Monday, March 05, 2001
"First, no more reviews, studies, reports are needed. Second, action is wanted today, not tomorrow."
There, in black and white, are words of wisdom for Health Minister Jane Groenewegen to live by.
She read them on Jan. 20, 2000 when the Minister's Forum on Health and Social Services tabled its report on how to improve the system.
She heard them in the Legislature as she was being raked over the coals by ordinary MLAs upset with the $300,000 contract awarded to George C. Cuff and Associates.
The Alberta firm has been hired to prepare a report on how to "optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of the NWT health and social services system" and "build on studies and reviews that have already been undertaken over the past several years."
And Groenewegen has probably read words like them in the studies that line ministry bookshelves. Meanwhile, their recommendations -- and the system they were supposed to fix -- rot away.
Right now, health care is burdened by too much government for a territory with a population of 42,000.
One super board with territory-wide representation and one administrative body could do the job of eight boards more effectively.
But instead of doing what's necessary, reducing the bureaucracy and putting money into health services, the government hires someone to tell it what to do.
The minister's forum report also stated: "The people want a better system at the grassroots level. They want a better system of governance.... They want accountability for carrying out their wishes."
None of the above can be accomplished with a costly, unwieldy system geared toward politics more than health. Undoubtedly, the latest consultants will tell us as much.
Kugluktuk MLA Donald Havioyak says youth in his Nunavut community are killing themselves because of the desperately overcrowded conditions in which they live.
His comments came on the heels of Finance Minister Kelvin Ng's budget address last Tuesday afternoon. In the document, Ng committed enough dollars to build 50 new social housing units. That's down from the 100 homes built during the last fiscal year.
Havioyak was expressing his dismay at the situation. Instead of finding solutions to the housing crisis and the trauma it inflicts upon Nunavummiut, the budget and its shortfalls will make for status quo conditions.
In short, nothing will change.
To make the picture a little more clear, even if all 50 homes were built in Kugluktuk, a remaining 25 families would continue to live in overcrowded homes -- homes that Havioyak said drive some of his constituents to end their own lives.
What further encouragement does the federal government need to get back into the game of building public housing units? What, if not the loss of life, will it take to push federal Finance Minister Paul Martin into action?
To his credit, Martin agreed to review the current formula financing agreement. That review should take place over the next few months and hopefully will provide ample proof to the bean-counters in Ottawa that Nunavut needs more assistance.
Martin, scheduled to be in Iqaluit this week, should visit Kugluktuk during his visit to Nunavut this month. He should visit the surviving family members of a young man or woman who chose to escape unlivable housing conditions by ending their own life.
Our legislators must be well aware of the financial realities faced by Nunavummiut. MLAs can't help but witness those hardships in their communities and we all share in the grief that suicide and other social ills cause.
Ng did what he could with what he had. The rest is up to the federal government.
Dene from across the NWT made a breakthrough last month when, for the first time in eight years, a special assembly attracted delegates from all 26 communities.
The fact that chiefs have agreed to bury the wounds of the past and work together shows leadership.
Further, resolutions to rework their constitution and band together to oppose the 'now dead' hotel tax are accomplishments worth commending. As for the disagreement that surfaced over how the boundary dispute between the Yellowknives Dene and Dogrib nations, both sides, despite their differences, stayed at the table.
Yellowknives Dene want the issue settled by the elders; the Dogrib are willing to leave it in the hands of the federal government. Whatever the outcome, they'll be better off deciding the issue as a nation united than they might as a nation divided.
Money can not necessarily buy success.
But, because large amounts of it are landing in the lap of the Akitsiraq Law School, an excellent opportunity has landed in the laps of Nunavut residents. They need to grab it and get themselves into a law school that will begin in Nunavut this fall.
At least 15 positions will be sponsored by the territorial and federal governments, as well as Nunavut Tunngavik and its associations and corporations.
Million of dollars will be poured into the school. Each student's tuition and school supplies are completely covered with a living allowance of more than $40,000 per year. That should enable students to take care of their families and live comfortably while enroled in school.
That's a far cry from the Kraft Dinner days remembered by many students -- but warranted if initiative and stamina among Nunavummiut is there.
It's also one very large step toward altering the vivid picture of the racial power division seen in courtrooms across the territory.
The picture is of suited up non-Inuit lawyers sifting through Inuit clients before prestigious, learned non-Inuit judges. The picture is of sentences passed down harshly in English, while Inuktitut is left outside or shoved into a translator's booth.
Those images should be replaced with Inuit representing Inuit, along with traditional alternatives re-routed through the current map of a centuries-old, European model of law.
This law school needs at least 15 serious applicants to breath life into this new vision of Nunavut justice. We hope there is no shortage of committed applicants.
The North's weather lived up to its "merciless" reputation two weeks ago when temperatures dipped below -40 C, impressing European drivers in the Fulda Challenge.
A promotional event for the German company's 'Yukon' line of four-wheel drive tires, a 29-vehicle convoy drove from Whitehorse to Tuktoyaktuk, promoting the North as much as its tires. The NWT, however, took a back seat to the Yukon in coverage sent back to European media.
Months of promototional work by Yukoners and Fulda came together to show daily coverage spliced with shots of downhill skiing, ice climbing, snowshoeing and iglu building. Only problem was, almost all of the events were in the Yukon, meaning that territory will probably benefit the most from tourism dollars flowing from Europe.
The NWT can learn something from this event in promoting themselves on an international scale.
Editorial Comment
Malcolm Gorrill
Inuvik Drum
Doctors, it would seem, are in short supply in rural areas across the nation.
