Editorial page
Friday, August 07, 1998

Public or private?

In negotiating the terms of a $1.4 million contribution to a school gym expansion, the city must settle some crucial unanswered questions.

The first and most important question is what amount of access will the public have to the proposed Weledeh-St. Pat's double gym.

When questioned about this issue last week, Catholic School Board Superintendent Loretta Foley could provide city council with no assurances other than that the gym would be available in the summers.

Council accepted Foley's suggestion that access was a detail that could be worked out once a partnership was established.

Public access to the gym should not be an afterthought. Access is not a detail, it is the sole justification for the city getting involved in such a partnership in the first place.

That the gym will be available during the summer is not much comfort. Winter is when indoor facilities are needed most.

When city and school board officials sit down to discuss public access, a clear distinction should be made between the time the gym will be available for use as a gym, and when it will be available as a venue for trade shows and conferences.

The latter would bring dollars into the community but does nothing to answer the needs of the community's youth.

A number of other issues that need to be resolved were glossed over during debate of the contribution.

There was no firm answer to the question of parking. The issue of what, if any, share of rental revenues the city can expect on its investment did not even arise.

Before the city commits a dollar to the project, clear answers must be given to each of these questions.


The low road

Mayor Dave Lovell is his own worst enemy. He spends most of his time defending the bad decisions of past councils and accepting responsibility for misguided policies of former city administrator Doug Lagore.

Now, in the midst of another controversy -- Seamus Henry's sweet sewer deal -- Lovell, struggling for high ground, accuses councillor Dave Ramsay of a conflict of interest because his parents own the A&W.

As Ramsay is not attempting to stop a Dairy Queen being built, we see little substance to Lovell's objection.

Further, it's damn difficult to accept Lovell's judgement when he allowed his former finance director's company to become indebted to the city for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Obviously, Lovell still doesn't understand what conflict of interest means.


Basic rights

In a recent guest column in this newspaper, Garth Wallbridge airs his concerns about the extraordinary powers exercised by various government agencies while fires burned near the Ingraham Trail.

His point is well taken. While basic property rights were suspended for the supposed protection of the owners, campers were permitted into campgrounds and supplied with firewood.

No one doubts the intent of the drastic measures taken to ensure public safety during this emergency. But fuzzy thinking on the part of various branches of government sets off alarms. While any decision that infringes on the public's basic rights merits scrutiny, at the very least some consistency would be welcome.


Polar research needed
Editorial Comment
Glen Korstrom
Inuvik Drum

Did anyone else notice how M.P. Ethel Blondin-Andrew mentioned Finance Minister Paul Martin three times in her latest householder to Inuvik residents?

The propaganda booklet also included a photo of the two of them beaming on page four.

Where was Prime Minister Jean Chretien? Half his head adorns the edge of a photo on the back page along with seven other cabinet ministers.

Perhaps Blondin, a 10-year M.P. and secretary of state for youth and elders, could parlay her seeming coziness with Ottawa's acclaimed budget balancer and research advocate into more money for scientific polar research.

Canada spends a fraction what other circumpolar countries do, even as a per cent of GDP. It works out to about 20 cents per person each year, or less than 10 per cent of what Australia spends on Antarctic research.

Sweden is spending more than $5 million, or what Canada does annually, to hire one of Canada's ice breakers before adding helicopter support so a team of European researchers can work in Canada's Arctic next summer.

Before the international community adopts the idea that High Arctic seaways are international waters, Canada needs to pay her part.

Long days okay for kids?

One resident came in last week to complain about how children and teens were on the streets all night. His concern was with lawlessness as his car had been broken into twice.

But when days loop the clock, there seems to be less of a need for set hours, especially for jobless kids out of school for the summer.

That said, there is something sad about children under 12 hanging around outside the Mackenzie Hotel for bar close. One teen said he was there to see fights. Younger kids seem as caught up in the festive spirit.

In some cases young children who roam the streets all night do so because their parents are drunk or partying and the kids are waiting until everybody passes out.

To say they are safer on the streets than at home only further fleshes out the presence of a deeper social problem.

Soon continuous daylight will end, school will start and this phenomenon could disappear on its own.

And since other kids were playing baseball at 2 a.m. on Saturday night and others rode bicycles and talked of parents who care about them, there may be nothing to worry about.


Better than business as usual
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

So, the bottom's falling out of the Canadian dollar. The markets are plummeting. Unemployment numbers are creeping up.

There are plenty of dismal economic forecasts in the media these days. But right here in the Deh Cho, there are glimmers of hope.

A huge $3.5 million gas and oil deal between the Liard Valley Band and Alberta Energy Company Ltd., signed in Yellowknife last week, will translate into 200 or more new jobs and a healthy injection of funds into the region. The Acho Dene Koe's Beaver Enterprises will provide camp management and catering services for a project in northern B.C. At the same time, numerous people from this area will receive valuable industry training.

That's big business.

On a smaller but no less significant scale, a business development centre serving the Deh Cho region is set to open in Fort Simpson as soon as September. It will serve Jean Marie River, Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Trout Lake, Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte.

The centre's primary function will be to lend capital, up to $75,000, to entrepreneurs who are looking to start up a small business or keep an existing venture going.

This is exciting news. Sure, statistics show most small businesses go belly up -- and nobody relishes the thought of failure. But there are a wealth of goods and services that could successfully be offered in the region by small business.

Perhaps a used-clothing outlet, a pet store or a bakery. How about a bait and tackle shop or a hunting supplies outfit? Or a combination of both?

Maybe a carpenter or a seamstress will decide to make a go of it on his or her own. Someone with talents that don't permit them to earn a livelihood in a place this size may try a part-time undertaking. A disc-jockey or a caterer, for instance.

Seventy-five thousand dollars isn't a whole lot of money when it comes to starting up a business. In some cases, a base of operations will have to already be available and overhead would have to be kept to a minimum.

The business development centre will help to weed out the futile concepts, ensure the business proposals have merit and lend some guidance.

There are already a number of vibrant businesses in the Deh Cho. Nats'enelu and Dene Fur Clouds have found their niches.

Hopefully, there will be a number of others to follow suit in the near future, even if it is on a smaller scale.