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One of the problems with consensus government has been the regular MLAs' reluctance to wield power.

Recently, the group of 11 regular MLAs have shown what they can do when they unite against poorly executed plans by the seven-member cabinet.

With the shelving of proposed board mergers and supplementary health benefits changes, as well as nearly voting out the government, Premier Floyd Roland and his cabinet are realizing the MLAs can only be pushed so far. But what happens come Friday when the legislative assembly retreats into another lengthy hibernation between sessions?

The assembly will only sit for 50 days this year, leaving plenty of time in between for cabinet to overcome their fear of being tossed and for them to return to a "business as usual" frame of mind.

MLAs don't meet enough. They complain they're too often left in the dark and a few question periods every year provide little time to get to the bottom of issues. This could be remedied if the legislative assembly held planning meetings in between regular sessions similar to those held by Yellowknife city council on Monday afternoons.

Some may say that it would be a waste of money rounding up MLAs to send them to more meetings in Yellowknife. But how much time and money would've been saved had regular MLAs and cabinet been able to hash out the board merger and health benefit business before cabinet announced these plans, only to be voted down in the legislative assembly months later?

More meetings would mean more cabinet ministers on their toes and better thought out policies for Northerners.

Before the advent of plastic and paper bags, shoppers got along just fine using reusable bags and containers to carry their goods home.

Now, as plastic bags account for a significant portion of the litter on our streets, the GNWT is following in the footsteps of other nations and jurisdictions, working to move back to more environmentally-friendly days.

The government is placing a 25-cent levy on plastic bags come fall. The charge, it is hoped, will deter shoppers from using the wasteful plastic bags in favour of the reusable bags many stores have begun to sell. With this one simple move, NWT residents can help keep the territory green and still get their groceries home. Even without consideration for the environment, these reusable bags are a better choice for consumers, as they can carry more and are less likely to break.

The cost of switching over to the reusable bags is bearable, considering the good they will do and knowing the alternative will be more expensive. The GNWT is even planning to provide 30,000 of them to households around the territory to jump-start the process, and Yellowknife's Co-op has already announced it will sell them at two-for-one events before the levy comes into effect.

This is a move residents can stand by, and one the GNWT can be proud of.

We have taken the liberty in this space many times in the past to criticize the length, or lack thereof, of a number of criminal sentences imposed by those who sit on the bench in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

But this time we applaud the recent stance taken by Justice Earl D. Johnson in imposing sentencing on two convicted drug traffickers in Iqaluit who were dealing in crack cocaine.

The two are cousins who moved to Iqaluit from Edmonton.

Rafic ElCherkaowi, 23, was the smaller player of the two and received an eight-month sentence.

His partner in crime, Mohammed Jamal Cherkaoui, 21, received a more substantial four-year sentence.

The police raid on two Iqaluit apartments resulted in the seizure of $78,400 in cash, and 1,484 grams of crack cocaine with a street value of about $366,000.

In passing sentence, Johnson noted Cherkaoui was a remorseful young man with no record and good prospects for rehabilitation.

But he also correctly noted the court must send a message to anyone in southern Canada who would exploit Inuit: there will be a high cost to those caught and convicted.

We add our voice to Johnson's in hoping the steep price of doing illegal business in Nunavut will deter the majority of poison dealers from setting up shop here.

Johnson referred to the drug as the curse of cocaine, which is exactly what it is - pure evil.

We would, however, like to remind the judge all Nunavummiut run the same risk of addiction when exposed to this highly addictive drug, not just Inuit.

The rest of us, no matter what race or colour, have no built-in super resistance to the drug.

Crack cocaine is totally colour blind when it comes to its ability to ruin lives.

We don't advocate the use of any drug, recreational or otherwise, but crack has few equals when it comes to the quickness and level of addiction.

Literally, tens of thousands of lives have been destroyed in Canada and the U.S.A. from an addiction that started with someone just taking a few hits of crack to give it a try.

A few months later, and experimentation has turned into selling everything you own for that next rock.

When there's nothing left to sell, the stealing from your workplace, friends, family, neighbours and local businesses begins.

Justice Johnson has sent a strong message to those who would bring the poison of crack cocaine and other similar drugs such as ecstasy, speed, heroin and crank into Nunavut.

Since these vultures forfeit their humanity by wrecking numerous families and ruining thousands of lives for financial gain, the Nunavut court system should forsake the human ideal of mercy when handing down sentencing.

We here in Nunavut have enough challenges to overcome without seeing our friends, neighbours and loved ones caught in the web of destruction always weaved around hard drugs.

Hopefully, drug dealers will get Johnson's message that when it comes to the products they're pushing: Nunavut is closed for business!

Regular MLAs are doing a fine job of holding Premier Floyd Roland to account.

They have hit him with two conflict complaints, a non-confidence motion and a request for a loan to be audited.

Leading the charge is Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen, who seems driven to see the premier answer for his affair with a legislative assembly committee clerk.

Groenewegen's attacks on the premier keeps this issue in the public eye and may force Roland to eventually to be more forthcoming about his indiscretion. He must understand why many of the politicians facing him around the table cannot maintain confidence in his leadership.

