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Dog legislation not black and white NWT News/North - Monday, January 24, 2011
Proposed changes to the NWT Dog Act have sparked passionate debate. But the factions aren't divided between those who want to protect animals versus those who want to do them harm. Instead, it has become a case of defining harm. Much of the debate centres around a clause that make exceptions for traditional practices. This clause is anticipating differences of opinion between an animal rights activist and a trapper, hunter or dog musher on the matter of humane treatment. Animal cruelty is a problem in the NWT. In fact, we were voted one of the best places in Canada to be an animal abuser by the Animal Defense Fund -- two years running. But who defines cruelty, especially in remote communities? Obviously, leaving your animals to starve, die of thirst or succumb to the cold is cruel and deserving of punishment. But is leaving your husky outside in -35 C weather with a well-built and insulated doghouse nearby cruel? We'd say no and so would many others. Dogs used for hunting, trapping and in sport mushing operate in extreme conditions where injury is possible. Punishment for such harm should only come in cases where the injuries are caused by negligence. The legislation should refer to guidelines -- written in consultation with mushers and traditional users -- for best practices when using dogs in sport or as work animals. The dog issue becomes even more clouded when discussing euthanasia. Dog culls are not uncommon in small Northern communities. Access to veterinarian services is limited or non-existent, which means dog populations can balloon due to a lack of neutering and spaying programs. Therefore, for public safety reasons, bylaw officers, if there are any, have been forced to shoot dogs. A periodic, territory-wide spay and neutering program would go a long way in reducing problems caused by too many stray animals or unwanted pets. Although the NWT SPCA does offer a rebate or interest free loan program for sterilization, paying back a loan is not financially feasible for some living in the communities and most do not have access to a vet to qualify for the rebate. Lack of veterinarian services also becomes a problem when an animal is sick and tough choices need to be made. No matter how much a dog owner may love or care for a pet, the financial burden of shipping the animal to a veterinarian in Yellowknife or another community can be too much to bear. In such a case, the only avenue for the owner might be to have the dog put down. Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy has asked that a euthanasia clause be added to the Dog Act to outline humane ways to dispose of an animal. We agree. Such a clause would create an avenue to punish abusers such as the owner who left puppies at the Behchoko dump with their throats slashed. NWT veterinarian Dr. Tom Pisz has said the new act should improve the way we treat animals. We agree with that as well. It's a worthy goal but we must ensure the law both protects animals while at the same time doesn't make criminals out of ordinary people acting as humanely as conditions allow.
$800,000 is not a cure Nunavut News/North - Monday, January 24, 2011 It's good that the federal government is taking some action after a record 100 new cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed in the territory last year. On Jan. 13 Health Minister and Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq pledged $800,000 for a campaign providing information to Nunavummiut about prevention, diagnosis and treatment. But $800,000 is just a drop in the bucket of what it will take to eradicate TB from Nunavut. TB loves poverty. It thrives where housing is inadequate or overcrowded. It preys upon those who don't get enough nutritious food to eat. Public health is not just a matter of providing information, diagnosing cases and treatment. It includes fighting the circumstances that lead to poor health such as overcrowding and poor nutrition. There's a reason Nunavut's tuberculosis rate is 62 times higher than the Canadian average. According to last year's Nunavut Housing Survey, over a third of homes in Nunavut are overcrowded and one in five is in need of repair. It would take hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion, to provide adequate housing for Nunavummiut currently in need of it. Also, a study published last year on food insecurity among Inuit preschoolers found two thirds of the households surveyed, within the previous 12 months, had run out of food and didn't have enough money to buy more. More than half of households reported not being able to afford to eat healthy food, and reported having fed their children cheaper food to stretch their food budget. It's unknown whether the upcoming changeover of the food mail program to Nutrition North instigated by the federal government will do anything to alleviate this. Overcrowded housing helps tuberculosis and other respiratory infections spread. Lack of good health, including good nutrition, makes people vulnerable to infection. The $800,000 might reduce the number of new cases from record levels, but it certainly won't erase TB as long as poverty prevails.
