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Privacy act should help, not hinder
NWT News/North - Monday, October 12, 2009

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Should NWT municipal governments be included under territorial access to information legislation?

As is it stands, most municipal governments have very open policies for releasing information to the public.

During council meetings, for example, the only discussions barred from the public domain relate to personnel, finance and legal matters. However, at times, the interpretation of those issues can cause disputes and accusations of secrecy.

That is where having a tool such as the access to information legislation would be useful. Any arguments about interpretation could easily be settled by the access to information officer.

Admittedly, there are definite hazards to applying the act to municipal government.

Cost to taxpayers is one. If a new municipal position is needed, it will mean adding administration costs to already heavily burdened municipal budgets. Training existing staff to handle access to information requests could be difficult, especially in the smaller communities

If municipal officials apply the act where it is not required, it could be difficult to obtain information that was previously easily accessible.

For all of the above reasons, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs would have to get involved in providing training, funding and staffing support to smaller communities

After all, many communities depend upon territorial funding. It's in the interest of the territorial government to ensure the money is spent properly.

An open public process is the best way to keep everyone honest.

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Jetboat Kings
NWT News/North - Monday, October 12, 2009

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Spencer and Russell King are among the best in the world when it comes to jetboat racing. With a host of titles under their belts, competing as far away as New Zealand, they are a true Northern inspiration and an example of the heights Northerners can reach in the national and international competition circuit.

Placing second at an international competition in New Zealand last month can be seen as positive. Although the Kings would have preferred a first place finish, it never hurts to have something to strive for.

Commitment is the driving force behind the King's achievement. Although the Kings have a host of water ways to train on in the NWT, it takes more than practice to achieve at the international level.

Without competing against the best in the world, it is impossible to become the best in the world.

Although Hay River at one time hosted some high caliber competition for its annual jetboat race, it has been a number of years since water levels in the community have permitted that race to go forward.

Without close-to-home competition, the Kings have had to travel far and wide to compete.

It's an expensive endeavor, but the money spent has paid off and we can be proud to have such world-class team to call our own.

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Move capital to Ottawa?
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 12, 2009

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Ten years ago, Nunavut began with grand dreams of a representative civil service - 85 per cent Inuit - spread out across the territory, bringing jobs to communities without any other major industry, doing its day-to-day business in Inuktitut and living happily ever after.

But that hasn't happened. The still fledging Government of Nunavut is being accused of not serving Nunavummiut.

According to Canada's Auditor General, the government's financial records are in shambles. The housing crisis worsens daily. Too many students are graduating who are not literate in either English or Inuktitut.

Report after report points to lack of staff and disorder in departments as the government's biggest handicap.

In the GN Report Card released this month, some Nunavummiut stated that decentralization isn't working and the current timeline for 85 per cent Inuit in government jobs is far too optimistic.

Jobs in government departments decentralized to the communities are either going unfilled for lack of qualified workers, or are filled by outside workers who then strain the community's housing capacity. Spotty communications infrastructure leads to confusion between decentralized branches of departments and a record-keeping nightmare.

GN employees complain people are being hired for jobs they can't do. Clerks and other workers are being forced to stand in as translators in addition to their other duties and the few staff on duty in each department get snowed under more every day.

Pretty grim picture.

Fortunately, Premier Eva Aariak and her government accept the assessment of performance. They have pledged to do better. That's a healthy reaction to indisputable criticism.

It's much healthier than those calling for an end to decentralization and a halt to the effort to promote Inuit in government departments. These critics would probably prefer the capital of Nunavut was moved to Ottawa, where there is no end of highly-educated and well-paid civil servants to fill all the vacant policy and financial positions.

The fact is, government is the largest single employer and industry in Nunavut. To abandon decentralization for centralization would be to destroy any hope for community economies to grow. Without healthy economies, there will be no opportunities to instil the values of a good education, to upgrade housing, no money to stem the tide of social ills that come with poverty.

The dream of Nunavut was a territory where Inuit could govern themselves. Such a lofty goal comes with a price, often in blood on the ground in other parts of the world. Rather than spilling blood for a cause, patience is required to tackle these problems.

Progress has been made, much is being done right, that no one can deny. Huge problems remain.

Patience is one of the traits that enabled Inuit to survive for thousands of years where no others could. Just as the Government of Nunavut should and will survive for many decades to come into provincehood.

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Biomass energy ideal for NWT
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 9, 2009

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Breaking our reliance on oil, gas and diesel, in favour of wood-powered biomass to generate heat and electricity, as the government's joint committee on climate change suggests, makes good sense. But in a territory with unresolved land claims and complicated regulatory processes, the path to success will take a tremendous collective effort.

According to the committee's recently-released Nordic Biomass Tour Report, which draws lessons from Northern Europe, any step in this direction will decrease the territory's reliance on outside markets for energy, can create jobs and decrease the costs of living.