Of course, it would be completely unacceptable for the spouse or a family member of the premier - or a relative of any cabinet minister for that matter -- to serve as a legislative assembly clerk.

Let us state this clearly: that rule also applies to Roland's mistress which Roland should have known and acted upon.

Although we can't guess what the premier and the clerk talked about during their private hours, it's difficult to believe work never came up.

His mistress attended meetings held by regular MLAs. She heard details that weren't intended to be relayed to cabinet. It's little wonder the MLAs are highly suspicious.

Now Roland is under fire on another front, but one related to the first: he's been claiming residency for the home his family is living in although he is no longer there. He hasn't been since separating from his wife.

Roland attempted to cast the situation in an honourable light, declaring he was keeping his family off the street.

This is a clear breach of assembly rules. No one wants Roland's family on the street. We do, however, expect him to follow the rules and pay for his personal choices.

Of a less personal nature but again an issue of judgement and rules, MLAs want the $34 million bail-out loan to Discovery Air to undergo an audit.

After the loan came to light in January, it raised questions as to why this was the first time the government's Opportunities Fund was used to assist a business and what policies were followed. There were also questions about Discovery Air's ability to manage its debts, the government's ability to seize the company's assets should it become insolvent and the role personal relationships between Discovery executives and cabinet ministers played.

Premier and cabinet are not going to get a free ride after making overtures about improving communications with regular MLAs and the public. How well Roland's administration weathers these latest salvos will determine the future of his government.

It's been almost 10 years since Nunavut emerged from the Northwest Territories.

In many ways our territory has found its legs, forming its own power corporation, establishing an impressive broadband Internet system that has reached every community and passing its made-at-home language legislation and a new Education Act.

Now, as Mike Vaydik, general manager of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines suggests, it's time for a Nunavut-exclusive chamber of mines.

Our territory has most definitely attracted the interest of mining and exploration companies. Our land is rich in natural resources, particularly metals and minerals.

Although the only operational mine, Jericho, stopped operating last year, others are ready to enter the construction phase, such as Meadowbank, 70 kilometres north of Baker Lake, and Doris North, 140 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay. We've lost diamond production, for now, but we're moving closer to extracting gold.

It's expected five mines will be up and running in Nunavut by 2010.

In addition, close to $300 million was spent in mining exploration in 2008. That follows approximately $330 million in 2007. In this respect, Nunavut has far surpassed the NWT.

While a drastic overall spending reduction is expected in 2009, a year plagued by global recession and high commodity prices are sure to return again. When that happens, this territory will be positioned to prosper to an even greater extent, especially if a resource revenue sharing agreement is realized with the federal government.

Much mining expertise has been gained through training programs for Inuit, be it in drilling, camp work, or heavy equipment operation. As well, Inuit organizations have hammered out benefits agreements to ensure a fair share of jobs and contracts are realized and revenues will be shared. Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated has even created a partnership with Kaminak Gold Corp. to form the Kivalliq Energy Corp., which is actively seeking to develop a massive uranium deposit about 300 kilometres east of Rankin Inlet.

At the 10th Kitikmeot Trade Show in Cambridge Bay last month, Vaydik mentioned that he is conferring with Economic Development Minister Peter Taptuna to form a Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

The chamber is a voice for the mining industry, one that tackles issues with the territorial and federal governments, from economics and mining policy to social issues and the environment.

While there will remain issues that are of joint interest with the NWT, and a united front can be presented to Ottawa, there are other areas where the focus should specifically be on Inuit advancement.

Who better to speak for Nunavummiut than Nunavummiut themselves - and what better time than now?

Eyes have been bulging in several Yellowknife households as residents have watched their power bills double, triple and even quadruple over the past few months.

Having to pay more and more without any explanation as to why charges have escalated so much has been frustrating.

There is no established common thread, but some of them have recently had new power meters installed. They are suspicious that those new meters may be the source of the problem.

Northland Utilities, which supplies power in our city, has sent technicians to these homes. But home owners who have spoken to Yellowknifer are not satisfied with the utility company's response. Either the technicians are unable to determine the root of the problem, or they chalk it up to a certain appliance, a furnace or a hot-water tank suddenly drawing extra power. In some cases, subsequent inspections of the mechanical devices have shown they're not faulty, the homeowners say.

Michelle Beckwith, a homeowner tormented with a $926.86 bill for January, said she contacted not only Northland Utilities but also Arctic Energy Alliance and her MLA. Still without answers, she had no idea who turn to for help. Enter the Public Utilities Board. Chairperson Joe Acorn announced last week that the board, a five-member group that oversees public utilities in the NWT, is launching an investigation into the pricey power mystery.

This is to be applauded.

Some people have never heard of the Public Utilities Board. Many others, correct or not, view it as a body that simply rubber-stamps the power company's requests for higher rates and myriad "rate riders," additional charges that clutter bills and add up to a steep sum.

The board should be acting as a watchdog. Word that it will seek to resolve this puzzling situation is welcome.

