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Gasping for air
NWT News/North - Monday, October 19, 2009

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In the United States, people's lives are destroyed when bills associated with health care take their cars, savings and then their homes.

In Canada, we should be safe from those traumatic expenses - extreme costs that cause stress, which is detrimental to the healing process.

However, one Colville Lake elder is fearing for the stability of her household. Her power bills have steadily increased to more than $4,000 due to an oxygen machine she needs to prolong her life, and those bills are bound to climb even higher with the cold winter months approaching.

Elder Simone Kochon's situation is a travesty. For the NWT health system to send Kochon home with an expensive piece of medical technology and not provide the financial assistance necessary for its operation is irresponsible.

On top of saddling the 72-year-old pensioner with the oxygen tank's massive power usage in a community with one of the highest electricity rates in the territory, the department has also failed to make good on its promise to deliver a cheaper alternative.

Regardless of whether the new, cheaper machine arrives or not the power bills should not be Kochon's responsibility.

Fortunately, the Power Corp. has not decided to shut off Kochon's power even though she's struggling to pay her bills. As well, according to a Power Corp. spokesperson, as long as Kochon pays a little each month she is at least safe from suffocating in the dark, something it seems the NWT health care system could not care less about.

An ailing Kochon is forced to choose between breathing and paying her bills. It's a choice no Canadian should face, and one the government must rectify now.

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Development shouldn't trump health
NWT News/North - Monday, October 19, 2009

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A recent Edmonton city council decision will put the future development of the Alberta capital above the safety of emergency medical patients from the North.

The impending closure of the Edmonton Municipal Airport will mean that patients being medevaced from Yellowknife will fly into Edmonton International, on the outskirts of the city, which will increase travel time to the hospital.

In an emergency situation, minutes can mean the difference between life and death and increasing travel times by up to half an hour for medevac patients is unacceptable.

A planned ring road scheduled for completion by 2015 will reduce travel times, but at what cost? How many lives will be lost or permanent medical issues caused in the meantime?

Obviously, Edmonton aims to serve its own needs and unfortunately this latest move comes at the expense of Northerners. At the very least Alberta's Health department, which didn't object to the plan, should commit to having helicopters waiting at the airport to transfer Northern patients to hospital.

Time is of the essence. If a Northern patient dies or is left permanently debilitated because of the City of Edmonton's decision to put development before people, Edmonton should face the full wrath of families and the GNWT in a civil court room.

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Inquest a good start
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 19, 2009

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The announcement that a coroner's inquest will look into the death of Elisapee Michael is a welcome development.

Michael's family has questions they want answered and so do we, but they also want a public inquiry in addition to the inquest. We feel an inquiry may be justified, if the inquest fails to answer the questions satisfactorily.

Michael, 52, fell down the stairs of the Nova Inn in Iqaluit in the middle of the night on Aug. 9. She was taken to Qikiqtani General Hospital, where she reportedly caused a disturbance and staff turned her over to RCMP officers who happened to be there on another matter. The hospital workers told the officers to bring her back when she was sober.

The next afternoon, the RCMP called the hospital's emergency room and asked to bring her back in. Hospital staff said they were too busy to take her. A few hours later Michael was in medical distress. She was taken back to the hospital, medevaced to Ottawa, and died a few days later on Aug. 14.

Was she examined by a doctor before being arrested and taken to the RCMP detachment? Is it common practice to turn patients over to the RCMP because they're intoxicated? How busy was the emergency room the next day that it could not accept a patient with a head injury?

As pointed out by the family's lawyer, these questions and the doubts they raise are causing Nunavummiut to lose confidence in the quality of care delivered by Qikiqtani General Hospital.

A coroner's inquest involves witness testimony and determines the manner of death - for example accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined. An inquest also results in recommendations to prevent such a death from happening again. These recommendations, however, are not binding.

Neither are the recommendations of a public inquiry, but an inquiry can issue a notice of misconduct to a person or organization - something an inquest cannot do.

