Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

Order classified ad

The Bank of Montreal's plan to move out of downtown is yet another signal that an exodus of business is occurring from the traditional centre of Yellowknife, toward a new centre where Range Lake and Old Airport Road meet.

Cartoons

City Hall must get down to work to renew the appeal of the city centre, or risk finding itself sitting in a part of town rendered empty by its lack of resolve and inaction.

News of the bank's relocation, to take place next year, was followed this week by news that another renowned Yellowknife business relocate to the same uptown area. Yellowknife's busy cuisine entrepreneur Pierre LePage revealed he will be moving one of his ventures, the upscale L'Heritage restaurant, to the same uptown area.

The Bank of Montreal's move out of downtown in favour of Range Lake is the first such one undertaken by any major financial institution in Yellowknife. Its opening, with added services and financial planning operations, is sure to make the Range Lake-Old Airport area even more attractive.

There are several good reasons for relocating the bank and other businesses to the new uptown centre, starting with greater access to space for larger facilities, more parking, and a growing population of citizens with higher disposable incomes around Range Lake.

Equally important is the visible decrepitude of downtown area. Local businesses have long sought solutions to keep it clear of litter, vandalism, drunken loitering, drug dealing and other crime. The issue is not that these are occurring in the first place - they occur throughout the city. It is that they are taking place in broad daylight, unhidden, sometimes deterring downtown customers, visitors and passersby. The bank itself opens onto one of the riskiest looking sights of Yellowknife.

Uptown Yellowknife, as the rationale goes, is largely a clean space of the well-to-do, where people may drive in, do their business and leave. Typical suburbia at its best, replete with box stores, free parking and mostly unseen troubles.

50 Street, otherwise known as "Range Street" in downtown Yellowknife, iconic for its unique character, has a much seedier reputation. The key difference today is that businesses are presented with cleaner, apparently less hazardous locations uptown. As a result, the traditional town centre stands to be emptied, denuding the city of any character. Once emptied, the history of the town, and unique appeal Yellowknife holds for visitors, will be lost.

City hall has to renew the appeal of downtown Yellowknife by giving better incentives for businesses to locate there. Projects that improve the appearance and appeal of downtown - like the Polishing the Gem cleanup initiative and the city's effort to rejuvenate Franklin and 50 Street - are coming too late for some businesses. But we cannot afford to ease up as it's likely the exodus will continue, if not accelerate.

The Pehdzeh Ki First Nation and the Nahendeh district office of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation are examining ways to meet the housing needs in the community.

According to Chief Darcy E. Moses, access to more funding so people can complete much needed home repairs and the availability of suitable units to house professionals such as teachers, nurses and RCMP officers, are the top concerns.

The change in outlook for housing in Wrigley came quickly. On July 3. I was invited to the community by the chief who wanted to speak about the apparent lack of progress from the Housing Corporation to meet the community's needs.

During the visit a number of people willingly allowed me into their homes so they could point out deficiencies and talk about their experiences with the Housing Corporation. Having written about housing issues before in other Deh Cho communities I thought I knew what to expect, but I was wrong.

I was shocked by some of the conditions I'd seen.

Most people who invited me in clearly cared for their homes and took pride in keeping them clean and tidy. These people for whatever reason, financial or otherwise, have been unable to complete necessary repairs on their houses.

Now these repairs aren't superficial things like trim around the floorboards or fresh coats of paint. We're talking about repairs to allow for a level of service that most Canadians take for granted such as running water and functioning indoor plumbing.

One family was living in a house that hasn't had running water for approximately three years since their pipes froze. The hot water tank in the house is also broken so all the water is heated on the stove.

Pointing out deficiencies like these, Moses stated that the people of Wrigley deserve modern housing.

A few short weeks later Moses was feeling much more confident about the housing situation. Discussions with the Housing Corporation were progressing with the two parties examining ways to use community-based initiatives to assist in the delivery of the necessary programs including home repairs.

While the band and the Housing Corporation deserve some credit for apparently improving their working relationship, the focus has been kept on the people who are waiting on the outcome of these discussions.

If community-based initiatives will allow more residents access to the support they need then both parties should devote as much energy as possible to reaching an arrangement.

There are people in Wrigley who need housing solutions and both the band and the Housing Corporation need to work together to fulfil those needs.

After meeting many people I didn't know I knew or haven't seen in nearly a decade, I've become more enlightened about the community and what our town used to be.

This past week was sure a fast-paced one, with community gatherings, meetings and dances to attend.

