Wednesday, September 7, 2005
The humbling story told by Ry Forest last week shows what can happen if you don't. You can be driving along one day without a care in the world when suddenly an unpaid parking ticket from years ago comes back to ruin your day.
Getting handcuffed and thrown into the back of a squad car for something seemingly so trivial may appear unreasonable.
As Yellowknife RCMP officer Sgt. Michael Payne pointed out, "oodles and oodles" of traffic tickets go unpaid in the NWT. Arresting the offender - often while being pulled over for some other traffic violation - is usually the only way to ensure fines get paid.
Other provinces and territories have a much better chance of collecting on overdue tickets because they do a much better job keeping track of them.
Our neighbours in the Yukon will not allow a driver to renew a licence, or register a vehicle without paying the fines off first. Traffic penalties in the NWT are only registered after they've been settled.
Clearly, the problem here is a lack of communication between Justices of the Peace who hear traffic cases and the motor vehicles licensing branch.
Those who miss their court dates should be automatically red-flagged, and their subsequent traffic fines and added penalties forwarded to the Department of Transportation.
We applaud fast work by four RCMP officers last week who broke into a woman's burning apartment.
The woman - still unidentified by authorities - was medevaced to Edmonton with serious burn injuries. She could have died in her home.
It's one of those "what if" scenarios most of us will never face, but one where we hope to do the right thing if put into that position.
Yes, Mounties are trained to take action when it's called for. But until there is a real and present danger, who knows how a person will do?
They could have as easily exited the building and waited for the fire department to effect the rescue a minute or so later. That's what the fire department is trained to do, right?
But a lot can happen in a minute. Sean Gordon, David Hamilton, Keith Kowalchuk and Brent Lackie coolly attacked a deadly situation and saved a life.
We salute their actions.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
There is no doubt the residents of Whale Cove who took the time to call our office were upset over the fact no Nunavut politician or member of the Department of Education showed up for the first graduation ceremony in the history of Inuglak school.
And we sympathize with their frustration concerning the matter.
That being said, while we agree at least one government rep should have been present for the ceremony, we don't agree with the contention it was a deliberate snub of the community, or that our elected officials simply viewed Rankin Inlet's graduation on the same day as being more important.
The lack of out-of-town delegates at the Inuglak ceremony was a case of bad timing and communication.
In the case of Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell, someone along the paper-pushing trail in Ottawa got the dates mixed up.
For MLA Levinia Brown, it was a combination of prior commitments and not having quite mastered the art of being in two places at the same time.
We're a little more hard pressed to make excuses for the staff of Kivalliq Student Services in Baker Lake, but we'll accept the explanation they thought Brown was going to be there and leave it at that.
Besides, this column is more about spending time with big bananas than worrying about small potatoes. There was a very wide and bright silver lining to all this for the three Inuglak school graduates.
Because of the scheduling and communication difficulties, these three deserving youth got the chance to have dinner and spend upwards of two hours sitting and chatting with their MLA, their member of Parliament and visiting federal Housing Minister Joe Fontana.
So, let's put all this into perspective.
Had things worked out differently, yes, it would have been nice to have had these people at the actual graduation ceremony.
However, had that been the case, the grads would have received a short speech from each of the politicians during the ceremony and, time permitting, a cordial handshake at the end of the event.
As it turned out, they received a much-more intimate encounter with three personalities who have a great deal of demand placed on their time.
When's the last time you had dinner and two hours of conversation with a federal minister?
Hopefully, both the politicians and the students benefitted from the experience.
And, we're willing to bet both parties are more likely to remember the occasion the way things worked out.
Although everything did end on a fairly happy note, we would be remiss if we did not point out, once again, feelings were hurt over the lack of outside attendance at the actual grad.
Hopefully, our leaders will take notice and improve the lines of communication enough to ensure such an oversight does not happen again.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
It's easy to be cynical about politicians.
Come election time they make promises that voters expect them to fulfil.
