Features

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kennedy was among seven councillors to attend this year's Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) meeting in Calgary. All the others flew while Kennedy traveled what was surely a grueling 30 hours by bus and then hitched a ride back north.

While in Calgary, he stayed at a hostel, paying $28.95 a night compared to the $148 or more spent on accommodations by other councillors.

His goal of reducing travel costs didn't work out as planned, however. The other visiting councillors took advantage of a seat sale and came back to Yellowknife with similar expense claims.

Regardless, the rookie councillor pledged to travel on the cheap and do his part to reduce carbon emissions at a council meeting last spring and has kept his word.

That said, after reading reports submitted by councillors from their Calgary trip it's difficult to fathom why seven councillors and the mayor needed to go on this conference, considering that four of them are veterans and have been to FCM conferences before.

Councillors pointed to some useful seminars on affordable housing and visits around Calgary to the 9-1-1 centre and the like, but a fair bit of fluff as well.

Does it really matter to taxpayers that councillors were well fed, entertained, and granted an opportunity hob-knob with some federal politicians?

Travel is a perk that comes with getting elected to office.

At times, it's necessary for our elected officials to travel and get a sense of what works and what doesn't in other communities, or to show solidarity as one political entity - as the FCM does - in the face of another, i.e. the federal government.

But our entire municipal government doesn't need to be there, as they voted to do last spring. Attending councillors saved money on seat sales and taking the bus.

They would saved more had fewer gone.

Late last month, eight Northerners received $5,000 bursaries from the Aviation Career Development Program - a partnership between the aviation industry and the Department of Transportation -- to help fulfill their dreams of becoming pilots.

What's even more remarkable is that half of them entering this male-dominated profession are woman.

The bonus is that future pilots like Jessica Kokoszka and Angela Tucker will be coming back here to work. Finding trained workers from the North willing to come back has been a problem in a variety of professions, whether they be government researchers or nurses.

The Aviation Career program is the right approach.

It will be interesting to see how the pilot program for recycling beverage containers plays out in Rankin Inlet.

While we support the initiative and hope it proves successful, there are some concerns associated with it.

In fact, the project could actually prove to be a victim of its own success.

Should the entire $37,000 be paid out for returned containers, the hamlet may find two shipping containers and leftover space at the six-bay garage inadequate to hold the returns.

That would leave piles of aluminum and glass outside the garage and, by winter's end, much of that would be spread back into the community by some of our local youth.

Of course, crushing, shredding and stacking the containers is an option to ensure adequate space, but that would be either an added expense for the hamlet or reduced hours for the employee hired to run the program.

The money has to come from somewhere and it's usually the little guy who bleeds the first drops.

The second concern is if those among us who are a bit more, shall we say, industrious, ask themselves why they should walk around the hamlet picking up all those aluminum nickels when there's plenty to be had at the dump.

A few hours cleaning them up (dirty containers won't be accepted) and, presto, an instant pile of nickels.

Our biggest concern is the, seemingly, lack of planning by the government surrounding the initiative.

On the surface, it looks like the komatik may be ahead of the dog.

The future may show it would have made more sense for the government to have enacted legislation, or struck a municipal agreement with another jurisdiction for a deposit fee, before starting the project.

There are no such agreements currently in place.

Even when it comes to barge orders, people who order pop or other beverages of choice pay a deposit fee at the point of purchase.

But, there are no reciprocal agreements with these jurisdictions.

Since the government has no capacity to collect a deposit, money is being paid out with nothing coming back in return - except, hopefully, three communities that end up a little lighter on the garbage side of the ledger.

The hamlet of Rankin Inlet may be taking a novel approach to solving the problem in its own backyard.

The hamlet may look into the legalities and dynamics of a new bylaw that would create its own deposit program.

There may be a way for the hamlet to, for example, put a nine cent deposit fee on beverages purchased in the community, with five cents being given back to consumers when they return the empty containers.

The other four cents would go towards administering the program.

It's a creative approach that could pay dividends in the long run.

But, for now, while we're all for a workable recycling project, it remains to be seen what the cost will be to Rankin when it comes time to send the containers south.

Hopefully a palatable deal will be found.

If not, this is one pilot project that will be canned in record time.

There are a few things that come with living in the North.

They include dealing with cold and lengthy winter seasons and having long distances to drive before reaching other communities. Somewhere in the sizable list that could be compiled is sharing a living space with wild animals.

This sounds a bit strange but it is all too true. You will know all about this if you have ever accidentally left a garbage bag outside unprotected and returned later to find ravens tearing it apart in search for food.

Human residents of the North have to co-exist with animal residents such as ravens and black bears. There are also the bison.

