It's good news that the NWT Development Corp. is getting its house in order. The question of how its house got to be such a mess remains largely unanswered.

There has been a lot of talk about transparency and accountability in the GNWT recently.

Accountability and transparency has to extend far beyond MLAs' individual lives and dealings, important as that may be. Those concepts must include every facet and phase of government operations or they are nothing more than political rhetoric.

The mess the Dev Corp is currently in with missing financial statements, incomplete information on subsidiaries and even the wrong number of directors is what happens when nobody's minding the store.

Yes, how to fix the problem is an important question. Just as valid is the question of how this happened in the first place.

It will be interesting to watch how the P3 agreement in Arviat will unfold.

The Arviat Development Corp. has taken it upon itself to construct a health centre in that community and then lease the space to the Government of Nunavut.

P3s (Public-Private Partnerships) are a great way to go when done well. Than can be engineered as a winner all way round: the people of Nunavut (or anywhere else) receive the benefits of increased infrastructure, the cost to government is less than producing the infrastructure itself and organizations like the Arviat Dev. Corp. gain experience and capital assets.

As Finance Minister Kelvin Ng pointed out: it's also a great way to expand and provide in times of government economic restraint.

Patrick Kooneeliusie got to be police chief for a day in his home town of Qikiqtarjuaq and now, as a direct result, he understands more about the RCMP and what exactly is involved in policing the community.

Kudos aplenty must go out to Cpl. Grant MacDonald for his excellent work on this project. The idea was his brainchild and in its first year out of the gate, he drummed up a dignified amount of interest.

A total of six students from Inuksuit School wrote essays for the contest detailing what they would do to make their community safer if they were to be the top cop for a day. Kooneeliusie beat out the others and spent an entire day following the routine of the police department.

It had such an impact on him that he's even considering becoming a police officer when he finishes school. MacDonald could not be paid a better compliment for his efforts.

Imagine if the RCMP were to take this project and MacDonald's idea and run with them? Potentially, and given a few years to develop and catch on, students around Nunavut would begin to have a clearer idea of the police force and its responsibilities. Crime would very likely decrease, a better relationship between community members and the police would be established and, perhaps most importantly, it might just trigger more interest in Nunavut's youth to enter the RCMP.

As stated quite clearly by the police prior to division, it is their goal in Nunavut to develop a more culturally sensitive police force. Certainly that means developing better relations with the older generations and working to erase some of the past mistakes that were made. But by targeting youth with a program like this, children will grow up thinking of the RCMP as a valid career choice. By having Northerners police Northerners, a crucial step will have been realized in the push for a better force.

A symposium on Arctic security took place in Yellowknife last month.

Military and civilian experts discussed the increased air and water traffic through the North and what's needed if a cruise ship runs aground or a passenger plane goes down.

One of the first questions that springs to mind is "Who is going to pay?"

Increasing emergency response capabilities in the far North is not going to come cheap and is it entirely fair to ask Canadian taxpayers to foot the bill for American and European cruise ships safety?

It might be time to ask those cruise and airplane lines to post environmental or rescue bonds before opening Northern routes to them.

That takes some of the pressure comes off the Canadian taxpayer and puts it on the operators in question, where it belongs.

It's always exciting when the weather warms up and the snow melts. You know that it means it won't be long until the grass (what there is of it) starts shooting up, flowers start blooming and trees get their leaves.

Myself, I can hardly wait to see what Inuvik looks like in colour, with the green and the blue of the water.

Unfortunately, there is something else that is uncovered when the snow melts too and, while it can be colourful, it sure isn't pretty.

It's garbage and, based on what I've seen so far, there's a lot of it.

That's why I was glad to hear about the town's spring clean-up initiative. I thought it was a great idea to pay non-profit organizations a bit of cash and they clean up an area of the town. They get some much-needed funds and the town gets a much-needed cleaning. The person who came up with it should be congratulated. Many of the towns I have lived in encourage spring clean-up, but I've never heard of any offering money to do so. (Please keep in mind that doesn't mean there are none. It simply means I've never heard of any other similar programs.)

There are beautification contests, of course, but those don't usually include cleaning up garbage. They are usually restricted to the planting of trees and flowers and the like.

The clean-up, however, is restricted to those roads and ditches that aren't part of a residential or commercial property. This means that innate and business owners are on their own when it comes to cleaning up the garbage in their own yards. I hope they take the initiative from the town and clean up the garbage as well.

