Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Northern companies reaping the rewards of Northern Lights dollars need to recognize the Alaskan advantage of 747 jumbo jets flying direct from Japan to Fairbanks.
Tourists, no matter where they're from, don't enjoy logistical hassles. They'd rather fly direct from Vancouver rather than stopping in Edmonton or Calgary.
While First Air's attempt to introduce such a flight in 2001 was scuttled by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, it's time to look at current needs and dust the plan off.
As well, for years the territorial government has waffled on how best to organize the Northern tourism industry. It's time to focus on actually helping to build the industry.
We have a great aurora infrastructure in place and more cultural components and side trip opportunities will help enrich the NWT experience. Equally important is training for hospitality workers to bring customer service up to the gold standard offered by the competition in Alaska. That's a role for government to play.
Say what you will about the fear factor in the U.S. deterring Japanese tourists, but don't forget the Americans do two things very well: customer service and hostile take-overs.
If Yellowknifers and our leaders don't focus on the first, the second will be inevitable.
City Hall says it doesn't have the money to develop the Gerry Murphy arena site, now just an empty lot, albeit in a prime real estate location.
For now, the site will remain, as the mayor said, "a sightline to the lake."
Considering the lack of greenspace downtown, that's the way it should stay.
However, city council said it will soon be looking at designs from the administration that could see buildings being put up on the site - buildings such as a larger council chamber, a civic plaza or a library.
In a poll of 50 people conducted by Yellowknifer in April 2004, 87 per cent wanted parkland.
Council itself strongly rejected a proposal from the Workers Compensation Board to build an office building for themselves and a new courthouse.
We say turn it into a park to complement Somba K'e Park and the Frame Lake Trail.
Put in grass, a few trees and some playground equipment and voila, the perfect answer that will please those who matter most - the public.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Not all that long ago, former Kivalliq News columnist Bill Gawor was sharply criticized in a number of corners for a piece he penned on the whole climate change and global warming scenario unfolding in the North.
Gawor, known by his readers to almost always write with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, didn't quite buy into all the gloom, doom and despair being tossed around by so many on the subject.
Quite the contrary.
Gawor took the approach that a little bit of global warming might not be such a bad thing after all, and depending on who you listen to these days, he might not have been so far off base with his contentions.
While some experts in the field are predicting the polar bear to become extinct during the next few decades, a number of areas in Nunavut are seeing an unprecedented increase in their numbers.
In fact, it is estimated the polar bear population has risen about 25 per cent during the past decade. This despite a four-degree rise in the average temperature in some areas during the past 50 years.
Polar bear quotas are actually being increased in areas with a sound population management plan for the future.
Gawor pointed out the amazing adaptability of the polar bear and, who knows, he may be proven right during the next four decades.
And, that's just the point. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, most of what we hear is nothing more than simple conjecture, dressed up with a lot of numbers floating around the laws of probability.
Economic opportunity
But there's another side to the global warming equation we don't hear much about - and we also don't know what its impact will be if it ever reaches fruition.
Shipping companies are already looking ahead to the possibility of trade lanes opening up with this slight increase in average temperature.
In fact, representatives of a Manitoba-based company are off to Russia to pitch their plans for a new trade route between the Port of Churchill and Murmansk later this month.
OmniTrax (Port of Churchill, Hudson Bay Railway), are hoping to find a number of Russian businesses that would be quite interested in accessing the North American market through the Churchill port.
Of course, if this plan starts to move forward, there will be plenty of cries of dissension and worries over spills and the possible effects on the ecosystem, which are all valid concerns, but certainly not impregnable barriers.
Only time will tell if Gawor hit a bulls-eye or missed the boat entirely with his vision of the Kivalliq in the year 2050.
As cautious as we must be over our environment and things that affect it - we should also remember seal lovers are still detested by those who used to fish for a living.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
It's time for the territorial government to take some action that will actually have a positive effect on the average Joe on the street.
Sure the GNWT talks about the holy grail of revenue sharing and devolution, while visions of a pipeline remain in the realm of possibility but what does all this really mean to the family struggling to make ends meet? Not a whole heck of a lot if you are barely scraping by and your landlord decides to jack up the rent.
