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Editorial Friday, March 12, 1998 Back to square one on arena
It is up to the present council to bring some common sense to the arena debate.
The past council screwed up by allowing city administration to set the agenda. The price of a new ice facility was hiked so high, people began to seriously question whether the city even needs a new arena at all. All the careful and legitimate arguments that set the arena process in motion came crashing down.
The situation got so out of control that $380,000 was spent on design plans for an unapproved facility on a site the city had no hope of taking possession of without prolonged negotiations, if at all. The project and administration's approach were stripped of all credibility
Even today, city staff can't provide an answer to the critical question -- how much would it cost to properly renovate Gerry Murphy arena?
This is crucial because the reasonable argument for a new arena is seriously undermined without knowing the true state of the Gerry Murphy.
If the Gerry Murphy's goose is cooked, there is no question a new arena is needed. If we want to ease the considerable demand on ice time and allow for even minimal growth, a twin-pad facility may well be the answer. How affordable two rinks will be depends largely on what extras are tagged on.
It's council's job to dig out the facts in preparation for a debenture. One only has to look around at the high level of services in the city to see the ratepayers are not afraid of spending money if a need has been demonstrated and the community will benefit.
But ratepayers will rebel if they sense mistrust the administration's figures and well they should.
The arena debate is back to square one, perhaps even farther back than square one, considering public skepticism. Council will have to work hard to re-establish credibility and get the process back on track for the benefit of all Yellowknifers.
The immensely popular and culturally influential MuchMusic is coming to town for the Arctic Winter Games.
That will give the city more exposure to the rest of the country than money could buy. And for this we have to thank the imagination and initiative of Jon Posynik, a St. Pat's student, and a couple of his friends. The group submitted a video that cost $40 and three months of their time.
In the drive to boost Yellowknife as a tourist destination, perhaps the city should consider recruiting from the ranks of Yellowknife's talented youth. Their seniors could certainly learn a thing or two about bringing projects in on budget.
There are those who won't be pleased with the prospect of a narrower Franklin Avenue, no more matter which stretch is involved. Too bad.
The fact is Franklin, between 51st and 53rd avenues, is a traffic accident waiting to happen -- again. There have been scores of fender-benders and worse on those two blocks and it is high time the city did something about it. The plan is to widen the sidewalks and get rid of what is an extra lane in name only. Ask enough Yellowknifers how many lanes are there now and you'll get several different answers.
Cabbies shouldn't have trouble turning round a corner to drop off and pick up fares, and the new plan should make it plain that there is no four-lane freeway through the centre of town. It's about time.
We shouldn't need laws to convince gun owners to lock their weapons in a case, keep their firearms unloaded when not in use and ensure they are out of reach of their children. Legislation is no substitute for common sense. Editorial comment with Ian Elliot Inuvik Drum
We have a wolf hunt in the North. Apparently, at one camp on Rennie Lake near the border, the wolves are (illegally) pursued to exhaustion and then shot by hunters on snowmobiles.
The issue has raised a wave of outrage in the south, most visibly a rather snotty Globe and Mail editorial in Saturday's national edition.
But it is a little problem that has the potential to hurt everyone who depends on wolf pelts or other furs for money, which is quite a lot of people.
The initial Northern response to this problem? The usual: form a protective circle like muskoxen and bleat about how southerners don't understand. And history shows how well that strategy worked for the muskox.
True: southerners don't understand and no one's explaining. Which is why a shopper looking at a parka with a wolf ruff hanging on a rack in Montreal next year is not going to be thinking about how it looks; they're going to have a mental picture of an exhausted wolf being gunned down by a team of hunters on snowmobiles. Then they're going to go buy a sheepskin coat made in Korea instead.
With all respect to the Globe and Mail, the issue is not about overpopulation, substinence hunting, livestock protection or the supply of international fashion houses, it's about common sense and marketing. Simply put, fur has had its problems in the past with an image of cruelty and waste and it's best not to encourage any more images of cruelty and waste.
Northerners did the right thing when the International Fund For Animal Welfare targeted the Newfoundland seal hunt last year and Inuit sealers were threatened by association with it. They pointed out -- repeatedly -- that Inuit hunters shoot adult animals and use all that they take rather than clubbing a skinning baby seals for their penises and pelts on the edge of the ice.
Despite the immediate and visceral reaction felt when southern animal rights groups become involved in Northern issues, the issue was calmly addressed and no one got all red-faced and hysterical about how we hate it up here when we're told how we should run our affairs.
The credo up here is to treat animals with respect and to preserve them for the future. We also hunt them for food and fur, and understand the two are not mutually exclusive -- you don't harass them from snowmobiles, or cause them to suffer unnecessarily and you don't waste.
Resources Minister Stephen Kakfwi now says the concerns raised by the hunt will be addressed, and let's hope they are.
If hunters, whoever they are, flaunt wildlife regulations as is apparently happening at Rennie Lake, the territorial government has to lay charges against them and prove how seriously wildlife is regarded here rather than simply howling about southern ignorance every time there's the slightest murmur of criticism.
Editorial comment with Arthur Milnes Deh Cho Drum
I received an invitation last week to attend and cover a dinner being held by Village of Fort Simpson Mayor Norm Prevost.
Stressed out from a Tuesday deadline day, I have to admit I really didn't want to go.
All I really knew was that Mayor Prevost was having a dinner because of the visit of Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew to Fort Simpson. Having done this job for a few years now, I really didn't relish covering a meeting attended by a bunch of politicians.
However, when I arrived, my feelings quickly changed. You see, Mayor Prevost had arranged a rather interesting guestlist. It was the kind a lot of politicians might not have taken the time to arrange.
He made sure that the youth of Fort Simpson were represented with Bompas' current student prime minister, Jarret Hardisty and former prime minister, Sara Simons, on hand to greet their federal MP. And, high school students had TSS school president Mark Robertson there.
Mayor Prevost also used the dinner to honor the work of RCMP Const. Rick LeBeuf who has been a tireless advocate for the area's youth.
And, the mayor made sure that long-time area emergency services co-ordinator, Peter Shaw, was there to receive public recognition for all his labors on the people's behalf.
Representatives from the DCFN, Metis Association and Liidlii Kue First Nation completed the list.
For the record, I thought Mayor Prevost showed a lot of class in assembling such a group when he didn't have to. A lot of politicians would have set things up so that they received all the limelight. That Norm didn't is to his credit. Those little prime ministers from Bompas will long remember the night they presented a brief -- and a good one at that -- to a visiting secretary of state from the federal cabinet.
While I can't promise that our mayor will always like what I report, it seemed to me that he deserves to take a bow on this one.
A few others this week: special thanks to my friend Sharon Clarke. Her photos from Nahanni Butte (published this week) were a great help to myself and the Drum.
Sister Antoinette Cyre of the Diocese of Yellowknife is another I wanted to thank. She went to a great deal of effort recently to provide photographs and information on a long-time area sister, who had, unfortunately, passed on, for stories I was writing.
Little me was remiss in not returning the picture she supplied sooner and I apologize for that.
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