Public inquiries are expensive and can be lengthy. But if, after the coroner's inquest is completed, pressing questions still remain, the premier should order a public inquiry to get to the bottom of the matter.

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Distance learning a valuable resource
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 19, 2009

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The development of distance education is a necessity for Nunavut, if higher Grade 12 graduation and post-secondary education benchmarks are ever to be met.

Leaving home is a hurdle to higher education many Nunavummiut students are unwilling to overcome. But even though numerous universities and colleges across Canada already offer distance, Internet-based courses, Nunavut's Internet connections are not up to par, making it difficult for students to take advantage of what's out there.

Nunavut Arctic College also has the potential to expand its offerings to smaller communities.

What will make this possible is better communications infrastructure - including satellite Internet bandwidth that will support videoconferencing - at the territory's community learning centres.

With enough funding and political will, perhaps someday soon students will be able to pursue their post-secondary dreams, all from the comfort of their home community.

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The consequences of being untidy
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 16, 2009

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A resident of Northland Trailer Park had some possessions hauled away from his unkempt lot last month and he's fuming over it.

The problem is he made a mess, had plenty of time to clean it up but didn't do a sufficient job despite the passing of many months.

The Municipal Enforcement Department issued warnings to Marie-Angelo Urbancig on July 25, 2008 and again on Oct. 15, 2008 that his Northland home was unsightly due to all the aging vehicles and other property cluttering his lot.

It wasn't until June 25 of this year that a third warning came. This time it was by way of a clean-up order and word that he would be closely monitored. When the July 17 deadline came around, he stayed home to see if there would be consequences. There weren't that day, but he was served a ticket on Sept. 9 for failing to clean up his lot and his property was hauled away a short time later.

Nobody is contesting that Urbancig's lot was a shambles.

The bylaw officer brought a firefighter along during one site assessment to strengthen the case.

Urbancig himself said, "I always admitted by guilt."

On top of that, Mike Roy, the manager of the trailer park admitted that there are "a lot" of untidy properties in the neighbourhood, but none bad as Urbancig's.

"You couldn't even make it to the door," Roy said.

So it's little wonder that Urbancig's belongings were carted away.

Unfortunately the bylaw department did make a mistake in processing the ticket and sent Urbancig to court on the wrong day. That would be frustrating, but, to the Municipal Enforcement Division's credit, the office did withdraw the ticket in light of the error. That's reasonable.

In order to retrieve his possessions from the dump, Urbancig must cover the costs the city incurred in cleaning his lot on his behalf.

He could have avoided the entire ordeal had he taken adequate action long ago.

This should serve as a reminder to other Northland residents, and to any property owner in Yellowknife, that one cannot ignore warnings from the city.

If Urbancig had a leg to stand on in his opposition to the city's actions, he should have challenged the municipality's refusal to fix Northland's deteriorating roads and water and sewage pipes. If the City of Yellowknife insists that those issues are Northland condominium corporation's problem, how can it still enforce its property bylaw? It does appear to be a double standard.

Let's hear someone from city hall explain that.

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Heading out
Editorial Comment
Tim Edwards
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 15, 2009

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My time at the Deh Cho Drum is up and I'm headed back to Yellowknife to continue at the newspaper there.

I just want to say that this is a very nice chunk of land you've got here and, even though I'll be glad to be back with my friends and family in Yellowknife, I'm a little disappointed to be leaving. I never even went golfing.

I wish I had been able to check out more of the surrounding area, as I spent most of my time in the community of Fort Simpson, but what I saw here was a hidden gem.

On one of my first days here, I was invited to play in a ball hockey tournament.

I told the team captain who invited me that I wouldn't exactly be an asset to the team, but still he told me to come out and play, so I did. The tournament was a lot of fun, and even though my game didn't bring much other than an extra body in front of the net, no one got on my case about it. It was a just-for-fun tournament and a very relaxed environment.

In fact, I was even invited to play at the weekly games. Even though I wasn't great at receiving passes or finding the net, they'd keep sending the ball my way. I ended up scoring two in my stint here, which is a fine personal record.

