Soon we'll get to cast our votes in civic elections in NWT's larger communities, and for some school board trustees.

It only happens every three years, but election season is our best and maybe only chance to look candidates in the eyes to see how sincere they are in their desire to spend our tax money wisely.

Indeed, the people in Norman Wells are pumped. For the first time in several elections there will be a contest for school board.

The possibility of fresh faces bringing new ideas to taxpayer-funded institutions should be looked to with happy anticipation.

But election season does not seem to be looked forward to with enthusiasm in some very strange quarters -- namely from those very people who seek to represent us.

In Hay River, Mayor Duncan McNeill says "some voters" are complaining of the expense of holding an election, merely because contentious candidate Harvey Werner seeks to be a councillor.

We suspect those "voters" are council candidates who'd rather not spend money on signage and other means to tell Hay River voters where those candidates stand on issues. They'd rather sneak in the electoral back door by acclamation.

Shame on those people. An election is part of the foundation of Canada. Voters deserve a look at the candidates and to get a chance to hold candidates accountable.

Election by acclamation does nothing to help that along.

There is also the case of the Catholic school board in Yellowknife.

'No public forums, please, the last thing we want is for taxpayers to get to ask questions of candidates,' appears to be the theme coming from the Catholic school board office.

The fact is, the Catholic school board says there will be no candidates forum because no one stepped forward to organize it and they haven't had them in the past. Well holy ballot box, Batman, maybe that's because trustees got in by acclamation!

Now without actually having to justify themselves to the voters (there are eight candidates for seven seats), the school board will pretty much let the winning trustees sneak into power.

Sure, Catholic voters can cast their ballots, but they may as well vote for a hallucination with a name. A public forum is the best way to keep an election ... well, democratic, which is approximate ancient Greek for 'people's voice.'

Instead, there will be silence. That is no way to run an election.

It's easy to spot the hero in a crowd -- just look for the person hiding behind the door, shielding themselves from attention just as people rush to thank them.

We featured three of them in News/North last week: Eliyah Pudloo, who helped police rescue two children in Iqaluit and Bravery Medal recipients Capt. John Robert MacInnis and Paul Landry.

The hero is usually a study of opposites: alert yet unaware of what makes them so great in others' eyes outgoing in the face of danger, but shy in the face of adulation.

The hero intrigues us because on the one hand, their actions sound so understandable in the retelling -- the child was stranded on a rock, or, the house was burning and someone was calling out from inside.

'Surely,' you think to yourself when you hear such stories, 'I would have gone in there.' Or, 'I could have easily found a boat and rescued those children.'

But even in Nunavut, a territory where people are still friendly to each other, saying 'Hi' and smiling on the street, we have become more and more cut off from the world around us.

We do not always check up on our neighbours. We do not notice the smoke emerging from a building, the screams coming from the street, or even know where our children are playing at all times.

A hero is a strong reminder that the world beyond our daily chores and minor personal troubles can be a dangerous, unpredictable place.

We get blinded by our own worries -- a forgotten item at the grocery store, a scrape on our knee, and nothing else matters but us. The hero draws us back to what really matters -- the burning building no one else saw, the child alone and afraid.

The hero makes us think hard about where we were, and what we were doing when all hell broke loose. They remind us that life is precious, and that there are many moments in the day when we simply take it all for granted.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

We sincerely hope a number of Kivalliq nurses are selected this coming week to take part in a widely-endorsed survey across Canada.

More than 39,000 nurses will be randomly selected across the country to take part in the mail-in survey.

The survey will gather information from the nurses on their workplace, patients, personal health, job satisfaction, careers and aspirations.

The undertaking represents the largest number of nurses to ever be surveyed in Canada and targets all three regulated nursing professions -- licensed practical nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and registered nurses.

The survey promises to gather data from each province and territory to allow comparisons across Canada.

The idea, of course, is that consistent data will provide governments with the facts to make informed decisions affecting the profession.

Support for the project is widespread, including doctors, nurses, provincial and territorial governments, unions, researchers and educators.

In short, this survey is far more than lip service to our nursing professionals.

It provides them with a forum to have their voices heard as Canada continues to revamp its health-care system.

Hopefully, nurses in our region will have their voices heard.

While the survey is but one small piece in a much larger puzzle, it gives nurses the chance to demonstrate the challenges they face each and every day on the job.

And nowhere are the challenges greater than in Nunavut.

Too many of our nurses are overworked and all too often expected to make decisions better left to physicians.

The North, by its very nature, poses care-giving challenges alien to many health care professionals in the South.

That being said, those challenges have to be successfully met to insure we Northerners receive the same level of care enjoyed by our Southern counterparts.

Hopefully, once the returned data is analyzed and compared, it will open a few eyes in our nation's capital as to just how taxed our most valuable health care resources really are.

Nowhere in Canada are nurses more important as the front-line providers of health care as in the North.

While there is always room for improvement, they do a fine job with the resources they have to work with.

And therein lies the key.

Hopefully, this survey will be a stepping stone to improving both the number of nurses we have in the North and the resources at this disposal.

Editorial Comment
Terry Halifax
Inuvik Drum

The housing corp's $125,000 gift to the residents of Husky Trailer Park turned more than a few heads at Monday night's council meeting.

