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Remembrance Day Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, November 12, 2010
Harman wrote a poem read aloud in front of his school titled War, which reflects on the horrors of battle and the sacrifices made by our troops.
The cadets, as usual on Remembrance Day, held a 12-hour vigil at the cenotaph on Veterans Memorial Boulevard and took part in yesterday's Remembrance Day parade. And for an added touch, a group of four cadets visited Lakeview Cemetery Wednesday night and lit candles for the 64 veterans buried there.
War is not something our youth would be expected to know much about. Sure, everyone is aware of the war in Afghanistan; some young people might even know that 152 Canadian soldiers have died there since 2002.
But we would have to go all the way back to the time of their great-grandparents during the Second World War to know a time when war affected everybody.
And for these young people to want to honour Remembrance Day shows us they understand it's not about paying tribute to war and glory, it's about the sacrifices made by people who came before them, and that is what made our country great.
While for tourists bison make great photo opportunities, most residents have a very different view.
It doesn't take long to become acquainted with the down sides of living with bison. They include giant bison patties, hoof printed lawns, dead trees, mangled fences and vehicles that have been damaged by bison using them as licking blocks. Flower and vegetable gardens also aren't safe when bison enter communities.
All of those issues, however, are relatively minor compared to what some residents fear may happen. Concerns are often raised about the possibility of a bison injuring or killing a human, maybe a child.
This summer Dianne Nelson of Fort Liard watched in shock as her pet of four years was killed in front of her by a young bison. At 100 pounds her dog was larger than most children.
Complaints about bison, many of which originate from Fort Liard, have elicited a number of responses from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Now in Fort Liard the department wants to try a new tact, teaching the bison to stay out by allowing residents to hunt an increased number of the animals in close proximity to the community.
This plan has some obvious benefits.
The plan allows the community to have an active role in solving what has long been a problem. If changes are made to wildlife legislation community members will be able to harvest up to six bison a year.
From the department's perspective if it works it will make their jobs easier. If the bison learn to avoid Fort Liard renewable resource officers won't have to spend time chasing bison out of the hamlet and will be able to avoid the task of culling problem animals.
The plan, however, will take long term commitment from both sides. Only one tag has been used in the hamlet in approximately the last seven years. Fort Liard residents will have to embrace the idea of harvesting and eating bison while the department will have to find ways to make the process of accessing and using the tags as easy as possible.
Of all the many bison management plans this one seems to have the best chance of making a noticeable difference. All it will take is co-operation from the community and the department and some healthy fear on the part of the bison.
It's grown significantly from just a few members to about 40. They meet regularly to, among other things, discuss business related matters in town. In fact on Tuesday they had a regular chamber meeting where the president of NWT Chamber of Commerce, Ann Marie Tout, was in attendance.
The philosophy behind the group is admirable. Their mandate is to represent the interests of Inuvik businesspeople on both a local and territorial scale. So it's nice people are still taking an interest. The group's vice-president, Lee Smallwood, showed up at Monday's town council meeting with a proposal for the group to take over administering business licences from the town.
He argued the group could offer the service more effectively than the town. The chamber will provide the staff and in return they'll get the $20,000 to $30,000 in revenue the town usually gets by selling licences. It was just unfortunate Smallwood had to present and justify the proposal by himself. He made a good argument that the group needs the money to get itself going. Only one of the group's members, David Kaufman, showed up in support. It would have been a great opportunity for membership to offer some specific goals the group would like to achieve.
Just after September's blackout several members showed up to a meeting complaining about NWT Power Corp. Chamber president Larry Peckford decided to write a letter to NTPC demanding answers. So a few weeks later, when it came time for a public meeting with power corp. officials, just a few members bothered showing up. Considering how much everyone loves to complain about NTPC, it was surprising to see only a handful of people there.
There's nothing wrong with people getting together to discuss local business. The question is this: Is the group serious about getting down to work or will it be another failed attempt to fulfill an idea of a truly collective business community that's serious about making things happen? We will see.
Her decision to shelve the controversial changes to supplementary health benefits last week followed a public battle that lasted almost two years. Lee's about face came as a sigh of relief for many, especially seniors, who fought tooth and nail to stop her proposal. They were worried about having to pay a portion of expenses for items like drugs, dental work and eyeglasses.
