One only need drive past the 'For Sale' sign at Bob and Mary Kosta's Old Town home to see what life after the layoff is like for many ex-Giant miners.

Kosta, who worked 16 years for Giant, and recently supported his wife's three week hunger strike on behalf of ex-Giant workers, is still out of work. He says he has had enough and is leaving town. We can't blame him.

While 55 former Giant employees have now rejoined the workforce, the challenges facing the more than 200 workers still pounding the pavement are enormous.

Meanwhile, Royal Oak's former owner, Peggy Witte, who left an embarrassing trail of debtors, has now changed her name to Margaret Kent and is off luring investors for her new company Eden Rock Minerals.

Our own MP, Ethel Blondin-Andrew, is promising she's doing all she can, but under the law, we're quickly learning her actions probably won't amount to anything more than the tremendous amount of sympathy she's already expressed.

But it's not all bad news. Because of the efforts of the Giant Mine Transition Centre, the NWT Community Mobilization Partnership and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, 27 of these workers now have the training to help them get work in the natural gas exploration field near Fort Liard.

It's also because of the GNWT, in conjunction with Human Resource Development Canada, that the Giant Mine transition centre continues to operate.

The transition centre's proven track record of helping workers has resulted in the GNWT extending the life of the centre until July 1.

Time will tell how many workers this centre will be able to help. In the meantime, something tells us more 'for sale' signs will be coming.

It's easy to complain about rising taxes. The resulting government cutbacks usually bring a great outcry.

To know where, how and when to make a cut is the real trick.

We applaud council's move to reconsider the cutback in hours and staff at the public library because we believe it is an important service.

However, Coun. Robert Slaven is right to suggest his colleagues should have known complaints would follow and should have fully understood the ramifications of what they were doing back in December because if the cut made sense then, it should make sense now.

Let's hope this reconsideration is not merely a political gesture to make council seem responsive to the public. It needs to be a lesson in how to better wield the budget knife.

This year's Caribou Carnival was one of the best ever held and the organizers deserve a big pat on the back.

The grounds were spread out and there was much more to see and do than in previous years.

With one exception. There just isn't much for children at the carnival.

Once they've had their fill of cotton candy and maple taffy, the kids are left with a big sugar jag and nowhere to burn it off.

As the carnival does improve with each year, next year we should be looking to setting aside an area just for the little ones in a space at least as big as the beer tent, but with tighter security -- kids on sugar can be a real handful!

The RCMP have been policing the North for more than a century and many paid the supreme price in bringing the nation's laws to the North. Equally gratifying is seeing the RCMP honour its special constables.

In the early to mid-1900s, the contributions of special constables to regular members were immense.

The special constables taught members land and survival skills, familiarized them with direction, and literally provided them with the clothes on their back to survive the harshest climates. Without the help of these constables, the RCMP presence in the North may have been short-lived.

It will be gratifying for family members of Baker Lake's Ooyoumuk to hear his name called during the ceremony and receive the respect and acknowledgement for his contributions to the RCMP. Acknowledgement he so richly deserves.

Stand his ground

Hopefully, Sustainable Development Minister Peter Kilabuk is not going to be scared off by a little Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) sabre rattling.

The minister made the right decision when he denied Coral Harbour hunter Noah Kadlak's request to conduct a traditional polar bear hunt using a spear.The remarks of NTI president Paul Quassa that Inuit have the right to hunt, fish and trap in Nunavut using "any method" is more than a little disconcerting.

Where is the line drawn by that wording? Quassa himself acknowledges the minister has the right to overrule any Nunavut Wildlife Management Board decision that is in violation of existing Wildlife Acts. There are numerous "methods" of hunting, fishing and trapping outlawed by the Wildlife Act.

Not to be lost in all the hullabaloo over this case is the fact that going to court is expensive. Surely we have better ways to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars in our new territory than fighting over one man's right to make a buck by plunging a spear into an animal's innards.

Quassa can talk about documenting the kill for future generations to see "how it used to be done" all he wants.

The bottom line here is this hunter wants to conduct this spectacle for his own personal financial gain. Period.We have yet to hear one tangible way the Inuit cause will be furthered by the taking of one bear's life with a spear.

Job well done

Congratulations to David Webster and the Baker Lake Inuit Heritage Centre for the latest collection of works it has obtained.

The Inuit Heritage Centre is constantly upgrading its collection and reputation.An excellent effort is being put forth by Webster and his associates in Baker and they should be recognized for their work in preserving Inuit culture, history and tradition.