Friday, May 25, 2001
The Northwest Territories' already-strained social services will face even more pressure when the economic boom hits full stride.
For that we all have to be prepared.
The people who staff the front lines -- mental health workers, social workers, justice officials, police, aboriginal leaders and others must understand the pressures that will come and have a plan to deal with it.
From that perspective, a plan to bring together social service providers, aboriginal leaders, cabinet ministers and MLAs at the Hay River Reserve June 18-20 makes sense.
What will really happen during this "Social Agenda Conference," however, will prove whether the government is truly committed to making a difference.
Will it be a three-day love-in where delegates mix and mingle over wine and cheese or a forum where the realities of alcohol and drug abuse, violence and suicide are front and centre.
This conference will only make a difference if social service providers and their political masters have the courage to talk about the real problems and whether or not government services are able to cope with today's needs. Let alone with what we can expect in the future.
We knew last fall we didn't have enough social workers. Outside Rae, police seized liquor bought with Impact Benefit Agreement payments. A man was killed in Inuvik during a party that followed dividend payments to Inuvialuit.
We can expect more.
The government, the health and social services ministry specifically, seem all too willing to put big bucks into studies and conferences.
Does it have the same courage to face reality and find the money it will take to deal effectively with the social ills ripping our communities apart?
In last Wednesday's "Silent disgrace" our readers were reminded of one of the biggest atrocities facing our society today -- the abuse of our elders.
Abuse can come in many forms. Whether its badgering seniors for their welfare cheque or physical abuse and neglect, it is estimated that 10 per cent of the 1,900 seniors in the NWT are being abused. What's worse is the fact that for every case reported, there are at least five that go unreported.
Seniors themselves, thanks to funding from the department of health and social services, are fed up and are trying to come up with an action plan to try an eliminate this disturbing trend.
While their job won't be an easy one, the fact that this is no longer being hidden away is an important first step.
The dedication of the supporters of the Christian Koinonia school is commendable. They worked hard for the past year to raise enough funds to pay for an alternative to Yellowknife's public schools. But city hall is well within its rights to refuse to make special allowances, or grants, for them.
Public funding for private schools is already relatively generous, covering 40 per cent of their costs, and there can be no good argument for overlooking safety and building codes that ensure classrooms are safe and healthy learning environments.
Parents unhappy with the public school system have every right to teach their children any way they see fit. Unfortunately, we can only find so much money and so much regulatory leeway for what can best be described educational luxuries.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum, Fort Simpson
At last week's Deh Cho First Nations leadership meetings the strain of trying to keep everything together was evident.
As DCFN chief negotiator Chris Reid put it, there's "no one size fits all model" for the 10 communities in the region.
The economic development plan adopted by the elders earlier in the week seemed to catch most of the chiefs off guard. It proposed a single industrial project in the Deh Cho, with all communities sharing in the employment and wealth. The recommendation was tabled until next month's Deh Cho Assembly in Kakisa. It was apparent that most of the communities have been preoccupied with establishing their own relations and tentative deals with various development companies. Not only that, but a few chiefs implied they are prepared to get on with economic development after the Interim Measures Agreement is signed, which was scheduled to take place Wednesday.
Yet Reid and DCFN Grand Chief Michael Nadli are emphasizing the importance of negotiating an interim resources development agreement with the federal government first. That would ensure impact benefits agreements and royalties, but that agreement could take another year or more.
The Acho Dene Koe, however, are laying the groundwork to continue with development on their own terms. One of the provisions in the resolution Chief Judy Kotchea demanded was to allow for land selections to carry on with economic development in Fort Liard.
What came as a greater concern to the other leaders was the Acho Dene's request for boundaries to be drawn between Fort Liard's traditional area and that of Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake. Boundaries are unwelcome within the Deh Cho. Kotchea had to explain several times that the B.C. Treaty Commission is making defined maps a pre-requisite to negotiating the Acho Dene's traditional land area on the B.C. side of the border -- a process that may become more complicated with a new Liberal provincial government under Gordon Campbell in place. Still, the whole issue raised suspicion.
Hay River Reserve Chief Pat Martell dropped a bomb by announcing that his people would require an independent legal opinion before signing the Interim Measures Agreement and Draft Framework Agreement.
At one point, Deh Cho Grand Chief Michael Nadli openly asked whether the Deh Cho Process was becoming too unwieldy. Will each community wind up with its own lawyer sitting by its chief's side at every meeting? Will 10 separate self-government processes be needed?
Reid noted that despite an attempt to negotiate on behalf of the best interest of all 10 Deh Cho communities, any individual community has the authority to implement portions of the interim self-government agreements as they see fit. Each community can also walk away from the negotiations process whenever they choose, he added.
Even though that reality threatens to dismantle the unity of the DCFN at any time, Nadli tried to put a good face on the contentious week of meetings. He suggested that the Deh Cho's First Nations were still intact as a cohesive unit and several "strong-willed" decisions were made.
In a self-government process that is expected to last seven years, things could unravel very easily. We shall see how strong the region's collective will really is.
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.