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On June 14, Jean Marie River First Nation became the latest in a long line of bands in the Deh Cho to remove their chief using a vote of non-confidence.

At their annual general meeting, a 15-person quorum used a secret ballot vote to decide Stan Sanguez's fate as chief. When the ballots were counted 10 people had chosen to end Sanguez's term and he was out.

A chief's removal before his term is through is nothing new in the Deh Cho. The Pehdzeh Ki First Nation in Wrigley has disposed of a number of leaders in this manner.

The relatively high number of votes of non-confidence raises the question of what it is about small communities that leads to these occurrences. The root cause is likely tied to the basic realities of small community life.

All small communities, whether in the North, in Canada or around the world, share some of the same characteristics. The first is so evident it almost seems silly to mention, but it's also the most important: small communities are called that because of low population.

In the Deh Cho, size is all relative, but Kakisa has fewer than 50 people, Jean Marie River has 71, Nahanni Butte is 129 and Wrigley at 170, according to 2007 population estimates, which doesn't exactly make them metropolises. Hand-in-hand with small populations living closely together comes gossiping and feuding.

It's not easy to live in a small community.

Inevitably, everyone sooner or later finds out everyone else's secrets, both good and bad. In such close quarters slights both large and small aren't easily forgotten.

Small communities can also end up divided along family lines. Even if all the families are interrelated somehow, there can still be a sense of supporting one's own kin.

In situations like this, being a leader can involve treading carefully through a simulated minefield. Even if you're a good leader on all other accounts, if you seem to show favor towards family members or make unpopular decisions it's all kept on a tally sheet.

With all these challenges facing them, it's amazing that chief and band councils last as long as they do. The fact that some communities have very stable leadership shows the problem isn't an inherent one.

Stable leadership is a community-wide effort. Good leaders need to be in place and they have to listen to residents and work towards meeting their needs.

Communication is crucial in such situations, both for disseminating the leadership's plans but also so members can have input.

While the chief and council must do their jobs, band members also have a role to fill. Sharing concerns constructively before they get out of hand can solve a lot of problems quickly.

Community members are just as responsible for making a leadership work as the chief and council are. It's only when all of the parties work together that a healthy leadership can be maintained.

It's hard to kick an old habit, especially one that has been part of your life for a long time.

Well, it is time for the friendly people in Inuvik to smarten up and stop littering.

Everywhere you go, there are signs of garbage. Look to the sidewalk or in the brush and you'll see shiny candy wrappers or chip bags.

Even after weeks of cleaning and hard work put in by countless people, we're still falling into our old ways.

Just because there are a few dozen people who care enough to pick up after lazy, inconsiderate litterbugs does not mean it's okay to resume the trash tossing.

In the past two weeks, I've seen three people blatantly throw their used wrappers on the ground.

One young boy, not a day past seven years old passed me on the sidewalk and just pitched his chip bag at the grass.

This kid had gall, I tell you what. He didn't look around guiltily or check for any witnesses.

He just out and out threw his garbage on the ground.

I don't know what kind of kids we're raising, but this is ridiculous.

If that kid doesn't think there is anything wrong with his actions, we may find ourselves in a bad place soon.

On another occasion, I watched as an older teenager jogged past the drugstore and let go of his gum wrapper as he jumped off the steps just casually tossing the shiny wrapper while he ran.

It's just that natural for young people to drop garbage anywhere they want.

Every year this town goes through the same thing: first the snow melts, then the cleanup starts.

The summer months drag on by and as the winter approaches, the signs of summer remain on the streets for another year.

Soon, the snow will cover the tracks of anyone who wants to litter and the cycle continues.

Why can't we do something about this issue before we have to get even more kind souls to pick up trash from our ditches?

This isn't something we can draft into a bylaw and pass through our town council.

We can't pull over police officers and ask them to bust some litterbugs.

This needs to be something that is handled by the members of the community who are in dire need of a clean yard.

This is a call to arms for anyone able enough to shake a fist, yell or call someone on littering in a public place.

How bad would it be for the parent of one of these offenders to be called on right outside of NorthMart?

I'm sure their kid wouldn't be dropping any more trash in his wake.

If we all just stopped trying to ignore and walk around the situation, we'd be able to make a difference.

I want to live in a community where it's not OK to litter.

After talking with a visiting Australian man earlier this week, I was happy to hear him comment about how clean the streets are.

