Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Public consultations have wrapped up, and the real work of rewriting the antiquated NWT Liquor Act is about to begin. Let's hope there's a big focus on enforcement. All you have to do is walk the streets of Yellowknife to see evidence of people being overserved in bars and liquor stores every day.
Enforcement is the real weakness of the Act, something that was made abundantly clear during the controversy last year over suggestions that government officials interfered with the NWT Liquor Licensing Board.
Overlooked was the fact liquor inspectors are poorly trained, lacking basic understanding of the proper procedures to gather evidence.
The inspectors try their best, but they're only part-time contract workers who are paid for each inspection.
Police help, but they're busy chasing drug dealers, rounding up intoxicated people and investigating assaults and other crime.
Liquor inspectors should become full-time employees of the NWT Justice department, trained investigators who receive regular refresher courses in enforcement of liquor law.
As well, it's time to make courses for servers mandatory. There are plenty of programs in other jurisdictions to train servers in how to spot and deal with intoxicated patrons.
A suggestion that some of the money government makes from booze sales be diverted to support programs for people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is also worth consideration. This would be a solid step toward acknowledging the damage caused by this government-run business.
The government can complain all it wants about the Liquor Board not being a social agency, but it has to acknowledge the impact booze has on families throughout the NWT.
Kudos due
Run for Our Lives organizers deserve a big bouquet of pink roses for their successful fundraiser. The money raised around the NWT for breast cancer, $128,000, will do a lot for Northern women, more than it would have done being sent to some southern charity.
And doctors, nurses, administrators and other Stanton Territorial Hospital staff deserve thanks for their work to make the emergency ward more efficient.
Their work cut the average waiting time to 88 minutes from 101. We say, why not work to cut that time to 60 minutes. What an accomplishment that would be!
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
While all the quick hit news junkies, performing arts and nature lovers are dancing for joy with the return of the CBC's regular workers this week, it must be eating them up inside to know their favourite on-air personalities are back in front of the cameras thanks to sports.
Yup. The CBC is quite willing to go to the wall against the Canadian Media Guild and its own employees.
Heck, it doesn't even mind bringing CFL games into homes in almost eerie silence.
But, when it comes to the network's loyalties to the great game of hockey, that's where it draws the line.
The CBC cares too much about its viewers to deprive them of a Canadian standard - gathering around the tube from coast to coast to coast every Saturday night to watch the pucks fly.
Poppycock.
What the CBC cares about is the gigantic slice of its revenue pie generated by the weekly broadcast of what has become a national institution; Hockey Night in Canada.
One of the amusing things about the CBC has always been that the vast majority of its regular viewers tune out on Saturday evening.
Nope, there will be none of that hockey violence allowed in the homes of the more refined among us.
The mere mention of Don Cherry's name sends a shudder through devoted Alistair Cooke fans everywhere.
And, hey, why choose hockey when you can reach for that personal video collection of the Beachcombers for your entertainment needs?
The problem is, the CBC can give its loyal viewers millions of reasons why it would rather settle a work stoppage than risk the Saturday night hockey crowd feeling at home tuned to another channel.
When it comes right down to it, Canada's hockey fans will drink more beer, eat more Wendy's and drive more trucks this year than the artistic community will in a lifetime.
The CBC knows it and, more importantly, its advertisers know it.
So, good-bye contract workers and hello Mr. Cherry.
We can't help but wonder if Arnold Amber, president of the CBC branch of the Canadian Media Guild, just might flash Cherry a quick thumbs up if passing him on a busy street.
Probably not. Unions like to take credit when they win and fire leaders when they lose.
The Kivalliq is no different than the rest of Canada on Saturday nights, with the vast majority of TVs tuned to the hockey broadcast.
And, even the most rambunctious of gatherings turns stone quiet when Cherry and Ron McLean command the airwaves for the weekly edition of Coach's Corner.
Yes, the fact we have local personalities back on the airwaves who know their communities and our Northern culture is important.
And it's good to see people we know personally in our communities back to work.
But, make no mistake about it, the CBC backed off its stance on contract workers to save and protect its biggest revenue earner - and that's hockey!!
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
This week former premier Stephen Kakfwi, negotiator for the K'Asho Got'ine Dene of Fort Good Hope, said he thought the pipeline project was "doomed to failure." The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "doomed" as such: "consigned to misfortune or destruction."
