Features

There are 132 people in Yellowknife who rely on accessible transit to get around. They are people with mobility problems and people who use wheelchairs or other devices for travel.

Unlike riders of the regular bus routes, they don't have the option of walking home when bus service has stopped for the day and there aren't always accessible cabs available. Some disabled people simply choose to stay home rather than take the risk of getting stranded.

Given the length of our winters and the state of our streets and sidewalks during the snowy months, providing transit service to the citizens who need it the most should be a priority. Users need to speak out and lobby for a portion of the $400,000 just allotted for improvements to Yellowknife transit. More money could mean longer hours of service, which at least one accessible transit user says would be a sorely-needed improvement.

The fact that no federal money is for accessible transit proves the users must demand it. If they don't do it, no one will.

Twenty years ago Ragnar Wesstrom looked over what was essentially a swampy slough on Great Slave Lake's North Arm, and knew it had great potential.

Earlier this month, Wesstrom was recognized as lodge operator of the year by NWT Tourism.

He had turned the location into a premier destination for anglers seeking monster pike in summer, and a high quality aurora tourism attraction during the winter for Japanese guests. In fact, Wesstrom has been able to keep Trout Rock Lodge open all-year long, something not all lodge operators in the territories have been able to do.

In a business climate that has seen the number of clients coming to NWT hunting and fishing operations in decline, Wesstrom has thrived by diversifying into a variety of tourism-related markets.

Yellowknife's Yvonne Quick was also recognized by NWT Tourism for her work in helping to establish the biennial Float Plane Fly-in.

The NWT is chronically outmatched in tourism appeal by our two territorial neighbours - Nunavut and the Yukon. Nunavut has soapstone carvings, icebergs and polar bears; the Yukon its mountains, the Alaska Highway and its Klondike heritage.

We applaud Wesstrom and Quick, because faced with the challenges of putting the NWT on the map, they didn't give up. Through their individual creative efforts, they're helping to make the NWT an attractive place to visit.

A marijuana grow-operation has been uncovered in Fort Simpson.

This discovery, and subsequent seizure by the RCMP, provides a perfect opportunity for residents of the village to examine their stance against drugs.

With the news of the discovery spreading across the village how are people responding? The telling question will be how many people are shocked by this news.

Hopefully many people will be surprised to learn that cannabis plants were being grown in the village. It would be best if this feeling sprung more from a disbelief that this could happen in Fort Simpson rather than a general naivety.

While marijuana has been embroiled in debates over legalization and medicinal uses, these are not the questions at hand. What has to be examined is where people want to draw the line.

If the news of a marijuana grow-op isn't shocking and instead elicits a sense of acceptance rather than outrage what does that mean about the community?

If people weren't shocked it suggests either they knew about that grow-op or similar operations or that they just accept marijuana use as being so prevalent that they think the plants are bound to wind up even here.

But if homegrown cannabis is all right, what other illegal substances are you willing to accept?

Sure marijuana is on the bottom of the illegal drug list when judged by overall negative effect, but that doesn't give people the green light to grow it. Marijuana is, after all, considered a gateway drug. If you use it the argument is that you're more likely to pick up another, harder drug next.

While cocaine, another popular drug in the North, is unlikely to be grown locally because it also comes from a plant, what about crystal meth?

Southern media is full of reports of the growing sway of crystal meth and the home-based meth labs where it's produced. One day you're living in a safe neighborhood and the next day the house beside you explodes in a ball of flames because it was an illegal meth lab filled with volatile chemicals. Worse yet, teenagers and adults alike are becoming addicted to the substance.

While this is an extreme example and Fort Simpson is unlikely to be home to a meth lab any time soon, it's still a possibility.

Following the laws of the market economy, where there's a demand, a supply will come to fill it.

With the revelation that there was a marijuana grow-op in the village, residents have a choice whether they accept it or work to ensure that there aren't any more. The village has been given a chance to decide where to draw the line on what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to illicit drugs.

Newspapers don't usually report suicides.

