Answers needed in bail case Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, August 25, 2017
Winter is coming, and so is a carbon tax. By the start of 2018, the territorial government needs to have a plan in place on carbon, otherwise the federal government will come knocking and implement one itself.
A carbon tax is particularly problematic for the Northwest Territories where fuel prices are typically the highest in the country. The territory struggles to hold onto its population while a skyrocketing cost of living drives them out.
An estimated $12.6 million could be generated by a territorial carbon tax in its first year and that could either be a boon or a bust, depending where the money goes.
As Yellowknifer reported last week, there are really two options for where to put those pennies: directly fund regular government programs and services – i.e., use the carbon tax to institute another tax grab that will make life even less affordable. Or, recycle it back to residents and businesses through tax credits and rebates for greener homes and vehicles, such as wood pellet boilers and energy-efficient walls and windows, or investments in energy projects that reduce the cost of living and greenhouse gases such as hydro stations and wind farms. According to a GNWT discussion paper, the average household could expect to pay between $168 and $185 in direct taxes (on carbon producing fuels) and indirect taxes (included in the price of goods and services) in the first year the tax is implemented. By 2022, that could rise to $923 per household, as the price of carbon rises.
But in the North, where the cost of living is already punitively high, such an increase will inevitably squeeze out small businesses and individuals. A carbon tax may prove effective at lowering carbon consumption in larger centres where there are more options for travel and heating homes but fuel use is far less voluntary in a jurisdiction where winter lasts six months or more and most of the communities are powered by diesel.
Premier Bob McLeod needs to drive that point home to his brother's boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as much as possible. The premier's brother, Liberal MP Michael McLeod, must do the same. They must be ready to fight if Trudeau's promise to consider the North's greater cost challenges proves to be more hot air coming from Ottawa.
Tax breaks and subsidies to encourage people to go green while encouraging the development of cheaper, greener power must be part of any carbon reduction plan in the NWT -- especially if the GNWT is serious about encouraging northern business investment.
Making it too costly to invest here won't help anyone long-term.
But the territory also need long-term solutions, and we don't need to look any further than our next door neighbours on why investment in sustainable infrastructure is crucial.
Nunavut recently shoved the Iqaluit hydroelectric project to the backburner, because funds had to be reallocated to keep the lights on at all the other, aging power plants that rely solely on diesel. That can't happen here: a carbon tax reinvestment in energy needs to go into long-term, sustainable solutions, not just the status quo. Likewise, our politicians must make sure the little guy isn't being turned upside down and shaken by the carbon tax while finding ways to get the fossil fuel monkey off our collective backs.
And this is where the federal government should insert its proboscis: if any territory in this country needs federal investment in sustainable energy, it's the NWT. Without it, we'll be right back here, having this same discussion in 2022.
Don't be a slave to the nameInuvik Drum - Thursday, August 24, 2017
Kylik Kisoun Taylor of Tundra North Tours provided the boldest recommendation during a planning meeting for the 2018 Inuvik Sunrise Festival: change the date, away from the actual time the sun rises.
As heretical as that may sound, his argument had merit.
Typically, the festival is held at the end of the first week in January, when the sun rises again for the first time in Inuvik after the dark polar winter.
Taylor suggested either pushing the festival up and making it a New Year's celebration or moving it back to February when it's brighter out.
The challenge with the current date, he explained, is that most people can't justify taking a third week off from work after the standard Christmas break. It's a poor time of the year to attract tourism and truly, the weather's not that pleasant.
When people come to Inuvik, they actually want to be able to do stuff. As novel as the first sunrise is, tourists want it to be light enough out to engage in Northern activities and see the area.
The debate exemplified the challenge any business or organization can run into when picking a name.
The festival is named after the sunrise, so it has to happen during the first sunrise, right?
Well, no. What's a name? It's just words. It wouldn't matter if it wasn't perfectly in line with its namesake. That or scale the sunrise festival way back to a community event and use those resources for a differently named tourist attraction in February.
The whole concept goes out the window if it's cloudy anyway.
Imagine the tourists who spend thousands of dollars coming up here turning around because of such a semantic issue.
"Hmm, I really want to go to Inuvik for the sunrise festival, but did you know the actual sunrise was a month before? Scrap the plans - I cannot play accomplice to this!"
If you've got a business called the Red Shirt Company, but people are beating down the doors for blue shirts, you can either die waving that red flag or start making blue shirts.
A common mistake in business is getting too attached to a concept.
You start a new company with this incredible vision wherein everything ties back to Concept X. It's a work of art how all aspects of the business centre around this one idea.
But a year in, you start finding out that people prefer a service that doesn't tie to that concept. If you want to grow, forget your personal pride and follow the market.
A rigid vision sounds beautiful on paper but can become a ball and chain around your neck.
What matters is the product, not the concept, name or vision.
If moving the sunrise festival to a different date brings more money into town, that's worth any nitpicking about the name.
