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Friday, January 12, 2007
It's our annual rite of spring - driven mad by the long, cold months of winter, Yellowknifers gather on the ice of Frame Lake to participate in a weekend of wacky contests, music and entertainment.
One thing is for sure, we can't take the festival for granted. In 2002, apathy nearly killed the half-century old carnival, reducing it to a half-day event in a parking lot. We can't let this happen again.
Thinking good thoughts about the carnival doesn't make it come together. Volunteers working the phones, co-ordinating details and giving up chunks of their time that weekend is how events like Caribou Carnival run successfully.
Every organization in town that depends on volunteers goes through fat years and lean years. It's the nature of Yellowknife's transient population. Longtime community supporters leave town, and newcomers must be recruited into the fold.
So sell those raffle tickets and run for Caribou Carnival Queen or King. Go all out in the office bush gear contest. Trash your truck and dress up your dog.
Sure it's silly. Just remember when you're donning antlers, plaid shirts and bright red trap-door long-johns, that you're doing it for the good of your neighbours.
If you're a student in the North and you're looking for a career you can bankroll through scholarships, your best bets are math and science-based.
Aviation techs are in high demand, as are geologists, doctors, nurses, engineers and the skilled trades, and all these studies qualify for substantial grants from government and Northern businesses.
Choose an "impractical" career in acting, writing or filmmaking, and your sources of financial support shrink.
So Dustin Milligan's establishment of the "Enough talk, hurry up and do it already" $1,000 annual scholarship for Sir John Franklin students wishing to study acting is more than just a handout of money. It's a gesture of encouragement from a young man who made his film and television dreams come true to those attempting to follow his path into the film industry.
He knows firsthand how hard it is for a young person to find the courage to go after a turbulent career in arts, when calmer waters beckon.
Kudos to Milligan for using some of his hard-earned cash to help other youths follow their dreams.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Let me say right from the start, I am a smoker.
I am neither proud of it, nor embarrassed by it, and I have no intention of quitting.
Only a fool would deny the risks associated with smoking cigarettes.
Taxing smokers has become a multi-billion-dollar industry for governments.
Forget the unjustified ostracism levied at smokers.
It's not going to change and smokers accept it.
Smokers accept a lot, considering we're still talking about a legal product.
Nunavut has joined the NWT in having the highest taxation rate in Canada for tobacco products.
In announcing the latest tax hike, Finance Minister David Simailak insinuated that smoking is the major contributor to Nunavut's soaring health-care costs.
As always, with generic statements meant to justify a tax grab to those unaffected, there was no verified documentation comparing the cost smokers have on Nunavut's health-care system to, let's say, medical travel - not forgetting those who travel with the sick to Manitoba and Ontario.
But, let's forget that too and take a look at the numbers Simailak did toss out.
In justifying the tax hike, Simailak alluded to the burden put on Nunavut health care by smokers, saying it was "well-documented."
He went on to say raising tobacco taxes is a proven smoking deterrent, and the reason for the hike is to encourage more people to quit.
Let's take him at his word that the goal of the tax hike is to get smokers to quit.
Funny then, how later on he talked about how the tax increase on tobacco products will result in an annual increase of $2.5 million to $3 million in extra government revenue.
Which leaves this poor scribe to ponder how Simailak is going to rake in an extra $3 million per year if he's successful in his goal to get everybody to quit?
In fact, should this latest attempt by the government to get people to quit smoking be successful, not only would he not have the extra $3 million, he'd lose another $5 million to $10 million a year from the tobacco taxes he's already collecting.
Let's be honest. If this formula concerned anything else but tobacco, would you be buying it?
My opinion is by no means an endorsement of tobacco use, which is risky, risky business.
But enough of the government smokescreens.
Smokers are easy targets now, who risk further ridicule by speaking out.
But is it too much to ask for a little honesty in return for the millions - billions nationally - they shell out in taxes every year?
The tax increase on tobacco products (sin tax) is a way for the GN to raise $3 million against the $8.7-million deficit projected for this fiscal year, and has nothing to do with getting people to quit.
It would be funny, though, to see how the government would react if everybody did quit.
And, speaking of funny, beer drinkers can wipe the grins off their faces because they're next!
Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
You want to know what really grinds my gears? Youth who love to play the blame game. We all know young people who like to get on that soap box and cry about anything to get noticed.
I can't stand hearing about youth and how their cultures were demolished and stolen by industry.
During the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance earlier this week, I heard a girl blame a multi-national corporation and the government for robbing her of her traditions.
Now, while I don't have the details, it sounded like some big company might have developed on her traditional land and maybe her relatives had to move.
But no matter who struck first, no one is to blame for the loss of culture but the family unit.
Learning begins at home, with the parents. I know that the older generation faced some pretty awful things and were stripped of their culture while in residential schools.
But why wouldn't they keep on with their cultural learning once they got out? Why couldn't they just go back to the land that they claim they lost?
I think the taste of apples and meeting southerners was more appealing to some people, which is why there are so many ethnic blends in the modern generation.
Some families did choose to go back to the land and still do. Then on the other side of the coin are the families who adapted to the "southern" life.
To the youth who want to cry and yell about their lost cultures, maybe start by downloading some drum dancing on your iPod.
Better yet, sell the iPod, move into the bush and help an elder cut wood for the winter. That seems like more of a pro-active approach to regaining your lost traditions.
I can't speak for the elders in the region, but I am sure they would appreciate the help, instead of just empty words.
Another youth at the hearing spoke about how the elders wouldn't want this pipeline because all aboriginals were taught to live off the land.
Well, I feel there is nothing wrong with development. I have respect for the elders, but we own this land now and we should do what we think is right.
I want to hear the youth gripe and complain once the Mackenzie Valley Highway is built.
Imagine the possibilities of one day driving straight through to Edmonton with all of your friends! Like, wow. Maybe there is more to this project than a caribou herd that you've never seen.
I'm sure some of you feel that I am being unfair. I acknowledge that there are youth out there doing the right thing.
Keep on keepin' on, young ones. Judging by some of the voices of my generation, we'll need someone to clean up this mess one day.
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
The Northwest Territories is suffering from a multiple personality disorder.
The territory has two distinct interests vying for dominance.
One side is the environment.
With such a vast area of wilderness filled with flora, fauna and fresh water, the territory is looking at its responsibilities seriously. There are a number of environmental boards in place across the territory that are charged with making sure new and continuing developments don't significantly damage the environment.
This is where the disorder comes into play.
On the other side of the coin is natural resource development. Residents of the territory need jobs and, as mentioned above, one thing we do have in abundance is natural resources.
A number of companies would like to develop these resources but they seem to meet resistance on every side. Paramount Resources Ltd. is the latest case in point.
After applying for a land use permit to conduct a small geophysical program in the Cameron Hills area, Paramount has been given an environmental assessment and mitigating measures which they say will make the project nearly unfeasible. They also say they are confused as to just how such decisions were reached.
With all the confusion over a small seismic project, a spokesperson for the company was left asking what would have happened if they'd applied for something more significant, like a new drill site.
Paramount can at least feel some comfort in the fact that its joining a long list of other resource development companies that have become frustrated with the permitting process in the territory.
For an observer looking in from the outside at the track record in the territory, it would appear that for the most part development isn't welcome.
Perhaps this is indeed the case, and if it is, someone should say so publicly so everyone can move on with that information in hand. On the other hand maybe development is welcomed. Either way, a clear message needs to be sent out.
Someone needs to sit down and decide how the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government want to proceed with regards to resource development.
It won't be an easy task and perhaps that is why things are stuck in the muddle we see currently. Two very important issues are being balanced against each other and the scales are barely inclining one way or the other.
Here in the Deh Cho things have an added layer of complexity. With no land claims settlement in place there isn't an agreement on surface and sub-surface rights. If the Deh Cho process is completed and land selection is chosen as a way forward, there will be a whole other set of circumstances to take into consideration with regards to development.
This overall indecision and lack of a clear path forward is apparently what happens in a territory with a personality disorder.
In last week's article on the rescue of the Arctic Sunwest Charter aircraft it indicated that the rescue plane had made it to the crash site in two hours. This was inaccurate. According to Capt. Bryn Elliot who was a navigator on the flight the actual flight time was three hours and 25 minutes.