Wednesday, February 22, 2006
To date, the government's record with multi-national mining companies is dismal.
Ten years ago, to create a cutting and polishing industry from diamond wealth in the barrens, mining companies were asked to supply cutting and polishing plants in Yellowknife with rough diamonds. No price break, cutting plants would buy at world prices.
The mining companies balked. It would shave a tiny amount off huge profits intended to pay off billion-dollar mines in less than half the time a Northerner would pay down the mortgage on a house. Company executives wanted a quick return to their shareholders.
Last week, defending the government's failure, Minister Brendan Bell cited agreements on rough diamonds that don't exist while admitting agreements do exist that favour the mining companies.
What is he doing about it? After losing key personnel, he disbanded the tiny unit the government devoted to building the cutting and polishing industry. It's gone, as small as it was.
Instead, Bell hired a southern advertising firm to market Northern diamonds, which also helps the mines, but ignores the fact the cutting and polishing industry is half the size it could be by the government's own estimates.
Such failure hardly inspires confidence, quite the opposite.
In October of 2004, Premier Handley declared the Mackenzie Valley pipeline would not be built unless the North is dealt a fair share of resource revenue.
A deal on resource revenue is no closer, but the multi-national oil companies have in hand a letter that declares the Government of the Northwest Territories will be fair and reasonable.
Again, hardly an inspiring act in the interest of the people of the NWT.
It's difficult dealing with executives of companies controlling global resources. These people are used to getting what they want with carefully crafted strategies that push and pull at the same time. They have thousands of employees and billions of dollars at their beck and call.
Premier Handley has yet to learn there are no friends in business, just good deals and bad deals. The same goes with the federal government. Stop taking yes for an answer when it really means no.
In the case of both diamonds and the pipeline, the Premier has a clear goal: the benefits to Northerners must equal the benefits to be enjoyed by the multi-nationals. Otherwise, what good are the resources?
Cabinet and Premier must sit down to decide how to fix the flawed diamond deals. Then they must stand up in the pipeline debate and demand what Northerners have every right to expect.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams took down flags to get what his people needed. When is our Premier going to raise the NWT flag to begin the fight for Northerners?
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Watching the outrage caused by the Western Standard (a political magazine based in Calgary) publishing the caricatures of Muslim Prophet Muhammad, it's hard to disagree with the publisher's contention that it's a good thing for the world Christians are such an easy-going bunch.
There have been riots around the globe since the cartoons were first seen in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Western publisher Ezra Levant has referred to the cartoons as innocuous, which, if you were to view them on the Internet, you would find an apt description.
Imagine if Levant had put Bryan Adams on the cover dressed as Muhammad.
At the same time, the Western Standard was being accused of distributing hate literature, Rolling Stone magazine featured rapper Kayne West on its cover dressed as Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns.
But, thankfully, Christians are a forgiving lot.
It was a mere 16 years ago when American photographer Andres Serrano took top spot in the Southeastern Centre for Contemporary Art's Awards in the Visual Arts competition for his Piss Christ photo.
The photo featured a small crucifix submerged in a glass of Serrano's urine.
It remains a hotly-debated example of the pros and cons of freedom of expression.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) supports the right of Canadian media to publish the cartoons.
Its reasoning behind the decision is that the cartoons can provide some of the context needed to explain the riots and shootings that have left many people dead.
However, the CAJ continues to debate the issue and has a number of detractors within its own ranks.
In fact, the CAJ will hold a panel related to the topic at its upcoming national conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this coming May.
The idea is for the panelists to discuss how journalists should balance constitutional rights to freedom of expression, and freedom of the press with ethical responsibilities.
Well, bully for them.
What they should discuss is why so many in the West condone attacks on Christianity, yet frown upon questioning other religions.
Many academics would have you believe this is a complex moral issue.
But, I side with Levant on this one in that if a publication mocks Christ, it may receive a letter to the editor or have its publisher taken out to dinner and asked what can be done to soften his views on Christianity (horrors).
Depict (let alone mock) Muhammad, and in some areas of the world you risk being blown up.
