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Once again the GNWT is making major policy changes without first consulting the people who will be directly affected by the decision.

Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, during an interview with News/North last week, said the process to merge 70 territorial boards into seven began during two prior sessions of the legislative assembly.

Despite the amount of time and work the GNWT has put into the change, it wasn't until the end of last month that the government released the plans to the general public. To make matters worse, Miltenberger has made it clear there will be no public input on whether or not the government will go ahead with the plan, only how they will go ahead with it.

This is yet another example of poor leadership by our government. Our leaders must realize they can no longer come out of closed-door meetings of cabinet and decree their word like divine monarchs. This is a democracy, and it is high time cabinet started giving the democratic process the respect it deserves.

That said, we agree with the idea of decreasing the bloated number of boards in the NWT encompassing health, housing and education.

Streamlining 70 boards will eliminate redundancy, enhance program delivery and make it easier for the public to access services by eliminating a lot of red tape. Miltenberger said in many cases social programs do not operate in isolation of each other and merging the boards will wed many programs that are interdependent. As an example, he said many students in the communities have education issues because of housing issues.

To date, the finance minister said he does not have any figures to financially justify the board mergers. However, he said the move is not meant as a cost-saving tool but one of efficiency, eliminating policy duplication and having the same people sit on many different boards.

The minister does recognize there will be cost savings as merging boards will make some of the executive positions redundant. It will also reduce the amount of office space required. However, Miltenberger assured jobs at the program delivery level will not be touched. On that point he must hold true.

He also said this is not the first step towards complete centralization of NWT boards; the GNWT wishes to maintain a regional perspective on all its boards. That is also vital.

The NWT, despite its size, has a diversity of cultures and a wide scope of needs. Diluting the regional voice on boards making the decisions would be a mistake.

We encourage the minister to come forward with figures that will show how much money will be redirected from the bureaucracy to programs and how many jobs will be lost at the executive level as soon as possible. This will help him make his case more so than the brash, dictatorial approach he has adopted coming out of the gate.

Miltenberger said data will be available by the spring. We think he should have it out even earlier.

One thing is for certain however, with social welfare making up 65 per cent of the territorial budget, any decision that will have money spent on people and not on unnecessary honoraria and office space is a good one.

Less than six months after the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed, the panel is in disarray following the resignation of its chair, Justice Harry LaForme.

In his resignation letter, he cited the inability of the three commissioners to resolve disagreements about the commission's power structure and its main focus as the reason he resigned. He thought of himself as the head of the group, and Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Morley, the other two commissioners, as advisers. He said Dumont-Smith and Morley thought decisions should be made jointly by all three.

Also, LaForme said the others were focused on uncovering and documenting the truth, where he wanted the commission to expend more effort on reconciliation

Some Inuit residential school survivors were already skeptical of the commission's efficacy, given the lack of Inuit representation on the panel.

The resignation of the commission's head doesn't improve survivors' confidence. If the three commissioners can't find truth and reconciliation among themselves regarding their roles, what hope is there that they can clear the way for healing among residential school survivors?

However, LaForme's resignation, though regrettable, and the consequent re-examination of the commission provides an opportunity for the federal government to mend fences with Inuit by appointing an Inuk commissioner.

This is something many Inuit have been calling for since the creation of the commission, and doing so would help restore confidence of Northerners in the group's mission.

Change is afoot following last Monday's territorial election.

Nunvummiut voters sent a number of incumbents packing, including cabinet ministers Patterk Netser, Levi Barnabas, Levinia Brown and former cabinet minister David Simailak.

In fact, Louis Tapardjuk and Paul Okalik were the only members of cabinet to keep their seats. Okalik, a two-term premier, held on to Iqaluit West by a margin of only 44 votes.

The last legislative assembly was marred by financial mismanagement of the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation, a conflict of interest investigation against the finance minister and a disrespectful comment by the premier about the head of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, to name just a few of the more prominent incidents.

Small wonder voters demanded change. Members of the legislative assembly should take their cue, providing a truly open and accountable government in which Nunavummiut can have confidence.

Every town has its longstanding grocery store and TJ's Grocery has been an integral part of the Fort Simpson community for many years. It faces yet another battle for survival.

Sometime next year a new truck stop will be open for business in Fort Simpson. The $4-million project spearheaded by Liidlii Kue First Nations, Trademark and international food service conglomerate Sodexho will provide something new for the community, bringing jobs and money to the area. While this is all fine and dandy there are some issues that need to be addressed.

When the Northerner opened up in Fort Simpson, TJ's experienced strain from having to compete with a corporate grocery store, losing business to the cheaper more complete store. Now, with a company like Sodexho setting up shop in the community, it's going to make things even more difficult for the little guy to compete and the community could see the demise of the lone local grocer.

The two local restaurants will also face a challenge to their current dynamic. With a new restaurant going in at the truck stop, competition increases. In a small community, when a new restaurant is available after having limited options for so long, it's bound to affect the longstanding eateries. I'm not saying competition is bad. The problem lies in the fact the competition isn't coming from a local entrepreneur.

Also, there is a chance workers employed at the 50 man executive camp might come from outside the region.