After reading some editorials published in the Aklavik Journal almost 50 years ago, it is amazing to see that the more things have changed, the more they have actually stayed the same.
More housing, less alcohol and a less-centralized territorial government were sentiments shared in the region when Elvis was becoming King and aboriginal people were struggling to make sense of their ever-changing societies at the mercy of bureaucrats chained to desks miles away, completely oblivious to the situation "on the ground."
Nearly a half-century later, the king is long dead but communities in the region are still asking for more housing, less alcohol and more control over their own affairs.
On top of everything else, an Alberta-based company (its president and CEO a former senior bureaucrat with the GNWT) has decided to dramatically increase the rent it charges on 200 properties purchased in Inuvik last year.
Left unchecked, this kind of thing is sure to have a domino effect, as tenants not renting from the above company wait for their landlords to follow suit.
The territorial government continues to sing the same-old song about mitigating the socio-economic impacts of the coming pipeline all the while this rent increase is hitting people immediately, literally right where they live, and seemingly right under the government's very nose.
Something stinks and its time for the legislative assembly to put away the Febreze and do some real cleaning.
It is easy to imagine the impact of skyrocketing rents on those at the low end of the economic scale but when professionals earning good wages start to talk about leaving, it's a warning sign of impending doom straight ahead.
It brings to mind another GNWT jukebox classic called It's So Hard to Recruit Good People from Down South.
It's true that most professionals working in the NWT are southern imports but as more local people become qualified to take on such responsibilities, how many will want to return if it costs a half-million to buy a home or $40,000 per year to rent one? Here's hoping that question never has to be answered.
Naysayers argue that such policies as rent control only deter development and push up the cost of buying a home.
However, when capitalist ventures intrude on a heavily subsidized region, such as the NWT, what results are corporate monopolies intent on pushing up the prices anyways.
The bottom line is, the government needs to listen to the people and make it a priority to implement some form of rent control in the NWT.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh cho Drum
As we ring in 2005, we look back on 2004 as the year of the bear.
The Chinese calendar had 2004 pegged as the year of the monkey, but it was really bears that grabbed most of the headlines among the animal kingdom (probably because we don't have any monkeys in this part of the world).
There was the ingenious black bear that figured out how to open a valve on the Enbridge pipeline, causing a 12,000-litre oil spill near Fort Simpson.
Then there was a black bear that attacked a camper and made its way onto the porch of a mobile home in Fort Simpson.
Another black bear ambled into the Antoine Drive area of Fort Simpson, amid children playing in the street.
Fortunately it didn't attack anyone. Instead, it feasted on garbage from a residence until a Renewable Resources officer plugged it with bullets to prevent a more tragic outcome.
Bear attacks did occur last year, however.
A grizzly bit and clawed a Nahanni National Park tourist, who survived after he and his wife fended off the enormous predator with rocks and paddles.
It was the first recorded bear attack in the park.
Near the Colomac mine site north of Yellowknife, a young man was attacked and severely injured by a grizzly.
Let's hope the bears are having a peaceful hibernation and aren't so restless this summer.
Soothsaying
Gazing into the crystal ball, 2005 will undoubtedly provide many developments on the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline and Deh Cho self-government negotiations. That much is a safe bet - it's the specifics that nobody can predict at this point.
There will also be interesting situations to follow in Fort Simpson, where a decision on village versus hamlet status stands to be made.
By the time September rolls around, a review of the impacts associated with increased liquor availability should take place.
The rationing of alcohol may finally become history in the village, or the review may precipitate a battle to retain the status quo.
In Fort Liard, the outcome of a forensic audit on band finances should paint a very interesting picture.
In Fort Providence, work on a long-awaited Mackenzie River bridge should commence this year.
There will continue to be situations relating to loose dogs and the weather.
Those are universal issues as constant as the sunrise.
Tied to the weather will be the forest fire season.
The Deh Cho has avoided a catastrophic fire season for many years now, but 2005 could bring the cyclical blazes that some resources and environmental officials say are bound to ignite.
All those stories and a few surprises will unfold in the days and months ahead.