Every week Northern News Services Limited posts the NNSL Mini Poll on our home page on the World Wide Web.

It's not meant to be scientific, but it does give a snapshot of what some of our Internet-connected newspaper readers think about some of the issues of the day.

If responses to this week's poll question are any indication, it's a good thing the answers are not necessarily representative of all Yellowknifers.

Asked the question: 'Do you plan to give to a local Christmas charity this year,' an underwhelming 55 per cent of respondents answered, 'Yes. It is important to help out needy people in your home community,' while a full 45 per cent said, 'No. It is hard enough making our season bright.'

In raw numbers, 32 people as of this writing said 'Yes,' while 26 said 'No.' The final numbers may change a tad, but probably not much.

Fortunately, our poll numbers don't tell the whole story. In fact, evidence suggests Yellowknifers, who enjoy some of the highest pay and employment rates in the country, are in return quite generous.

Item: The second annual NorthwesTel Festival of Trees fundraiser this weekend is on track to raise $80,000 for Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation to purchase additional cardiac diagnostic equipment as part of Project Heartbeat. NorthwesTel donated $25,000 last week and is committed to giving $75,000 in total over three years.

A $135,000 fundraising effort, Project Heartbeat benefited to the tune of about $55,000 last year from the inaugural Festival of Trees.

Item: Music-loving Yellowknifers dug into their pockets and scoured their kitchen cupboards last Friday night to come up with more than $1,300 in cash and $300 in food for the Yellowknife Food Bank during a benefit concert at Northern United Place. Performers including Northern Skies, Sophie Leger, Mark Bogan and others who donated their time and talent.

Item: the Salvation Army's family hamper program is hoping to collect food baskets worth $200 to $300 each for Northern families. Last year, the number of hampers donated totalled 600.

And don't forget there will be shivering Santas ringing the charity bell outside the city's liquor stores.

These are but a few of the many simple yet powerful signs, gestures large and small, that remind us of the meaning of Christmas.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

Louis Taparti and everyone involved with the Building a Bridge for Change workshop in Rankin Inlet this past week are to be commended for their efforts.

The community should also acknowledge the good judgment exhibited by hamlet council in footing half the bill to bring the workshop to Rankin.

Technically speaking, many people may not be aware council is under no municipal responsibility to provide funding for such programs.

Councillors voted to do so out of their concern for the youth of our community.

And, for that, they are to be applauded.

When it comes to suicide, high risk kids are certainly not indigenous to the North.

However, there can be no denying a serious problem exists with troubled kids in our territory.

Opening the lines of communication between adults, elders and youth is a positive step in the right direction of addressing that problem.

Adults can sometimes lose sight of the fact youth have their own particular set of needs that must be met.

Often at the top of that list is the need to belong, to fit in, to feel part of something.

Conversely, many teens also lose sight of the fact their parents really do have their best interests at heart.

Hence, the walls go up and the lines of communication are broken.

It came as no surprise to hear Taparti speak of some people at the workshop being offended by what they saw during role-playing exercises.

When the lines of effective communication are severed, we only see ourselves as the people we believe ourselves to be.

That's true of any age, once the first moves toward independence begin.

Programs which effectively open lines of communication, and help develop our abilities to see both sides of most situations, are valuable tools in building trust and better understanding between age groups.

As Taparti noted, the workshop was a positive first step which must be followed up on to be truly effective.

Elders in classrooms, open discussion groups and family counselling are all proven ways of creating an environment where youth can learn from life experiences.

But, the interaction must be a two-way street.

The honest exchange of opinions and ideas in an equal environment -- without the fear of retribution for speaking one's mind -- is a strong foundation for growth, knowledge, understanding, tolerance and belonging.

Not surprising, considering it's the same foundation on which this great nation of ours was built.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

Ed's booked solid doing drug testing and education all over Alberta and the North, but this is one business we'd all like to see go out of business.

During his presentation, Ed played a video about the adverse health effects of smoking marijuana and it took me back to Grade 8.

When I was in junior high, we got all the usual low-grade health films about the evils of booze and drugs and they were a joke to us then and would be hilarious to watch today.

They showed us films portraying pot smokers as raving lunatics and drinkers as slathering boobs.

My friends and I tried pot and booze somewhere around that time and we collectively thought, "Our teachers lied to us!"

We felt that if they lied about pot and booze, they probably lied about that other stuff too, so off we went into our senior high years experimenting.

I was a lucky one. I never had much of a penchant for waking up broke and stupid, but as I grew older, I lost many friends who died drunk behind the wheel or overdosed on cocaine.

A guy I grew up with lost his house, his BMW and his carpentry business because of his addiction.

Those movies we watched in health weren't of much benefit to my friends and I and maybe even served us more harm than good.

Drug education has to be real to young people if it's going to have any effect.

Our schools are always eager to bring in shining examples of good citizenry, but if the students saw a few bad examples it might go a long way to preventing a problem before it becomes one.

If my health class had some guy come in and tell us how he lost his house, business and BMW to cocaine, who knows, I might have a few more friends today.

Renaissance revival

It's been a long time coming, but it's great to see the GNWT has finally made a commitment to an artisan training program for the territory.

While still in its infancy, the Aurora College program shows some real promise to future artists.

The beauty of the artisan program is that it offers students the full spectrum of arts that will give them a better understanding and appreciation of their own and other's work.

Whether carving, beading or sewing, these art forms carry a big part of the heritage of this area and recognizing that, the government will see their dollars come back through taxes paid and will help preserve a culture that needs all the help it can get.

Let's hope the next budget makes room for art.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

Gauging village council There are a couple of noteworthy items from last Thursday's village council public meeting in Fort Simpson.

First of all, there weren't many people in attendance. The mayor, seven councillors and the senior administrative officer were almost as many in number as the crowd for a while. The audience peaked at 17, which isn't overwhelming. The previous mayor and council packed in double or triple that number on at least one occasion.

So then, should the poor turnout at last week's public meeting be interpreted as tacit approval of council's performance? Perhaps, but not necessarily.

Even though it had been a long time -- at least a year or two -- since the last public meeting, the current "hot button topics" of privatizing garbage and amending the smoking bylaw weren't enough to attract many residents -- and that's even on a week when TV bingo was cancelled. So it does seem to indicate that council isn't doing too poorly.

The other point of interest was that council is split on the two aforementioned issues and it turned out that the public is divided in opinion as well, at least those who showed up were. That would seem to indicate that council reflects its constituents, and that much is reassuring.

One issue that was not on the agenda, but was raised by resident Ken Lambert, was the disparity in services offered to those who live in Fort Simpson proper as opposed to those who live in the Wild Rose Acres subdivision. Lambert noted that Wild Rose residents have no fire hydrants, no sidewalks, no sewage or water lines. Therefore he suggested that Wild Rose residents should be paying lower property taxes.

Mayor Tom Wilson replied that if taxes go down in one area, they will have to go up in another. Coun. Sean Whelly added that it's expensive to truck water to Wild Rose residents, but the village subsidizes that.

While there hasn't been a hue and cry over the Wild Rose versus in-town issue lately, it is a sore point that never seems to go away.

With talk of another subdivision being built in Fort Simpson in the coming years, the tax for services topic is one that should be examined.

Going to be slick

Unseasonably warm weather has made a brief return to the Deh Cho and it's bound to be ultra slippery on the streets and sidewalks this week. The warm temperatures will likely melt some of the snow and then give way to cold temperatures, which will make things treacherous. Be cautious behind the wheel and on foot.