I've found the folk here to be very sociable and hospitable. I didn't meet a person that I didn't like, and I felt very welcome in the community.

Another thing I've noticed is that when I gathered stories here, people are willing to talk and say what they think.

In Yellowknife, due probably to the much larger population, a fair number of people don't want to have their picture taken or even be quoted in a story - and some, if they submit, will give a safe answer that doesn't really take a stance.

Here, I had just one person refuse to have their picture taken, and that was just because they didn't like how they looked in pictures.

As well, when I talk to people about local issues, they aren't afraid to speak their mind. Most people seem to know the issues fairly well. One benefit of a small town, which can also be considered a curse, is that word spreads like wildfire.

While there are social ills such as alcoholism and drug abuse everywhere, they don't overflow into the streets here like they do in bigger cities. As a city grows, everything multiplies, including the negative aspects. Sometimes it seems the negative aspects, such as hard drugs and violence, outweigh the benefits of a larger populace and economy.

The countryside here is fantastic. Yellowknife has its lakes, which are great when you go out on them, but the rivers here offer a lot more to look at on the land.

Enjoy the small town life because, at least in my opinion, you've got everything you need here. Except maybe a movie theatre.

Thanks for the good times.

Editor Roxanna Thompson returns this week.

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How long does it take to be an informed voter?
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, October 15, 2009

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With the election on Oct. 19 only days away, things are getting interesting.

Most captivating for me is the mayoral race. Based on what I'm hearing around town, it's too close to call. It's great to see people out wearing their pins in support of their favourite mayoral candidate. The whole thing's got me excited for election day.

That said, I wouldn't mind voting since I've been living here for the last 10 months and have no plans of moving anytime soon. But unfortunately the territorial government says I'm not qualified to vote. So I'll let someone else decide who will represent me on council for the next three years.

In order to vote in an NWT municipal election you have to have been a resident of that jurisdiction for at least 12 consecutive months. Why? The government's stand is that one has to live in Inuvik for 12 months to have a proper grasp of the issues to make an informed vote. A rather vague statement but it does have some merit.

People should get to know their community and get acquainted with the issues and its political representatives before they go out and vote. But does one need a year in order to make an informed vote, or more to the point, to decide which candidate they would like to represent them at the council table?

Look at other provinces in Canada. None of them require the same length of residency in order to exercise a basic democratic right in a municipal election.

Maybe someone working for the NWT government could tell me how much more informed I would be about Inuvik if I lived here for a year, compared to six months. Is there a certain formula to support such an electoral rule? If so, I would like to know about it.

If the government wants to go to such lengths to ensure voters are casting an informed vote, why not introduce a testing process where residents would have to prove they had a basic understanding of Inuvik and its issues before they could vote? I wonder what the results would be.

I don't pretend to know everything about Inuvik and I don't know any of the councillors on a personal level. Yeah, I have a lot to learn. But I do believe that I've learned enough to make an informed vote; enough to decide who I want to see making decisions on how the town is being run and how my tax dollars are being spent.

Some might say I have an advantage because my job is to be informed on the issues. That's true. But anyone can pick up the phone and talk to the mayor or councillors, or attend council meetings.

What this rule does is offer one more way to discourage people from being involved in local political discourse. It really is a shame, because Inuvik needs all the help it can get in that department.

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Children are left behind
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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Education officials are all aflutter after enduring criticism recently about the territorial government's inclusive schooling policy.

In response, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment held a press conference last week to reinforce its commitment to the policy.

In short, inclusive schooling is a practice that loathes holding back students from the next grade level merely because their marks aren't up to snuff. The preference is to keep students within their own peer group in the hope that those students will improve as they progress through the school system.

The sad reality, however, is that many students graduate without the skill sets needed for for future careers and post-secondary education. Many others, particularly aboriginal students, don't graduate at all.

The NWT Bureau of Statistics reports that as of last year, Grade 9 to 11 are the highest grade levels attained among 35 per cent of aboriginal residents in the territory.