While the decision to scrap the changes came extremely late in the game -- and after going back to the drawing board on two occasions - it's a welcome response for many. It is still essential that Lee honours her commitment to find ways to provide coverage for low-income earners, however.
In the process of handling the supplementary health fiasco, it seems Lee learned to deal with hot-button issues in a more timely manner. The mid-October announcement of funding cuts to respite services in Yellowknife was met with much opposition. Even though the service supports just 29 families in the city and employs over two-dozen part-time workers at a cost of $250,000 a year, Lee insisted funding would have to come from another source. This potentially left caregivers with high-needs dependents without an option for a few hours of relief each week.
A petition signed by more than 1,800 people and daily grilling by regular MLAs in the legislative assembly led to Lee's relatively quick backtracking.
However, it remains a mystery how funding will be made available to respite services in the future. Damien Healy, Department of Health and Social Services spokesperson, said the department is committed to offering a territory-wide respite program.
The federal funding scheduled to run out in March next year was specific to the Yellowknife Association of Community Living, which provided respite services here. A territory-wide program could mean less money for Yellowknife respite services or a potentially heftier price tag if the GNWT takes on the hiring.
No matter how respite care is reformed, it's important that Lee and her department consult those who will be affected and come out with a strong plan to avoid another supplementary health debacle.
The Department of Health and Social Services' website dispelling commonly held but erroneous beliefs among teens regarding birth control is a good tool for combatting the territory's high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections.
The website is free to access. It's anonymous, and it's far more helpful than the advice dished out by teens' sometimes equally clueless peers - such as drinking Mountain Dew to reduce sperm counts, or taking a couple of somebody else's birth control pills.
It even details what sexual activities are no-risk, low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk for pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections, giving teens concrete tools with which to set their personal boundaries.
The website is also worth a look for adults who need a refresher on the basics of safer sex - because teens don't have a monopoly on awkward questions.
To say the past month in the world of Nunavut politics was one for the books would be an understatement.
Few would have believed the leadership review and confidence vote on Nunavut's premier and cabinet ministers would have resulted in Paul Okalik being named Speaker for the Nunavut legislature.
It made perfect sense for Premier Eva Aariak and her ministers. What better way to silence Okalik than make him Speaker? But one has to wonder what led Okalik to accept the nomination.
It's quite possible he felt the confidence - or non-confidence, depending on your point of view - vote was his last chance to usurp Aariak.
Then, lacking the support to rock the ministers out of the boat, decided if you can't beat them, join them.
It's also possible Aariak and a few ministers survived the review because the call for non-confidence was being led by Okalik.
He lobbied behind closed doors for months to topple Aariak or, at the very least, Education Minister Hunter Tootoo, who he felt had to pay the price for his performance while responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corp.
It wouldn't be surprising if, faced with the choice, the members simply decided to stay with the current leadership, which they viewed as the lesser of two evils.
The results of such an entertaining day either had Louis Tapardjuk slapping himself for resigning as Culture, Elders, Language and Youth minister before the review, or his resignation was part of this grand performance.
On the surface, the shell game that resulted in Okalik as the new Speaker is just a little too convenient.
Equally entertaining was former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) president Paul Kaludjak's lament on being ousted during NTI's annual general assembly in Rankin.
Kaludjak had been suspended for indiscretions on his corporate credit card and was ultimately fired for some supposedly unacceptable public comments while on suspension.
Kaludjak didn't see the ousting coming and felt he was stabbed in the back by some of the NTI delegates, especially those he took to hockey games and fancy restaurants while in office. He did point out, however, such activities only happened when time permitted because they're a busy bunch at NTI.
Do you get the feeling a number of NTI reps just don't get the point?
Finally, numerous Nunavummiut expressed outrage, although none would express it publicly, over an invitation sent by the Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) to a number of businesses to attend a consultation session to discuss potential changes to the contracting provisions in the Meadowbank Inuit Impact Benefits Agreements.
Seems the KIA is concerned Agnico-Eagle may not be giving maximum benefit to genuine Inuit firms.
In the invite, the KIA insinuated Agnico-Eagle has contracts with companies that are Inuit firms on paper only.