The local hospital is struggling with that issue right now. The Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board would like to attract two doctors here, and would like to have them stay on for some time.
But the board maintains this is not an easy task, though for a different reason than the difficulties they are having in attracting nurses.
There's a shortage of nurses in Canada, and across the world. In contrast, in Canada there are enough doctors to go around, they're just distributed wrong.
It seems that more and more doctors want to practise in cities.
This is a problem without an easy solution, but it would seem efforts will need to be made by many groups.
One thing that's been suggested is for universities to actively seek out more med students from rural areas, in hopes that when they graduate most will work in rural communities.
Another suggestion is to make med students have rural practicums. This would allow students to help address shortages, plus it would allow them to sample what rural medicine can be like.
Some universities are doing that. Living proof is Bevan Hughes, a second-year resident in the rural family medicine program at the University of British Columbia. Hughes is from a city (Ottawa), but plans to conduct a rural practice, in part because he enjoys the great outdoors.
Interestingly, Hughes revealed many of his colleagues don't plan on a rural practice, in part because of the isolation, as well as the extra responsibility involved.
That goes back to some of the perceived drawbacks of rural areas in the minds of med grads. In major centres doctors can send seriously ill patients to a specialist with just a short ambulance ride.
That doesn't apply in a place like Inuvik, where medevac rides are the only option for patients needing additional help.
This creates more pressure and responsibility for doctors in communities like this than they would usually face in large centres.
There's another reason med grads are reluctant to leave large centres. After completing four years of undergraduate studies and another four years of medical school, all of which is done in large centres, grads have met a lot of people and put down roots.
It is understandable that many might be reluctant to pack up everything and head to a remote area that they may know nothing about.
Congratulations speedsters
Congrats are due to Inuvik speed skaters Mark Orbell, Alyssa Carpenter, Chris Lennie, Kelly McLeod and Sam Anderson. They all fared well recently at the NWT Speed Skating Championships in Yellowknife.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum, Fort Simpson
As one looked around the classroom at Deh Cho Hall, it may have appeared an odd juxtaposition. Here was a white man, Philip Howard, one of the foremost authorities on the Slavey language, teaching Dene about Slavey grammar.
It's not so unusual, however, when one reflects on the historical context. The Dene have oral histories because their's was not traditionally a literate society. It's western culture that introduced them to the written word.
For a Dene to have accomplished what Howard has done would have taken a thoroughly western education, particularly in English, and then they would have had to turn around and apply those linguistic principles and concepts to the Slavey language. It's quite feasible that scenario could have occurred, but Howard beat everyone to it.
That's not to say the Dene haven't made meaningful contributions to the language. Andy Norwegian, the cultural and Slavey language specialist for the Deh Cho Divisional Board of Education, for instance, continues to revise and update the vocabulary.
Yet, there is no denying that Howard's story is a fascinating one. Imagine sitting in a library thousands of miles away and, based on your limited research, deciding that you're going to travel to a distant land to advance a language that you don't even know how to speak.
He and his wife Margaret had initially settled in Fort Nelson, B.C., but found there were too many English-speaking people, so they loaded their belongings on a barge operated by legendary trapper and merchant Dick Turner and travelled the waterways to Nahanni Butte. From then on, they were essentially immersed in Slavey.
Perhaps the most meaningful contribution anyone can make to the Slavey language is to continue to speak it or learn to speak it. Slavey, like the majority of aboriginal languages, is dying.
Howard has practically made a lifetime of preserving the language on paper, but he fears it is gradually on its way to extinction.
"There are too many families where the parents are not speaking (Slavey) to the kids. If they don't use it in the home, it's going to die," Howard said.
He has made his contribution to the language.
Deh Cho First Nations leaders and elders have pledged to speak Slavey at leadership assemblies.
Now it's up to each household to do its part if the Slavey language is to endure.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Two thumbs up to the Kataujaq Society's Evelyn Thordarson for taking it upon herself to secure funding for the staff-exchange program between the Kataujaq's Rankin Inlet day care and the Shared Care Day Care in Arviat.
Proper training for Kivalliq day care staff has been an ongoing struggle in the Kivalliq Region.
And, while nobody's getting a diploma from the program, the sharing of ideas and information is a welcome addition to regional child care.
It's also beneficial for staff members to be exposed to the different social and economical makeup of the two facilities and their clients.
We need more of our organizational leaders in the Kivalliq to follow Thordarson's example and take it upon themselves to make things happen.
The more proactive we become as a region in seeking training funding, the more we will gain in our long-term development.
About time
Kivalliq users who rely on Sakku Computers & Electronics for their Internet connections are finding life a little easier these days, thanks to the first in a series of upgrades the service provider is putting in place.
The constant busy signals when trying to access the system, and its slowness once a user did actually log on, had progressed from an annoyance to a detriment to those who depend on the Internet for business. One of the great benefits of the Internet is its ability to bring the global community right to a user's fingertips.
Idle "surfing" aside, there are many ways Kivalliq residents benefit from fast and easy access to the Internet.
Communication, education, health, organizational research, business transactions, the cost efficiency of e-mail compared to telephone lines are all areas of vital importance for Northern residents attempting to stay on a level playing field with their southern counterparts.
Hopefully, the recent upgrade is just the start of a future high speed Internet system that will span the territory.
High spirits
It's good to hear the spirits of the Repulse Bay junior-aged hockey players are still high despite their rash of injuries at the Polar Bear Plate tournament. The fact the Repulse players were not discouraged by their misfortunes is further proof of the importance of having a solid minor hockey program established in every Kivalliq hamlet.
Character development, career and academic opportunities, a sense of belonging and community spirit are all areas that benefit from a strong minor hockey system.