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Not wild about wildlife bill
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 4, 2011

When Neil McCrank unveiled his much anticipated report on the NWT's regulatory regime in the summer of 2008, there was at least some cautious rejoicing among mining interests and developers.

The Harper-government appointee said what many had been saying all along - that the NWT is over-regulated, so hopelessly buried in a suffocating layer of government oversight that it was no longer an attractive place in which to explore and invest.

That sentiment became a self-fulfilling prophecy later that fall when the global recession hit and mineral and oil and gas exploration companies had just the excuse they needed to flee the NWT in droves. Exploration tanked by 80 per cent - a drop of $118 million in exploration expenditures to just $29.5 million. Nunavut, meanwhile, kept chugging along in 2009 where recession be damned, exploration firms spent $189 million.

The NWT may have weathered the recession better if not for its "complicated regulatory environment," as John Kearney, president of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines put it. But three years after McCrank proposed to cut red tape and eliminate some of the regional regulatory boards, we're still waiting for his recommendations to bear fruit. They're currently in the hands of John Pollard, the former Hay River MLA and cabinet minister tasked with streamlining the NWT's regulatory process.

In the vacuum we have a new version of the NWT Wildlife Act, which resident hunters and the Chamber of Mines say will hinder development even further should it pass in the legislative assembly. Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger is expected to present the draft legislation to MLAs next week, who have 120 days to review it before it goes to a vote.

The bill proposes to give the minister powers to temporarily halt development if it appears to endanger wildlife. Aboriginal groups and resource boards would be consulted, it states, but there is no mention of whether developers will be afforded the same courtesy.

The NWT Wildlife Federation, a group made up of non-aboriginal resident hunters, also claim the bill is discriminatory, "written essentially about aboriginals for aboriginals" because of its deference to aboriginal harvesters, including striking the need for them to have general hunting licences.

Toward that end, we would argue that that portion of the legislation is the least problematic. A lot of the complaints resident hunters had in the past appear to have been addressed, including a shortened waiting period to one year for new residents, and lowered age restrictions for young hunters.

Resident hunters must expect the subsistence aboriginal hunt will take precedence over all other hunting activities, although it's troubling there are still no concrete requirements for reporting aboriginal harvest numbers.

What clearly sends the wrong signal is the apparent attempt in this legislation to create another layer of regulations on development. We wholeheartedly agree that wildlife, and in the present urgency, Barrenground caribou, must be protected, but everyone knows that any person, developer or otherwise, will be squashed like a bug if they dare not cross their T's and dot their I's around here.

Just ask Gary Johnson, who was ordered to pay $51,000 last year after spilling less than 50 litres of fuel at an Ingraham Trail cabin where he was squatting. Or North Arrow Minerals, which had its exploration permit torn up after a judge deemed the company had failed to consult Akaitcho bands.

MLAs would be wise to wait for what Pollard has to say before introducing another stifling layer of regulation to an already infamously burdensome regulatory regime.

One's eyes don't have to wander too far to recognize the recession isn't over in Yellowknife yet, and will likely stay that way if the latest version of this bill passes.


Learning through snares and traps
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 3, 2011

As the days grow nicer and most people's thoughts turn to spring some students in the Deh Cho are not thinking about spring flowers but instead of what they will find in that next trap or snare.

February and March are the most popular months for school-based winter on-the-land programs. These programs take small groups of students out of the classroom and into the bush where the focus isn't on math problems or sentence structure but instead on how to set traps to get the maximum possible success and how to live on the land.

The importance of these programs can't be underestimated.

To see the programs' benefits one only has to look as far as the students. The youths are totally engaged while in the bush doing traditional activities.

Even in frigid temperatures they will watch attentively as different traditional skills are demonstrated.

Anything from setting beaver traps to chipping nets out of ice-covered lakes captivates them. If they can try the skill themselves it becomes that much more exciting.

Unless you've seen it, it's difficult to appreciate just how excited students can get about capturing an animal in a trap or snare that they've set themselves -- whether it be a mink, a marten or a rabbit. Give them a chance to skin and stretch their catch and the level of pride they feel grows proportionately.

There is opposition to these programs, however - those who say students miss enough classes without being purposefully taken away from their academic studies.

Some go as far as to argue the programs hinder the students by promoting old roles that no longer reflect the realities of today's society and world.

Such opposition should be ignored.

On the land programs are important learning tools and the schools that take the time to promote them and the teachers who send the time to accompany students on the land should be thanked. The programs introduce students to culturally-relevant skills they might not otherwise have the chance to practise.

