Subscriber pages
 News Desk
Columnists
Editorial
Readers comment
Tenders
Demo pages Here's a sample of what only subscribers see Subscribe now Subscribe to both hardcopy or internet editions of NNSL publications Free Features
News Highlights Business pages Sports
News briefs News summaries
Entertainment Arts / entertainment
Games page
TV Listings
Obituaries Remember loved ones with online obits Best of Bush Some of the best by cartoonist Norm Muffitt Views North NWT views Nunavut views YK views Wildlife Pictures Last week in pictures
Classifieds Nunavut classifeds NWT classifieds National classifieds Southern jobs
Northern Jobs Nunavut and NWT job opportunities Guest Book Leave a message or see who signed in Visitors guides Inuvik and Region Deh Cho Region Yellowknife Iqaluit
Handy Links Market reports Construction Oil & Gas Drum Mining Symposium NWT Nunavut Mining Opportunities North
Special issues Dozens of features reports from NNSL publications Advertising Readership study, demographic and market information Year in review Deh Cho Drum
Inuvik Drum
Kivalliq News
Nunavut News/North
NWT News/North
YellowkniferContacts All papers, offices and departments. Phone, Fax and e-mail numbers Distributed in Northwest Territories and Nunavut Canada |
|
Save the healing foundation Yellowknifer - Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The foundation had contributed $321,000 to programs in Ndilo and Dettah, and $2.9 million to the Healing Drum Society in Yellowknife, which will stay open for another year.
In 1998, the foundation was given $350 million by the federal government and tasked with helping Canada's aboriginal peoples find ways to heal from the wounds of mental, physical, and sexual abuse suffered in Indian Residential Schools, as well as the deep-seated repercussions - depression, alcoholism, violence, poverty, suicide, weakening of cultural skills and parenting skills. The goal was to help those suffering and stop the destructive cycle from being passed on to future generations.
But it was optimistic in the first place to think 11 years of programming would be sufficient to heal the multi-generational pain created by residential schools.
As Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus pointed out, for years survivors kept silent and governments refused to acknowledge the damage done by the schools. Only in recent years has there been open discussion. "We're only now starting to deal with the impact," he told Yellowknifer.
Groups across Canada are protesting the exclusion of funding for the foundation from the Conservative government's 2010-11 budget announced in early March. A rally will be held in Yellowknife this Friday.
The House of Commons held an emergency debate on the topic on March 31. We hope the government is convinced of the value of these programs and will see fit to save them.
Recent surveys show the use of illegal drugs among teens is high enough to be cause for concern. For example, four per cent of teens in city high schools admit to having tried crack.
Full results from Yellowknife's drug survey will be released soon, but the preliminary information confirms there's a need for more education. The lessons, of course, should be taught not only at school but at home.
We cannot trust that the RCMP's Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program for elementary school students - comprising 17 lessons - will, alone, be enough to serve them for the rest of their lives.
There are many examples of the terrible consequences of drug and alcohol addiction, as this newspaper documents throughout the year, particularly from the courts. Schools should not limit their deterrence to textbook lessons on the physiological effects of drug and alcohol abuse when the disturbing impacts of addictions in everyday life are all around us.
Health officials, teachers and those who have dealt with the perils of drug and alcohol addiction firsthand must take their valuable lessons to youths in elementary and high schools, and, sometimes, take senior students to places like the courts, where the consequences of wrong choices will be driven home.
I closed out 2009 by predicting it wouldn't be long after the Meadowbank gold project went into production in Baker Lake that AgnicoEagle would announce it had taken over the Meliadine gold project in Rankin Inlet (Golden future for Rankin, Kivalliq News, Dec. 2, 2009).
And, with a threeday blizzard bringing back the winter blues this past week, coupled with the sudden death of the community's senior administrative officer, the community of Rankin Inlet was in dire need of some good news.
That good news was delivered in spades when AgnicoEagle announced it had reached an agreement with Comaplex Minerals Corp. to acquire all the shares from Comaplex it did not already own, resulting in AgnicoEagle owning a 100 per cent interest in the advanced stage Meliadine gold project.
