Giant Mine problems not all undergroundYellowknifer - Wednesday, May 31, 2017
More than a decade after Giant Mine shuttered for good, there has never been a complete assessment of how its legacy has affected surrounding people, air, earth and water.
So no surprise more than 50 people descended upon the Giant Mine Oversight Board's first public meeting earlier this month to ask how the 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide left underground and other chemicals produced over Giant Mine's lifetime could affect their daily lives. How has Yellowknife's water been affected by the mine? How are traditional Dene food sources, such as fish, caribou and plants, affected? How has the mine - and its remediation - affected the health of people who live in the area? Giant Mine left behind an environmental disaster on a massive scale, so these are all important questions.
Unfortunately, Giant Mine Oversight Board chair Kathleen Racher wasn't in a position to answer these questions at the public meeting because they lie outside the board's mandate. The oversight board exists to provide oversight on the work of the Giant Mine remediation project, engage with the public and conduct research into a permanent solution to the storage of the arsenic currently housed in underground chambers below the mine site.
Good on Racher for agreeing to record these concerns and fold them into the board's work. The board itself notes in one of its recommendations to the remediation team that "no government department has accepted responsibility for assessing and remediating off-site contamination caused by historic operations at Giant Mine."
It's probably safe to assume that the more people look into off-site contamination, the more they will find. This is an unfortunate consequence of the federal government allowing Giant Mine to operate as it did for more than 50 years. On top of the immediate issue of arsenic trioxide storage, the federal government cannot ignore hidden consequences of the mine in its remediation plan just because those consequences are harder to see.
The public should keep coming out to public meetings and keep pressuring the government to study and clean up every mess left behind by Giant Mine. It's a hefty task for sure but it's also foolish to think remediation ends at the property line.
HPV vaccine (finally) offered to boysYellowknifer - Wednesday, May 31, 2017
In 2009, young girls in the NWT were offered a vaccine to protect them against the HPV virus.
Globally, the Human Papillomavirus causes the most common sexually transmitted infections.
While it usually isn't dangerous, it is a cancer-causing virus. This means certain strains can heighten the risk of different cancers in girls and boys. Despite this, boys haven't been offered the vaccine for free until this year. If this doesn't make any sense, don't worry.
It never made sense to Yellowknifer, either. So it's a good thing the NWT is finally following a 2012 National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommendation that boys and young men have access to the vaccine alongside girls.
The territory's expansion follows announcements by B.C., New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon earlier this year to expand immunization to boys.
According to NWT chief public health officer Andre Corriveau, the slow expansion can be blamed on resources.
"Like any new program it costs money, and it also involves more staff time and there's logistical issues," he said.
It's certainly been a long time coming but thanks to the Department of Health and Social Services for affording equal protection against HPV - thus protection from certain forms of cancer - to young boys and girls.
Time to invest and leadEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Kudos to Eric Anoee and the rest of the Arviat Film Society members for trying to increase awareness of the society and attract new members.
It's one society with a handful of members, but they've got the right idea in taking the initiative to try and attract local talent.
In short, they're trying to revitalize their membership, increase talent levels and take local ownership of their society.
There are still people who mumble that kids involved in sports get far too much in this region, and there has to be more for kids to do who aren't into sports.
Some people don't like to deal with it, but the real problem is the majority of those saying that kids not into sports need more opportunities don't finish the thought be adding, that is, as long as it's not me who has to volunteer my time to make it happen.
And, of course, there are fantastic programs available to kids across the region outside of sports.
Glen Brocklebank has been running an exceptional kayak program in Chesterfield Inlet for years, and he's also led the way in making science cool for students at Victor Sammurtok School.
Dorothy Tootoo has been running a great cadet program in Rankin for years, sometimes almost single-handedly, and I'd be willing to bet she'd have no problem with anyone concerned about the lack of programming stepping up to help carry the program forward.
Lloyd Francis is doing the same thing in Naujaat, and a number of his cadets have set Nunavut firsts during the past few years.
Gord Billard is known far outside the boundaries of Nunavut for the work he's done with the Arviat Drama Club, and a number of Arviat students have excelled at the Nunavut Skills competition during the past few years.
That success started and will continue with the adults who give their time to lead the baking, sewing, photography, TV/video production, etc., clubs and meetings after school to help the students hone their skills.
In short, they were, and continue to be, invested in their community.
And here's the rub: that investment has to come from those who call Nunavut home and are proud to be Inuit and/or Nunavummiut.
That takes commitment, dedication and, horror of horrors, effort without the thought of remuneration.
You want to work with the kids to give them confidence-building programs and challenges, opportunities for success, and positive experiences that help them make healthy choices while navigating through their formative years and adolescence.
And you don't need anyone to pay you to "volunteer" a few hours, two or three times a week, to help make that happen.
It still hasn't been that many years ago since a pair of teachers went into Naujaat and created the award-winning Whalers program.
And while it was, at its base, a hockey program, then Tusarvik School principal Leonie Aissaoui was blown away by the increase in both attendance and academic performance by those youths who joined the program.
