Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

Order classified ad

Two people in a sinking vehicle nearly lost their lives at the Sand Pits earlier this month.

It's a stark reminder that there aren't enough safeguards existing in what has proven to be a hazardous area.

Driving off-road through snow-bound terrain at the Sand Pits on Sunday, Nov. 2, the couple's brand new pick-up broke though pond ice and sank. Unable to escape, they were lucky to get help from a quick-thinking passersby. The Good Samaritans at the scene had to break the vehicle's rear window to pull the two people from danger.

The incident highlights several hazards that leave the ill-informed at risk.

Lakes and other pools of water are not yet frozen solid, and cannot be driven on or walked over without extreme caution. New residents to town should not have to learn this the hard way.

As deputy fire chief Darcy Hernblad remarked, similar mishaps have occasionally occurred at the Sand Pits - in summer as well as winter.

How many incidents are needed before hazards are clearly marked off?

Snow fences should be erected around ponds and clear signage should be in place now, just like at Jackfish Lake, where a number of snowmobilers had brushes with death over the years.

Unlike the south, the NWT has no 911 emergency service - as the driver found out when desperately dialling for help while surrounded by ice-cold water in a Sand Pits pond. This latest incident also gives further reason to finally institute 911 service in the territory.

The snow is back and so is the yearly gripe about the city's snow-clearing efforts.

Call it global warming or whatever you want, the fact is Yellowknifers can generally expect the worst of the snow to fall early in winter. After that, the real winter of icy, frigid temperatures begins, albeit with very little snowfall for the rest of the season.

City hall spends around $800,000 a year clearing city streets of snow, not including capital expenses for buying new equipment. Undoubtedly, a big chunk of that can be attributed to those first few weeks in early winter when snowfall is heaviest.

Should the city do more to combat those few weeks of slipping, sliding and getting stuck by buying more snow trucks, graders and hiring more staff to run them? It's clear the city can't rely on private contractors. They're already busy.

The city's fleet currently consists of two front-end loaders, two graders, two tandem dump trucks, and two end-dump trucks.

Considering that we are already facing a fifth year of tax increases, it would be understandable if the city was hesitant to blow more money on snow-clearing equipment only to see it sit idle most of the winter, which is exactly what will happen if they did.

We have to face it, the city is at the mercy of the elements and a limited budget, and alas so are we.

When Kivalliq News broke the news on the hamlet of Arviat's financial woes, I wrote in this space (Blue collars can expect to be tightened, May 14), that it would be the working people who paid the price for the sea of red ink soaking the hamlet.

At the time, Arviat estimated its deficit at a little more than $300,000.

However, we went on record as saying it would be significantly higher and found out shortly afterwards it was, in fact, more than double that amount.

Now Arviat's deficit is about $1 million and, as predicted, four hamlet employees were laid off earlier this month with four more likely to come.

A number of other positions remain vacant until the deficit can be recovered.

With recent estimates at the two-year mark for recovering the deficit and four layoffs already announced - council members' promise about six months ago to take a cut in honoraria following next month's municipal elections seem rather humorous, in a dark sort of way.

Almost as humorous in all of this, in a very dark sort of way, was Nunavut Employees Union president Doug Workman's ah shucks attitude over the loss of jobs in Arviat.

Workman tossed out a little less sympathy for those who lost jobs than one would expect from a union head.

He then added insult to injury by happily pointing out the hamlet of Arviat had, at least, honoured its new collective agreement that came into place this past spring, at about the same time the hamlet's financial woes kicked into high gear.

The part of the agreement Workman was alluding to was the retroactive pay the union got from hamlet negotiators during collective-agreement talks.

And, while Arviat's deficit may have been inching upwards since 2005, roughly $400,000 comes as a result of retroactive pay.

It must have been even more entertaining for the government of Nunavut (GN) to hear Workman talk about the union's efforts to make sure the GN supplies adequate funding so a similar deficit situation doesn't happen again.

I'll be the first to admit I don't often take the GN's side, but the government does supply adequate funding to keep hamlets from finding themselves in deficit situations.

When a deficit does occur, you can rest assured it almost always results from bad decision making, as in Arviat's case.

Maybe the GN can create a slush fund to help out in times like this.

It could be called the hamlet got snookered fund and be used to balance the books anytime the union does its job in collective negotiations by pushing a municipality to the brink of insolvency.