In making the announcement, the company stated Meliadine is a perfect fit with its Arctic skill set, and the transaction solidifies its commitment to Nunavut.
AgnicoEagle's plans for Meliadine include accelerating an underground exploration program focused on expanding the resource, and converting the large resource into reserves during the next two years.
The company hopes to initiate a feasibility study prior to the end of 2011.
Make no mistake about it, this is wonderful news for Rankin Inlet and the Kivalliq in general.
A feasibility study being initiated about 18 to 20 months from now may seem like a long way in the future.
But those months will roll by very quickly.
And, enthusiasm is curbed somewhat by our inability to look into the future and see what awaits us years down the road, especially in regards to the price of gold.
But this should be a time for optimism and preparation.
Should things play out the way we hope, the Kivalliq will soon be ready to take a another big step forward towards self-sufficiency, at least for as long as these mining projects last.
It is now more important than ever to increase our efforts to ensure as much of the rewards as possible stay in the Kivalliq long after the mines have closed.
And that means training and more training.
Should Meliadine one day become a working mine, Agnico-Eagle will have no trouble reaching an impressive percentage of regional employees early on.
And, the company is showing in Baker Lake that it's willing to do what it can on the fly to increase local worker skills so they can obtain jobs requiring higher skill sets.
But, we can't simply take care of the basics and then sit back and wait for the company to do the rest.
We have to do our share to ensure we have skilled workers ready to hold jobs when the project passes the construction stage.
In all probability, the mineral-exploration activity we're seeing in our backyard right now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It's imperative we do what's necessary for the people of our region to realize the maximum potential from these projects.
It's time to get busy and shine as brightly as the gold we're after!
In municipalities with only hundreds or a few thousand people, councillors often work and volunteer heavily in the community, so decisions around the council table will inevitably overlap.
Hay River council recently experienced an extreme example when three councillors were forced to declare a conflict of interest - a fourth, who was not present, would have also been in conflict -- when dealing with a land sale between the GNWT and the town. Each of the four councillors is employed by the GNWT.
Deputy mayor Mike Maher, who works for the GNWT, said it would be hard for him and the other three councillors to be effective in their roles due to the amount of business the town does with the territorial government. He's right, Eliminating half of council from voting during issues dealing with the GNWT does not make sense, especially considering most items will have no measurable affect on the councillors. It seems far more likely that a conflict would exist only when dealing with the department a councillor works for.
Otherwise the town will frequently be in a situation where half of its elected body will be unable to vote on issues and some will be of even greater importance than selling some real estate. Obviously that is not a situation conducive to an effective and representative government.
According to David Kravitz, with Municipal and Community Affairs, the Conflict of Interest Act does not differentiate between large and small employers and, indeed, the councillors would have been in conflict had they voted on the land sale.
Mayor Kelly Schofield advised as much, but he shouldn't be so willing to accept the definition without question. This is a situation where council should advocate for change so it isn't hampered by overly-stringent legislation in future votes.
Although the Conflict of Interest Act allows a vote to be held as long as two councillors are not in conflict a council cannot be considered effective if that situation arises an a regular basis. Who wants two councillors making crucial decisions?
If four councillors in Hay River are barred from voting on a regular basis it will greatly diminish the democratic process there, and this situation likely hinders other communities as well.
Broadening the definition of employee in the Conflict of Interest Act could solve the problem in Hay River.
Although relaxing definitions in law may result in some disputes going to the Conflict Commissioner, it would also ensure councils are not hamstrung by a sweeping and unnecessarily limiting section of the act.
Nunavut turned 11 on April 1 and a goal of an 85 per cent Inuit workforce within the territorial government has yet to be achieved.
That has sparked frustration from some quarters, a call for persistence and patience from others.
The latter camp has it right.
Auditor general Sheila Fraser released yet another report in March that shows the Government of Nunavut is bumbling and stumbling, in some ways, on its way to putting Inuit in bureaucratic positions, particularly senior ones.