I had the pleasure of stopping by my aunt's place for a quick second in the middle of her reunion barbecue.

She had amassed a group of former Inuvik students to talk about days past.

Some of the people have been in town for some time and never left, while others left to find their way in life.

After sitting with a few individuals who recalled the shenanigans and tomfoolery they were involved in as schoolkids in the '60s and '70s, I scratch my head trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

The most memorable story I heard that night was one that sounded like it came straight out of an episode of The Simpsons.

Seems a few teens had the gall to take the brass ball from the top of the Diefenbaker memorial in Jim Koe Park.

The ball that was held by the three powers of the region was gone, if only for a few days.

The group responsible for the prank hid the ball and wrote a letter to the paper, with instructions about where to find the ball. Apparently, the ball was recovered within hours of the paper hitting the streets, so the prank ended happily.

I mean, those teens could have tossed that ball into the river, or something more permanent, but they didn't.

Instead, we now have a story to look back and laugh at.

The next day, I was leafing through Dick Hill's history of Inuvik and came across the information about the Diefenbaker memorial.

It read that in the mid-'70s, the statue was defaced and vandalized, and was fixed soon after.

Once I made the connection between the book and what I heard from someone who was there, I got excited.

The first person I talked to was an unnamed MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

After hearing me go off on a tangent about the missing ball and how it was found, this MLA'ish person looked up at me, smiled a grin from ear to ear and simply said it was a good time.

It was then that I put it all together.

This community has been a tightly-knit unit for more years than I've been in existence.

It was an inside job that everyone knew about, and here I was, naive as the day I was born.

Now, those teens have grown into the leaders of our community and upstanding citizens that make our town whole.

What I am curious about is how they let our community fall into the hands of drug-dealing thugs.

These days we can't laugh at the teens doing their thing.

Rather than break into the school and leave behind some large misplaced statue, we have a lot of serious damage.

Somewhere down the line, we stopped being silly and started being malicious. Crack is a problem in our community that I bet even Thomas Berger didn't see coming.

I'm not out to blame the older generations for being so laid back with their kids, but somewhere it all fell off and I don't know if we can pick up the pieces.

It wasn't all that long ago when I found myself being chastised by a fairly prominent Nunavut politician over an editorial I'd recently penned.

I had no idea what their vocal undressing of me had to do with the local hockey game we were watching at the time, but that's the way it plays out in Rankin Inlet sometimes.

Besides, have you ever met a politician who didn't enjoy having a crowd near when they voice their opinion?

The target of their lecture was my ill-conceived notion, apparently, that more than a few Inuit may find the opportunities in the south more to their liking after completing their post-secondary education.

I was informed I was no different than most southerners who came to Nunavut and I just didn't get it.

"It," in this case, was that pretty much all Inuit would gladly work longer hours in high-stress positions at equal or lower pay with five times the cost of living simply because it was Nunavut.

In short, they would readily turn their backs on better opportunities for them and their families so they could help Nunavut evolve.

I thought at the time if this was indicative of how the Nunavut government truly feels, it has a lot to learn about the aggressive recruitment practices of many Canadian provinces.

Here in the Kivalliq, we've seen a number of Inuit nurses head for greener pastures in the south and some of our university graduates simply don't make their home here.

And, despite all their efforts to attract more recruits, the RCMP still have nowhere near the Inuit presence the force would, ideally, like to boast.

In fact, George Henry in Arviat is the only Inuit RCMP member still in Nunavut who is not stationed in Iqaluit.

Thankfully, the majority of our youth who complete post-secondary education still come back to their home communities.

But as the higher positions fill up, many will seek employment in the south rather than accept a lower placement in Nunavut.

And why wouldn't they, especially young professionals with families?

Those in Nunavut who have shown the ability and determination to obtain college or university degrees are striving for a better life for themselves and their families.

To take for granted they would settle for anything less after all their hard work is one sure way of keeping our Inuit numbers at mid- and upper-management positions at 50 per cent or lower.

Our government, Inuit organizations and the private sector have to be aggressive in recruiting our own grads and offering them top-of-the-line remuneration and benefit packages.

You can rest assured recruiters in many of the provinces will be offering that, especially in areas of health, law enforcement, education and skilled tradespeople.

And they'll be throwing those packages at our best young professionals.

If we're not totally dedicated to attracting our best back home, somebody else will be because they do get "it."

They'd love nothing better at their next corporate gathering than to introduce their new eager and upwardly-mobile young professional - from Nunavut!