"Many of our students do go uptown to the high schools, but also, many of them end up lost," said Eileen Erasmus, a K'alemi Dene School teacher and recent Prime Minister's Award recipient.

Rubber stamping any student for 12 years and then handing them a certificate and a cap and gown before showing them the door just doesn't work.

The cultural realities of the North should mean that it's OK to take longer to earn a diploma.

The most important thing is that high school graduation means something, and right now, for many it doesn't.

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Restaurants haven't gone up in smoke
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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Ten years ago, despite a considerable hue and cry from some business owners, city council outlawed smoking inside restaurants.

These days it seems almost incomprehensible that lighting a cigarette or cigar would be allowed inside a public building.

However, in 1999, Carlos Gonzales, owner of Our Place restaurant, went to city council as a representative for Yellowknife's restaurateurs to plead against the anti-smoking bylaw. He told city council banning smoking would drive business away and devastate the livelihood of restaurant and bar owners.

The smoking ban didn't have the dreaded effect Gonzales, and other restaurateurs, were worried about.

While some of the names have changed over the years, Yellowknife's bars, pubs and restaurants are often full of patrons enjoying a smoke-free environment. As well, fellow bar patrons and staff are no longer subjected to second-hand smoke. If anything, smoking in restaurants today would drive away customers given the long list of terrible diseases that come from second-hand smoke, including various types of cancer and lung ailments like emphysema.

It turned out to be a wise move, and because of it we can now breathe easier.

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Call for a colour-blind policy
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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We give full marks to Nunavut Health Minister Tagak Curley for doing the right thing in the case of Iqaluit resident Michael Gardener.

For those of you not up to speed on this one, Gardener, 79, is a retired Anglican reverend and Order of Canada member who has lived in Iqaluit since the 1950s.

He had been staying at the Larga Baffin boarding home in Ottawa since January, after escorting his wife for medical treatment.

Like all Baffin Nunavummiut - or so we thought - Gardener had stayed at Larga before on medical travel with no problems.

But this time around, it was decided a non-Inuk could no longer stay at Larga.

Gardener was told to leave and slapped with a $34,000 bill for his time spent there, which was later cut in half to $17,000.

Curley earned our respect this past week for stepping up and publicly announcing Gardener will not have to pay a dime of the bill.

Many Inuit across Nunavut are also to be commended for the outrage they expressed over Gardener's treatment, as are the numerous communities that offered to hold fundraisers to help him pay the bill.

As much as we admire Curley's quick action in dealing with the affair - although it should never have happened in the first place - we can't agree with him that this is not a race issue.

Whether it's our Health department, the federal NonInsured Health Benefits Program or the man in the moon running Larga, when someone is thrown out based on the colour of their skin, it's a race issue.

Former Nunavut commissioner Peter Irniq was also quick to condemn the actions taken against Gardener and applaud Curley for overturning that decision.

He said the action sounded like discrimination against nonInuit to him, which is not the Inuit way.

We'll go along with Mr. Irniq on that one, but not without asking the question: then whose way is it?

How long does one have to live here before they're regarded as Nunavummiut? Twenty years? Fifty years?

Or is the answer you will never be Nunavummiut if you are a non-Inuk?

The initial action against Gardener is exactly the type of narrow-sighted, weak-minded and stupid decision that continues to feed the jaws of racism, decades after it should have disappeared altogether.

Until we have enough homegrown talent to fill the jobs necessary to run an effective territory, we need skilled southern workers to lend us a hand in Nunavut.

It's that old walk-before-you-can-run deal.

But this is exactly the type of decision that can keep good people from coming here and that's not a good thing - even if those who asked Gardener to leave may be cheering the concept.

In fact, a number of message boards on the bumpy Internet highway contained that exact message this past week - don't go there!

The Government of Nunavut had better roll up its sleeves and produce a clearly defined policy in regards to the boarding home issue for medical travel.

And it better be a policy that looks at the care and protection of all Nunavummiut - and not the colour of their skin.