But glory is fleeting and after the cheers, well-wishes and pats on the back fade into the memories of the victors, those elected are first on the firing line when government doesn't seem to work as promised.
The notion that politicians don't care or that they forget about their constituents after they are elected is a common refrain. Which brings us to the pre-budget consultations being held in nine communities by the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight.
The idea is a great one but whether or not concerns expressed at those meetings will materialize into concrete solutions is another matter entirely.
One has to wonder if the GNWT has taken a page out of the Mackenzie Gas Project's processes, which has embraced the notion of public input as a cornerstone of moving the development forward. If this is the case, then chalk one up for a positive social impact. Communities around the North are screaming for more resources to meet their education, housing and many other social needs.
As far as Inuvik is concerned, the politicians have come, listened to concerns particular to our community and taken notes. The big question is, will some, if any, of these issues be tackled in the coming budget?
Time will tell. In the meantime, take solace in the fact that government has at least leant its collective ear to your concerns. However, best to keep that red carpet in the closet for now.
After the first End of the Road Music Festival, one comment heard from several youth in the community was that there was nothing geared for teens. So in planning this year's event, the festival committee went to great lengths to organize a teen concert and even brought a hip-hop act and DJ from Edmonton for the occasion.
And what did the committee, the event sponsor and the town get in return for their efforts?
A bill for wanton destruction caused by a few ungrateful youth. Granted, it's always a few who ruin it for the rest. Thanks to those few who chose to be destructive, the youth concert was pre-empted and many kids - who didn't deserve such treatment - were left outside the rec centre wondering how they were going to spend the rest of the evening.
When this kind of thing happens, phrases like getting youth to "take ownership" and "building capacity" amongst the youth start to get a bit tired.
Perhaps next year, if the youth want a festival event of their own they should step up to the plate and organize it themselves. That way, the town's youth really will have taken ownership. If this happens, then maybe it will influence others to appreciate what their peers have accomplished (building capacity) and respect it for what it is, rather than just another free event served up on a silver platter.
Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh Cho Drum
With the price of oil climbing towards $70 per barrel like a chubby teen scaling the rope in gym class - herky-jerky but undoubtedly upward bound - Canadians are left wondering: How high will it go?
Unfortunately for most drivers, the answer is: higher than you think. Dwindling oil reserves and turmoil in the Middle East - the braying phys-ed teachers of the petroleum industry - are not going away and neither are sky-high prices at the pumps.
Canadians waiting for relief from the crushing array of federal, provincial and territorial gas taxes better not hold their breath either.
Last week, federal finance minister Ralph Goodale gave perhaps the flattest political "no" ever when the issue was raised.
But amid the complaining, the lobbying and fist-waving one important factor has been overlooked: high gas prices are really blessings in disguise.
Green-niks have argued for decades that cheap fossil fuels have created societies - especially in North America - that are overly dependent on cars, which have the nasty little habit of spewing noxious chemicals into the air.
Low prices encourage people to consume and consume some more until they're driving little Jimmy to his soccer game in a Hummer.
And with the public appetite for monstrously huge, gas-guzzling SUVs, manufacturers have little incentive to change their lineups.
Economists argue that once gas prices reach a certain point, consumers will flock towards greener cars and public transit.
And while the Deh Cho will probably never see trains and Smart cars, the region will benefit from the reduction of greenhouse gases.
We will bask in the glow - as opposed to choke on the smog - of our southern neighbours.
The hope is, this society-wide change-over will happen before most of the planet is covered by oceans and the climate in Mackenzie Valley becomes Floridian.
But there is reason for optimism. In Europe, where gas prices are three times higher than North America, the shift towards eco-friendly cars and well developed public transit systems is already gaining steam.
Perhaps the best thing about the limited amount of fossil fuels is just that - they are limited.
Hopefully that is some small consolation for the next time you spend $140 filling the truck.
A front page photo in the Yellowknife edition of News/North shows an apartment unit only slightly damaged because it had a sprinkler system. Information was mixed with another photo that was not published.