Do students need to know how to set a rabbit snare to be successful in life? No, probably not, but being able to fashion the thinwire and place it properly links them to their history and their ancestors.

For some students the programs are simply fun and offer a chance to spend time outside of the classroom. For others the time on the land imparts important skills. For a third group the programs make them realize that they want to incorporate running a traditional vocation such as a trapline into their life -- even it isn't their main form of income.

Whether they take away a little or a lot from their time on the land, every student benefits from these programs and their continuation should be safeguarded.


No way to pay
Editorial Comment
Kira Curtis
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, March 3, 2011

When the power goes out, I don't mind much.

If you know someone with a wood burning stove, you can stay warm, socialize and cook up a good skillet meal in return for letting you in.

When the phone lines went out over the weekend, however, I was honestly shocked. I didn't fully appreciate the dependency we have on phones and Internet.

Sure, not being able to check in with loved ones outside the Beaufort Delta caused a slight flicker in the anxiety levels, but what proved most telling about our lack of self-sufficiency was the debit and the credit card machines.

I am not that old, and I remember waitressing in my younger days, using the old sliding imprinter for credit cards. No phone calls to a call centre in India to get it approved, no pre-authorization and authorization codes. Just ask for ID, if you remember.

Now, I do understand why these newer safety procedures are implemented by the credit card powers that be - safety first. A couple years ago I fell victim to credit card identity theft, even though I couldn't believe the fools who'd want to nab my financial identity. I thought they would pick on anyone other than the photojournalism student with the $40,000 loan.

Yes, it was obnoxious. Yes, I'm glad I had all that security protection to warn me of suspicious activity and, eventually, reimburse me the $1,000 they swindled in my name.

But here's the other side of that pendulum's trajectory: no one was prepared for the communication failure that happened last weekend. Nobody could use their credit cards or take money out of their accounts for nearly four days.

It's the funniest thing that this logic - people having access to their own money for important things like food - is overridden by a technological 'advancement' designed to make life easier.

Many people in Inuvik must have a bank account in town, yes? There's money in the bank, yes? People have IDs and signatures, yes? So when the town is cut off for days without warning, how come there's no way to bypass that system and give people enough money to buy some food for the cold, stormy weekend.

When blanketed by an Arctic storm, I'm pretty sure it's dangerous to lock down like that. I know the people of Inuvik would never let their neighbours starve because they didn't have enough cash on them when the lines cut out, I just find it surprising we'd be that dependent on Internet and phones. I'd like to have more control over my safety than that.

Is keeping a jar under the bed maybe a wiser choice?


Public perception still in the dark ages
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 2, 2011

When it comes to mental illness, we are still in the dark ages.

For the general public, it is a fuzzy condition suffered by the intellectually disabled and psychotic killers alike.

Out of ignorance, people are largely unsympathetic or fearful. If it hits someone in their family, often a disturbing mix of embarrassment and dread is the first reaction.

Due to the lack of science, even doctors have great difficulty diagnosing and treating mental illness. Their efforts to research and heal are hampered by public apathy and politicians buried in many other, much more clearly defined competing medical and social priorities.

The result is that some patients afflicted by mental illness can walk away from hospitals and risk death. And who can stop them? Anyone who has dealt with a hospital's psychiatric services knows privacy rules and human rights considerations, noble as they may be, can stand in the way of getting a hesitant loved one help for emotional and mental problems. Too often the patient is the last one to recognize the symptoms they are suffering, a resistance which is tied to the general perception of "crazy people." Who wants that label?

Those with more severe forms of the illness can end up in jail, undiagnosed, untreated and targets for abuse, circumstances of neglect that can transform a treatable condition into a threat against public safety.

Government and advocacy groups are doing what they can to educate the public but it is a very big job and progress is slow. There are government sponsored telephone helplines, promotions for Mental Wellness Week, conferences, informative publications, websites, all designed support and educate.

But until the general public comes to understand mental illnesses are like any other, a cancer on the soul to be studied, diagnosed, treated and finally accepted without fear, we will continue to see loved ones walk away from the very help they need.


Bright lights in Northern skies
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The numbers don't lie. There were fewer tourists in the NWT last year. Our territory attracted 68,004 visitors in 2009-2010. That's a 7.4 per cent drop from the 73,419 people who came the year before, and quite a fall from the high of 79,572 that came in 2007-08.

There were also fewer dollars spent: Tourists injected $107.6 million into the NWT economy last year, 17.6 per cent less than the $130.5 million in tourist spending the year before.

