Monday, November 06, 2000
The Premier is keynote speaker at an Edmonton fund-raiser for two aboriginal candidates running under the Liberal banner in the federal election.
In party circles, the event is billed as: An evening with Stephen Kakfwi, Premier of the Northwest Territories, and Friends.
Is this the proper way for the leader of a non-partisan legislature to spend a Saturday night in Edmonton?
The premier's choice of amusements could be viewed by some as an explanation of why he was willing to exempt his chief of staff from a rule that forbids senior public servants from playing at politics.
The premier seems to be positioning himself to succeed Ethel Blondin-Andrew as the Liberal standard-bearer in the Western Arctic.
This song at supper certainly gives the premier a marker to call in from the federal Liberals.
But what if voters turf Jean Chretien on Nov. 27?
The premier has placed not just his eggs, but the wish list of the entire Northwest Territories in the Liberal basket.
So far, the prime minister does not seem to have taken much notice.
Where is federal support for a Mackenzie Valley pipeline; where is the alternative to the per-capita funding formula that has forced the territory to scramble to finance health care?
Michael Miltenberger framed another issue for the premier and the legislature.
"If anybody goes to the executive is that going to be the criteria -- show us your party card?
Liberals first, everybody else second?" the MLA for Thebacha wants to know. So do we.
Is the National/Territorial agenda open only to issues advanced by Liberals? Is that how a non-partisan legislature works?
Supplicants must know the Liberal handshake before they can pass through the front door. And don't forget to show your ID card.
Yellowknives Dene are proving that taking one's time pays off when it comes to negotiating an impacts and benefit agreement with the diamond industry.
After more than a year of negotiations, Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. and the Yellowknives Dene signed on the dotted line Oct. 26.
The agreement involves annual payments which will go to the community of 1,100 First Nation members. It also ensures Dene businesses and workers aren't ignored when it comes to jobs and business related to the new mine.
This deal is an important step, and can act as a framework for the agreements still in the works with other aboriginal groups.
It's one more step to ensuring aboriginal groups benefit from the land they once considered their own.
Thankfully the 597 voters in Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay, Nanisivik and Grise Fiord have eight candidates to choose from when they go to the polls to elect a new MLA on Dec. 4.
Already without representation in the Legislative Assembly, the Quttiktuq riding has just learned that convicted sex offender Levi Barnabas has decided to enter the race that is being held as a direct result of his inexcusable behaviour one drunken night last summer.
Instead of gracefully stepping aside and putting voters and the GN out of their misery, Barnabas is prepared to challenge seven others for the job he quit in disgrace.
The voters' choice, however, cannot be denied. We hope they choose integrity over a sad record of bad behaviour.
It is estimated that 5,500 Canadian women will die of breast cancer this year.
These women will be our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our lovers. They will be the women in our office, the women we drive to work with, the women we see at church and at the grocery store.
We must do all that we can to stop them from dying.
In many communities in Canada, we can take part in the Run For the Cure event held every October.
This year, $8.6 million dollars were raised in 29 communities across the country. Almost 100,000 women, children and men did their part to find a cure for the biggest killer of Canadian women.
About three quarters of those dollars will go directly into research. That's good -- we need to find a cure.
Roughly four per cent of the funds raised -- approximately $344,000 -- will go towards education. That too, is good. Learning about the importance of early detection and its link to increased survival rates will help save women's lives around the country.
But, in Nunavut, where women have to be sent south for a simple mammogram, education and learning about things like breast self-examination is crucial to our survival.
The Government of Nunavut does not have money for research. That is clear.
It is the direct and clear responsibility of the federal government then, to ensure that there is adequate money to educate women in Nunavut about breast cancer.
Women need to learn they play the most important role in their own diagnosis and treatment. Women need to learn if they suspect they have breast cancer, they must insist they be given a mammogram, no matter what the cost of the flight to Montreal or the procedure.
Detecting abnormalities early means health care costs are reduced in the long-term. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on radical surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the system gets away with a few thousand dollars spent on airfare and a mammogram.
Education is the key. The private sector is doing their part by events like Run For the Cure. It's time for Health Canada to step up to the plate and treat breast cancer as a priority.
The bridge and road project in Kugarruk (Pelly Bay) is more about economics than construction.
With a population of less than 600, a project that provides 30 jobs to locals in a community the size of Kugarruk puts money in everybody's pocket.
The Kugarruk bridge and road project will cost $1.2 million, and this has already circulated more than $150,000 in wages and thousands more from equipment rentals within the community.
The mini-boom will be followed by the inevitable bust -- the project is expected to wrap up next July.
The people of Kugarruk put up with a lot of bureaucratic wrangling to get the project off the ground. But they kept exerting pressure in the right places and got what they wanted in the end -- jobs. And that's what counts in a small town.
North West Company knew the right time is now.
It's been a decade since its Northern Store in Inuvik was last renovated and the plan now is to increase space by 50 per cent.
While the expansion -- the company also plans to expand its Hay River outlet -- may seem a little optimistic in a community of about 3,500, there could be considerable returns around the corner.
Big name resource companies will spend about three-quarters of a billion dollars over the next five years on oil and gas exploration in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea. That means more faces and more money for the entire region.
All businesses should follow North West's lead and get their piece of the economic pie.