Nunavut beneficiaries represent 51 per cent of the GN overall, but only 23 per cent among middle and upper management.
Doing her own job extremely well, Fraser pointed out some of the troubling aspects of how the GN functions, even if it just barely functions in some respects. There are close to 800 vacant positions, which is almost 23 per cent of government jobs. It takes 318 days, on average, to fill a position.
The fallout from this shows up in many facets of life, like repeatedly trying to get service from various departments only to be put through to voicemail, not a real human being with solutions to problems. That can be maddening.
Another example of the consequences came recently in the Nunavut Court of Justice, where a GN-filed case over "bad gasoline" has been moving at a snail's pace for several years. Justice Earl Johnson noted that there are many complicating factors in the case, but wrote that one of them was "high turnover of staff in the territorial government."
The GN's goal of reaching 85 per cent Inuit employment by 2020 simply isn't realistic, according to Fraser.
This could be viewed as disheartening, but let's remember that there have been some real signs of progress. The GN's 51 per cent Inuit workforce is up from 42 per cent in 2002. Beyond that, Inuit represent a whopping 94 per cent of GN administrative jobs in the territory. That's impressive.
To keep progressing into the higher-paying jobs with greater responsibility, more training and education is required. That is happening, as Nunavut News/North's Degrees of Success special edition showed just last week, highlighting the growing number of college students and the demand that a burgeoning exploration and mining industry is creating for Inuit employees. To their advantage, there is competition for their coveted skills and services, which will allow them to choose whether to work in the public or private sector. That's a good choice to have.
Clearly the GN must do a better job of recruitment and retention overall. Fraser did find that the Department of Education is doing some things right by filling jobs more quickly - 43 days on average - and has working strategies to recruit Inuit educators. The government should pay close attention and adopt some of the successful tactics employed in that department.
In the meantime, while we shouldn't let go of our objectives, we have to take a step back and realize how far we've come. There's a long road ahead with many classroom and office-based lessons to learn, but, day by day, we're getting there.
Almost everyone, except for Premier Floyd Roland and the Deze Energy Corporation - a joint venture partially owned by the NWT Hydro Corporation, which in turn is owned by the territorial government - wants to see the proposed expansion of hydro power from the Taltson River dam go across Great Slave Lake at the Simpson Islands rather than go all the way around the lake to supply electricity to the diamond mines.
That way, the transmission lines can be linked with the Snare hydro grid, and supply power to Yellowknife, the diamond mines, and Avalon's proposed rare metals processing plant at Pine Point.
But Roland and NWT Hydro insist this is a bad plan. Roland said it would add $40 million to the $500 million already estimated for building transmission lines to the diamond mines. To deviate from their desire for a 690-km route all the way around Great Slave Lake to the east and across what one day is supposed to be a national park at Fort Reliance would put regular hydro customers on the hook and not just the diamond mines, says Hydro Corp.
There is something really odd about all this. Going across the Simpson Islands at least kind of makes sense, but will cost residents tons of money; Deze Energy Corp's proposed route doesn't make sense at all, but our premier insists it's the only plan that will work.
Diavik just announced its entry into the underground mining phase, and has approximately 10 years to go before exhausting its supply of raw diamonds. Subtract the number of years needed to build the $500 million hydro transmission lines and how viable is that customer exactly?
There's no guarantee there will be more mines on the barren lands in the future and there's no guarantee that the existing diamond mines - Diavik, Ekati, Snap Lake, and, perhaps Gahcho Kue in the coming years - will purchase the hydro power unless it can be produced cheaper than the diesel shipped to the mine sites.
So the whole proposition is doubly alarming bearing in mind that the GNWT has a sizable ownership stake in Deze Energy Corporation, which means the government will ultimately be liable should any problems arise.
Sound familiar? Two years ago, Roland brushed aside criticism of the government's concession agreement with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, saying it would be a "worst-case scenario" should the company falter.
Well, it did and now NWT residents are on the hook for $165 million and counting. What will Taltson expansion cost us? Can the government be sure taxpayers won't take the fall, regardless of which route is chosen?
