Friday, May 18, 2001
City council settled on the Yellowknife Correctional Centre site as the home for the new twin-pad area.
The reasons were practical and intriguing.
We can buy into the first. It will cost taxpayers less to build on the YCC site than next to Sir John Franklin High School, and $70,000 is not to be sneezed at.
It's the second reason that is intriquing.
According to councillors who favoured the ground in the shadow of the jail, it is closer to the future centre of the city.
But who said the city centre is headed west? Is that part of a plan? Was it hatched during one of those secret meetings that councillors love so much? Or is this just city council's acceptance of the inevitability of urban sprawl?
As summer approaches, one of the city's most endearing tourist attractions, the Wildcat Cafe, is facing a critical test. Well-known restraunteur Lise Nault's successful bid to run the aging log-cabin diner is good news, as is the city's recent decision to pay for needed renovations.
But the past couple of years haven't been the Cafe's best, and Nault will need more than good luck to revive its fortunes. Indeed, the Wildcat needs the community's patronage and support if it is to survive.
It would be a waste and shame if we can't keep such a symbol of Yellowknife's past alive and kicking when tourists are flocking North in record numbers.
If we lose the Wildcat, what's next?
Take a moment this week to thank your local cop. It's National Police Week, and if you've been reading Yellowknifer's special series, then you've managed to get a glimpse into just what being a police officer in Yellowknife entails.
It's often not very pleasant. Between 90 and 95 per cent of police work on a given Friday or Saturday night is alcohol related. Police, charged with the awesome responsibilities of serving the public, protecting the innocent, and upholding the law, are too often forced to clean up the messes we make.
It's not the role of the media to cheerlead. However, we have a responsibility to give credit where it's due.
With that in mind, it's not out of line to say thank you to our police for a job well done.
It's always great to see youth do great things.
Candace Underhay and Jaimie Tattrie are two recent examples of what young Yellowknifers are capable of accomplishing.
Underhay, a Grade 11 student at St. Pat's, won the NWT Youth Achievement Award for her efforts with Students Against Drinking and Driving and helping to bring the national Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving conference to Yellowknife.
Tattrie, 10, won the national five-pin bowling championship.
Both are excellent examples of what can be accomplished through dedication to a cause or a sport and are an inspiration to us all.
Editorial Comment
Maria Canton
Inuvik Drum
The decision to yank funding to the Aurora College jewelry and metalwork program not only leaves talented students in the lurch, but tells artists and would-be students in the region that their work just doesn't measure up -- on the money scale that is.
The sad thing is, the funding agencies, in this case the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in and the college, are failing to see the long-term benefits of establishing programs exactly like the jewelry and metalwork program.
Training artists creates and fosters small, sustainable industry, something the region needs more of. By cutting the program two years into it, right when it has started to run efficiently and the students are developing the skills, the money has all but been wasted.
Not wasted in terms of the students, because they are all the better for having started the program, but one could say the funding agencies have wasted their money.
What benefits can they see to their investment? Upset students unable to complete the program? Thousands of dollars worth of tools and a studio sitting empty, collecting dust? Trained instructors left without a program to teach? Another push towards the elimination of talented artists and jewellers in the Western Arctic?
Aside from that, one could say that the funding agencies have an obligation to allow the students already enrolled to complete the program.
What about not accepting new students, but letting those already studying the chance to complete the program? The move to cut the program entirely might be just enough to discourage a student from returning to school, to drop out right when they gave it a shot.
What's failing to be seen here is that the creation of long-term sustainable industry is what the region needs. The oil and gas industry is good, but we all know it won't last forever and then what?
Is that when the decision to re-start the jewelry program will be made, when the bottom falls out of the resource work? Is that when funding agencies will wisen up and realize there is a future in small industry if they give it time to develop?
It's a sad day in the Western Arctic and an even sadder school year coming up as there will be no jewelry and metalwork program at any of Aurora College's campuses.
With this decision an entire group of artists are effectively being eliminated from the arts scene in the NWT. Congratulations funding agencies, you have failed to plan for the future.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum, Fort Simpson
Last December, the Deh Cho elders' council advised the region's chiefs to work together, rather than as 10 separate communities. On Monday, they reinforced their call for solidarity.
Many of the elders around the table acknowledged that industry representatives, particularly oil and gas officials from Calgary, have visited their communities to promote exploration and development.
The prospect of having 10 communities plunging headlong into oil and gas or mining initiatives is something the elders do not welcome for fear that the land and its wildlife will be harmed irreparably.
The analogy of everyone in the Deh Cho living in the same house was made often during Monday's meeting. The consensus was that if everyone works together, then industry can only come in the front door of that house rather than sneak in unannounced.
At the same time, the elders heeded the cry for jobs, especially for young people. Job creation is a key selling point for industry representatives.
To keep things in perspective, Deh Cho First Nations chief negotiator Chris Reid told the elders that 500 jobs is the optimal number for full employment this region of just over 3,000 people. By comparison, oil and gas exploration and development in Fort Liard has created approximately 1,500 jobs alone, according to Reid. The vast majority of those jobs have been filled by southerners, he said.
Therefore it would only take one or two designated projects to employ everyone in the region who wants to work, he suggested. That doesn't even take into account the possibility that other ventures could still become operational, such as the Prairie Creek lead and zinc mine near Nahanni Butte or the tungsten mine near the Yukon border. Those undertakings could employ hundreds more.
However, agreeing to work together is always the easy part -- practising it is when it gets difficult. Granted, the Deh Cho's communities have maintained a remarkable alliance while following the rocky road to self-government over the past few years, and several more years will be needed. There has been some tension along the way -- more of which can be expected during the leadership meetings this week -- but they have managed to hold things together.
Yet when money enters the picture, that's usually when major conflict arises. The question is whether Deh Cho leaders can agree upon the location of one economic development project, and, more importantly, how the revenues from the project will be divided equitably. It's a predicament that they will have to tackle sooner or later.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
You can't blame Kivalliq regional fire marshal Tim Hinds for being more than a little saddened by the results of a fire in Rankin Inlet this past week.
It never ceases to amaze the fire marshal after a fire breaks out in a community and he discovers the victims of the blaze had no insurance on their belongings or property. Yes, with today's high cost of living, personal finances can sometimes be tight, but think about it.
Why risk everything your hard work has paid for just to save a few bucks a month?
Fire insurance is still a relatively cheap proposition, when one stops to consider the possible consequences of being without it.
We all like to think these types of tragedies will never strike us, but the truth of the matter is, sometimes they do. Better to be insured than to risk losing everything you own.
Always thinking big
You have to hand it to Rankin Inlet's Jim Ramsay, when he decides to dream, it's always in technicolour.
Ramsay is currently involved with a mammoth undertaking, trying to launch the Jammin' on the Bay music festival.
Take it from someone who represented bands for a number of years, these types of events take an enormous amount of time, dedication, planning, understanding and negotiating.
Despite some of Ramsay's past accomplishments, there are still some doubting Thomases who don't believe he can pull this one off. Maybe not, but we here at Kivalliq News would never bet against him.
One of Ramsay's biggest strengths is his ability to surround himself with the right people for the right jobs.
His exuberance and confidence quickly rubs off on those around him when working towards a goal such as Jammin' on the Bay.
And, with local personalities such as Louis Taparti, Therese Tungalik, Jim MacDonald, Justin Merritt and Dave Petryshen involved -- along with many others -- Ramsay once again has the right people involved to make his project become a reality.
We're betting that, come the Labour Day weekend, the hills around Rankin Inlet will be alive with the sounds of music.