This goal complements the territory's need to become more self-sufficient and gain greater control over its own resources, and its future.

For this to work, all communities, particularly aboriginal communities, must be on-side. For example, developing wood pellets and other wood products for heat and energy must be developed jointly by First Nations, the government and private enterprise.

The Nordic report was based on observations from Denmark, Sweden and Finland, where members of the climate change committee travelled in the spring to see how they adopted renewable energies like biomass.

Adapting their business models to the NWT will pose challenges but can be done if the will exists. Our hydro power generation is proof of that.

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Keep shelter well staffed
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 9, 2009

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Next month a long-awaited day shelter is slated to finally open its doors. The scores of Yellowknifers with nowhere to go during the daytime will have a place to keep warm and access programs, telephones and washrooms, which will provide a much needed alternative for homeless people forced to defecate and urinate on the street.

The shelter, to be located on 51 Street, will be doing a lot of good for the community, but conflict should also be anticipated at the site.

Since intoxicated people will be able to stay at the day shelter, along with that usually comes the potential for conflict and violence.

That is not to say people who have been drinking should not be allowed inside. It is welcome news that they will have somewhere to go and, if someone causes a disturbance or becomes angry, they will be in a place that can deal with the situation, rather than on the streets.

There will be two workers on site. However, for the sake of the staff and other people using the facility, the shelter may want to consider keeping on additional staff for security purposes and be able to break up fights if necessary. Of course the RCMP would be called to any such incidents, but what are staff to do while they wait for police to show up? Adding security staff would benefit everyone at the shelter and hopefully keep a bad situation from escalating.

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Seven generations from now
Editorial Comment
Tim Edwards
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 8, 2009

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While speaking to grand chief Samuel Gargan over the weekend about the Deh Cho leadership forum in Fort Providence, something he said stuck in my mind after our conversation ended.

He said when reviewing proposals to use land and to develop resources, Dehcho First Nations leaders try to look at how the development will affect the people of the region seven generations down the road, rather considering the development in a fiscal sense. Not in five or 10 years, but seven generations down the line - many, many years into the future.

In seven generations, Gargan said that the year will be 2509.

I've never heard of someone looking at an issue with that much foresight, but in this culture of land grabbing and resource devouring, it makes a lot of sense - especially in the current economic climate.

Many people want quick fixes that will boost the economy. With public concern centered on employment, it's not difficult to envision a social climate where the quality of the economy is placed above ensuring the quality of the land by 2509.

But for the people who call this land home, it's vital that efforts be undertaken to protect the land from the hungry economy. As long as there is food to eat and water to drink, people can survive. This requires a habitat that produces our food and water continues to thrives and remains pristine.

The North is largely undeveloped compared to other parts of Canada, leaving it with much natural beauty that many provinces don't have.

What will the world be like seven generations down the line? Considering the development that has taken place in just the past 50 years, and the exponential advances in technology every year, the world will be a very different place.

Spaceflight became a reality little more than 50 years after the Wright brothers created the first successful, self powered aircraft. Fifty years before that, gliders were just starting to come about.

With population growing globally and the possibility of many people from the south moving up North in the future, much of the natural beauty we see on the long drives between communities could possibly disappear in a few hundred years. It's not an ideal scene for outdoorsmen and harvesters of the North who live off the land.

Of course, in a few hundred years we may not have breathable air or drinkable water either.

It is hard to gauge what society and technology will be like at that point, but if we can be sure that the natural beauty and abundance of wildlife in the North still thrives, then the quality of life may be better than anywhere else in the world.

- Tim Edwards is interim editor of Deh Cho Drum. Roxanna Thompson returns later this month.

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Forum needed more debate
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, October 8, 2009

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Last Wednesday's all-candidates forum left me wanting more.

The attendance was respectable and for the most part the questions posed to the candidates were excellent. The only thing that was missing was a debate and an equal opportunity for councillor candidates to respond to questions from the audience.

The event allowed people to pose questions to three candidates of their choice or allow the moderator to choose participants randomly.

But by following that system, certain candidates were pretty much left out of the dialogue through no fault of their own. For example, Vince Brown got to respond to only one question.

A debate where everyone had a chance to grapple with each other on the issues would have prevented that.

Wednesday's setup made it easy for candidates to simply agree with what the person said before them, which did happen on several occasions and may or may not have been a coincidence.

One of the most interesting moments of the event for me came when Inuvik's Gwich'in Chief Herbert Blake spoke up about Gwich'in people here feeling marginalized by the town.

Candidates responded to the comment and suggested a way to remedy the problem would be to open up a seat on council for the Gwich'in Tribal Council. The idea of designating a seat for Inuvialuit Regional Corporation was discussed as well. Anything that will bring stakeholders in the community together is a good thing, I suppose. And I know this was done in the past until representatives from both governments simply stopped attending town council meetings.