There's a mighty big difference between ensuring your members are treated fairly and biting the hand that feeds you.

In the meantime, more Arviat families are bracing for the news their livelihood could soon be taken away from them.

Maybe Workman will find the time in his busy schedule to give them a call and explain why the latest collective agreement hammered out in Arviat was such a good thing.

Stepping off the plane at the Fort Simpson airport last week after my annual vacation I was dismayed but not particularly surprised by the amount of snow on the ground.

With running shoes on my feet I carefully wheeled my suitcases to my truck while avoiding the deeper snow in the parking lot. Once in my house I pulled my winter boots out of the closet and went looking for my winter jacket.

The transition to winter is a yearly routine in the Deh Cho but as I discovered while visiting family and friends in southwestern Ontario a lot of people are surprised about when it happens or that it happens at all.

Forgive the generalization, but most Canadians who live in the southern half of the country show an astounding lack of knowledge about the North.

Gazing up from their more temperate locations people in the south know that the territories exist but any detailed knowledge about weather, geography or culture seems to drop off a cliff around the 60th parallel.

Explaining to a southerner about where you live in the territory is when things generally start to go awry. Northwest Territories is a fine description and some can even visualize Yellowknife's location but naming anything else usually draws a blank look.

Out of curiosity, or maybe because they don't want to sound unknowledgeable, people usually start in with the 50 questions.

After the first few questions, which generally include "isn't it really cold there," "you have polar bears right" and "are you very isolated," it becomes clear that most people believe that as soon as you cross the 60th you are clearly in the land of tundra, snow and endless winter.

Explaining that Fort Simpson, and the rest of the Deh Cho is polar bear-free is usually a disappointment for most. Talk of black bears and bison does little to cheer them up.

If you get as far as covering seasonal weather patterns you can see people trying to wrap their minds around the idea that we get 30 degree weather in the summer while still having reasonably cold winters. The stereotypes of the North are clearly deeply ingrained.

Now I'm not saying that people who live in the North are masters of Canadian geography but because of the focus on big city, southern Canada it would be hard for us not to know more about the south that southerners do about us.

It's amazing how even a conversation lasting a few minutes is enough to impart someone with almost double the amount of knowledge about the territory or the Deh Cho than they had than before you started speaking.

The general ignorance about the North shouldn't be allowed to stand.

The only practical solution to all of this is for people from the Deh Cho and the rest of the territory to take more vacations and visit the rest of Canada. When employers ask we can explain that the time in the south is really a sacrifice on our part as we act as ambassadors and spread much needed knowledge about the North.

On Monday night I sat in the back row while college and university reps told a handful of would-be students about adjusting to life on campus.

What struck me about the group is that it wasn't only a bunch of teens and 20-somethings. There was a wide range of age groups. There were people old enough to have children in college. There were young people with children not yet in school. It shows that education is not just something for kids, and it certainly doesn't end when you leave school.

If I could give one piece of advice to anyone thinking about going back to school it would be this: Go for it.

I can also tell you this: if you do go for it, the first day is always the hardest. There are a lot of firsts when you go to school. The first day moving out, the first day of classes, the first exam. But after you've done something once, it always gets a bit easier.

My grandfather had a saying about education. He said an education is no load to carry once you have it. He meant that once you pick up an education, you'll never drop it. It will never weigh heavy on your shoulders the way a physical load will.

I think he knew something about carrying heavy loads because he left school when he was 12 to work in the woods. He eventually went back and got his carpenter's papers and he is now retired with a pension.

An education can make the burdens of life lighter. Post-secondary graduates in the NWT make upwards of $30,000 more annually than high school graduates. That extra cash can certainly help with the rent and groceries.

One of the presenters said 85 per cent of any degree or diploma is your attitude. If you show up and do the work and get your assignments in on time, the rest will take care of itself. From my experience, this is true.

While there's no shame in any work, a post-secondary education will give you more work options. It will help you find a job you love rather than being stuck with a few options that you hate.

Many people love working outdoors with their hands, but it is nice to have something to fall back on when your back starts to give out.

I hope all of the people who attended the post secondary presentation on Monday take that first step out the door. There will be work waiting for you here when you're ready to come home.

- Brodie Thomas is interim editor of Inuvik Drum. Dez Loreen will return in two weeks' time.