It is unfortunate that the Government of the Northwest Territories seems to have a blind spot when it comes to renewable resources.
Specifically, one of the most valuable of renewable resources -- tourists.
Tourism is an incredibly lucrative undertaking for a number of reasons. For one thing, there is no end of tourists available to attract. For another, tourist dollars are new dollars that are not simply being circulating within an economy. Building on tourism is also highly efficient because you actually have to build very little -- rather, you have to maximize and market what you already have.
As was pointed out in a story in last weeks News/North, the NWT has an image of not being someplace you bring the kiddies -- that, rather, it attracts single people for whom price is not an problem. How many of those people have you met recently?
Rather than concentrating on such a limited market, perhaps the government might consider ways to point out to families throughout North America that we have no end of dramatic scenery that is easy to get to and that the NWT is a camping and fishing and exploring paradise for families, too.
Everyone around us -- the Yukon, Alaska, even Northern Alberta -- is seeing tourism increasing by numbers upwards of 20 per cent annually, while we lag at an abysmal 3.25 per cent behind the national average.
Why? Because those regions are spending the money and taking the trouble to promote themselves adequately and imaginatively and aggressively.
Meanwhile, our leaders seems content to scramble madly after the relatively short-term, though admittedly high, rewards of mining and other nonrenewable resources.
Of course, if we went about it properly, those short-term money-makers would simply be the cream while things like tourism, properly managed, would provide the basis for long-term, substantial economic health -- but that takes foresight and planning.
Justice Minister Stephen Kakfwi is standing firm; the NWTs new correctional facility will be built in the capital.
Kakfwi's resolve is buttressed by a stream of pragmatic reasons, most of which are based in convenience and economy.
The decision reflects the new reality of the Western Arctic, a reality based in reduced transfer payments and the need for sound financial thinking.
Kakfwi's decision will grate on the sensibilities of the communities, who feel that Yellowknife gets everything.
Kakfwi is showing some leadership in sticking to his plan, however, and we need more of that.
The Nunavut governments commitment to launch a four-year nursing program to train Inuit in the field is a wise move.
All three regions of Nunavut have been facing a severe nursing shortage as of late which is largely due to the lack of interest from the foreign workforce. Nunavut has committed roughly $600,000 over the next four years to fund the program to be run through Nunavut Arctic College.
While it definitely wont bring an immediate cure to the health care crisis, something tells us they wont be disappointed in the long run. This homegrown attitude is something all regions of the Far North could benefit and learn from.
The proposal to change the way Northwest Territories MLAs are paid shows a great deal of promise.
Up until now, they have been paid a flat rate and then had amount after amount piled on that for everything they do -- an unwieldy system that's difficult to track, to say the least. The new proposal calls for a higher flat rate and then deduct from it when the MLAs don't take part in the committees and whatnot that make up their jobs.
Interesting concept -- rather than rewarding someone for doing what they were elected do, penalize them when they don't.
This could start a whole new trend in politics.
We at News/North would like to pose a serious question to the minister of Housing in Nunavut.
It goes a like this: Dear Ms. Manitok Thompson, what good is lip-service when thousands of the people you are responsible for will go to bed tonight without a roof of their own over their heads?
In case the minister or her cabinet cronies miss the point or need a little clarification, we'd be happy to elaborate and rephrase the query:
Dear Ms.Thompson, conservatively speaking, one of your very own government bureaucrats recently put the number of homeless people in Nunavut at more than 2,000 people.
It was also your very own bureaucrats and speech writers who did such a very good job at the recent meeting on homelessness in Iqaluit of highlighting the various causes of the problem that you called an emergency situation.
But Ms.Thompson, what you, your bureaucrats, and your speech writers all forgot to do was to mention an actual concrete solution that would begin to put an end to the problem. How come?
A big pat on the back is owed to Jerry Ell, not only for his tireless work on the issue, but for having the wherewithal to do a little fingerpointing and to notice the lack of a suggested solution.
It would be an oversight not to mention that the minister did talk about forming a taskforce to consider the causes of homelessness and its solutions.
But lets face it folks, taskforces usually cost a lot of money and rarely, if ever, produce any real answers.
Minister Thompson and her counterparts at the municipal and federal levels would be better off to take all of the money they dig up for their various taskforces and put it towards the purchase of full-length fur coats.
After all, lip-service or furs, both make government officials look good and both are completely ineffective at solving the problem of homelessness.