An important point to bear in mind is that those dollars are fresh ones to our market. Those who help bring in that money are doing a major service to the NWT and its economy.

At the head of that class are tourism operators Don Morin and Ragnar Wesstrom. Both were honoured last week as co-winners of the Outstanding Business Performance Award through the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Morin is president of Aurora Village, which is not only one of the few aurora tourism businesses left standing in the NWT, it's an expanding venture that also offers snowmobile trips, snowshoeing, dog team rides and boat tours.

Wesstrom, owner of Enodah Wilderness Travel and Trout Rock Lodge, has built a lodge that lies 15 minutes from Yellowknife by air, but it offers all the comforts of home.

The lodge accommodates 28 people with tours aboard snowmobiles, canoes and kayaks, in addition to fishing and aurora viewing. It's come a long way since 1990 when guests stayed in tents.

Wesstrom credited the government for its assistance over the years. The GNWT does have a key role to play in helping to foster tourism and promoting the natural wonders of the NWT. That will be made easier with the $3.5 million in pan-territorial tourism funding from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, which was announced last week.

Entrepreneurs like Wesstrom and Morin are encouraged to keep growing for their own prosperity and for the sake of our economy. Staking partnerships with a network of other NWT operators would be one way to provide tourists with even more attractive options on a Northern trip of a lifetime.


Big bucks lurk behind smoke and mirrors
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I was somewhat surprised by the number of people who took the time to share their opinions with me in response to my thoughts on the Northern store's 25 cent charge on plastic bags earlier this year (New bag policy will hurt those who can least afford it, Jan. 19, Kivalliq News).

And, as always, I thank everyone for their opinions, even if those who managed to draw a parallel from bags to my support of the mining industry were stretching the plastic just a tad.

There's no doubt many folks look at the Northern store's 25 cent charge on plastic bags as a great environmental initiative.

However, promoting a small initiative to create the illusion of doing something to solve a much greater problem is an effective diversionary tactic that's been around for a very, very long time.

A great magician always gives you something to look at in one hand, so you don't notice what the other one is up to.

They were the original harbingers of the smoke-and-mirrors approach, which has long since been perfected by governments and the corporate community.

It's kind of like when all those Wall Street types were getting huge bonuses during the recession.

The corporate line was they deserved mega-bonuses in the face of billion dollar government bailouts because they got us into this mess, and they were the only ones smart enough to discover how to get us out!

Shovel that into bags and you could keep Nunavut green in the dead of winter.

But what better way to convince people you're doing something to combat a problem than to focus their attention on your bold initiative and declare it as non-profit?

Then get some great publicity shots of happy shoppers using the reusable bags, and keep tossing big numbers around about how much plastic you're keeping out of the system, and the illusion of a great environmental effort becomes reality.

You can bag a lot of people with that approach.

If a retailer truly wants to start an environmental initiative that really makes a difference, it would no longer sell single-use disposable diapers.

They are Canada's number one non-recyclable part of household garbage, and 2.4 million trees die in Canada every year to produce them.

A store may brag about keeping hundreds of thousands of plastic bags out of the environment, but, in Canada, 1.7 billion disposable diapers are tossed into our landfill sites every year.

And it takes 65,500 tonnes of plastic and 9,800 tonnes of packing materials each year to support our disposable diaper industry.

Disposable diapers also put 84 million pounds of raw fecal matter into our environment every year.

And, in case you're wondering, up to 100 different viruses can live in a soiled diaper for up to two weeks,

So, why would a store be more concerned about plastic bags than disposable diapers if it truly wants to aid the environment?

Because disposable diapers are a $400 million per year industry in Canada.

As always, big bucks lurk behind the smoke and mirrors.


Sex education saves lives
NWT News/North - Monday, February 28, 2011

Sexually transmitted infections are an issue nationwide, especially among youth.

A recent Statistics Canada report reveals a shocking nationwide increase in diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea over the past decade. The NWT is, unfortunately, keeping pace.

The Department of Health and Social Services has reported an upward trend of infections between 2000 and 2010 -- the peak came in 2009 when the infection rate hit 300 per 10,000 people - or close to 33 per cent of the population.

Statistics Canada reports that last year approximately 45 per cent of sexually active youth between the ages of 15 and 24 did not use a condom. Mix in multiple partners and these youth are playing a sexual version of Russian roulette.