It's a convention of the industry, which is common to all Canadian newspapers.

As a reporter, I have come across many situations where suicide stories were considered unfit for publication - because they (allegedly) pose the risk of inspiring copycats.

I think this is wrong.

The Canadian aboriginal suicide rate is five to six times higher than the Canadian average.

Across Canada, suicide is the second highest cause of death for youth after injuries such as car accidents.

But when people take their own lives - acts which are tragic and preventable in most cases - they are not reported.

No effort is made to communicate their families' grief.

How easy it then becomes to sweep the problem under the rug; to pretend it doesn't exist.

I mention this topic today because of a powerful speech I heard on Nov. 23.

On that day - in front of a packed audience at Ingamo Hall - a brave woman took the stage and did what the media doesn't.

She spoke, as a mother, about her son's suicide.

And Grace Blake should be thanked for it.

Whether we are talking about suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual or spousal abuse, one rule is clear.

Talking always helps.

And while it might be difficult or painful to hear, it offers some comfort to those who endure the unendurable.

With the rate of suicide so high in this territory, I am sure many readers have stories about it; perhaps they have relatives who have taken their own lives.

Perhaps they have dark thoughts that keep recurring, after a night of drinking or some personal failure.

Why not talk about it? Suicide is often linked to addictions, alcoholism or abuse in some way.

It's real, it's preventable and if the media won't talk about it, people will have to do it themselves.

I applaud Grace Blake for speaking on Nov. 23. Hopefully more people will gain the courage to follow her example, and break the last great taboo.

- Inuvik Drum editor Dez Loreen is on vacation and will return in early December.

Next year is certainly going to prove itself to be an interesting one on a number of fronts, as far as the barge delivery of cargo to the Kivalliq region is concerned.

First and foremost will be to see how Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL) addresses some of the problems that hindered cargo delivery this year.

While we give Baker Lake Mayor David Aksawnee full marks for telling NTCL that people in the region have to be one of the company's top priorities (see story page 3), only time will tell if that mentality is put into play anytime soon.

Let's be honest. The facts speak for themselves.

It wasn't all that long ago that NTCL left the Kivalliq after losing the Government of Nunavut (GN) contract to service the region.

Community cargo wasn't enough to keep the company in the region then, and it's not now.

That's the harsh, cold, economic reality of the situation.

NTCL is a company and it's expected to turn a reasonable profit for its shareholders just like any other.

Delivering community cargo did not bring NTCL back to the Kivalliq.

The promise of supplying exploration and working mine sites with their cargo did.

None of us really knows how long the exploration, development and mining boom will last in our region, but most communities can be reasonably assured that NTCL will be around as long as it does.

After that, there's a good chance we'll find ourselves back at square one in regards to whether the company can win back the GN's contact for the Kivalliq.

In all likelihood, no mining, plus no GN contract, equals no NTCL in the Kivalliq.

And you would have a tough time blaming the company for that should it come to pass.

In these modern times, business is business and that's the end of the story.

However, as long as the NTCL is in the Kivalliq, its company heads have to understand this is the Eastern Arctic, and getting their cargo in a timely manner is a necessity to the residents of this region, not a game.

In fact, given its long history in the Kivalliq, NTCL should understand that better than anyone.

Winter supplies at wholesale prices is precious cargo to Kivalliq residents. We've heard the company talk about adding a purser in the Kivalliq, and utilizing a dual system of cargo delivery that would separate corporate expectations from community needs.

Both moves would rate as an excellent start to addressing the problems that plagued this year's sealift.

However, a dual system of thinking could also go a long way in addressing the matter.

Nobody knows what the future may hold in terms of NTCL's long-term viability in the Kivalliq.

But, we have no doubt if the gravy train runs its course, the company will, once again, be asking the people to understand why it's leaving.

So, it's fair, then, for the people to ask the NTCL to understand that while it is in the Kivalliq, the people of the region must come first.

Not only is turnabout fair play, when you're talking sealift in the Kivalliq, it's an absolute necessity.