Monday, April 04, 2005
As great as this accomplishment was for Green and his teammates, it is especially significant for Northern athletes as a whole, mainly because it proves once again that living in the North does not prevent people from doing great things.
It shows that with enough desire, talent and determination, Northerners can accomplish anything they set their minds to.
It has been said that Northern athletes should be realistic in setting their goals, that Northern teams shouldn't be encouraged to expect too much when competing at national and international events. There may be some truth to that.
On the other hand, the only way to really succeed, to be great and accomplish amazing things, is to take big risks, to put your heart and soul into whatever you do.
Green offered the perfect example of that kind of thinking when he took a chance on adjusting his rifle sights to account for windy conditions and ended up leading his relay team out of fourth and into second place.
Green has followed the example of those who have gone before him: Sharon and Shirley Firth; Geoff Sanderson and Jordin Tootoo; Lindsay Bolivar; the Merchants fastball team and many others.
In turn, he is setting the course for future athletes, not only by giving them someone to look up to, but by helping to break the trail.
Every time a Northern athlete makes it onto the podium, it encourages other Northern athletes to go for the glory.
Commercial fishermen of Great Slave Lake want to turn the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage on its head.
As far as they are concerned, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is a broken tool for getting Great Slave fish to market... any market.
The fishermen have long had to suffer the fish marketing corporation's belief there isn't much of a market for Great Slave fish.
But a recent task force of Great Slave Lake fishermen discovered markets in the U.S. that would result in three times the sales of white fish and other species.
"Now we know otherwise," says fisherman Jerry Morin.
Indeed.
Commercial fishing is like any other business: there has to be a "net" income worth the effort.
If the marketing corp. won't help haul in that "net," then we encourage Great Slave Lake's fishermen to find a market on their own that will.
The economy in Nunavut is in its infancy.
Jobs are scarce in most communities and the cost of goods is high owing to the premium paid for transportation.
But the territory need not remain a poor country cousin to the rest of Canada forever.
Nunavut's future depends on working closely with mining firms to develop its mineral riches.
That does not mean it should throw open its doors to modern day robber barons who would only take without regard for the lasting impact they have on the people and the land.
No, responsible development is the key.
With Tahera's ongoing construction of Jericho - and the 150 or so direct long-term jobs soon to be available through its mine contractor Nuna Logistics - for Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven, Kugaaruk, Taloyoak and Cambridge Bay, opportunity is already knocking.
Its properly structured benefits and environmental agreements assure Nunavummiut will get their fair share of the $683 million to be generated over Jericho's initial nine years of operation.
There are other properties in the Kitikmeot that promise to be even more lucrative, be it diamonds as is the case with Jericho or the gold at Hope Bay or base metals at Hackett River and High Lake.
Around the territory there's the Meadowbank gold property near Baker Lake, the massive potential of base metals and platinum at Ferguson Lake, diamonds galore on the Melville Peninsula and iron ore at Mary River. And that's just to name a few.
The Government of Nunavut has said it would like to see four mines in production within less than a decade.
It also wants to use its regulatory powers to ratchet development up in a controlled and sustainable way to help minimize the boom-and-bust effect after learning the lessons of Lupin, Nanisivik and Polaris.
These are both good ideas, but there must be a third pillar to this plan: infrastructure.
Land links to the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions are being discussed while internal roads and a deep-water port have also been mentioned for the Baffin region.
None of these ideas are cheap, but the benefits they promise for residents would be immeasurable.
And the best part is, they're permanent.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Our hat goes off to the Nunavut government this week for finally realizing it's far better to have the horse before the cart when one is trying to make some serious headway.
The government has obtained $3.2 million federal funding during the next three years for the Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium under the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership.
The project is expected to provide training for 180 individuals and sustainable jobs for upwards of 80 Inuit in Nunavut.
That number could grow by an additional 145 jobs during the duration of the program.
The GN and vested partners in the fishing industry will contribute an additional $2.4 million to the training fund.
Training in various aspects of the offshore fisheries industry will be provided through a joint initiative of the Marine Institute in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut Arctic College.
We cannot emphasize enough how much of a significant step forward this is in the development of Nunavut's offshore fishing industry.
With properly trained Inuit entering the industry, Nunavut stands to greatly improve on the approximately $9 million it receives annually in economic value from the 33 per cent of fisheries resources it controls in adjacent waters.
The annual potential of the resource is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of $80 million.
While this is all good news for a territory with a 25 per cent unemployment rate among Inuit, its most significant point is the message it sends to Ottawa that Nunavut is serious about developing its offshore fisheries industry.
While it's one thing to demand a fair share of a quota based on adjacency and then bring in a bunch of boats and fishers from another province to harvest it - training a workforce to eventually control 100 per cent of the industry is the first step in laying a solid base for the growth of the fishing industry in Nunavut.
Premier Paul Okalik and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Paul Kaludjak can stamp their feet all they want over Nunavut getting "its fair share" of various quotas in adjacent waters.