I don't know whether the garbage is from littering or if it's from ravens and animals rooting through dumpsters. I suspect it's a little of both. Regardless of where it came from, the main thing is getting it cleaned up in time for the tourist season. Now that the ferry's opened up, tourists will begin arriving in town any day now. It would be terrible for them to leave with the impression that Inuvik is littered with garbage.

Incidentally, I see that I have to practise what I preach. I have quite a lot of garbage of my own to pick up out there. I'd best get to work.

The name game

I feel there is something I should explain, because people have been giving me strange looks at various assignments. It's when I ask them to spell their name.

One of the first things that my journalism instructor taught me is to always check and doublecheck the spelling of names. Even for the most simple name, there are several different ways of spelling them. My own last name, for example, could be White or Whyte. I've seen it both ways. Smith/Smyth/Smythe is another. That's why I ask and, in many cases, I show my notebook to the person in question so they can actually see if I have it written right.

But despite being as careful as you can, from time to time you are still going to get a name wrong (sorry Brian/Rian Turner). I have a legendary mistake that I will never live down. I made it when I was a journalism student. I talked to this guy named Cecil Johnston about bird watching, but when I asked him to confirm the spelling of his last name, he just spelled the last four letters -- emphasizing that it was JohnSTON and not JohnSON. Unfortunately, I took him literally and the next day in the paper he appeared as Cecil Ston.

That's why, if your name is Bob or Jo/Joe/Gjoa, I'm still going to ask you to spell it. Mixing names up under pictures is a whole other subject that I'll have to save for another time.

Virginia Falls is a place I have heard about often and seen in many a photograph.

The picturesque setting in Nahanni National Park is something not to be missed, I've been told.

Well, after pretty close to a year in Fort Simpson, I can now say that I've seen it and it is spectacular indeed. The raging water cascading down the falls and a lesser falls nearby are a sight to behold. You don't have to venture very close to feel the mist from this natural phenomenon.

But, as my partner Val pointed out, half the fun is getting there.

On Sunday afternoon, we had the opportunity, as paying customers, to hop on South Nahanni Airways' twin otter for a charter flight to the falls. We were among 15 passengers to depart on Sunday, a sunny day as we took off from the float dock in Fort Simpson.

Pilots Jacques Harvey and Steve Klahm got us into the air without a hitch. We watched as the landscape below gradually transformed from one of forests punctuated by a multitude of lakes and rivers to something more mountainous and rugged. Unfortunately, or so it seemed, the low cloud cover enveloped us. At times, we briefly passed through rain troughs. The resulting turbulence jarred the plane slightly causing that fleeting butterfly feeling in my stomach -- not the "I'm going to be sick" kind, more like the rollercoaster type (I understand those are one in the same for some people).

Through the drizzle, we saw the mighty canyons on our way to the falls. There was no rain by the time we closed in on Virginia Falls and everybody strained to get a good look out the windows on our approach. Before touching down, Steve warned of a bumpy landing due to the wind. On the contrary, Jacques managed to bring the plane down right over the falls so smoothly it was difficult to tell when the floats made contact with the Nahanni River.

Being early in the season, the docks weren't yet in the water. In what must be the piloting equivalent to parallel parking, Jacques manoeuvred the Twin Otter as close to shore as possible and Steve tied it up. We walked a short way across a couple of planks and, voila, we were standing on the park's walkway. A group of us made our way down the trail to the bottom of the falls. We observed small blue butterflies, a wild bird (sorry, not sure of the species) and carefully stepped over several types of droppings along the way.

When we arrived at the bottom of the trail about 20 minutes later, we stopped for lunch while we admired the falls. Of course, we were mindful of putting our scraps back in our bag because it's not only a shame to litter in the park, it's a sure-fire way to attract bears (see Coffee Break). Incidentally, there wasn't a bit of litter to be seen anywhere during the trip -- no chip bags, no cans, no cigarette butts. It was really refreshing. After taking the requisite tourist photos, we started the ascent.

Unless you're in the kind of shape to compete in a triathlon, going up is pretty gruelling. There are some steep sections that make it a cardiovascular challenge. The hike back up the mountain was what made me realize that a hot, sunny day wouldn't have been ideal. The mostly cloudy, breezy day we had was perfect, actually. The bugs weren't a factor either.

Yes, Virginia Falls is something to see. As are Lady Evelyn Falls in Kakisa and the mountains near Fort Liard. The Deh Cho is full of retreats to paradise. With summer approaching, we can be sure many people will find this out for themselves.