Monday, July 20, 1998
One of the spinoffs from hosting the Western Premier's Conference in the Northwest Territories was the opportunity to again bring up the subject of building more roads in the North.
While discussions with the western premiers over road infrastructure were general, it's clear our best ally in the fight for federal highway money is Alberta.
As Finance Minister John Todd pointed out, Alberta does $1 billion worth of business with the North each year. Todd wasn't specific but most of that business revenue probably comes from the Western Arctic. That is major clout in any game and promises of more business should keep the oil-rich province a fast friend.
Todd also made reference to two other interesting facts: For every resource job in the North, three more are created in Southern Canada while every dollar of tax revenue in the North generates five dollars in the South.
Now is the time to get that message across to the federal government as Canada's first diamond mine, BHP's Ekati mine, goes into production this fall.
With the eyes of the mining world on the NWT, this is also a good time to get serious about opening up the Slave Geological Province to more development, and not just for diamonds but for gold and base minerals.
Of course there will be environmental reviews as well as aboriginal land claim issues to be resolved. Better to get those matters on the table and closer to resolution before industry comes looking for stability.
Premier Don Morin, following on his success bringing the Western premiers North, is in the best position to keep the pressure on the feds for infrastructure money. He can also use his personal relationship with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to keep that province on side. he'll have an opportunity to do both at the annual premier's conference scheduled for early June in Saskatoon, Sask.
Waking Ottawa up enough to embrace good ideas is an uphill battle, even for the larger Western provinces. The NWT needs all the help it can get.
Spending almost half a million dollars on yet another panel designed to ensure BHP Diamonds and government regulatory authorities are doing what they're required by law to do may sound like a waste of money.
But as the first annual report of the Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency shows, the people of the NWT and BHP are getting their money's worth.
First, it is not surprising that BHP should run into a few snags as they build their first diamond mine -- and the first to be built in the Arctic. The agency found unacceptably low oxygen levels in one of the lakes at Ekati, and has offered a plan to ensure similar problems don't happen again.
Second, $450,000 is a small price to pay for peace of mind in what will be multi-billion-dollar industry in our own back yard.
The GNWT is shirking responsibility in the east during these last few months before division and nowhere is this more obvious than the continuing dysfunction of the Keewatin health care system, soon to be without dentists.
While no one disagrees that the territorial government has a lot to do before April 1, 1999, the GNWT's inaction on the Keewatin's healthcare situation is deplorable. The people of the region continue to cope with an inadequate system that will be without dentists when Kiguti Dental Services Ltd. next week.
This latest crisis is symptomatic of the lack of effective change at the Keewatin Regional Health Board. While the minister of health and social services, Kelvin Ng, and the rest of the department officials sit in their offices in Yellowknife, the people of the Keewatin are still without basic medical services.
Awarding the bowhead whale hunt to the community of Pangnirtung was a good idea, plain and simple.
Inuit hunters in the small Cumberland Sound hamlet have a history of involvement in the whale harvest and they've taken appropriate steps to make sure that past mistakes will not be repeated.
When the months of planning, community support and skills of the hunters are all taken into consideration, the community is confident that the chaos that surrounded the Repulse Bay hunt in 1996 will have no place on Kekerten Island.
Every now and again it is important to remind ourselves that good things happen too.
In Rae-Edzo a spate of new businesses have started up recently. A pair of partners have opened a charter business, there is a new convenience store and a resident entrepreneur is re-engineering the dog sled. Ambitious plans to expand the golf course are on track and there is talk of developing a resort.
With the last of the paving finished on the road from Providence it looks like things are picking up in Rae.
It is this combination of private initiative and government support that is the North's future. These are made-in-the-North ideas come to life and it is encouraging to see.
Creating jobs and generating income gives everybody a little more hope for the future.