When a dog on the loose charges at a man and his daughter on the ice of Back Bay, it's a problem.

The real tragedy is that our authorities don't know who has jurisdiction. It's almost as funny as a Marx Brothers routine.

The territorial government has no authority there. Neither does the city, not technically anyway. The lake is federal domain, but they likely don't want to be its master when it comes to policing pets.

Instead, dogs run loose and people and their pets are put in danger.

Here's a couple of suggestions:

- people who live along the bay and let their dogs run free on the ice should stop, and tie them up;

- the city ought to write a letter to the federal department in charge and ask permission to send bylaw officers there to deal with the dogs.

It's that simple.

Good business

One of the ways to keep kids out of trouble is to give them something to do. Sports fits that bill.

So, it makes perfect sense to turn the current Yellowknife Correctional Centre into the new home for Sport North.

If they can use some of the buildings, all the better. Let's turn something bad into something good.

Faith in the board can be quickly eroded

The public's faith in the Yellowknife Catholic Schools board was evident last week. Only one person showed up for a review of the budget for the next school year.

So far, YCS has a good financial track record: they have money in the bank and put extra cash into special needs services.

Still, trustees and administration need to know what parents want in their schools and the community must be involved to ensure spending doesn't get out of control.

You only need look to the budget troubles at Yellowknife School District #1 in the past few years to see what can happen if things get out of control.

So, next time YCS has a public budget meeting, parents should be there to have their say.

Helping good neighbours

Coun. Dave Ramsay had a great idea: when the Gerry Murphy Arena gets torn down, give the old ice plant to Rae.

It may not be state of the art, but it does the job.

Rae doesn't have artificial ice, meaning residents of the Dogrib town can't lace up until it gets cold enough.

Rae residents spend a lot of money in Yellowknife.

They participate in our hockey tournaments and patronize our services.

And more than just a good gesture for an important neighbouring community, it's the right thing to do.

Job well done

There aren't enough good things that can be said about Festival of Trees organizers. In one weekend, they raised more than $60,000 for the Stanton Hospital Foundation.

Wow.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

The interaction between professional athletes and youth is often nothing short of incredible.

And, as proven in Baker Lake this past month, you don't have to be one of the biggest stars in sports to still make a major impression.

Mark Laforest had a solid professional hockey career.

A journeyman goalie for most of his 14 years stopping pucks professionally, Laforest managed to do what millions of hockey fanatics in this country can only dream about -- play in the NHL.

Add to that the one year he wore the blue and white (Toronto Maple Leafs for you intellectual types), and Laforest has a strong enough resume to captivate just about any young audience with his tales form "The Show."

That's what makes the hidden gem of Laforest's personality all the brighter.

For Laforest, his biggest sense of satisfaction came from two seasons in the American Hockey league where his consistent goaltending earned him the Baz Bastien memorial trophy.

From what we understand, Laforest's message was not lost of the students.

If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right -- at any level.

That is, as long as you stick with it.

Not everybody can be a millionaire. Nor do the majority of us hang our parkas up on the 100th floor of some ivory tower every morning.

But a great many of us go to our place of employment every day and do the best job we possibly can.

It's called taking pride in what you do and what you accomplish at your level.

For many people in this world, working construction in Baker Lake would be a free-fall from skating out onto the ice in Maple Leaf Gardens.

But, that's what makes people like Mark (Trees) Laforest so special -- their ability to always try and do their best.

A Mark Laforest can often be the right kind of person delivering the right message at the right time.

Sticking to their goals, finishing what they start and always giving 110 per cent are the types of attributes we need to see in the next generation coming out of our educational system.

They're the types of attributes from which progress springs.

And, as Laforest himself so vividly illustrates, they're also the types of attributes that often bring success the old fashioned way -- through hard work, pride and determination.

After all, a well built school in the Kivalliq is every bit as beautiful to see as a great save in the Gardens.

And if you don't believe that, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

The huge rent increase faced by Martin Goodliffe is an isolated incident that has nothing to do with a greedy landlord, but does illuminate a flaw within landlord legislation.

If a landlord decides they no longer want to be a landlord, they can't just kick people into the street, but apparently, they can raise their rent so high that they will be forced into the street.