We fooled one of them.

Now there's only a month and a half left before we can stop putting on this charade of clean living.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy recently pointed out in the legislature that too many students who have taken NWT bursaries do not fulfil their end of the bargain, electing to work in the provinces rather than in the North.

This, according to Abernethy, "after the government has given them up to $70,000 during the duration of their studies."

In choosing to work in the south, graduates are not fulfilling their agreement with the government, and should repay the amounts given. Abernethy said in the legislature that 13 or 14 bursaries were awarded to medical students in the last couple of years. Yet only two or three of those students have completed their studies and none appear to have returned to work in the territory.

That students are not respecting the bursary agreement indicates the programs have been poorly planned and administered, leaving them open for abuse.

The future of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories lies in education. Its ability to educate residents here, to take on local jobs in local industries and keep at them would be an ultimate sign that the territory has become self-sustaining.

The bursaries are an avenue to train homegrown physicians and nurses, for the benefit of territorial residents. But the program, and those who accept the assistance, must be fully accountable.

It is territorial residents, after all, whose tax dollars go into funding those bursaries.

Yellowknife's two largest school boards came to an agreement that will result in $1 changing hands, but symbolically it was worth so much more.

Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) agreed to pay a nominal fee to the Yk1 public school board on June 12 to move 150 students from St. Joseph school to William McDonald school come fall.

The move is necessary because St. Joe's will be undergoing renovations.

Of course a similar move was sought last year but it wasn't accomplished because the two school boards couldn't come to an agreement. That's when YCS decided to purchase portable classrooms at a cost of $2.5 million.

That solution wasn't going to be enough by the 2008-09 school year, so reaching a deal with Yk1 became even more critical.

"I think people of Yellowknife expect us to work together and we're pleased to do that," said Duff Spence, chair of Yk1.

That may sound like a platitude, but there's truth in that statement. It's important for the leaders of our schools not only to set aside differences for the sake of optimal education, but to set an example for students on how to share and how to get along.

Imagine rushing a loved one to your health centre to find padlocks on the door.

That could have been the situation in Arviat recently as the Arviat Development Corp. (ADC) teeters on collapse.

The Arviat Health Centre is in a building owned by the ADC which is part of a private group of corporations that includes Qamanittuaq Development Ltd., Ilagiiktuk Ltd. and Kangiqliniq Development Ltd., among others.

These corporations are all overseen by Piruqsaijit Ltd., a management company which is in turn owned by by the corporations - ADC owns 18 per cent.

As part of the receivership process, ADC's financial statements for 2006 have been filed in Bench of Queen's Court in Edmonton, making it all public information.

The question of who owns what in these businesses is something most people don't care about.

But people should care about how an outfit like the ADC can end up in receivership, especially with million dollar leases such as the health centre in its back pocket.

Add in the lease on a government office in Arviat and a recently concluded deal with the Nunavut Housing Corp. on a 20-plex unit and the ADC was set up to be in clover for quite a long time.

But, as with so many other cases in Nunavut, that doesn't appear to be the case.

People may wonder, with such lucrative deals, what happened?

Is it due to inexperience? Or is it due to the kind of mismanagement and greed that brings down even bigger companies down south?

As in other operations in Nunavut during the past few years, substantial cash bonuses were paid to those managing the ADC, as well as board members, while secured creditors - other Nunavut businesses and entrepreneurs - didn't get paid.

Is this how we want business done in the Kivalliq?

Too often those brought in from the south to help with businesses such as ADC exit Nunavut with bulging pockets, leaving in their wake a collapsed company from which only a few local board members have benefited.

The troubles at ADC may also be telling us that many of our communities have not yet reached the level where they're capable of running multi-million-dollar operations.

If that's the case, we have to accept it and move quickly to address it.

Without a strong business community, our territory is doomed to being tied to federal apron strings forever.

That's a fundamental truth to our situation.

People should not be timid about asking where the money has gone, whether it's a local committee that misplaced thousands or a corporation that lost millions.

We may not like the answers that come from the questions, but we have to be strong enough to deal with them.

That is the only way for Nunavut to grow and its people to prosper -- at all levels.

Art Hoiland, currently a resident of Kelowna, B.C., was a member of the Yellowknife Golf Club from 1974 to 1989 inclusive. Yellowknifer apologizes for incorrect information in the June 20 edition of the paper and any embarrassment it may have caused.