Inukshuk, which owes the city over $400,000 dollars in municipal taxes, was asking for a grant of $70,000 to pay the tax arrears penalties.

City council turned Inukshuk down, with Mayor Lovell declaring everyone must to be treated the same. Considering the millions of dollars owed the city in back taxes, Yellowknifer thought the mayor had a good point.

This brings us back to the grant to Royal Oak's Giant Mine which owes the city a total of $700,000 in back taxes. How is that treating everybody the same, the caller wanted to be told.

Obviously it isn't. At the time, Aldermen Dave Ramsay and Robert Slaven cautioned against subsidizing taxes and bailing out a business which the grant seemed to be doing. Then they joined in for a unanimous vote.

For council, it all came down to protecting the city's tax base which would take a major beating if Giant mine closed. We understand that, although what $37,000 will to that noble end is not clear.

For the caller, a $70,000 grant would have helped 45 families get their coop housing back on firmer financial ground and the city would be better off for it.

While we don't agree council made the wrong decisions, we must admit the caller is right on one thing.

Clearly, a delinquent taxpayer who spends millions of dollars in the city gets different treatment than families who owe taxes and spend less.

It's a fact of life and one council must acknowledge if it is to maintain the integrity of its decisions, an uphill battle with the dairy fiasco still fresh in Yellowknifer's minds.

It's extremely discouraging to learn that between 15 and 20 youngsters in Yellowknife are on a waiting list to get some much-needed help when it comes to preparing them for the school system.

An early childhood intervention program has been offered by the NWT Council for Disabled since 1996. Though small, it has played a significant role in helping city children with special needs gain access to the one-on-one care they need before joining the regular classrooms.

Some of the children are referred to the program after they've been turned away by Yellowknife schools. Others are pre-schoolers who have been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit disorder and autism.

A number of these children have graduated from the program and continued on to join other children in kindergarten or re-entered the school system.

Because the program is operating with a mere $40,000 budget (the council received the bulk of its funding through the GNWT's Healthy Initiatives Program) it can only take in six children at a time -- leaving between 15 to 20 children on a waiting list.

Aggie Brockman, the council's executive director told Yellowknifer: "It's a desperate situation." We couldn't agree more.

If our children are having trouble at a pre-school age, than we're in trouble, too.

For a group such as the council for disabled to take the time and effort to take in these kids, and work with the families who are facing such obstacles, is highly commendable.

Brockman says the council is now in the process of writing up proposals to try and expand the program. Let's hope she gets the funding she deserves.