Medical specialists and the government are playing a high-stakes game of chicken that will leave Northern patients as road kill.

Twelve of 15 specialists are ready to quit if they don't have a contract with the territorial government by June 30.

They've been without a deal for more than a year, despite negotiations that have been in progress for more than two years.

Health Minister Michael Miltenberger says there is no need to worry. The government has enough money to hire temporary relief and ship serious medical cases south for treatment.

That's little reassurance after his handling of complaints by nurses and other health professionals last year.

They complained for months while Miltenberger refused to put more money into the pot. Wards closed. Patients were flown south. Only last week did Stanton Territorial Hospital's intensive care unit re-open after being closed for nearly a year.

The minister's inability to act eventually cost the hospital's top administrator his job and made the territorial health board a scapegoat.

Only when Miltengerger's head was on the block did he magically come up with $8.3 million to hire new nurses and doctors.

We can understand the specialists' frustration; two years is a long time to talk about anything.

But what's it all about? What are the sticking points? Money? Working conditions? Vacation time?

According to the negotiators, that's none of the public's business.

Dr. Ken Seethram, president of the NWT Medical Association, and Dave Murray, deputy minister of health, say the two sides have agreed not to discuss the outstanding issues until a settlement is reached.

Somehow they've forgotten who they work for.

We can understand how specialists might lose touch; that can happen when you're pulling in a base wage of $240,000 a year. That amount of money can build a firewall between the good doctors and reality.

But how can a public servant speak such lines?

Both sides seem to have forgotten that all the money they handle comes from one source -- taxpayers.

We say it's time to let the public in on what the doctors want. After all, it's the public that will be picking up the tab and living, or dying, with the results.

Funding formulas based on population or on enrolment do not work in Nunavut.

They don't work when it comes to health. We've seen that over and over again as our premier and government fight for more federal funding.

Now, we're seeing the same thing when it comes to education. Except it's the teachers, the district education authorities and the students petitioning the territorial government for more funding.

Nunavut's education department decides how many teachers a community will get based on the number of students attending school.

The funding formula assures teaching positions are distributed fairly across the territory in terms of numbers.

It doesn't take into consideration the many pressures being put on Nunavut schools nowadays.

The government and the people want their children to be educated. They want their children to learn the culture, to learn English, French, Inuktitut, Innuinaqtun and to stay in school. The teachers want the same thing -- they just don't have the resources to do it.

A letter sent to the Kugluktuk District Education Authority (KDEA) by the Nunavut government several weeks ago warned the community could lose up to three Grade 12 teaching positions next year. This loss will set back the progress made in getting kids to stay in school.

The loss of three teachers could also mean the end of the Kugluktuk High School Athletic Association (KHSAA).

Teachers and administration at the school say that since the start of KHSAA, attendance has gone up and in some cases even doubled. It gives students a reason to stick around until they graduate from Grade 12.

At the same time, the KDEA is concerned it will never be able to implement new programs into the schools if funding continues to fall.

How are the teachers supposed to start instructing Innuinaqtun in the classrooms when they can't even keep the programs currently in place running?

Kugluktuk is not the only community facing these problems.

The Government of Nunavut said it does not have enough money to fund all of the teaching positions in the territory.

Right now there are about 590 teachers around Nunavut. Salaries start at $54,000 a year, plus Northern allowance.

Officials from the education department are looking for funding alternatives but have made no promises.

Nunavut's children are the future of the territory.

They need the skills to be able to run the territory when today's leaders move on. That only comes through education.

Rigid funding formulas do not work in this territory and need to be tossed away for the sake of the children and for the sake of Nunavut's future.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

Full marks to Coun. David Ittinuar for his response to Coun. Laura Kowmuk during Rankin Inlet's regular council meeting on May 5.

Kowmuk was upset with the job requirements needed to fill the position of municipal works maintenance manager for the hamlet.

She told Ittinuar a journeyman's certificate in a related field, or an engineering technology certificate were too high for Inuit to obtain.

In her spiel Kowmuk said, "When I hear some qablunaaq say they're going to get that job, I get really upset."

If this were an anti-racism column, that statement from an official elected to serve ALL the people of the community would provide the fodder for our attack.

But it is not, so we'll let the remark speak for itself.

This column is aimed at the notion Inuit aren't capable of landing jobs of high standards.

That's a point Ittinuar addressed by informing Kowmuk he, himself, holds a journeyman's certificate.

Ittinuar didn't want to beat his own drum too loudly, so we'll do it for him. He is, in fact, the holder of a provincial red seal automotive certificate.

More to the point, Ittinuar informed Kowmuk there are a number of journeymen in Rankin now and many more are working to achieve that goal.

In fact, according to Dept. of Education numbers, seven journeymen certificates have been issued in Rankin Inlet since Division in 1999, and 10 across the Kivalliq region.

There are an additional 19 registered apprentices currently active in the region.

There are many, many Inuit working hard in the trades and at post-secondary institutions to reach their goals.