The invitation referred to the unnamed firms as "potato companies," a term most readily identified as meaning brown on the outside and white on the inside.
Nope, not a banner month for those supposedly leading the way in Nunavut.
Last week Sibbeston told News/North he was largely unaware poverty is an issue in Northern communities.
This is difficult to understand considering the ample reporting on poor Northern housing conditions, infant mortality, staggering suicide rates, from both Northern and southern media outlets and the host of information available through the GNWT bureau of statistics.
Community leaders were frankly flabbergasted by Sibbeston's comments. Responding to the senator's assertion that NWT communities have ample food, Dettah Chief Ed Sangris told News/North the community has special programs to help feed elders and youth. Sangris went on to say homelessness in the communities is, despite Sibbeston's comments to the contrary, a real problem.
Sangris said in his community, at times, up to 10 people cram into three-bedroom homes because they are unable to afford rent.
Overcrowding in NWT communities has also been attributed to a host of medical problems more prominent in the North than down south.
In Tlicho communities -- the worst jurisdiction in terms of overcrowding -- 26 per cent of homes house six or more people, according to the GNWT's 2009 crowding survey.
Back in March, Jim Martin, the chief executive office of the Tlicho Community Services Agency, attributed an outbreak of an antibiotic resistant bacteria in Behchoko to overcrowding, water scarcity and low-income situations in the community. Officials dealing with the high rate of tuberculosis in Northern communities cite the same problems as contributors to the prevalence of that disease.
"TB is a disease of the marginalized population," Cheryl Case, communicable disease specialist with the Department of Health and Social Services, told News/North in 2008. "In other words, it comes down to persons who don't have optimum nutrition, maybe living in overcrowded housing," she said.
In the Beaufort Delta, likely the most expensive region of the territory to reside in, nearly 70 per cent of the employed population earns $50,000 or less a year -- 23 per cent earn under $10,000 annually -- according to GNWT statistics.
In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Sibbeston spent $190,172 on travel. That year he told News/North he flies between Ottawa and the NWT between 30 and 35 times. Unlike an elected politician, Sibbeston obviously doesn't use his time in the North to understand the issues. Why should he? His job doesn't rely on voters and he has no mandate to support the needs of Northerners.
Gazing from the swanky glass towers of Ottawa and rolling in his $132,000 annual salary it is no wonder the North's poverty issue is so far from our senator's mind.
Tagak Curley is in charge of two goliaths - health and housing - two government portfolios that have such a profound impact on Nunavummiut that their everyday lives hinge on his powers of persuasion.
Curley is a consummate politician and a very informed one, having served his first term in the legislative assembly in 1979. He knows the issues and has for decades.
He now has a territorial housing survey staring him in the face that confirms many people across Nunavut are clustered into homes that are too small, falling apart or lacking proper insulation, electricity or plumbing.
Here's the reality:
This affects people's physical and mental well-being - from the spread of disease to the lack of privacy to increased stress from having too little room and decent living conditions.
It constitutes a territorial crisis.
Curley and Premier Eva Aariak ought to demand senior federal politicians come to Nunavut to see first-hand the troubling issues confronting the territory.
If Canada can mobilize its army to help areas devastated by extreme weather, then Ottawa can surely provide an army of workers to construct more homes.
Yes, the federal government has provided $300 million over the past few years toward 1,000 new homes. Yes, the Government of Nunavut's Housing Corporation was not a model of efficiency in spending that money but most of it went where it was intended - building new homes.
But those facts do not change the reality for the many people left living elbow to elbow in what essentially amount to shacks in some of our communities.
This must change.
While Curley and Aariak are confronting senior federal officials, they cannot fail to mention Curley's other portfolio, Health and Social Services.
In a territory with a suicide rate 11 times the national average - and 28 times higher for 15 to 24-year-old men - the statistics themselves should convince those in power in Ottawa that more has to be done. The Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy calls for more resources. The funding for those resources is going to have to come from the federal government. In a territory with a health budget already stretched by medical travel and lacking even a single social worker in numerous communities, help is obviously needed.
We're counting on Curley and Aariak to relate those desperate details to their federal counterparts, because it is truly a desperate situation.
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