The problem they're up against is that shrimp and turbot, for example, have been fished for decades in Nunavut's adjacent waters by southern Canadians while Northerners had absolutely no interest in the industry.
Anyone with even the slightest understanding of the history of Canada's fishing industry realizes to wrest those quotas away now is a monumental task.
Goal can be achieved
But, over time, it is a goal that can be accomplished to Nunavut's satisfaction.
And, it is encouraging to see our territory moving in the proper direction by entering into this training agreement.
The more skilled workers and infrastructure (fishing vessels, processing plants, packers, shippers, etc.) we put in place, the stronger our case becomes in obtaining what we believe to be rightfully ours.
Hopefully, this step forward means the GN has finally learned: catch a person a fish and you feed them for a day, teach them how to fish and you feed them for lifetime!
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
Little more than a year ago, Inuvik's Interagency Committee released its report on homelessness.
Spurred on by this piece of research, things looked promising for a new homeless shelter - with an accompanying alcohol and drug treatment component - to be set up in Inuvik.
Meanwhile, financing for Turning Point, the town's current shelter facility, was apparently coming apart at the seams.
Looking back at Turning Point's history, the writing was on the wall. In the late '90s the fight was on to save its predecessor Delta House. At that point, with a $650,000 budget and 13 staff members, Delta House was the best-funded treatment centre in the North. However, the government's viewpoint of Delta House was more along the lines of an "overfunded and underused" facility. Budget cuts were the order of the day in 1997 and were ultimately to blame for the demise of Delta House.
Fast forward a few years and what's left of Delta House - now known as Turning Point - is stripped of its ability to treat addicts and then, in March of 2003, also loses its on-site alcohol and drug counsellor.
As budget cuts took their toll, the place slowly and surely became little more than a shell of its former self.
But its supporters soldiered on, soliciting piecemeal funding from a variety of "stakeholders" to supplement Education, Culture and Employment's contributions. While it could no longer provide counselling to its residents, it could indeed provide shelter and when winter's temperatures plummeted, there was at least that small mercy to be thankful for.
As of April 1 (of all days) Turning Point will be no more, as the territorial government has finally pounded the last nail into its coffin.
The numbers of those referred for addictions treatment don't justify regional treatment centres in the North, according to the health minister.
And speaking of balanced budgets, Turning Point's board, the Inuvik Alcohol Committee, was not keeping itself in the black either.
Granted, it was trying to make its finances stretch, all the while maintaining - perhaps quite rightly - that Turning Point was being short changed.
That said, measures should have been taken to control expenses. This may have meant losing a staff member and a couple of beds but, in hindsight, it could have made the difference and kept Turning Point open.
At this stage, pointing fingers and laying blame will do absolutely nothing for the three people out of work or the eight people looking for a place to sleep tonight.
A resident of Turning Point summed it up best by saying it was "grim" to be evicted from an emergency shelter. What could be more grim is if this closure passes unnoticed, especially by those with the power to do something about it.
The order of the day should be coming up with a sustainable, locally-based solution that can shelter the homeless and deal with alcohol and drug dependent clients - something Turning Point's operators were unable to do in the shelter's final days.
With two Inuvik MLAs serving our interests in Yellowknife, surely some noise could be made on this issue at the legislative assembly.
Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh cho Drum
When the American Government opened up drilling rights in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge two weeks ago, the sanctuary officially entered the pantheon of places with bitterly ironic names.
Like the Democratic Republic of the Congo - which is neither democratic nor a republic - the ANWR has become a refuge in title only.
After years of lobbying, the oily fingerprints of short-sighted capitalism will finally make its mark on one of the most pristine environments on the planet. The decision is the most egregious rape of the environment since... one day earlier when American government relaxed laws on the amount of allowable mercury in the air and water. Or when the same administration signed legislation that essentially allowed logging in national forests. Or when it opted out of the Kyoto Accord.
Those decisions were a product of the American corporatocracy - a thinly veiled version of democracy where special interest outweighs public interest.
Normally, there would little reason for Northern residents to be concerned about what happens in the United States. But when it comes to the environment, what happens south of the border does not stay south of the border.
Greenhouse gasses, a byproduct of the consumption of fossil fuels, are slowly but surely increasing the global mean temperature and the North is at the forefront of this warming process.
Temperatures in the NWT are predicted to increase by nearly five degrees before the end of the century - a monumental shift that could result in everything from the widespread extinctions to the melting of the polar ice caps.
The decision to open up ANWR is another slap in the face to Northern residents who will feel the brunt of global warming.
And like the architects of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, proponents of drilling in the ANWR are simply delaying the inevitable. Some scientists estimate the world reserve of fossil fuels will be depleted within the next century anyway - an event that will force a massive shift in the way we live our lives.
Oil and gas are not long-term solutions to the world's energy needs. Instead of opening up wildlife refuges, governments should concentrate on offering meaningful incentives to companies for developing alternate sources of energy.
Unfortunately, that seems to make entirely too much sense. Instead, the American and Canadian governments are content to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the looming fossil fuel crisis. They'd rather scour the barren reaches of the earth for the last drop of oil.