The teachers won the prestigious RBC Local Hockey Leaders award and had their photos hang in the Hockey Hall of Fame for a year, but, unfortunately, life in the Arctic Circle did not turn out to be a long-term investment for them.
However, when they left, the hard work had been done, the program was strong and successful, and just needed someone to pick up the baton and carry it forward.
Within a year after they left, the Whalers program was dead and buried.
Would the same happen today if the aforementioned folks were to up and leave at the end of this school year?
It's the people of the Kivalliq who have to step up and provide opportunities for the youth.
As a region, we need to continue to invest in the youth of the Kivalliq, for investment brings stability and vision, which, in turn, breeds hope and belief.
And, really, isn't that supposed to be what all it's all about?
Pipe dreams nightmareNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, May 29, 2017
It's only a 2.5-kilometre length of pipe. It represents a minuscule amount of the approximately 50,000 kilometres of pipeline operated by Enbridge Pipelines Inc. across Canada and the United States.
But this section of Line 21 under the Mackenzie River near Fort Simpson - that for decades carried light crude oil from Norman Wells to the Alberta pipeline network - is being pulled in different directions by differing factions.
Is it about eliminating fossil fuels? Genuine concern over potential pollution? Or a chance to right a wrong and maybe see a cash settlement?
Whatever motivation that might exist for the Dehcho, this situation is a bit different than the usual pipeline flare-up - of the political nature - as the well-being of a neighboring Sahtu community is at stake.
In January, Imperial Oil suspended production at its oil field in the Norman Wells area due to the continued shutdown of Enbridge's Line 21. The pipeline was closed after the ground started to shift near the riverbank.
With the pipeline not operating, storage facilities in the community began filling up. The field produced about 11,000 barrels of oil per day in 2015. Imperial employs about 60 people in day-to-day operations in the community.
Enbridge applied in March to replace a 2.5-kilometre section of the Line 21 pipeline by horizontally drilling under the Mackenzie River about nine kilometres east of the village at an estimated cost of $53 million.
Enbridge also applied to abandon in place a section of pipeline under the river it is replacing. Enbridge hoped to begin construction this summer and conclude by fall.
Premier Bob McLeod in a May 16, said the GNWT viewed the replacement as a "maintenance effort" and would not normally refer it for environmental assessment.
"We certainly differ in that," Liidlii Kue First Nation Chief Gerry Antoine said about McLeod's 'maintenance' statement.
He is also at odds with the mayor of Norman Wells, who desperately needs the oil to start flowing again.
Alas, no decision will likely come until well after August when the National Energy Board will hold a hearing, which could last a week.
In a project this size, a hearing normally isn't required, however the board decided it would be in the public interest to hold one.
Dehcho First Nations, the regional aboriginal government, Imperial Oil, Liidlii Kue First Nation and Sambaa K'e First Nation will be intervenors at the hearing, which means they can submit written evidence, ask questions at the hearing, submit and respond to motions and make final arguments.
The board will have until Aug. 18, 2018 to make a decision.
A May 15 news release from the Council of Canadians states 80 per cent of Line 21 crosses unceded Dehcho territory, "and Liidlii Kue never consented to the construction of the original pipeline in the '80s."
So is it about protecting the environment? Or perhaps is it about finding some way to make some profit from Enbridge?
In any case, it's a pretty raw deal for the Sahtu people in and around Norman Wells. Sure, the fields are coming to the end of their productive lives but there are still a few good years left in the ground. And what if oil prices start to rebound in the next year? That would have had Imperial eagerly sucking oil from Norman Wells and sending it south - except there won't be a pipeline.
This is an unusual situation that is pitting NWT communities against each other.
Had the Dehcho First Nations been properly involved in the development and the profits from the pipeline in the first place, all parties would have an interest in getting the pipeline operational as soon as possible.
TB victims deserve a speedy responseNunavut/News North - Monday, May 29, 2017
Over the past two weeks, you've read in these pages the stories of Nunavut families travelling to Ontario and Manitoba to find loved ones lost after being taken south for tuberculosis treatment in the mid-20th century.
Of all the colonial atrocities against Inuit, one of the hardest to reconcile is the effective discarding of tuberculosis victims in unmarked or undocumented graves.
Nanilavut is a working group that is creating a database to help families discover where their loved ones are buried. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed told a media outlet last year that the federal government has a database for those who want help finding their loved ones but no money to help people travel south to find the graves and pay their respects.
During his February visit to Iqaluit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to healing these wounds.
But action is too little, and could come too late for many families. Many elders who witnessed the removals in the 1940s, '50s and '60s may never see closure if it doesn't come soon. For their families, this family history risks extinction as the affected generation passes. And in Nunavut, one family's history is often the community, the region, and the territory's history.
It's about time the federal government put a serious effort into helping bring closure to the pain Inuit experienced.
Step one is to make its database public, and make it useful.
Or perhaps it's time for the government to give the information to a different caretaker, as the feds have shown from the start and over the past 70 years they are not interested in this reconciliation work.
We publish Project Naming photos to identify the people recorded in history only as an Inuk. TB victims could be linked with their E- or W-numbers and their gravesites using a similar crowdsourcing application.