Jennifer Schmidt, principal at Angik School in Paulatuk, sheds light on why NWT youth are engaging in unsafe sexual practices. She said 2008 was the first time sex education was offered at the school and at the time she was amazed at the myths many of her students believed when it came to sexual relations.

Unfortunately that program is no longer available in Paulatuk because the teacher offering it left and funding ran out.

It's no wonder STIs are rampant when sexual education is obviously not a priority. It's not the fault of schools in the territory; as Schmidt said, she would jump at the chance to offer the program in the school.

Funding for sexual education programs across the NWT should be a priority for the GNWT. We realize that funding programs in the communities can be difficult and finding staff to offer the programs is a challenge, but with one in three people infected with an STI it's a problem that needs to be addressed.

The departments of Health and Social Services and Education should partner to find funding for a territory-wide sex education program that follows the formula of the highly successful Health Education Awareness Response Team. That program involves youth in its delivery, a fact that is credited for its success.

But, education isn't the only tool against sexually transmitted infections. Drugs and alcohol lead youth to make poor decisions and substance abuse problems are rampant in the North.

The government can offer countless programs but individuals must also take responsibility for their own actions and for the health of their communities.

Parents must take it upon themselves to get educated when it comes to sex and share that information with their children. In the age of the Internet the information is readily available. The GNWT has a number of tools on its Health and Social Services website to help people teach and learn sexual education. In the absence of a good official program in our schools, which parents and community education authorities should fight for, then Mom and Dad are well advised to sit down and have "the talk" with their pre-teen sooner than later. It could be the difference between being healthy or a lifetime of medications and topical creams.


Food fight
Nunavut News/North - Monday, February 28, 2011

A month from now, perhaps appropriately on April Fool's Day, the Nutrition North Canada program will come into full effect.

Retailers say the prices of a selection of healthy, perishable foods will drop by about five to seven per cent. The prices of other not-as-healthy perishable foods, which previously had shipping subsidies, have already risen since those subsidies were eliminated in October.

These items include Cheez Whiz, margarine and jugs of cranberry cocktail -- and their current prices in Arctic Bay raised eyebrows this month when MLA Ron Elliott circulated photos taken at the community's Northern store. A large bottle of Cheez Whiz: $29.39. Three pounds of margarine: $27.79. A bottle of cranberry juice: $38.99. Breaded chicken strips: $77.39.

The full impact of the changes may only become apparent this summer, when it's possible some basic non-perishable foods no longer subsidized - such as pasta, canned soup and coffee and tea - may run out before the sealift arrives. One can only imagine how much an unsubsidized can of coffee flown into Arctic Bay will sell for - and if there will be bootlegging to feed caffeine addictions.

There are promises but still no evidence of how retailers will show they are passing on subsidy savings to the consumer.

Arctic Bay's prices sparked a furor of finger pointing and buck passing. The federal government can blame retailers and retailers can blame poor planning, but the people literally paying the price are the ones who appear to have the least say in how the shipping subsidy program is managed.

The establishment of Nutrition North Canada came with the set-up of an external advisory board of selected Northerners, from whom we have heard little so far. When the program takes full effect, Nunavummiut should expect this board to hear their concerns and act on them.

Also, Elliott has asked the legislative assembly to invite federal officials, retailers and transportation companies to appear before the legislature so MLAs can have their questions answered and any misunderstandings about the changes can be cleared up.

The federal government has recently launched a number of initiatives designed to reiterate its idea of how Nutrition North Canada will work. But an open and frank discussion, in the North, with all parties involved, is the only way to clear the air.


Investment dollars mean jobs
Nunavut News/North - Monday, February 28, 2011

Mining exploration and development is on the rebound in Nunavut after a few years of hesitant investment following the global economic meltdown of 2008.

One company, Newmont, is set to spend more on its Hope Bay gold project in 2011 - $300 million -- than was spent on all Nunavut projects combined in 2010. This puts Nunavut on the path to surpassing the $432 million in exploration spending in the territory in 2008, pre-recession.

Shear Diamonds is in the midst of assessing the viability of reopening the Jericho diamond mine. Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake began producing ore last year, and it continues exploration work on the Meliadine gold project near Rankin Inlet. The Mary River iron project near Pond Inlet has passed to new hands - global mining giant Arcelor-Mittal and its partner Nunavut Iron Ore. And Areva continues its exploration of the Kiggavik uranium deposit near Baker Lake.

Nunavut is rich in resources. To benefit, Nunavummiut need to be prepared for the exploration camp, mining and contracting jobs that keep multiplying.

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