A number of communities in the Deh Cho including Fort Liard, Fort Providence and Nahanni Butte have the dubious distinction of counting bison among their neighbours.

As the largest land mammal in North America, bison can weigh anywhere between 550 to 1,000 kilograms. Male bison can reach 3.8 metres in length and more than 1.8 metres in height.

In the Wildlife Division's portion of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' website they provide a handy overview of the local bison. Among information about historical ranges and current population sizes is a description of what bison like to do. According to the website, "In summer, they can be found in small willow pastures and uplands where they feed on sedges, forbes and willows."

What the information page fails to mention is that bison are also fond of communities.

Added information could note how bison enjoy creating wallows in sandy areas such as playgrounds and like the vegetation offered by lawns, gardens and airports. According to one gardener they are particularly fond of cabbage.

While some people, would say that we're lucky to live near bison considering how they were almost hunted to extinction during the nineteenth century, most of them don't have to deal with the consequences of such a close relationship.

Most recently some residents of Fort Liard have had enough of bison. After enduring years of repeated garden trampling, fence breaking and tree deaths, some say that if they see one more bison on their property they will be tempted to take matters into their own hands.

It's easy to understand their frustration.

If you go to the trouble of coaxing a garden out of the ground up here one of the last things you want is to find bison in it, eating what strikes their fancy and trampling the rest with their big hooves. The same can be said for people who have trees on their properties and see bison destroy them by rubbing against them or knocking them down.

While staff with Environment and Natural Resources have a number of measures for removing bison from populated areas and have suggestions for property owners on how to minimize damage, the fact is that they can't guarantee it will never happen.

What you're left with is a number of annoyed humans on one side of the ring and a grazing bison, is just doing what bison do, on the other.

Unfortunately, there isn't a solution that will suit everyone. You could get rid of all of the bison, which would solve the problem once and for all but wouldn't do much for the bison.

Measures should be taken to control the actions of bison, but the reality is humans and bison will just have to co-exist. The occasional garden and the occasional bison may have to be sacrificed to keep the balance.

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Could this be the End of the Road?

Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik News
Thursday, August 02, 2007

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It all started at Gwich'in Territorial park. I was standing there, surrounded by a forest and lichen.

The moss was soft to the touch and the mosquitoes were having their way with the back of my neck.

Life is pretty relaxing at six in the morning. I couldn't focus on any of my responsibilities and it was hard not to think about the lake.

All I could do was stand there, being eaten by a horde of bugs. I think I needed that, because I certainly wasn't going to find that sort of solace in town.

The next morning I was back en route to Inuvik.

We got back into town and I went to sleep. I woke up later that day and went outside, to take a stroll to the store.

I don't know what I was thinking about, but all of a sudden I got this urge to talk about the End of the Road music festival.

After talking with some friends about the annual event, we agreed that it should be bigger.

Yes, the first years of the festival were something else. Then, the festival was turned over to a society, as the town did not want to run the event.

I have to applaud the people who stepped in to hold the festival up, but the weight of the load was too much and cuts were made.

Acts were downsized and the whole event seemed to get smaller. I feel sad because there are so many people in town that gave their all to help the music festival.

Countless hours of volunteer work has been done in past years. The society members each work triple shifts so we can enjoy a weekend of live music outside the Mad Trapper.

I don't understand why the town ditched the festival. I guess it just became too much to handle.

I met a great pair of tourists last week who were in town for the arts festival. They both volunteered to help the event.

That's right, they took their leisure time to learn more about the region through volunteering.

I can look around town and say with absolute certainty that we are lazy. We don't want to help the music festival, but we're sure ready to show up drunk and bash the organizers for not appealing to all of us.

There is a handful of really generous people in town that are getting shafted just because they want to share their love of music. You guys know who you are.

Unfortunately, a person can only take so much. The levy has to break somewhere and I think this may be it.

Really, Inuvik, let's smarten up and get with the freakin' program.

That music festival is next weekend. I know the organizers will need help. I don't want to hear any excuses about how you couldn't show up and set up chairs or sell drinks.

All you community-minded businesses out there, spend some money on this festival. Sponsor a band. One of my favourite bands is not on the list this year because of cost cutting.

Join the music festival society, tell your friends and let's make something of the music festival.

If we don't do anything to help keep this ship afloat, we'll end up looking back at the End of the Road music festival as a fond memory, like the old Delta Daze kiddie carnivals at Dave Jones arena.

Oh Inuvik, I thought you were cool.

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Corrections

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An error appeared in Friday's Yellowknifer ("Father makes plea to solve mystery" Aug. 3). Raymond Eagle was misidentified. Yellowknifer apologizes for any embarrassment or confusion caused by the error.