We must remain skeptical of mega-projects that aren't being held up for intense scrutiny, especially with a premier at the helm who seems to know as little about building hydro lines as he does about building bridges.
From elementary through to high school and college, students in the North, including the Deh Cho, have a hard time making it to school on a consistent basis. Research by the working group for the territorial government's Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative has found that in general, across the territory, a large majority of aboriginal students miss the equivalent of two years of school by the time they reach Grade 9.
That's a lot of missed lessons and a lot of catching up that students have to do in order to be on par with their classmates. Poor attendance can slow down the progress of entire classes, and makes it harder for students to graduate.
In the Deh Cho, a number of recent initiatives have set their sites on addressing attendance issues. In Fort Liard, the community's Youth Justice Committee sponsored a poster competition. Students were challenged to develop posters to encourage their peers to stay in school and attend classes.
Brittany Berreault, one of the contest winners, even admitted to not having the greatest attendance record. Some of the causes of absenteeism include staying up late, which makes it hard to get up in the morning, and peer pressure. When some students drop out, it influences others to do the same, Berreault said.
Another initiative to improve attendance comes from the regional level.
In February, the Dehcho Divisional Education Council staffed the first of two regional school counsellors. The purpose of the positions is to work with the staff in the schools to try and build a bridge between the schools and the homes. The counsellors are also working with families to see if there are ways to support them in the effort to make their children more successful at school. Attendance is one of the major issues that will be addressed, said Nolan Swartzentruber, the council's superintendent.
Both the poster competition and the regional counsellor positions are positive steps in addressing the issue of attendance. Real success, however, will only be seen if these initiatives and others are purposefully tied together.
Inconsistent attendance is caused by a number of factors - including family situations, prior negative experiences with schooling, poor student motivation and relations with schools and teachers. It's only when all of these areas are addressed as a unit with a co-ordinated plan that significant change will be made.
Everyone agrees that student success if crucial to the future of the Deh Cho. Parents, educators, administrators and students themselves will have to work closely together to make sure that the best possible outcome is reached.
But when the discussion began among participants it became clear to me that there was no territorial government official among us. People complained about the difficulty of accessing government money to help those at risk. Some said what little money that can be accessed is difficult to get because some of it, for example, is tied up in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and some can be found at the NWT Housing Corporation.
It would have been nice to have a territorial government official present to help bring some clarity to the table.
It's too bad there wasn't a knowledgeable bureaucrat present because it was a really thought provoking forum. The presenter Julia Christensen, a McGill PhD student, spent the last three years hitting the streets of Inuvik and visiting our shelter talking to the homeless. Her project also involved doing the same thing in Yellowknife. Her hope is to tell their stories in a comprehensive report on homelessness in the North. From this she'll also be looking to make policy recommendations.
It's no secret that the territorial government's priority doesn't rest with the homeless in this area anyway. The most obvious example is that our cramped shelter, which is funded mainly by the territorial government, is now looking to the town for help in paying its property taxes. Apart from having no detox centre here, there are not enough substance abuse or mental health counsellors to deal with the load.
I was completely ignorant of many of the numerous factors contributing to homelessness up until last Thursday. Many of our shelter users are not even from Inuvik. For whatever reason, whether they're banished from their families or communities, they end up here. The same goes for Yellowknife. Because of this fact, there are many MLAs who like to argue that homelessness isn't a territory-wide issue.
What was also missing from the March 25 forum was a homeless person. In a context such as this it would have been great to hear that person's story firsthand.
Governments generally only respond to what the key middle-class voters tell them to do. This obviously isn't as important to people as supplementary health coverage or electricity rates. That might explain why we have a shelter that's underfunded and a town that can't offer the kind of long-term support people with addictions need.
One promising thing that came out of this presentation was that participants seemed committed to starting an advocacy group to work on behalf of the homeless. It will be interesting to see where that initiative goes.
There are those that argue that the government shouldn't always be relied upon to solve our problems. That's fair enough. But I believe the least our government can do with my tax dollars is to provide basic services for people who need it the most.
| |||||||||||||
