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Devolution snafu NWT News/North - Monday, March 7, 2011
With billions of dollars at stake, now is not the time for infighting. Unfortunately, that is what we have. In one corner we have the cabinet of the legislative assembly hiding behind the glass doors of their Yellowknife palace refusing to bend on the issue. The Dene First Nations find that attitude inexcusable and have gone as far as to demand the resignation of aboriginal MLAs who support devolution. Akaitcho's anger is understandable. As Dettah Chief Ed Sangris said, 51 per cent of the territory's gross domestic product comes out of the Akaitcho territory, mostly as a result of the Snap Lake, Ekati and Diavik mines. With more mineral potential being explored in the region, it is likely the Akaitcho territory will produce the majority of the NWT's wealth well into the future. The Dehcho First Nations and the Tlicho both have expressed opposition or hesitation over the devolution agreement-in-principle. Both groups are represented by cabinet MLAs -- Jackson Lafferty and Michael McLeod -- who are refusing to speak publicly about their positions on devolution. Is it reason enough to call for their resignations? That is up to their constituents to decide. The next time they go to the polls, voters should send a message to ministers who put their bigger pay cheques and misplaced power trips over the needs of their people. Voters should no longer accept cabinet solidarity as an excuse for MLAs to sell out. However, their elected representatives' failure to uphold their democratic duty aside, Akaitcho's stonewalling approach to devolution is a mistake. Akaitcho leaders estimate their lands accounted for more than $1.6 billion of the territory's $3.2 billion GDP in 2009. Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger projected in his 2010 budget address that 2010 and 2011 will show growth in the territory's GDP of four per cent -- 2.8 per cent in 2010 and 1.2 per cent in 2011. That is nearly $5 billion the Akaitcho have no control over despite it being generated on their lands. Aboriginal leaders have to face facts: the GNWT and Ottawa are moving ahead with devolution. The question isn't if anymore but when. With that in mind, petulant opposition and inaction will no longer achieve results. The Akaitcho are faced with losing control of billions of dollars. The best thing they can do now is pull up to the table and push the governments into a deal that is fair and equitable. If they don't, they will be forced to settle with the scraps from the GNWT's table, which is little more than history repeating itself. Perhaps the chiefs responsible for letting their peoples' wealth slip away should call for their own resignations.
No easy answers Nunavut News/North - Monday, March 7, 2011 Members of the Liquor Act task force have a tough job ahead of them to compile and assess the input provided by Nunavummiut all across the territory. There is no question that alcohol abuse tears families apart and is behind the bulk of crimes in Northern communities. It's also true that those who like a glass of wine with dinner or a bottle of champagne for a celebration resent being treated like criminals. Some people who have spoken to the task force want communities to have more licence to make and enforce liquor restrictions. Others want a reduction in the amount of red tape required for legal liquor orders and an end to the absurdity of Iqalummiut having to order from the Rankin Inlet warehouse, and vice versa. Some want the RCMP to keep track of how much liquor people order. Others want bars and liquor stores in their communities so bootlegging is less enticing. There is no one right solution to the alcohol dilemma, and different communities require different approaches. The next version of the Liquor Act will need to have enough flexibility so hamlets can choose what works for their community. One suggestion that communities appear to agree on is the need for substance abuse treatment in Nunavut, closer to home and more culturally relevant than programs in the south. Fortunately, that is going to happen. Treatment centres are being established in Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit, scheduled to be open by spring. The task force will be collecting feedback until June or July, and there is plenty to consider. We look forward to its report and hope the legislative assembly reviews it with great care.
Winning spirit Nunavut News/North - Monday, March 7, 2011 There may have been no medals, but Team Nunavut's trip to the Canada Winter Games was still rewarding for the athletes and coaches involved. Our judo, table tennis and badminton teams showed a winning attitude in their appreciation of the opportunity to travel and play against some of the best athletes in the country. They set realistic goals and returned with pride, their performances having exceeded their own expectations. Louis Nutarariaq of Iqaluit in particular showed bravery by continuing to compete despite a shoulder injury sustained in his judo matches. Despite the adversity, he finished in fourth place in the men's plus-100 kilogram category. Congratulations to all the athletes who competed in Halifax, and we urge others to aim to compete in the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que.
Not wild about wildlife bill Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 4, 2011
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
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
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
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.
Corrections In the editorial "Sex education saves lives" Feb. 28 the percentage of NWT residents with a sexually transmitted infection should have read 3.3 per cent. Also, in a photo cation on page 17, 23 puppies were seized in Hay River on May 29. A photo on page 28 was of cross-country skier Thomsen D'Hont. News/North apologizes for the any confusion or embarrassment the errors may have caused.
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