Wednesday, May 23, 2001
If your copies of Yellowknifer seems a little heavier these days, it could be because of all those employment advertisements we've been running.
A healthy jobs section in the local newspaper has always been considered a sign of boom times, and it would seem that just about every employer, new and established, is looking for staff.
While we don't want to pour cold water on what is certainly cause for economic optimism, the truth is finding employees takes more than a carefully crafted notice in the appropriate publications. A city has to offer newcomers a good lifestyle to move here, and nothing is more fundamental to lifestyle than housing.
Now take a look at the For Rent listings of the advertising pages. Anyone planning on moving to Yellowknife is going to find their options extremely limited, particularly if apartments are what they're looking for. The vacancy rate is dangerously low, to the point where even those with the best-paying jobs simply can't find a place to hang their hat.
Some companies, such as Diavik, have stopped waiting for the housing marketplace to catch up to the new employment realities, and are building their own staff housing. But small businesses can't afford to follow suit. So what can be done?
There is no simple answer. But this much is certain: City hall and developers must work together to see that new housing is built as fast as possible. City staff and councillors must minimize the red tape that so often tempers developers' enthusiasm, and developers must recognize the urgency of the situation.
Ill-planned and ill-timed projects the likes of Niven Lake cannot be repeated. Yellowknife offers an incredible natural environment, limitless opportunities and unique challenges.
What we need now is affordable, quality accommodations. Soon.
When Yellowknife Education District No. 1 issued its very public cry for help in finding solutions to a $1.2-million deficit, it got a range of suggestions from the Education ministry, parents and others.
It was a different story when the NWT Teachers' Association met with the board last week.
Instead of solutions, it offered advice on why cutting teachers is wrong. The union leadership talked about how "educators working under conditions of restraints and cutbacks exhaust themselves physically, emotionally and psychologically."
They wondered why "even with the present deficit and overspending, it appears to us that the increased funding is more than enough to alleviate your funding problems."
But did they offer a solution? No.
They said they didn't want to insult school district accounting personnel by analyzing the proposed budget. They recognized that "financial statements and budgets are a numbers game" but then refused to play.
Granted the association is now in negotiations with Yellowknife No. 1 for a new contract for its members. If teachers are truly committed to safeguarding the level of education, it has to do more than say it's bad to cut staff.
In the interest of their members, they must pinpoint where there is mis-spending.
It has to analyze the budget and come up with a solid plan. Only in presenting a viable alternative to cutting spending, can it rightfully say "there is no need to cut staff and adversely affect the education of the students in Yellowknife No. 1 schools."
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
So, the working relationship between the Department of Community Government and Transportation (CG&T) and Sport Nunavut's head office in Baker Lake is getting a little strained.
CG&T is adamant Sport Nunavut be more reasonable with overtime approval and stop wasting money that is supposed to support developing amateur sport in our territory.
Imagine, the nerve of CG&T to make such an outrageous request of an agency that claims to do so much at the grassroots level.
The truth of the matter is, Sport Nunavut is spending more on itself than developing amateur sports in Nunavut. More than 34 per cent of Sport Nunavut's $1,770,900 average annual budget is spent on salaries and travel costs alone.
Another $15,000 is spent on staff training, which doesn't include overtime hours claimed by staff members to attend training programs.
Subtract monies devoted to materials and supplies ($70,000), purchasing services (64,000), fees and payments to membership groups ($36,000), tangible assets (40,000) and computer parts and supplies ($2,000), and there's one very small piece of the pie left over for local sports development.
Even money for coaching clinics in our territory comes out of a $561,500 fund, which includes such heavy financial hitters as the winter regional games, the Canada Games and membership to the Olympic Academy.
The most precious gift our sports development officers have to give is their time and, it seems, that comes with a hefty price tag.
While we applaud the tougher stance CG&T has taken on overtime claims, we're still miffed at the fact any of these claims -- "an abuse of our overtime policy as it was intended," according to Deputy Minister Mike Ferris -- were paid at all.
Away from the sanctity provided by a union position in a government department, such abuse could lead to job dismissable, let alone a strain on the working environment.
It's time for Sport Nunavut to clean up its act. This shameless feathering of one's own nest is a slap in the face to our many volunteers who give so much of their time to develop amateur sports in our territory.
One can only imagine what was going through the minds of volunteers forced to sit and listen to sport development officers bragging about the extra money they were claiming to attend community meetings.
As it stands right now, the Nunavut government could do more for amateur sports by dividing the $633,400 being spent on salaries and travel among our territorial sporting organizations and regional recreational associations.
At least then the money would be in the hands of Nunavut's true sport development officers.
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.