During the next few years, many of these people will move into government, health, education and trades-related positions without once asking to lower the bar.

Whether the hamlet eventually hires an Inuk, caucasian, or any other race or nationality is immaterial.

What does matter, is that the best person for the job is hired from the applications received.

That's what will benefit our community.

There are too many influential people in this territory who want lower standards in education, government and the workforce. Maybe they believe they're doing the right thing, but they are not.

A Grade 12 certificate full of credits for comic book reading and basket weaving would be no more than a wall decoration.

Hiring people for jobs they are not qualified to do is an exercise in futility.

Those who push to lower the bar have opted for an easy road leading nowhere. And, more often than not, they're more concerned with personal agendas than the future of Nunavut.

As for those who would make decisions based on race, creed or colour -- they will forever remain part of the problem, and never be part of the solution.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

Along with a collection of other gawkers, I watched in amazement as a group of snowmobilers forced their machines across open water down at the public dock last Sunday afternoon.

Then Tuesday afternoon, I'm called away from my looming deadline, to attend the rescue of Mr. Holman who, despite the designation of "Safety Officer" emblazoned across his company jacket's shoulder, tried to negotiate his snow machine across open water.

What is this fascination with cheating death? Are our memories so short?

On May 19 of last year, Roderick Simon died when his snow machine failed to clear some open water just north of town.

The town mourned this senseless loss, but it seems no one has learned.

I've heard reports of people walking across the ice and falling through and I'm bracing for the next ice water drowning story I'm going to have to write.

No easy way out

In this job, I get to see some extreme contrasts in the community and this issue reflects that so well.

Last Friday the community hall was packed to the rafters with pride as friends and families beamed upon the graduation of their loved ones.

The audience for Monday's sitting of the Supreme Court was equally supportive, but not near as proud, while two young men were sent to jail for selling cocaine.

My heart sinks every time I watch someone so young, and with so much promise, go to jail because they were looking for an easy way to make a buck.

These two guys were not hardened drug dealers -- they weren't even selling the stuff -- but in the eyes of the law, procurement is still trafficking.

Now their future is in ruin because they were looking for a few free lines, joints or to simply gain favour in the eyes of a peer.

While those grads will be spending the rest of 2003 earning big salaries, these two guys will be doing time in YCC.

There is no easy way to make a living -- believe me, I've tried. Every person needs to work hard at an education and even harder at their careers.

If the lure of a steady paycheque isn't enough to bend you straight, just think about the profound sorrow in the faces of your mom, dad and grandmother watching you get sentenced to jail.

That's a sentence worse than anything the court can hand down.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

Insurance rates, in some cases, are a runaway train. It's true for NWT municipalities and it's true for vehicle owners in many parts of Canada.

Now Steve Malesku is raising a concern that may apply to many homeowners with wood stoves. He can't find an insurance company willing to offer him coverage at a reasonable rate. The one broker that's willing to take him on wants six times what he used to pay.

Why does Malesku insist on having a wood stove?

Well, he's in a predicament shared by many Northerners. He doesn't want to rely on one source of heat in the dead of winter. Other than his wood stove, he gets propane delivered from Fort Nelson, B.C. For his heating system to work, he also needs the Fort Liard power plant to be functioning properly. Without a wood stove, he can't afford for his furnace to break down either.

When it's -35 C, it is reassuring to have a backup source of heat. Not only does it keep one's body warm, it keeps the pipes from freezing.

Of course, it's risky to go without insurance. Without it, a house fire like Malesku had last year is all the more devastating.

So people are caught between a rock and a hard place. Some of them are undoubtedly failing to declare their wood stoves to side-step the insurance hassle. That practice may make life easier in the short term but should the stove cause a fire, those homeowners are going to be up the creek.

Somebody -- and the territorial government is as good a candidate as anybody -- must ascertain how pervasive this problem is across the NWT. If it's a matter of certifying more inspectors and assigning responsibility over who pays those inspectors, so be it.

Something must be done. Homeowners with wood stoves shouldn't be left languishing.

Full tummies

The graduation ceremony for four cooks in Trout Lake was a major event in the community of approximately 65 residents.

Not only did those in attendance get a chance to applaud the commitment of the cooking students (and their instructor, and the sponsoring businesses and government departments), everyone was treated to a first-class meal.

Even though that was filling in itself, the desserts were hard to resist. Of course we all had the option of showing restraint and only sampling morsels of the rich pastries. That proved next to impossible for those in line for the baked Alaska. Phoebe Punch was serving up huge servings of the ice cream cake. One woman's plate, which she was holding by the edge, literally cracked under the weight of the enormous slice.

Our compliments to the chefs.

Bonnie Crowther, the supervisor at the South MacKenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River, was presented with a Corrections Exemplary Service Medal during a ceremony at the legislative assembly on May 7.

She did not receive a Queen's Jubilee Medal as was reported in last week's News/North edition.

We apologize for the error.