World doesn't stop spinning in summerYellowknifer - Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Summer in Yellowknife is so glorious and so fleeting, one could forgive anybody who lets him or herself believe the world actually stops for it.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. The world keeps turning. Residents keep using city facilities and infrastructure. Construction drones on.
Businesses keep their doors open.
Speaking of businesses, city council definitely owes an apology to Twist & Shout owner Jason Perrino, who recently showed up to not one – but two – municipal services committee meetings only to find these meetings didn't have quorum.
The handful of councillors in attendance couldn't do anything but passively listen to his presentation. Nobody had bothered to contact Perrino beforehand to let him know this.
The municipal services committee sits at noon, which also happens to be the start of any restaurant's lunch rush, so for Perrino to take time out of his day to make his presentation is no small effort.
Yellowknifer isn't suggesting councillors shouldn't be able to take vacations in summer. But becoming a councillor is a commitment and each person elected does get paid for his or her work.
So how hard can it be to organize vacations so there aren't so many councillors away at one time that council ends up hamstringing itself?
Last Monday, it was a personal emergency that lead to a lack of quorum. Personal emergencies happen. But maybe a little more planning could be done to make sure council doesn't grind to a halt over a single councillor's emergency.
As well as better organization, perhaps city council could do a better job at communicating. In the event where quorum won't be met, for example, somebody should be contacting those scheduled to make presentations.
In response to the quorum issues, Coun. Adrian Bell suggested people schedule their presentations in the fall, when there is a higher likelihood all councillors will be available to hear them out. As much as this is a fair and no doubt accurate observation, it's unrealistic. Things are going to happen in summer, people are going to need things from council in summer.
The world may slow down but it isn't going to stop just because the mercury passes 20 C. Maybe not all councillors will be around all summer long but enough of them should be so as to not hobble city business.
Aurora College review drags on and onYellowknifer - Wednesday, August 23, 2017
In March, Education Minister Alfred Moses announced a review of Aurora College in the wake of controversy over the cancellation of its bachelor of education and social work programs.
The review was to be finished by fall and implemented in the 2018-19 school year.
Here we are, on the cusp of autumn, and the contract has yet to be awarded. While the public awaits the outcome of this review, the bachelor of education and social work programs remain in limbo.
This may not be the intention of the government, but while the review stalls, these programs are withering on the vine.
Yellowknifer wouldn't blame anybody for their cynicism in thinking this is intentional.
Aurora College cut the two programs earlier this year after Cabinet slashed the school's budget by $1.89 million. The public outcry was intense, and rightfully so. The North needs social workers and teachers – especially Northern ones, who understand the specific challenges of this region. By keeping these programs available in the North, not only do Northern students have the opportunity to study close to home, these young professionals have a higher chance of staying up here, where they are so desperately needed.
Letting a review stagnate will lead to more of a likelihood that this is the end of social-work and education studies in the North. Whether or not this is intentional, the territory deserves better leadership than this.
One big familyEditorial Comment by April Hudson
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, August 23, 2017
As the summer comes to an end, so does a season of short-sleeved sports and warm-weather events.
In Rankin Inlet, the Calm Air Cup has capped a competitive co-ed season of softball, Family Fun Day brought people together one last time before classes begin and autumn is well and truly in the air.
School has started in all Kivalliq communities now and as students return to their classrooms I'm reminded once more of how people in the North live up to one of their greatest attributes.
People who visit the North often return home with stories of how friendly it is, the warmth of strangers and how many communities seem like one big family. It's something uniquely Northern - something you don't hear about from most other areas of Canada.
Now I can say I've experienced it for myself.
When I arrived here five weeks ago, I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to find myself in a place where people still really do say hello to you on the street, wave at you as they drive past or throw out a "good morning" - with feeling - at the grocery store.
People routinely went out of their way to help, to chat and to make me feel at home.
I found that warmth at the post office, hotel, at events and even when I was carrying my groceries home.
I also had people open up to me with their stories of hardship and success.
It was the extension of a close-knit community and made me realize just how happy most people are to live here. Despite the hardships of the North, there's a lot of beauty in the love people hold for their land and for each other.
Those are some of the most important building blocks to a healthy society, where people build each other up and invest time into connecting with one another.
This fall, take the time to appreciate what you have here - and include the contributions you personally make to this community by attending events, speaking up when needed and remaining so welcoming and positive.
If you keep talking to each other and keep that warmth flowing, then anything is possible.
Another chance for change this fallNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, August 21, 2017
Indigenous people are the future of the NWT. The process that began with the devolution of governing powers from Ottawa in the 1970s will continue until the sound and fury of colonization fades into the history books of this Indigenous majority jurisdiction.
There is no doubt that European settlers' callous disregard for the Indigenous people they encountered has slashed deep wounds in the body and minds of generations of people. But when will it be time for the scales of social justice to be balanced?