The issue, therefore, is not so complex. It's based on fear.
I applaud Levant for not being scared away from publishing the cartoons, and forgive him for the furore the decision has caused.
That's actually easier to forgive than the job he did as communications advisor to Stockwell Day during Day's short time as leader of the Alliance party.
Now that was a disturbing cartoon.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
As the Joint Review Panel (JRP) element of the Mackenzie Gas Project hearings got off to an interesting start Tuesday, opening remarks from 16 groups provided a window into what lies in store over the next year.
As chair Robert Hornal periodically held up a "Speak more slowly" sign to allow translators time to interpret proponent representatives' statements, it proved to be an unintentional sight gag that is sure to get similar laughter up and down the valley, as it received in Inuvik on day one of the JRP hearings.
But seriously folks, the JRP has been saddled with a monumental task; that is to distill a year's worth of testimony into its final report, the contents of which will be incorporated in the National Energy Board's recommendation on the fate of the pipeline.
So it is reasonable to expect questionable statements to be coming from both sides of the pipeline debate. From the proponent's side Tuesday, you had an Imperial Oil spokesperson declaring the applicant's Environmental Impact Statement as "comprehensive," which is entirely debatable. Especially when in a condensed version it states: "There will be no significant negative effects on land, water, wildlife, fish, marine mammals or birds from the project. We have plans to manage negative effects."
Certainly, both government and non-government environmental groups will be interested to hear about these plans.
And from the socio-economic activist side, expect testimony to be peppered with hyperbole.
Giving the Sierra Club of Canada's opening statement, Stephen Hazell said the pipeline would cause a "tsunami" of development that would devastate the North's environment and people. While businesses with an interest in having the pipeline built might relish this tidal wave metaphor, it also brings to mind bodies littering coastlines in southeast Asia - not a pretty picture, indeed.
And not to be outdone by the Sierra Club, Alternatives North went one step further by drawing a parallel between gas from the pipeline to the atomic bombing of Japan! In an attempt to focus the importance of the fact that some of the Delta's natural gas will end up as fuel for mining Alberta's dreaded tar sands, spokesperson Suzette Montreuil alluded to uranium mined from Port Radium, which was used to construct America's first atomic weapons.
So get ready to strap in for a year's worth of these hearings that will hopefully lean away from more doomsday scenarios and stick to providing information that will be of some real benefit.
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
This week, Fort Simpson and the Deh Cho lost a respected Metis elder.
Albertine Rodh's list of accomplishments is long. She played an influential role in many groups, from the Metis Nation to the Native Women's Association of the Northwest Territories.
By all accounts, her loss as both a leader, a friend and an important part of a family will be greatly mourned.
But with the passing of elders such as Rodh also comes the loss of chapters of history.
It's like a puzzle of a picture that tells a story, but one by one pieces are disappearing so the story becomes disjointed and difficult to understand or comprehend.
With each death, those who remain behind lose that person's life experiences and the narrative of the broader world events they lived through. We also lose their knowledge of family members they knew.
Shortly before Rodh's funeral, MLA Kevin Menicoche mentioned that one of her great skills was her knowledge of family histories. Menicoche said she could tell you who your distant relatives were and how you fit into the broader web of family relations.
With a death, knowledge like this is lost unless someone took the time to listen.
This is why it's encouraging to see events where part of the mandate is bringing youth and elders together. The importance of intergenerational contact cannot be underestimated.
It can be hard to see grandparents or older relatives as more than family members who often make good food or give nice presents. It can be even harder to get young people to spend quality time with grandparents, but it should be encouraged.
There are so many things we take for granted while they are still alive. It's easy to think you will always have the chance to ask them about family stories, to clarify the bits of family trees that you never managed to keep straight, or identify the faces in grainy old black and white photographs.
Older generations can also help us understand how society has reached the place we find ourselves in. What sacrifices, choices or mistakes were made to bring us here.
Our lives today are affected by the actions prior generations took. If we don't know what those actions were, it makes it hard to move forward.
Generations of people are nothing more than humans holding hands during a journey through a dark place. Let's keep the chain intact so we don't become lost.