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Kudos to chef Pierre Lepage for resuscitating the Wildcat Cafe, a piece of Yellowknife history that is now more than a tired old wooden landmark thanks to his management of the restaurant.

Lepage demonstrated his expertise - also shown in the success of his other businesses around town - by increasing sales at the Wildcat some 20 per cent this year over last. More importantly, he drew interest to the Wildcat as a place to be experienced.

In return, Lepage has demanded that he be allowed to market the Wildcat Cafe as Le Wildcat Cafe, without altering the historic signage on the log house.

Many Yellowknifers resented this, seeing it as making a travesty of Yellowknife history while trumpeting Lepage's cuisine empire in the city.

Adding "Le" is simply Lepage's way of telling customers they can go there expecting the same calibre of his other restaurants.

Noting the value of the Wildcat as an attraction for visitors to Yellowknife, the culinary entrepreneur plans to add a visitor's centre to the place next year to answer questions about Yellowknife that visitors often ask his staff.

This would certainly work in the city's favour.

Allowing the use of "Le" to market the place is a modest concession to make to ensure the landmark keeps running alive and well. After all, the name can easily be changed back in the future.

The latest salvo fired over Neil McCrank's bow comes from Alternatives North.

McCrank's report recommends limiting the number of regional regulatory boards in the NWT or at least curtailing their powers.

Alternatives North will never be viewed as friendly towards big business and industry but McCrank and his report make for easy targets.

Some may recall the nasty reception Todd Burlingame received here in the NWT when he was appointed chair of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board by former Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott.

The optics of his appointment were poor considering the Liberals chose Burlingame ahead of three local nominees named by the board.

The optics of McCrank's appointment by Conservative cabinet minister Chuck Strahl aren't much different. McCrank's past work with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada make him appear overly wedded to industry. Worse, he is an outsider from tar sands-polluting Alberta.

The federal government would probably make a better case for regulatory change if the person doing it had a home address north of 60.

A recent walk along the shore near Rankin Inlet turned up some of the most striking scenery I've seen in my life, not to mention a few sluggish siksiks and a couple of the gnarled, abandoned vehicles I've learned are so ubiquitous to Nunavut's landscape.

There's only been about a 30 per cent increase in personal vehicles in the territory since its inception, according to the annual Canadian Vehicle Survey. Surprisingly low, given that every year sealift seems to bring more into each community.

I guess the problem is the vehicles rarely have anything to do once they've outlived their usefulness but to serve their final decaying days as targets for sharpshooters or angry teens with baseball bats and stones.

Once they're here, they're very difficult to dispose of. The cost of freight makes their export prohibitively expensive (unless, as in Iqaluit's case, some private company comes along to take them away), and crushing requires expensive equipment.

So here they stay, adding more weight to our already overburdened landfills, and leaking toxins into the earth as they degrade.

They leave side streets looking more like bombed-out Bosnia than rural Canada, and their mere neglected presence seems to attract more litter like a magnet.

But besides cluttering the landscape in their afterlife, the influx of motor vehicles is causing other, more subtle, changes as well.

Cars tend to create their own culture, one where neighbours speed by instead of pausing to say hello, and teenaged social lives revolve around "going up the road."

One of the most jarring differences I discovered upon landing in Rankin was that cars don't stop for you here as a pedestrian, you stop for them. I even saw an elder nearly sideswiped by a distracted driver in front of Northern the other day.

The mayor of one small hamlet in the region told me this week his council would soon have to start looking at ways to deal with increased vehicles, perhaps with more stop signs or posted speed limits. Extra traffic was changing the way people moved around the community, and without the proper regulations in place it was becoming unsafe.

Finally, they require things like smooth roads and parking spaces, which require other things, like planning, space and money.

If a recent debate over the asphalt millings newly-laid on Rankin's roads is any indication, traffic-related issues are going to continue to suck up more resources and time in all our communities from here on in.

- Darrell Greer, the regular editor of the Kivalliq News, returns later this month

When the topic of residential schools is raised it seldom brings with it good connotations.

Even the term 'residential school' conjures up images of children being taken away from their families and being placed in large, unfriendly and unfamiliar buildings.

The policy of residential schools has unquestionably left a legacy of emotional, mental and sometimes physical and spiritual scarring across a number of generations of Northern residents.

