Given that Diavik's president will only sell rough diamonds to Northern manufacturers if it makes "good business sense," perhaps the North will only allow Diavik to dig out those rough diamonds if it makes "good business sense" to the North.

If BHP can manage to supply rough diamonds to secondary industry in the North and still expect to make a profit, why should Diavik not be able to make the same commitment?

Nobody is asking Diavik to give the North diamonds - we're just asking to be given an assurance that some of the profits from the secondary industries stay here to benefit the North.

You have to applaud RWED Minister Stephen Kakfwi's stand in taking the matter over Diavik's head to the parent companies Rio Tinto and Aber Resources. Hopefully, the parent companies will be a bit more open to reason.

This entire question seems to be developing into a political stand on the part of Diavik to retain the right to do whatever it chooses to do with the diamonds, all of the diamonds, regardless of what that decision means to the North and to Northerners.

The bottom line is that the diamonds have to be sold and processed somewhere and, assuming we can do it competitively and well, they might as well be sold in the NWT as in Antwerp.

It's good to see that the government is learning lessons from the past. By assuring a supply of roughs from Diavik before a deal is signed, we can avoid the confusion and uncertainty that took place with BHP. Likewise, they are finally learning that simply shipping natural resources out to be processed is not in the best long-term interests of the North. Rather, we should be developing skills and businesses that will contribute lasting benefits to the territories.

Just like a diamond is forever, the benefits they bring should outlive the actual digging of them.

Twenty years ago, NWT trappers produced over $5 million worth of fur. Production figures dipped to $3 million in the mid-eighties and rebounded to over $6 million in the late eighties.

Now, those figures have dropped to $1.3 million and the future of the Northern fur industry looks bleak.

Anti-fur campaigns waged by large international animal rights groups have discouraged many buyers while Pacific Rim economies from Japan to Korea have taken a major hit, depressing fur prices further.

With 2,322 trappers in the NWT harvesting 43,572 pelts in 1999, fur is an important industry and now the government is finally launching a marketing offensive.

Renewable Wildlife and Economic Development is going to carve Northern wild furs out of the rest of those produced in Canada, most of which come from fur farms. A new label is being developed identifying Northern fur products as Genuine Mackenzie Valley Furs.

This is a move that can only help the growing number of Northern fur designers competing in the world of fashion.

Wild furs are as superior to fur farm products as true diamonds are to manufactured diamonds. The traditional harvesting aspect should also be considered a selling point. Customers may well prefer to support a livelihood of high cultural significance on a trapline as opposed to rows of wire caged animals on corporate farms.

This kind of creative thinking is worth far more than endless symposiums that spend more effort on assessing damage and making political statements than on fighting the marketing battle.

We only have to look at the lucrative diamond market to see the potential of a luxury item industry and the spin-off opportunities that can enrich all communities in the NWT.

As frightening as it must have been for two Hay River residents to be trapped in their car while a black bear crawled over it, there is another aspect to the story that is perhaps even more disturbing.

Debbie and Jim Belrose spent several hours trapped in their car, which had broken down, just the other side of Rae-Edzo.

They tried to flag down half a dozen cars and, here's the disturbing bit, no-one would stop and help.

According to Debbie, one car did stop, but the driver and passenger refused to get out. They promised to call Debbie's uncle in Yellowknife. That was about 10 p.m. and the call was made: five hours later.

Have we in the North become so timid, paranoid and self-absorbed that we can't help someone in trouble?

If so, it defeats the reason many of choose to live here. We might as move south and rejoin the rat race.

Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik represented the fifth premier in this great land I have had the opportunity to interview and, I must admit, my encounter with Nunavut's leader was a refreshing change of pace from my previous encounters.

Only former Prince Edward Island premier Catherine Callbeck came anywhere near Okalik's "down home" approachability and layman's charm during our interview and even she paled in comparison to Okalik's travelling entourage, or lack thereof.

My first glance of our near premier had me doing a double take as I noticed two figures strolling leisurely towards me this past Friday as I awaited Okalik's arrival at Nunavut Arctic College's Keewatin campus in Rankin Inlet.

The premier was dressed casually in a blue jean jacket and pants, as was his executive assistant, and looked totally at home strolling across a vacant lot as he approached the college.

There were no Lincoln town cars, or fancy 4 x 4s for that matter, nor was there any entourage or great fanfare announcing his arrival.

Although unprepared for my presence, both he and his assistant graciously granted my request for an impromptu interview -- even though he was on a tight schedule to address the Sivuliuqtit program participants on his way back to Iqaluit from the Nunavut retreat in Baker Lake.

Okalik quickly shook my hand and suggested we take a seat at the picnic table by the college's main entrance and, in that informal, relaxed atmosphere, began fielding my questions.

If one were tempted to read anything negative into their first impression of Okalik under these relaxed conditions, those temptations quickly evaporated when the man began to speak.

That calm, relaxed exterior masks a razor sharp mind and a firm command of verbalizing both his vision for the direction of his new government and what he perceives as the most pressing issues facing his constituents.

Okalik gave a general overview of what his government has accomplished in the past three months as though it were something he had been reciting every day for the past decade. He had no policy advisors or spin doctors hovering near his ear and never flinched a muscle when asked about concern over the NTEP or the possibility of his government rethinking its decentralization policies.

Through everything said and written, it appears Nunavut has a strong first leader and, if the legislative assembly lives up to his standards and expectations, the first Nunavut government will, in all probability, go down in history as an effective one.