There are more than a dozen people in Fort Simpson trained and certified to run a camp and catering service like the one being built, but there is a chance this work might not go to them.

All these issues beg the question as to why LKFN didn't look to go into business with a local entrepreneur. Rather than inviting in a faceless corporation to set up shop and suck the local economy dry they could have paired up with someone in the community interested in being a part of the project.

This project is part of LKFN's self-sufficiency initiative to alleviate some of the dependence on federal money.

It's great to see them taking the bull by the horns and creating money making opportunities to improve their current financial state and improve services they offer to their membership, but it's coming at the expense of businesses and people in the community.

It's a David versus Goliath scenario - except David's slingshot isn't going to be as effective as it once was.

Inuvik Town Council is under scrutiny this week as one of their own is accused of writing controversial posts on a national news website.

Comments left on a website forum about the federal election are being attributed to a member of the council.

How are we to know who really made those comments without tracking an IP address and even more techno-babble?

Officials in town council say the comments are all anonymous.

There are two sides to this issue: the people who want the person who wrote the post to be held accountable and the people who think it's been blown out of proportion.

Some are arguing since the member of council is an elected official, anything he or she has to say should be at the mercy of the people.

Others say a person's private life and his or her online opinions are no one else's business and should be separate from the business of the town council.

Regardless of what you think about what was said, town council has enough to do without being distracted with any personal conflict its members have going.

At a recent public meeting hosted by the town, residents of Kingalok Place voiced their need for more services to their aging cul-de-sac.

I'm sure town officials will have lots to do in that park and surrounding road.

Another huge hole we need to address is the vacuum we call our bylaw officer position.

With two postings out for the job and one candidate who isn't in town yet, we need someone to step up and take control of the matter.

There is one person on the town payroll who is certified as a bylaw officer and has the authority to hand out tickets and citations; that man is the fire chief and director of protective services.

Town council should be on top of this, keeping our paid officials on duty and up to snuff.

Anyone who has tried to walk from home to work, would also know about the lack of snow-clearing on walkways.

I talked with one person who urged me to write about the poor state of our roads, so there it is.

I understand the town has contracted out its plowing and snow-clearing duties to local businesses, but the people have concerns.

We can't forget about another headache for the town officials in the parking lot at the rec complex.

I swear those massive holes and jutted crevices almost claimed the truck I drive for work.

Even now, with the freezing temperatures, the parking lot is flooded with water.

I've been told this water is runoff from the hill behind the complex because it was flooding while the pool was empty this past September.

With all these things to deal with, the last thing the council needs is to be shrouded in a controversy like this.

Now, because of the web posts attributed to a councillor, the town is having a closed-door meeting next week to discuss what to do next.

So regardless of who said what and who offended who, the members of town council already have enough to do without picking fights.

It's time to stop blogging anonymous comments on some website and start paying attention to the matters at hand, like the managing of our community.

Like many young men from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, I left home at a tender age to seek my fortune in Ontario.

During the years I spent there, for one reason or another, I often had a significant drive to work.

In fact, for one period, I made the daily trek to Mississauga from Guelph after landing the dream job of my young life.

That is, until the section of the Free Trade Agreement kicked in that allowed the head company in the U.S.A. to send its products to Canada fully assembled.

Goodbye assembly line and dream job, but that's a story for another time.

During my treks across Ontario, I got hooked on a radio bit called The Rest of the Story.

The piece had its roots in the Second World War and became a fixture on ABC Radio networks in 1976. The spot gives you a factual account of a story with a big twist near the end that often blows your mind.

The announcer, Paul Harvey, would always end the piece with, "And now you know the rest of the story."

I'm often reminded of my days listening to The Rest of the Story when folks from Western and Central Canada bemoan what they view as the disproportionate amount of federal dollars that go to the East Coast and Nunavut.

Sometimes I laugh out loud when those complaints come from La Belle Province.

This is a province that's held the threat of separation over the country's head like an axe for decades.

The tip of the separation spear is, of course, the Bloc Quebecois. That party may boast about capturing 50 seats in the recent federal election but it has, for the most part, become irrelevant.

Consider some of the facts compiled by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and keep them in mind the next time you hear someone from Central Canada whining about what we receive in Nunavut.

The Bloc Quebecois raised a paltry $73,704 during the first six months of 2008, but received more than $1.5 million in public financing.

More maddening; for the 18 months between Jan. 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, the Bloc raised a little more than $500,000, but received almost $6 million in federal allowances, which does include what the Bloc will receive in party and candidate reimbursements for the 2008 election campaign.

Yes, you guessed it, for the past eight years the Bloc has been the party most dependent on public financing to survive.

It's received a staggering $31.8 million in public financing, while only raising $5.7 million from individuals.

That, fellow Nunavummiut, means the Bloc receives 5.6 public dollars for every $1 donated by individuals.

Kind of turns the tummy a bit when you think of all the 50-50 arrangements the Nunavut government has to enter into with the feds in order to get things done, doesn't it?

So, the next time a talking head on the TV or radio tries to lay a guilt trip on you for the money Nunavut gets for housing, education and medical care, feel free to send a raspberry their way.

Because now you know the rest of the story when it comes to unfair funding.