Individuals, families and communities are still dealing with the after-effects of the schools long after the last one has been closed.

It's encouraging, therefore, to see when this history is dealt with in a constructive and positive manner.

This year marked the seventh annual Sacred Heart Reunion.

Run by the Fort Providence Residential School Society, the reunion brings together individuals and their families who attended the Sacred Heart Mission School in Fort Providence.

Although the memories and emotions that residential schools bring up can be difficult to face the reunion is an example of how a group of people are positively trying to work through this legacy.

The focus of the reunion is on sharing experiences and working towards healing through that process.

"The elders are telling us not to hold on to the past but to look at it really good and then move forward," said Margaret Leishman, one of the facilitators at the reunion.

A lot of effort is taken by the staff to ensure the participants are in an environment where they feel comfortable enough to open up to one another.

The reunion also combines healing together with traditional practices, one of the things that was taken away from students at the schools.

Although the number of people who attend the reunion is small it clearly addresses a need for some survivors.

Following on the heels of the reunion is the Journey to Healing and Reconciliation Conference the Dene Nation is holding in Fort Providence from Sept. 8 to 12.

The information released on the conference states it will look at healing, survival, intergenerational impacts and community response.

The literature also says everyone is invited to attend the conference to begin the truth and reconciliation process.

It will be interesting to see who will choose to attend this event.

Will there be a large number of survivors at the conference or will the seats be primarily filled with leaders and professionals who are helping to deal with the legacy?

There are many different paths to healing and it's impossible to say if one is better than another.

What can be said is the residents of the Deh Cho will benefit from having a variety of venues held in the region that address, in their own way, how Northerners can move forward with strength and with what residential schools have left behind.

After the visit from the prime minister last week, many people in town have been left with a strange feeling, like we all just got played.

In the weeks leading up to Stephen Harper's visit to the region, it seemed like nobody knew what was going to happen.

Rumours spread among the masses about the road that would connect Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk. Was that the big news? Why was Harper coming North?

Once Harper got off his plane at the Mike Zubko airport, the circus act started. A few local leaders and dignitaries were on hand to greet Harper as he watched the Inuvik drummers and Dancers Perform.

Strong voices like Nellie Cournoyea, Jackie Jacobson, Floyd Roland, Merven Gruben and Derek Lindsay were able to talk with the prime minister as soon as he touched the tarmac.

After the meet and greet wrapped up and Harper was en route to the Mackenzie Hotel in a motorcade, I approached Jacobson, Nunakput MLA, about his brief greeting to the prime minister.

"I hope you drilled him on the issues," I said to Jacobson.

"I'll get my chance tomorrow in Tuk," the MLA replied.

I really hope he did, because by the look of it all, Harper got off clean with his public relations visit to the North.

Many people came up to me during the last week and asked when the prime minister was making a public announcement or holding some sort of forum.

I wish I had answers for them, instead of a shrug of my shoulders.

The whole experience left me with a new sense of understanding about politics.

Harper's pushy handlers corralled the media into a corner, while the prime minister posed for photos holding onto the shoulders of Inuvialuit youth, taking the accolades for making the long trip North.

As Mayor Derek Lindsay said of the naming of the Diefenbaker icebreaker, that announcement missed its mark.

"I doubt we'll see that ship port in town," he said.

I'm not surprised at Harper and his way of planning this trip north.

Harper is the kind of man that likes to have a handle on the way things go down.

I remember a few years ago when Paul Martin ran this country. He came to the North and spoke to the people, not just to members of the media.

I was in the rec complex when Paul Martin made his rounds and spent a few hours talking to people about their concerns.

If Harper can learn anything from Paul Martin, it's how to speak with people on a grassroots level.

With all the talk of an upcoming election being called, it makes me wonder how delusional the Conservative Harper government really is.

Did they think they won any votes from their botched three-day tour of the Western Arctic?

I thought the point of their visit was to promote their candidate Brendan Bell, not just parade him around on Harper's shoulder.

Bell has many good ideas and he's a smart guy. He should have opened himself up to the voters of the region who wanted to hear what he had to say.

Maybe next time the prime minister comes North, it will be for more than just a few quick announcements that should have been saved for a cabinet meeting.