Wednesday, April 06, 2005
The laminated NWT licence does not meet the standard demanded by U.S. authorities and other Canadian jurisdictions since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
As many NWT residents like to travel beyond our borders it's only logical to follow suit. It's obvious that other people's familiarity with the NWT decreases the further we get away from home.
Even with this change, it may not be long before a driver's licence alone isn't enough to get into the United States. The U.S. State Department is rumbling about making a passport mandatory for Canadians to enter America by Jan. 1, 2008.
Until then, the GNWT and federal government will have to find a way to make it easier for residents of smaller communities to get their passport photos taken.
The federal government is insisting the GNWT pay $6.6 million to make the Yellowknife airport terrorist-proof. Maybe as a gesture in good faith, they can foot the bill to pay for a photographer to visit communities and take passport-valid pictures.
After 50 years as the country's premier sled race, the Canadian Championship Dog Derby faces an uncertain future.
NMI Mobility, the main corporate sponsor for the past five years, is calling it quits, and no successor has stepped forward.
Sponsorship, or the lack of it, is the difference elite racers note when they run their teams in Alaska or Europe, where the sport carries the logos of auto makers, financial institutions and mining and energy companies.
The centrepiece in the Caribou Carnival, the race is one of the last tangible links with the not-so-distant past, when dog teams were the main mode of winter travel throughout the North.
Grant Beck has been racing for 30 years and remembers when many of the small communities staged races. Those days are gone, their tracks erased by the buzz of snow machines.
These days, mushers like Beck support their teams by thrilling winter tourists with rides over frozen lakes and the sale of dogs.
The Canadian Championship has itself been overtaken by races in Europe and places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The challenge for race organizers in Yellowknife is to build an event that lives up to its grand name.
The Canadian Championship Dog Derby should have more than a single sponsor; it needs the financial support of the North's business community and the territorial government as well.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It's about time the general public gets to see some data on the effectiveness of the various community justice committees across the Kivalliq region.
In fact, there are growing voices of concern in a number of communities surrounding this combined alternative/traditional approach to justice.
One of the biggest concerns being whispered is that older, more experienced young criminals are taking advantage of the justice committees' existence to talk younger kids into doing their dirty work for them.
Since the committees won't deal with repeat offenders as a rule, youth who have been convicted of break and enters in the past don't want to roll the dice again in a court of law, especially those now too old for youth court.
So, they quickly gain the confidence of younger kids with clean records to hit their targets.
The kids are convinced the rewards awaiting them, should they get away with the heist, far outweigh a little time spent with an elder and an apology to the property owner should they get caught.
Life in the Kivalliq is no different than anywhere else when it comes to the scenario of young kids being impressed by the stolen cash and loot being flashed around by their older peers.
The message they hear from the more hardened lawbreakers isn't crime doesn't pay; it's easy money and easier time.
Another concern being raised about justice committees is when elders, who are paid for their efforts, sit in court as a character reference for a young offender who just happens to be related to them.
Aside from, maybe, the same last surname and a striking resemblance, a court justice would have no way of knowing the elder giving the glowing report is the offender's auntie away from the courtroom.
The fact so much of the justice committees' work is done by elders intimidates many from voicing their concerns in public.
And, while we do not agree with people being intimidated into silence for any reason, we'd be less than honest if we said we didn't understand their reluctance to come forward.
Detailed reports
What would go a long way towards easing concern in our communities, is for each justice committee to table a detailed report to its hamlet council outlining each of the youth its worked with during the past few years and the results.
Are the majority of the youth walking the straight and narrow after being referred to the justice committee, or do most of them spend time with an elder only to wind up in youth court a short time later?
The councils would also hear exactly what committee members do with the youth referred to them.
After a period of time, the compiled data could provide valuable insight into what approaches work with different youth and, conversely, what approaches show no positive results.
If the community justice program is producing positive results, it's time to let the rest of us in on it.
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.