Without qualification or needs assessment, the 12 residents will receive two subsidies. The first comes on the backs of the Inuvik taxpayers and the second on the backs of NWT taxpayers.

This development will cost the town between $350,000 and $450,000, which means even at the low end residents will be getting cheaper lots than what others in town are paying.

The second subsidy comes as a direct gift from a government already climbing the debt wall.

There are people living in Husky Trailer Park who have haven't paid a dime in property tax in this town in the decades they've lived here and their rent is $250 per month.

There are households earning double government incomes living there who would never qualify for a subsidy, but here they are getting a double-dip subsidy that even politicians would envy.

I can sympathize with the people in the trailer park. No one likes to move, but it is a reality for every renter.

Had this been a private landlord, they would have been given 30 days notice and they'd be off.

But since the town had the misfortune of acquiring this property, the taxpayers are on the hook for what ever this is going to cost.

This is an election year and maybe this is an opportunity to buy some votes, but not a very sound strategy if that is the plan.

It's a bad idea anyway way you look at it.

The town has the final say in all this and I think some tough love is in order.

Go back to the original plan to make a playground and move the trailers to new lots.

I think we would all agree that Husky Trailer Park would look a lot better simply as Husky Park.

A whispered scream

I was quite surprised by the small turnout at last week's Take Back the Night rally and march.

Domestic violence is easily one of the biggest social issues facing this town, but last week's march had but a small handful of participants.

In any given sitting of territorial court here, there are probably more people facing charges of domestic abuse than were in the march.

I think if more people could see the tears shed on that witness stand week after week, they might realize what a problem we have here.

Perhaps it's because domestic violence is not "in your face enough" that it doesn't get the same support to combat as alcoholism or homelessness does in this town, but believe me, it's a much bigger problem than you see from the surface.

Just because you don't step over it everyday, doesn't mean it doesn't exist and if you don't believe me, ask a cop.

Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum

Somehow the tune has changed in regards to a potential Mackenzie Valley pipeline over the past year or two.

Hark back to January, 2000 when aboriginal groups from the NWT gathered in Fort Liard and agreed to work together to benefit from a major natural gas pipeline running from Inuvik south into Alberta. At that time, Deh Cho leaders were willing to back the group but with conditions. Outright support hinged on self-government negotiations, then Grand Chief Michael Nadli explained.

Over the few years, pressure was heaped on the DCFN from around the North and from Calgary (perhaps Ottawa too). The Deh Cho, it seemed, wore the black hat in this scenario. Some remained cautiously optimistic, but others talked of gloom and doom if the DCFN didn't come on board. The whole pipeline project could fall apart, alarmists speculated.

Despite the coercion, the Deh Cho steadfastly stuck to their objectives. The remainder of the regions in the NWT along with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group -- the Arctic Resources Corporation (ARC) was still in the picture at that time, too -- and industry were forced to begrudgingly forge ahead without the Deh Cho's participation.

Now it seems we've arrived at a point where the DCFN is no longer viewed as "making or breaking" the pipeline.

Deh Cho at the table

So what has changed? Well, the Aboriginal Pipeline Group has secured its funding for the preliminary study stage. It took quite a while but it was done without the Deh Cho at the table. Obtaining the money was a boon.

Talk of "losing out" to a competing an Alaska-Yukon pipeline has faded. The odds now heavily favour the Mackenzie Valley pipe being built first.

The Mackenzie Gas Project (under the oil and gas consortium led by Imperial Oil) established a presence in three Northern communities, including Fort Simpson. Consequently, there has been an upswing in consultations. There is plenty of talk of jobs and contract opportunities associated with preliminary pipeline work and, later, construction of the pipeline. Yet questions remain about how well prepared the DCFN will be to capitalize on these preliminary opportunities.

Deh Cho communities, like many of their Northern neighbours, continue to be flooded with representatives from oil and gas companies, environmental firms, heavy equipment businesses, helicopter operations, camps, catering companies and others. Most of these business people are interested in forming partnerships, or joint ventures. Many of the First Nations are negotiating and signing on the dotted line for themselves.

Greater royalties

Yet the Deh Cho First Nations' negotiating team hasn't changed its stance in regards to the pipeline. The Deh Cho's chief negotiator, following direction from the region's elected leaders, is still going head-to-head with his federal counterparts, still demanding guarantees of greater royalties for the Deh Cho.

Is a Mackenzie Valley pipeline going to be built? North American demand for natural gas certainly isn't tapering off, nor is the Deh Cho First Nations' demand for an equitable share of the pie.

Interestingly, it is NWT Premier Stephen Kakfwi who now is getting media coverage for threatening to halt resource development in the territory if the GNWT doesn't get a share of resource revenues from Ottawa. The only thing that seems to have subsided -- maybe only temporarily -- is the intense pressure for the DCFN to get a deal done immediately.

In the Northern Lights article, "Crafters spend the winter creatively" published in News/North Sept. 22, it incorrectly stated that Marnie Hilash works for J&S Options. Hilash actually works for V&S Options. She also holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts and a master's degree in visual arts.

We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused.