More than ten years after Transport Canada introduced a tailor-made boating safety program for the North, boaters are still not wearing life jackets and are dying as a result.

The Small Boat Safety Awareness (SBSA) program was created in 1995 in response to a government decision not to extend stricter rules implemented for small craft down south.

Those rules include mandatory boater operating competency courses, and age restrictions on the size and horsepower of boats.

It's not mandatory to wear a lifejacket or any other floatation device although all boaters, including those in the NWT, must carry them.

A lot of requirements weren't carried out here because of a general belief that Northerners weren't sophisticated enough to understand simple things like lifejackets and boater driver licences.

Promotion instead of enforcement became the rule of thumb up here.

Of course, the problem isn't just in the communities. If one were to take a look around Yellowknife Bay, they'd likely see all kinds of people putting around without any lifejackets or boater training.

Great Slave Lake is a particularly dangerous body of water. Even in Yellowknife Bay a 25 km/h breeze is enough to cause five-foot waves. It's surface temperatures much of the summer average only about 50 degrees fahrenheit.

Because it's a big lake, people here tend to buy bigger, more powerful boats to ply it.

Out of 209 drownings reported in the NWT between 1969 and 1998, 106 were directly related to boating accidents.

It now appears likely that four boaters, including 43-year-old Peter Drygeese, who disappeared after taking a boat from Ndilo June 18, have drowned this year. Three of them, including Drygeese, were not wearing lifejackets.

Two things seemed to be in need here: A mandatory rule for wearing lifejackets on all motorized boats. Actual rules for safely operating boats.

If it makes sense to make seatbelts mandatory, then the same goes for lifejackets.

It also doesn't make sense to put national boating rules on hold up here, when some of the most adverse conditions in the country are experienced in the North.

The Department of Transportation may say that these rules are too difficult to enforce, but having some kind of law in place is better than having none. Besides, what better place to start enforcing the rules than Yellowknife Bay. It's full of boats.

Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Kivalliq News

Are we only a few decades away from bathing suits on Baker Lake in mid-April? Sounds fantastic, but if Arctic temperatures rise according to the worst case scenarios - five degrees within the century - that reality might not be far off.

The Kivalliq has just basked in its hottest spring since Environment Canada began tracking records in the late 1940s. And while one warm season doesn't spell global warming, numbers from the last decade are hard to ignore. According to climate experts, seven of Nunavut's 10 warmest summers have come since 1980.

While that might be great news for cooped-up kids, the wacky weather is wreaking havoc on just about everything else.

Four Nunavummiut have drowned this year on ice that was either thinner than usual or non-existent. Some hunters are reporting migratory patterns have changed. Melting sea ice is making it harder to hunt seals in springtime.

And American environmental groups, claiming polar bears are headed for extinction this century, are pushing for the animals to be included on the U.S. list of threatened species - a move that would devastate the sport hunting industry in places like Coral Harbour.

While the natural inclination might be to tell southern tree-huggers to mind their own business, the fact that global warming is being recognized below the 60th parallel is good for all Northerners.

The 70,000 residents of Nunavut and Northwest Territories are at the mercy of southerners and their SUV-driving soccer moms and power hungry lugnut factories.

The global warming soon-to-be epidemic came from the south and can only be cured by the south. There are bound to be mistakes in the crusade when you get a bunch of southern Californians involved, like the group pushing to have polar bears added to the threatened species list. After all, how much context can people have when their only exposure to the North is a Frank Zappa song.

But their push has brought more public attention to the issue. In the last decade, global warming has escaped the ivory-towered confines of university labs and remote Antarctic research stations. Heck, somebody even made a block-buster about it, starring one of the dudes from Brokeback Mountain.

Global warming has become a self-explanatory phrase. Most media have abandoned the cursory addendum "gradual heating of the planet caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide", because, well, most people already know.

And knowledge is one pre-requisite for change. The other is having enough people actually care. Otherwise, I have first dibs on a room at the Baker Lake Tropical Resort and Time Share.

Darrell Greer, the editor of the Kivalliq News, is on vacation and will return in mid-July.

Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum

It seems like there is a reason to scold the youth on a near weekly basis.

After years and years of being pooled in with other kids who don't have anything better to do with their time than "hang out," I have finally had enough.

I touched on this subject last week, about the soccer nets at Curtis Field.

I choose to spend my time kicking the soccer ball around and having fun with friends.

That doesn't mean I want to spend my first 20 minutes cleaning garbage and re-hooking the nets.

Even though I wasn't the one who had to climb the steel structure, it did look uncomfortable.

Why should the honest recreational soccer players have to deal with this garbage?

I understand that the closest dumpster is all the way across the street, but couldn't you just leave the trash in a small bag?

I don't even know who I am talking to, but if you played ball on Sunday afternoon, and drink Gatorade, we have a problem.

I have to applaud the town workers that moved the nets to make a better playing area.

Kudos to the guys who brought out the orange mesh netting and hung it on that warm Thursday afternoon.

What a beautiful sight - nice green field and cool orange nets.

I guess the field also appeals to kids who choose to climb on the mesh and use it as a hammock.

Now, please parents, teach your children that those nets are there for a purpose and should not be used as junior's jungle gym.

I saw a few kids on the net one day, so I stopped my truck and shooed them away.

I didn't stick around, but I hope they got the message.

We soccer players are a polite crew, but don't cross certain lines.

I encourage all the people in town to scold those youngins that tend to swing on the nets.

If the kids know they can't get away with it, the damage could stop.

Imagine that, a field with perfect nets.

I kicked a nice shot at the net. It was a high-angled kick that could rival the great Pele.

I was sure I would be doing the airplane celebration dance in seconds, yet I found myself running across the street to get the ball.

It went in the net, narrowly missing the crossbar.

Unfortunately, the section of mesh was pulled down and it flew straight through.

Yeah, some of my friends had a good laugh, but it's no laughing matter.

I've seen some big games start off from just a few people practising.

Let's keep active, Inuvik -- just don't do it by climbing all over the soccer nets.

Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum

With the school year drawing to a close across the Deh Cho, a new crop of graduates have come forward.

From high schools and Aurora College, these graduates have come into the world armed with their gathered knowledge and experience.

At graduation ceremonies, one of the stock elements of almost any speech is the fact that students are the future. The effect of this idea is lost after it is heard half a dozen times, but the truth behind it remains.

One item that Governor General Michaelle Jean remarked upon near the end of her visit to Fort Simpson is the desire of the people of the Deh Cho to take destiny into their own hands and have self-government.

Jean rightly pointed out that this goal will create challenges ahead, especially for the youth. In order to have self-government, there needs to be a generation ready for the challenges that it will bring.

Education, as Jean said, will be the key.

The responsibility of ensuring today's youth will be ready falls equally and on all people.

The building blocks need to be laid in the homes.

Again and again, graduating students highlighted the fact that their parents and families played an important role in keeping them in school. Without this support, many said they wouldn't have made it.

For some students, it was just having someone to make sure they actually got out of bed when the alarm clock went off. For others, it was a matter of having someone to remind them why they needed to stay in school and all the future opportunities that would be closed to them if they did not.

In speeches, students also reflected on the importance of teachers who were there through difficult tasks and urged them to keep going.

The broader community also has a role to play in letting students know that education holds a place of importance. This education includes both book learning and also cultural knowledge. Youth will need to balance both in order to lead the way.

There is also a greater responsibility for the community to continually work towards creating a place that more and more youth will want to return to after they travel for education or jobs.

Losing generations to the South or bigger communities only weakens the Deh Cho.

Some people may choose to strengthen the area by furthering their education.

Graduates from Aurora College campuses are a reminder that it is never too late to go back to school. It might be something you dreamed of doing or just a way to upgrade qualifications and obtain a different job.

No matter what lies ahead for recent graduates, hopefully they will be able to take what are currently dreams and make them into a workable reality in the near future for the Deh Cho.

An error appeared in a brief in Wednesday's Yellowknifer, ("Liberals reaching out," June 28). A motion made before the Western Arctic Liberal Association was discussed, but has yet to be approved. Yellowknifer apologizes for any embarrassment or confusion caused by the error.