If people want the town to be aware of their concerns, then they must make their voices heard. So as important as it is for the town to be informed of the concerns of the Gwich'in people and to work more in consultation with them, it's equally important for that community's leaders to show up to council to contribute to the town dialogue. That's not currently happening.

Maybe designating a seat for both aboriginal governments is the right thing to do. Maybe it isn't. But I wonder why more Gwich'in people don't just run for council like anybody else whether Inuvialuit, white, black, Islamic, whatever. It seems that in a democracy, a person should be elected on their merits and if someone wants to have a seat on council and the privileges that go along with that, then they should earn that right, not just be handed it.

Overall, the forum was good in the sense that it got people out to have a open discussion with candidates who will form the next council.

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A double standard among MLAs
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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After four days of inquiry with testimony heard from five out of six MLA complainants, we're still no closer to hearing the name of the MLA who Premier Floyd Roland says is the tattle-tale who kept him plugged in to the goings-on behind closed door meetings among regular MLAs.

That several weeks have passed by without a single one of the complainants demanding that Roland reveal his source blows a serious hole through their credibility.

The six MLAs: Glen Abernethy, Wendy Bisaro, Bob Bromley, Jane Groenewegen, David Krutko, and Dave Ramsay, accuse the premier of being in conflict of interest for carrying on a secret relationship with Patricia Russell last year. She was the clerk of standing committees and had regularly attended meetings of regular MLAs where the premier and cabinet are not invited.

They say that because of their clandestine affair, it's all too likely that Russell would've passed on information to her boyfriend that he wasn't supposed to hear. After all, who are more likely to share secrets than two people involved in an intimate relationship?

But during testimony at the public inquiry into his affair last month, Roland's lawyer argued that it's an unnamed MLA, not Russell, who is to blame.

To allow this shadowy defence to go unchallenged while a costly inquiry proceeds makes no sense. Adjudicator Ted Hughes might as well pack up and head home right now if no name is forthcoming soon.

Otherwise it's simple hypocrisy to let this farce continue. Why should taxpayers foot the bill to satiate the vindictive urges of MLAs who aim to punish and humiliate the premier while one of their own is free and clear?

If Roland's tale about a mysterious MLA is true, the complainants must make all efforts to identify and reveal this person. To let it slip by would be proof enough that seeking justice and transparency is not what their complaint's about at all.

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Lost magic between the covers
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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This past week I found myself, once again, determined to finish one more chapter at 2 a.m., even though the voice of reason was telling me I was going to pay for my literary devotion the next day.

But how could I stop?

I was three-quarters of the way through Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla and I was there, with the ka-tet of Roland, Eddy, Susannah, Jake and Oy, making final preparations for battle with the wolves of Thunderclap and facing impossible odds.

Wolves of the Calla (nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2004) is the fifth of the seven volume Dark Tower series by King, and I'm already well into Dark Tower VI.

The series has been an epic adventure for me, rivalling Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and The Godfather for its total immersion.

And, yes, as with the other titles (save The Hobbit), I hope to see the Dark Tower on the big screen someday.

However, as enjoyable as they often are, movies will never be able to capture the imagination, thrill the soul, or free the spirit the way a great book can.

And, for all their technical marvel, I refuse to compare video games to great books in the same sentence.

The allure of games

Don't get me wrong. I completely understand the allure of Wii, PlayStation and Xbox, especially to youth.

They're incredible machines, and I've often stood transfixed in gaming outlets watching teenage players bring the game characters to life.

But it saddens me deeply to know these conjurers of computer-chip magic are responsible for so many books resting on dusty shelves, their covers rarely, if ever, opened.

With their reliance on today's electronic gizmos, many youth believe they've truly experienced some of our modern era's best pieces of fiction.

But what they've received is a fast food glimpse of these works, watered down to the basic gist of the tales, dependent upon eye-popping special effects, and devoid of almost all imagination and personal attachment to the characters involved.

There is no need for imagination: to use the mind's eye to picture the characters and locales, or to use one's heart to feel their emotions.

There's no need to be swept away in the tale, or to care so much for the characters that real emotions well up inside you as you share in their triumph or agony.

A good writer can leave you alone in the middle of the Atlantic, standing watch; enveloped in a cold blackness you never knew existed, with only the ship's bell to keep you company as its mournful clang cuts through the night and your very soul.

A great writer can have you turning on every light in the house as you get that cold drink you want so badly, before returning to your room to start the next chapter – turning the lights back off as you go.

If only Potter did exist, so he could wave his wand and have today's youth balance their electronic entertainment with the magic that awaits between the covers of so many great books.

For if Potter could pull off that type of magic, I would say thankya sai. Thankya big-big!