Three months' notice is all that's required and you could see your rent doubled, tripled or quadrupled under current territorial legislation.

Looking at the rent being asked around town, it seems we have a lot of landlords who want out of the business.

We see once-affordable housing around town that's now turned into "executive suites" with an executive price tag about double what the old rent was.

It's just this type of behaviour that forces government into the marketplace.

If someone wants out of the rental business, they want to demolish for new development or if they are just motivated by pure greed, rents can, and are going through the roof here.

It begs the question: Where will low income people live? The answer is: Not Inuvik.

Our waiters and waitresses, store clerks and gas jockeys, will all require $25 per hour to get by here.

So to keep employees, business owners will have to provide housing and that will drive their costs up, which in turn, drives their customers' costs up.

This begs another question: How much will you pay for a cup of coffee?

It goes 'round and 'round, but in the end, we all end up paying for high rents and if these landlords don't get wise, soon they'll be heating empty units.

This winter, the greedheads have no choice but to suck up the loss from their empty executive suites and maybe next winter too, but when that pipeline starts getting built, people will have no choice but to pay the exorbitant price demanded.

When I lived in Banff, Alta., I watched this story play out.

Chambermaids, waitresses and gas jockeys living under bridges because they couldn't find a place to live, never mind one they could afford.

We don't have any bridges here, but I know people were sleeping under buildings downtown last winter.

Will it take a few frozen bodies to legislate some rent control here or can we hope that the landlords settle for a little profit instead of a huge one?

I'm hoping for the latter, but the way things are going, I'm not too hopeful.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

It hasn't been much of a cold winter yet.

Technically speaking, it's not even winter at all. That season officially begins on Dec. 21, although it seems silly to think of November and December as autumn in the North.

Even though it has been relatively mild, many of us have slipped into that habit of convenience: letting our vehicles idle so they can be toasty warm when we get inside. Other times, we fall prey to the best of intentions: making a brief stop somewhere, running inside and quickly returning to the idling vehicle. The next thing you know, 10 or 15 minutes has passed while carbon dioxide is belching from the tailpipe.

That issue isn't unique to the North. According to a recent Canadian Press article, Calgary city council is about to debate whether to penalize those who leave their vehicles idling too long. Toronto already has a bylaw that gives motorists a three-minute idling limit. After that, vehicle owners are subject to a fine of up to $2,000.

It's unlikely that Toronto's bylaw officers are walking around with stopwatches to nab anyone who surpasses the 180 allotted seconds. It's also unlikely that first or second time offenders are receiving fines over $100. But the law is on the books, and those who flout it by letting their vehicles run for half an hour or more deserve what they have coming to them.

Such legislation makes good sense. Even if you're not a big believer in climate change or global warming -- or if you're skeptical that humans are responsible for such phenomenons -- there's no room for doubt when it comes to air pollution. Poor air quality advisories are becoming more and more frequent all over the world every summer, and Canada is no exception. There's no lack of scientific evidence linking vehicle exhaust to smog alerts.

Even so, there is an argument to be made for allowing cars to warm up properly during the winter. It's often pointed out by environmentalists that, mechanically speaking, the engine only needs a minute or two to warm up (a block heater is useful here). However, the vehicle's cabin heating system takes longer, sometimes five or 10 minutes in extreme cold. It's not just warm seats at the heart of the issue, it's also ensuring that one's windshield doesn't frost or fog up. It can be a hazard to take off after only a minute or two because even after thoroughly scraping the outside of the windows, frost can still form quickly on the inside, if the vehicle isn't warmed up sufficiently.

So we need to strike a balance. If we jump into a cold vehicle and drive off right away, we assume the risk of running down some poor pedestrian when our windshields frost over. On the other hand, we don't need to leave our vehicles idling for prolonged periods of time. Some people won't stop, though.

At least there's the promise of fuel-efficient vehicles. Hybrid and hydrogen-powered cars, trucks and SUVs will hopefully be the way of the future and take some of the stink out of the air.

The learning centres De Beers plans to build in five primary communities in the NWT will be open to all, not just to De Beers employees. Yellowknifer apologizes for any embarrassment or confusion caused by the error.