Seal deal for real Nunavut News/North - Monday, January 24, 2011 The opening of a new market for seal meat is the first good news we've had in a while when it comes to exports of Nunavut's wildlife resources. China has agreed to buy edible seal products exclusively from Canada. This would include smoked and cured meat, terrine and omega 3-rich oil supplements. It's hoped this deal will make up some of the income lost due to the ban on import of seal products passed by the European Union, and lead to additional markets opening up elsewhere in Asia. Now if we can only get the Chinese interested in big game hunting. . .
Teeing off hypocrisy Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, January 21, 2011
The latest controversy aside, there is nothing wrong with giving the Yellowknife Golf Club a break on property taxes or even a share of core funding grants. Many jurisdictions in Canada allow municipalities to grant tax exemptions to not-for-profit corporations - which the golf club is - that better the community, which the golf club does. Formed in 1948, it's one of Yellownife's oldest and proudest facilities, known the nation over for its midnight tee times and carry-along patches of artificial turf. Yellowknife would be considerably poorer without a golf course so it's reasonable to expect city hall to help it remain viable. In fact, in some U.S. communities the community health versus tax waste debate has carried over to private golf and country clubs where only the richest and most elite citizens can enter their gold-gilded gates. The rationale for tax exemptions there is that if those swanky and very expensive to run establishments - even after charging exorbitant membership fees - were to fall into disrepair, property values around the community would plummet and make for a less attractive place to live. Fortunately, we don't have to take that debate to such extremes here. An adult membership to the Yellowknife Golf Club, while at $459 a year is not cheap, is not out of the range of most Yellowknifers who want to play golf. The trouble for the city began after it decided to pick on poor little Yellowknife Garden Collective and its $2,500 budget. No amount of explanation on the city's part can bury the hypocrisy of giving a tax exemption and $15,000 yearly grant to the golf club while demanding $3,000 in property taxes from the garden collective, which owns no actual buildings. Following the backlash, the city realized the error of its ways. Our citizens can now count on the city to support two healthy pursuits - golf and gardening.
Strong legs for the future Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, January 21, 2011 Crazy Legs Contemporary Dance company has graced the stages of Yellowknife for six years, bringing dramatic and emotional performances by residents, to residents. Those choreographed moments will soon be drawing to a close, however. The dance company is giving its final set of performances at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre - the last curtain falling tomorrow. There will be one more appearance at the Snow Castle in March before disbanding. Founded by Darha Phillpot and Karen Wasicuna, the dance company has helped bring a cosmopolitan feeling to our city through music and dance. With a long list of original dance routines and complex and well executed performances, the company has given residents access to high quality and passionate dance that is usually found only in larger cities like Vancouver and Toronto. During its time, Crazy Legs has built on a burgeoning arts scene, giving a strong presence to a sometimes forgotten and extremely difficult art form, all the while providing a place for people to grow as expressive individuals. The dance troupe also served as strong role models for young, aspiring dancers to learn that their dreams of performing on the stage for an audience can be attained, even in smaller cities. Crazy Legs has inspired younger dancers to take to the stage and bring their art to the masses. With that accomplishment, the dance company will live on for years to come.
Setting the record straight Editorial Comment Roxanna Thompson Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011
With temperatures falling close to -40 I stood bundled in my parka and watched as a group of students from Thomas Simpson School carried a television outside and maneuvered it into a space that had been hollowed out of a large pile of snow. Next came the extension cords that fed the television electricity from the school.
