John Curran and Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 31, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Around the North, people are excited about what 2008 has in store for the NWT.

Tuktoyaktuk mayor-elect Merven Gruben said it is going to be a critical year for his region.

"I think it'll be a turning point for the Delta," he said.

Imperial Oil is starting to do offshore seismic work on exploration licence 446, together with project partner ExxonMobil Canada. The two firms set an NWT record in 2007 when they pledged to spend $585 million exploring the property over the next few years.

"Imperial is the big guy," he said. "With them getting active here again, the others will follow."

With a light at the end of the pipeline regulatory review process and increasing exploration interest around the Delta, Gruben said it is important for Tuk to continue developing its infrastructure.

"It's going to be crazy in Tuk," he said. "It's just going to blow up."

Elsewhere in the region, Fort McPherson adult educator Taig Connell said he is happy with a trend he said will expand in the coming year.

"Aurora College is breaking out more and more courses from its programs and is offering them at the community level," he said. "We expect to see even more of that in the new year ... likely with office administration courses, in particular."

There are two advantages to delivering the courses in smaller communities, he added.

"It helps potential students go back to school even though they may not be able, or want, to leave Fort McPherson for Inuvik where the full program is offered," he said.

"And when they are ready to go to the larger campus, they won't need to stay away for as long, since they'll already have completed some of the material in advance."

In Fort Smith, Sonny MacDonald, chairperson of the NWT Arts Council, is hoping for more funding for the arts in 2008.

"My New Year's wish is that the territorial government would give us more support than they did in the last year for the arts and crafts sector," he said.

MacDonald said every other province and territory is doing more to support artists and craftspeople.

Last year, the GNWT provided the arts council with just over $300,000. However, MacDonald said the council received 94 applications for funding, which would have required $1.2 million.

"What we can dole out is a mere pittance," said the well-known carver.

For Fort Smith, MacDonald said he hopes the various political groups in the community get along better in the new year and work "in perfect harmony" with one another.

Brian Lefebvre, president of the Hay River Chamber of Commerce, sees positive things ahead in 2008.

"I would say 2008 is going to be an extremely good year for Hay River on the business front," he said.

Lefebvre points to development around the community, especially the start of construction of Canadian National Railway's new transshipment terminal on the south side of the community.

"That alone will spark a lot of activity," he said.

Jayne Miersch of Fort Resolution is thinking of youth in the New Year.

"My hope for the coming year is that they get a good recreation program going for youth in the community," she said, adding current activities for young people are not enough.

Miersch would also like to see the community's three main political organizations - Deninu Ku'e First Nation, the Fort Resolution Metis Council and Deninoo Community Council - work closer together for the betterment of the community.

In Enterprise, Genevieve Clarke said she hopes the community does well with its recent switch to a hamlet from a settlement.

"It's a big change from the status before and there's a whole new council in there," she said.

"I think there will be some growing pains, but it will all work out in the end."

Clarke also hopes the community of about 90 people will learn to work well together.

The upcoming year is going to be an important year for the Tlicho language, said Mary Siemens, a language worker with the Tlicho Community Service Agency in Behchoko.

"We expect to be getting the Tlicho dictionary online," she said. "That will give schools better access to it."

The dictionary is constantly evolving and growing, she added, as other cultures interact with the people of her region. The diamond mines, for example, have been working with translators to develop words used specifically in the mining industry.

"Our language is so important to our culture," she said. "A lot of our words are based on things people used to see and do on the land."

Fort Good Hope elder Denise Manuel said she's not sure what 2008 will hold.

"It's pretty hard to say," she said. "I hope it will be a good year."

She and her husband Thomas were the victims of a violent home invasion earlier in 2007. Just recently, she regained the use of her right arm.

"I've got my braces and my cast off," she said. "I'm starting to sew again."

She said her experience has taught her not to look too far into the future because you never know what's around the next corner in life.

"You just have to appreciate and make the most of each day as it comes," she said.

Leaders around the NWT should make 2008 the year they come up with solutions to the social problems plaguing the North, she added.

"Our leaders need to do more for their people."