Wednesday, January 31, 2001
The dispute over winter trails appears to be escalating into a Northern range war.
A fortnight past, snowmobilers invaded ski club turf. Like marauding Visigoths loose in a Roman villa, they pillaged and piddled on the groomed trails, then roared off into the night.
We're not saying there is a connection, but it's mighty suspicious that a few days later vandals struck the snowmobile club trailer and wrought havoc.
It's time to chill.
Snowmobilers should know better than to drive on ski trails. As attractive as the forbidden turf may be, there is a real chance of doing serious injury.
Trouble with non-renewable resource industries is, when the resource runs out so do the jobs and wealth the industry creates.
We don't want to be Chicken Little and scream about an impending collapse, but there will come a day when the gold mines around which modern Yellowknife grew will be no more.
Operations at Con Mine are scheduled to wrap up in 2004 -- unless, of course, gold prices rise and Miramar finds a new Mother Lode.
Revived by Miramar, Giant Mine could operate longer than its projected September shutdown, but its life is numbered in months, not years.
Mine closure is a fact of life and we just hope everyone's prepared for the day that gold is no longer the sparkle of Yellowknife's economy.
Despite the economic promise of diamonds, oil and gas, the day the final brick is poured at Con will be a sad day indeed.
The recent proposal to Yellowknife City Council for a special events co-ordinator is a good idea.
Yellowknife has a number of special events -- Folk on the Rocks, Caribou Carnival, Raven Mad Daze and Festival of the Midnight Sun to name a few.
These festivals are, for the most part, put together by a volunteer crew whose efforts are appreciated but what they can accomplish is limited by the amount of time they have to get all the work done.
What could the festivals become if there was someone working to focus their efforts?
Look what happened to First Night -- they called a party, but no one came forward to help organize it.
All Yellowknife festivals would benefit from centralized co-ordination of services, volunteer development and promotion that would broaden their appeal to an audience outside Yellowknife and the NWT.
Last weekend's Count Me In Conference in Yellowknife served as a giant leap forward in the effort to bring some much-needed assistance to Northerners with disabilities.
It not only fell on the heels of a comprehensive needs study conducted by the GNWT but for the first time allowed disabled Northerners to come together.
For three days, the 200 delegates shared their experiences and talked about issues including money, services and access to resources.
Recommendations included setting up a ministry to specifically deal with disabilities and finding a simpler, yet comprehensive way to deliver services.
Considering there are more than 5,000 people in the NWT living with disabilities the momentum created at this conference is a positive step in ensuring these needs are met.
The fact that Health Minister Jane Groenewegen spent two days at the conference is also encouraging.
Let's hope action is coming soon.
Thumbs down this week to the continuing arena woes in Rankin Inlet.
The hamlet has been battling water and plumbing problems at the arena for years and, every time something goes wrong, is quick to point out the majority of the damage is being caused by a handful of youthful vandals who keep stuffing the toilets with hockey tape and other items.
This we know to be true, but it's only part of the problem.
Forget the basics of players not having washroom facilities in their dressing room (for the sake of argument, we'll class showers as a luxury), little or no cleaning of the facility and an often perilous walkway from the dressing rooms to the ice surface.
It makes one wonder what kind of maintenance is being done.
When it comes to vandalism, arena staff have to crack down on the culprits, and keep an eye out for troublemakers.
Most kids doing the damage don't even play hockey and the ones who do are ultimately going to pay the price for their mistakes.
That's unfortunate, because the arena was built to serve the entire community, to make Rankin a better place to live.
The whole hamlet will suffer if these ongoing problems cause the cancellation of local hockey, recreational skating, curling, and next month's Polar Bear Plate hockey tournament and the Stanley Cup's visit.
We here at Kivalliq News have often been critical of Minister Jack Anawak's failure to deliver his promised artificial ice to Rankin Inlet.
However, we must concede the fact, we can't blame Anawak for thinking, if they can't maintain the building now, how would they ever care for artificial ice? A valid point.
Nobody wants to deny our kids a good time. But, the time has come to put our foot down against wilful damage which hurts the entire community and negates the tireless efforts of those trying to improve the quality of life for many of our youth.
The process should start with the hamlet not only putting rules in place, but actually enforcing them.
The community must also do its part in helping maintain our facilities by not looking the other way when wilful vandalism is taking place, no matter what the age of the perpetrator.
It's our arena. Let's start taking better care of it before we fall victim to the old adage -- You don't know what you've got until it's gone!