Geez, not very optimistic. Sort of the same kind of optimism one might possess if staring down the Four Horsemen on doomsday. How grim.
But whatever doom and gloom may be on the horizon, take comfort in the fact Inuvik made the New York Times last week in a story entitled "Demands by Native Canadians Delay Start of Ambitious Pipeline Project." With reports that Imperial Oil just asked for $2 billion worth of concessions from Ottawa, I guess somebody forgot to tell the Times about big oil's "demands."
Switch over to Reuters news service out of London, England and its pipeline article's lead is, "Canadian governments may offer to broker a deal between major oil companies and native groups in the Arctic to push forward a pipeline..."
Two things here: aboriginal groups in the Arctic portion of the territories are more-or-less on-side with respect to the project; and, secondly, haven't the "Canadian governments" been trying to broker a deal all along?
Then take into consideration that hearings for the project - expected to take two years - have yet to get underway and with all that doom and gloom in the media on the subject, one wonders if it will even get to that stage.
A little closer to home
Thinking about future projects for Inuvik, Boot Lake MLA Floyd Roland won't go so far as to say that a new high school would be pushed ahead of a 2007/2008 SAMS replacement in the capital plan however he did admit that, "Discussions are underway about the plan and perhaps dealing with both schools (Samuel Hearne and Sir Alexander Mackenzie) as one complex."
Roland added that a lot depended on the future life-span of a repaired SHSS but as things stood, SAMS remained on deck.
He also stuck to the Department of Public Works' December target date for getting the high school ready for students despite the contractor's confidence the school would could be opened for classes at the end of October.
Play it safe this holiday
With Thanksgiving and a long weekend to look forward to, Inuvik RCMP phoned the Drum late in the day to day that "Operation Impact" would be going into effect. So drivers should be on their best behaviour as there will be a zero-tolerance for speeding, traffic infractions and, of course, impaired driving.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
Halloween takes place at the end of this month, and we already know that there is no Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. But it's kind of fun to indulge in fantasy sometimes, isn't it?
Some of life's mysteries - Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and "Elvis Lives" - are easier explained than others, like UFOs, Stonehenge, the pyramids of Egypt and the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa.
When word started spreading in Fort Simpson that an elk was shot in the North Nahanni, some people reacted with disbelief. That must be fiction of the local kind, right? No, actually it's reality.
In addition to the wayward Northern elk, there have been plenty of sightings of white-tail deer in the Deh Cho over the past few years, particularly around the Fort Simpson airport.
In addition, bison, common in Fort Providence and Fort Liard, keep on winding their way towards Yellowknife on Hwy. 3. Some animals are obviously expanding their habitat in a northerly direction. So why is that?
Well, that leads to another myth versus reality question: Could it be global warming or climate change? It seems the majority of scientists now agree that climate change is taking place.
Average temperatures are inching up in many locales and the polar ice cap continues to melt at an alarming rate. The hurricane season has been more intense than usual in the Atlantic, but, as some weather observers have noted, there have been fewer storms in the Asian Pacific.
Some experts claim it's all part of a natural cycle. They often point to the panic over another ice age predicted back in the 1970s. Others are adamant that human beings and their pollutants are responsible for most of the changes in our environment. So that debate rages on, but we are clearly seeing signs that wildlife are adapting to something - in some cases it may be due to intrusion on their previous habitat. Humans are, without a doubt, displacing animals in some areas.
Before signing off on the weird animal stories, biologist Nic Larter mentioned that a hunter recently submitted a moose jaw that had nine teeth! What's next? Somebody will bring in undisputable proof of the bush man or a sasquatch? Elvis, are you out there?
A thousand words...
In this wonderful age of computers and digital devices, Deh Cho residents are sending in more and more photos to the Drum for publication. Those pictures are very much appreciated and we will make every effort to use at least some of them.
While not at all wanting to sound ungrateful, just keep in mind that we are a newspaper that focuses on people, so try to make your relative or friend prominent in the picture. Scenic photos are seldom used in the Drum. They appear mostly in News/North each week.
Please keep the pictures coming!
An article appearing in Friday's Yellowknifer incorrectly identified the Native Women's Association of the NWT ("Literacy awards honour work," Oct. 7). Yellowknifer apologizes for any embarrassment or confusion caused by the error.