The final touch was student Charles Gargan who contortion himself into the hole with the television and mimicked playing Xbox. If temperatures hadn't caused the television to fail Gargan would have actually played a video game from inside the snow cave. All of this work was part of a media art project to play with the stereotype that people in the North live in igloos. Of course if we live in igloos - and we have an Xbox - we must play them there, too. The project was amusing in itself but it raises the very true point that a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions continue to exist within Canada and farther abroad about the North. More commonly held misconceptions, which I have personally heard in southern Canada, include the idea that all parts of the North remain in complete darkness throughout the winter and that polar bears can be found just about anywhere, even in Fort Simpson. It appears that what is needed is a mass education campaign about the differences between the various regions in the North and the North in general. People, at least in the rest of Canad, a should have a better grasp on what exists above the 60th parallel. The campaign could include television ads sponsored by the territorial government that highlight different aspects of life in the North. The possibility of getting more information about the North in geography and social studies textbooks should also be seriously considered to educate people while they're young. The most important component of the campaign, however, is Northerners. Feel free to spend a bit of time for your own amusement leading on anyone you find who believes polar bears roam the lower portion of the territory but when you're done laughing please put them straight. The same goes for any other misguided idea you may stumble across. Playing Xbox in an igloo is probably feasible but people shouldn't be allowed to go on believing that's what all Northern teenagers do for fun.
It happens Editorial Comment Aaron Beswick Inuvik Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011
That's the nature of stuff ... it's going to break and make us miserable.
It usually happens at inconvenient times and results in other stuff breaking (which is expensive). On Nov. 15 the utilidor system froze up between Mackenzie Road and Kingminya Road. The town responded with steamers to melt the ice clogging the water lines, but the steamers broke, one after another as temperatures dropped to -24 C. Then the 40-year-old concrete water line split along a 250-foot section. As a result, 11 residences and one church went without running water for between two and 11 days. No doubt a miserable situation, seeing as we've all become accustomed to hot showers, clothes washers and the like. But it was probably also pretty miserable working in -24 C weather trying to fix that water line. So here's to the contractors and town works employees who struggled with frustration piled upon frustration. The town is conducting an internal audit to see if there's any way this miserable situation could have been avoided ... and so they should. But we should keep in mind that a few days without water isn't the end of the world, that stuff breaks (especially in extreme environments) and we only have two recourses - fix our stuff and learn from our mistakes. That's what the town is doing. Good on them. Coming and going Editorial Comment Aaron Beswick Inuvik Drum - Thursday, January 20, 2011 So I'm heading back to Nova Scotia. It's nothing against Inuvik - family commitments call. I was only here for a month and figured I owe you all a "thanks" for the good time. People lead good lives up here and have built a well-organized, compassionate community in an unforgiving land. It warms the heart to see. In my stead will be Kira Curtis - a young woman who loves life and can't wait to learn about your lives. So take care and keep being good to one another. My only regret is not getting to nap on the banks of that mighty river as it rolls to the sea under a summer sun. Rules of the road Yellowknifer - Wednesday, January 19, 2011
But our distaste does not extend to the city's right to regulate cab companies and their drivers in order to ensure safe operation and compliance with the law. City inspectors ensure cabbies have a driver's licence, know their way around town, provide receipts to their passengers and display their permits in a place where customers can see them. The city also ensures cabbies have not been convicted of serious criminal offences, such as aggravated assault, murder or drug trafficking, which makes perfect sense. Hence, it's almost certain Ahmed Makaran, 57, faces an insurmountable challenge. The Yellowknife cabbie lost his taxi licence last month upon his conviction for assaulting a fellow taxi driver with a tire iron at the Shell gas station last February. Even more alarming, he had customers in his car at the time of the assault. He then drove them to their destination covered in the victim's blood. He is currently appealing his loss of his taxi licence to city council, to whom his lawyer insisted earlier this week that his client didn't actually break the rules because he was convicted of assault with a weapon, not aggravated assault as written in the city's taxi bylaw. Good luck with that. His lawyer - and city council - must surely know that the bylaw also states that no taxi licence shall be issued to a driver who has committed "any" Criminal Code offence while on duty. Makaran would have been better off showing genuine contrition to council in his own words rather than hire a lawyer to make lame arguments for him. Acknowledging that he acted in a reprehensible way and expressing regret for his actions would have helped his image, if not have aided in restoring his cab driving privileges.