But attaching names to graves is not enough. The federal government needs to set aside funds to either fly south any families that find graves, or to repatriate the remains of the victims.
Reuniting TB victims with their families is an important act of reconciliation. And frankly, it requires a relatively small investment. But each day that the federal government takes to find a solution is another day family members have to wait.
For the many who will go their own graves not finding the graves of their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and others, it will be one day too late.
Visitors centre needs proper funding to succeed Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 26, 2017
Last week, things went from bad to unemployed for workers at the not-for-profit Northern Frontier Visitors Association.
If you've been following Yellowknifer's ongoing coverage, you know association's visitors centre shuttered earlier this month due to structural issues with the building. Years of frost heave have rendered it unsafe to occupy.
There has been a lot of soul-searching in recent weeks as the visitors association, the territorial government and the city figure out how to replace the tourist-welcoming centre months after reporting a whopping 50,000 people had come through its doors in 2016 -- mainly aurora tourism visitors from Asia.
In this respect, the visitors centre is a success story. Alas, it is teetering over a swamp - both figuratively and literally - and its governing association faces the prospect for the foreseeable future of greeting tourists from a kiosk at the museum with no ability to generate revenue through rent and selling merchandise.
The visitors association received $161,000 from the GNWT and $86,723 from the city last year but its primary revenue comes from merchandise and renting office space in the visitors centre - $1.09 million. Now that money is gone and up to $5.25 million will be needed to build a new building.
This speaks to the most critical problem the visitors association faces aside from losing its building- namely that it is at the mercy of an uncertain revenue stream.
For some reason, the city and GNWT decided it only needed to top up funding for the city's primary tourism promoter and leave it to the association to do all the heavy lifting. This was a huge mistake. The visitors association has been set up to fail at a time of exponential growth for tourism.
The problem should be obvious now that the city's tourism needs are being handled by a makeshift greeting desk at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre.
And as far as constructing a new building is concerned, the visitors association is clearly in no position to take on the task itself. This must be a project by government and time cannot be wasted dithering about who will fund it and when. It is critical that plans be developed for a new visitor's centre immediately. The question then becomes, what next? With no disrespect to the hard and valuable work performed by the visitors association over the years, recent events causes one to wonder whether it is appropriate to leave a non-profit in charge of promoting the city.
Board members come and go and none are immune to the frustrations that come with trying to keep a non-profit afloat.
When Kyle Thomas, the visitors association's president, admitted "he was at the end of his rope" trying to navigate solutions with city and territorial government representatives after endless board meetings, not a lot of imagination is required to understand what he is talking about.
If the government won't provide adequate funding, the best solution may be to bounce the ball firmly back into the government's court. Therefore, the pressure is on the politicians who are elected - and get paid - to make big decisions and not on volunteer board members trying to dig their way out of a multi-million dollar mess.
Forging a new energy identityInuvik Drum - Thursday, May 25, 2017
It was surprising to hear that finding interest for the Arctic Energy and Emerging Technologies conference and tradeshow has not been too much of a challenge for Vicky Gregoire-Tremblay, the town's economic and tourism manager.
In fact, people were coming to her before she could reach out to them, eager to be part of the show and get involved in the region's energy future.
There's no current booming alternative energy industry in Inuvik for the show to centre itself on in the way the old Inuvik Petroleum Show focused on oil and gas.
Money isn't flowing in the area in renewable technologies, at least compared to the oil and gas boom.
But what it does highlight is the power of shifting public opinion.
The Arctic has emerged as something of a mascot and recurring personality in the shift from oil and gas to new technologies.
In a similar way to the Arctic being used as an example of the ills of climate change, many people look longingly to it as a possible banner bearer in new ways going forward.
Though anyone declaring the death of oil is speaking far too prematurely, the wave of public support and investment money opening up for new energy sources is equally undeniable.
People want to make it work, and humans have the ability of almost willing their demands into existence.
Of course, the main challenge of the Arctic isn't going away: the lack of infrastructure and harsh environment, combined with low population, make many large-scale projects untenable.
With hope, Inuvik can reimagine itself and become an economic hub again.
The south can keep the north's traditions alive
The idea of hunting whales by qayaq is a childhood dream for many.
It's hard to imagine a more intimate and wild experience than taking down a sea monster with nothing but a qayaq and sharp spears. Guns help in the modern age, but the idea is the same.
Kevin Floyd and the Inuvik Qayaq Club are trying to keep that tradition alive, or at least continue the interest and skills involved, if not the actual beluga hunting.
Floyd and Jennifer Lam will be down south this weekend at the Pacific Paddling Symposium, teaching some Inuvialuit qayaqing skills.
Perhaps one of the best ways to keep Northern traditions alive is through southerners, many of whom value and respect these ways of life highly and wish to find a connection with them.
Cultural tourism is a growing industry, and there are a lot of different ways to capitalize on that demand, including passing on traditional skills directly to non-indigenous people.
Cultural appropriation is the controversial phrase of the day, but spreading these traditions is cultural celebration more than anything, and Canadians have a high appetite for these experiences.
