims and other advancements for their people, are those who went through severe challenges themselves.
As the Chinese proverb says, the strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire.
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.