Attaching a hotel to a mall with stores, restaurants, office space and condominiums was an attractive proposition back in 1990 when construction began.

Yet, when the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities pointed out the mall plans had no indoor wheelchair ramp to join the upper and lower levels, the mall's owners - who split the building between the two levels - blew them off and built only a staircase. Neither could agree on how much each would pay for an indoor ramp.

It's likely, after looking at the building code and not seeing a requirement for a ramp at the time, the owners thought building it would be a waste of money.

What they failed to realize, however, was that access wasn't just restricted from wheelchair users but also parents with strollers and seniors with limited mobility. That's a lot of people inconvenienced, and a group of people who would likely prefer shopping at an indoor mall.

So potential customers remain on the outside while store owners complain they're overrun with homeless people, drunks and teenaged troublemakers. Common sense dictates that it's only good business to remedy this problem, even though it has remained unchanged for almost 20 years.

Frustration is one thing there was a lot of at the recent Dehcho First Nations' winter leadership meeting.

Most of this frustration was aimed at the lack of progress and the complete standstill of the Dehcho Process negotiations. First Nation chiefs were frustrated, Metis presidents were frustrated, delegates were frustrated and so were the negotiators.

A chronological list of the delays the Dehcho First Nations' negotiating team faced during the past year clarified the cause of frustration. The lack of progress would try the patience of even a saint.

Nothing has been done at the main negotiating table since before the Dehcho First Nations' (DFN) annual assembly that was held last June. The assembly passed a resolution outlining how they thought the negotiations should proceed but the other sides didn't discuss it until November thanks to a long summer break and a fall federal election, which delayed the negotiation sessions.

Then, come November, the federal negotiators announced they didn't have a mandate to negotiate in a sequential order, which is what the assembly resolution asked for, and stated they needed to find out if this was possible.

Meetings in both December and January were cancelled because of the lack of a mandate. In February, a planned three-day meeting was slimmed down to one day and the same message was repeated again. By the time last week's winter leadership came into play, it had been close to a year since there were any main table negotiations. Four more months and we'll be back to the annual assembly again.

At the winter leadership meeting a number of delegates voiced the opinion that Canada isn't taking the negotiations with DFN seriously.

"Canada is not responding, I guess, to our people, the Deh Cho," said Chief Berna Landry of the Deh Gah Got'ie Koe First Nation of Fort Providence.

President Marie Lafferty of the Fort Simpson Metis Nation went one step farther.

"They're just playing games with us," said Lafferty.

This is not the first time that Deh Cho leaders have raised sentiments like this, but in the past it has always been easy to dismiss them as a sympathy plea by DFN.

Not this time, however.If the federal government wants anyone to believe that they're sincere about the Dehcho Process and the negotiations it's going to have to make some serious progress very quickly.

Taking over four months to let DFN know their resolution made it impossible to negotiate is excessive. Spending another four months repeating the message shows an unwillingness to work towards a solution.

With all of these delays even the most optimistic among us would be hard pressed not to wonder if Canada is purposefully creating ways to derail and delay the negotiations.

Canada needs to step up to the negotiating table and commit to seeing this process through to a successful agreement.

On Friday I had the good fortune of sharing a very satisfying conversation with a local humanitarian, Ellen Smith.

A proud Gwich'in woman from Fort McPherson, Smith has dedicated most of her life to helping others and last week she retired as Beaufort Delta's alcohol and drug addictions specialist.

But in retirement she has no plans of resting easy, reminded by an elder close to her that her task of helping people through emotional and spiritual healing is a life-long process. In her own words, she plans to continue on that journey until she's gone.

We can't think of a better person for the job. A survivor of the residential school system, Smith will be reaching out in particular to those victims. We wish her luck and success.

In the same vein, Jeff Amos, Beaufort Delta's resolution health support worker, is involved with a group of local residential school survivors who have united through grief and are on the healing path. And so far the group has made great progress. Next week's Inuvik Drum will feature a story that takes a closer look at the group's spiritual gains.

In this week's feature story on Smith, she admits that much more work is needed to be done in the way of addiction counselling and for those affected by the residential school system. But she also makes the important point that more and more people are willing to at least walk the path to recovery.

I'm not naive enough to think that every counselling program is perfect and that the stigma attached to those illnesses has disappeared. But on the surface, communities here appear to show at least a willingness to tackle the problems and by extension the stigmas start to dwindle.

Indeed there is a lot of work to be done, and more funding needed. The list goes on. Historically government has never put a high priority on funding addictions and mental health programs.

But the healing starts with a strong community response and acceptance that these problems need to be addressed and solutions must be found.

Many of us are vulnerable to addiction and mental illness. In fact, one in five Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. But rarely do people talk about it. And in silence the problem just gets worse.

An expert in the field of mental health once told me that the most basic and most important thing people can do to erase stigmas surrounding mental illness is to attempt to see yourself in the afflicted person. That made sense to me. In doing so it's clear that fundamentally we're an awful lot alike.

It appears that's the approach Smith has taken over the years, and in doing so she's benefited an awful lot of people.