All hail the general Yellowknifer - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Sporting four leaves on his epaulette, General Walt Natynczyk marched into Yellowknife last week to show his troops the personable side of his battled-hardened character. Natynczyk, Canada's chief of defence staff, has served our country nobly, having completed tours in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq, and now oversees operations in Afghanistan. He was in command in the efforts to help flood-ravaged Winnipeg in 1997. Less than a year later, he and other Canadian soliders were aiding Ottawa during the infamous ice storm. He's been tested in dire situations and has proven his mettle. With that in mind, his presence before staff of Joint Task Force North further lifted morale in a place where momentum among our men and women in uniform is growing. The Yellowknife reserve unit has already surpassed its rate of recruitment by filling 27 positions, putting it ahead of pace to reach 60 reservists by 2014. These are part-time soldiers who train on weekends and holidays. Possessing a knack for strategy, we hope Natynczyk fully recognizes Yellowknife is in a key position to help defend the top-third of Canada. Arctic sovereignty is a pressing concern for our federal government. Placing an even greater number of full-time soldiers and a Northern training centre here in our city would be of great value. Not only would it assist in Northern search and rescue missions, but we'd be in a better position to respond to disasters such as oil spills as industry and navigation of Arctic waters increase across the North.
New bag policy will hurt those who can least afford it Darrell Greer Kivalliq News - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 While the Northern store had good intentions in introducing its 25-cent charge on plastic bags this week, one has to wonder when these types of initiatives will stop being forced down people's throats. It's bad enough we're constantly being told what we can and can't do by every level of government - most often without having a say in the matter - but do we really need the corporate sector telling us how to live? There's no doubt a handful of save-the-world types will be all giddy over the initiative, and those with high incomes really won't care one way or another, but for those who have to count their change before heading to the store, those quarters are really going to add up over a year. Those who know how landfill sites work in most Nunavut communities realize plastic bags are the least of our worries when it comes to what rests in those large plots of dead land. You can say we have to start somewhere, but the only benefit this project will produce is maybe - and it's a big maybe - we'll see a few less plastic bags on the ground in communities and out on the land. When it comes to the environment, thanks to our dependence on diesel-powered generators to keep our lights and heat on, Nunavut has one of the biggest carbon footprints in the world, per capita. If companies want to get all save-the-world on us, maybe they could look at a fund to support research and/or construction of alternative energy sources for Nunavut and really make a difference when it comes to what we're putting into the environment. That may actually gain some weight during the next few years if the Nunavut Power Corp. is successful in hiking its rates in the territory. A 21-per-cent hike to start just might encourage that line of thought rather quickly. The Northern's trying to heal a gunshot wound with a Band-Aid and this initiative will take money from the pockets of those who can least afford it. True, a couple of free bags were given to households to start the initiative this week, but it won't be long before they're lost, used for something else or just plain worn out, and people will be shelling out 99 cents to purchase new bags. And, unless you're totally disconnected from reality, most people know many of those six or seven plastic bags needed to tote our $700 grocery orders home find their way into kitchen and bathroom garbage receptacles in numerous households. Yes, true again, those biodegradable kitchen catchers are readily available at your local Northern store for a premium price. But if you're one of the people living below the poverty line, biodegradable bags come in a distant second to such luxury items as powdered milk, juice crystals and frozen mystery meat to put food on the table for your kids. Then there's the question of hygiene and germ transference when it comes to the bags, and we know of a few organisms that would giggle at the thought of not being able to survive in a Northern store recyclable bag. Hey, we're all for most initiatives that help our environment, but this one has a lot of holes in it for Nunavut. It's easy to shrug off quarters when you have big bucks in your pocket, but not quite so when you're struggling to make ends meet.
Corrections In the Jan. 10 story, "A post-Christmas wish list, there were two errors. First, the city of Iqaluit was the primary party responsible for selecting the new recreation building sites in consultation with FSC Architects and Engineers. Also, the Arnaitok Arena will be phased out in no sooner than two years. Nunavut News/North regrets any confusion or embarrassment caused by the errors.
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