Many believe today's children could indeed be the first generation that has a fighting chance to grow up taking advantage of all the tools laid at their feet to build a successful life for themselves. How will they do this?
Education is the key. Not just from the lessons learned in classrooms but the help being provided to young children before they can even read or write. Despite all the problems rolling it out, this is the praiseworthy goal of the GNWT's junior kindergarten program coming to all communities that have a school this fall.
In October 2013, the territorial government issued another one of its glossy, colorful and long-winded reports, this one entitled NWT Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change.
Among the 66 pages of dense verbiage were some shiny nuggets of insight into the state of the struggling education system and some direction for the future.
The report explained there are "disturbing differences across the territory between small and larger schools," and that the territory struggles in comparison to the rest of Canada. "This data points to a very strong link between low academic achievement and poverty."
As part of a vicious cycle, poverty produces children who might not have enjoyed a happy time in the womb, don't get adequate sleep or nutrition and have less-than-positive role models around them. This sets them up to struggle at school, fail to get a good education - or don't even graduate high school - and they end up in the same type of impoverished lifestyle as they experienced.
In last week's News/North, ("Less gossip, more action needed"), Gwich'in Tribal Council president Bobbie Jo Greenland-Morgan, president of the council, said many youth today seem to show little ambition to achieve.
In that story, she relayed hearing from high-school students about their desire to live on income assistance as an adult. She said the lure of welfare seems stronger and doesn't carry the same stigma she remembers from her elders.
"The mentality it's not looked at as a last-resort thing anymore," said Greenland-Morgan. "For some, it's almost looked at as the government owes it to me. It's free money."
Indigenous organizations with straight-talking leadership such as the one that represents Gwich'in beneficiaries in the Mackenzie-Delta will play a key role in changing the life view held by some of today's youth.
There are jobs to be had - it's sad and unnecessary the GNWT must boost immigration to satisfy workforce needs - and leaders that are needed. There is no such thing as "free money" - it's called welfare and is a social safety net - as that kind of attitude not only hinders personal growth and achievement but hobbles entire communities and the NWT as a whole.
In that 2013 education renewal framework, then-education, culture and employment minister Jackson Lafferty stated: "I believe in years to come we will look back at this moment, with its combination of strategic initiatives, and see it as a turning point in the success of our youth and our territory."
We hope Lafferty's words do come true. We hope students entering school this fall can find success and not only help all of us head into the future, but also tend to previous generations still wracked from the effects of colonization.
Biases show systemic failuresNunavut/News North - Monday, August 21, 2017
As we reflect on the results of recent coroner's jury inquests in Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet, our hearts go out to the families of the Inuit men - Paul Kayuryuk and Victor Kaludjak - who died while in the hands of police and medical professionals because they appeared drunk, despite being in medical distress.
The people who fought in vain to get these men the care they needed are hoping to see systemic changes, and they can't come soon enough.
These incidents occurred in 2012 and 2013, yet we can expect more questions after similar recent incidents across the North. Our sister publication in the NWT has told the story of a man who died in Aklavik in 2016 after being dismissed as drunk when visiting the local health centre with a stroke. This week, a media outlet reported that a Gitxsan First Nation man in northern B.C. suffering a stroke had to attend hospital four times before being taken seriously.
In each case, an Indigenous man of a certain age was withheld proper care from people in power, from people in positions of public trust. We give police and doctors the power to make life or death decisions, and in each case, however unintentionally, they chose death without just cause.
Unfortunately these are not the only cases, as affirmed in the case of baby Makibi in Cape Dorset, who was also sent home despite being in medical distress.
How is this happening?
It's not much of a mystery. Far too many doctors, nurses, police and other non-Inuit professionals make an assumption that their main clientele - Inuit and other Indigenous citizens - are drunk by default.
But anyone who has taken a basic first aid course knows that the signs of a stroke or diabetic episode often resemble alcohol use, and that it is better to err on the side of stopping a medical emergency. Throwing someone in a jail cell is not the right approach.
Recognizing that the North is a place where new doctors and police come to cut their teeth, those in positions of hiring need to be more vigilant about providing better training in first aid, care, and cultural competency.
Unfortunately, we are a long way from achieving a fundamental level of Inuit representation in the ranks of Nunavut's doctors and police. And some of these people are here such a short time that there is no time to look past stereotypes, to become part of the community, to learn the language and the territory's culture or history.
Thankfully, a majority of medical professionals and police officers are trying to do their best, and many come here by choice. Make no mistake: it's the actions of the few that make Inuit distrust the system, police, and the medical profession.
Our advice to these professionals: fight to protect those coming to you for help. Give them the care deserving of your family, your friends, your neighbours. Open yourself to opportunities - such as the GN's cultural competency training - to broaden your horizons. Question your preconceptions, and those of your colleagues. Speak up in the face of racism.
If you're here to help, work to make sure we never need to talk about this again.
