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Keeping the doors open NWT News/North - Monday, April 11, 2011
Last year the GNWT announced it would be changing the way it funds alternative schools, shifting from a formula financing deal to a per student allocation based on full-time attending students.
Principals in both Fort Smith and Hay River said the change would mean a loss of approximately $200,000 for each school, mainly because many of the students attending the school are not considered full time.
The alternative schools - often called storefront schools - provide services to students who work part-time or full-time, have children, or for other reasons do not attend traditional classes.
By that very nature funding the program based on attendance misses the point. Any program that attracts students back to the school system and has shown success at producing graduates should be embraced, especially in the North where graduation rates are low.
A funding review is a good idea and shows the government wants to ensure it is making the right choice in how it funds the schools. We hope, however, more is taken into account than the hours students spend at a desk. These are not conventional school spaces and therefore applying conventional funding formulae will likely fail.
Perhaps the schools can manage their spaces more efficiently but taking money away from a solid investment that is generating gains would be a costly step backward.
For years Dehcho First Nations and its members have criticized the territorial and federal governments for their lack of communication regarding issues affecting Dehcho citizens.
However, recently, Jean Marie First Nation came under fire from its band members for neglecting to consult with them on plans to protect traditional lands used for trapping and hunting near McGill Lake. For Francis Nahanni, who has a trapline and cabins in the area, the region has spiritual significance to his family due to ancestral burial sites said to be located in the proposed protected area.
Nahanni and members of his family say they are shocked the First Nation did not consult them on the proposal. They worry what turning the region into a park will mean for their traditional practices and if it will draw more tourists to the area.
Acting Chief Stan Sanguez says he is confused by the family's reaction and told Deh Cho Drum protecting the region will preserve the land as well as traditional land-use rights.
That makes sense, assuming the federal government doesn't steal subsurface mineral rights at the last minute as it did with Edehzhie not too long ago, but that's not the point.
The people using the area weren't brought into the process early on and now confusion and fear of the unknown have clouded the benefits.
Dehcho First Nations has always demanded to be informed when it comes to decisions involving its lands and with good reason.
It must do the same with its own members.
Festering wounds heal better if they're cut open and the poison drained out. It's not pretty, and it's definitely painful. But without intervention the infection may spread, and eventually kill.
The same goes for emotional wounds.
A key part of the 2007 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to provide survivors and others affected by the schools an opportunity to tell their stories.
Children sent to residential schools were removed from their families for 10 months of the year. The experience was designed to remove all aspects of their culture. Some were also subject to physical and sexual abuse from those charged with their care, or from other students.
The commission has held hearings in six Northern communities so far, with 13 more to come.
As people attempt to talk about what they went through and how it has affected their lives, many are being revisited by the feelings of shame, worthlessness and hopelessness they experienced while in residential schools. Those who are not yet ready to talk about their experiences are also subject to sickening jolts of recognition as other survivors' stories are told in newspapers, on radio and on TV.
Commissioner Marie Wilson told Nunavut News/North last week that people who have spoken to the commission are consistently overwhelmed by emotion, even if they don't intend to be. She also said many of those who are now speaking up say they have never told anyone before about what they experienced and witnessed at the schools.
So it's unfortunate that these hearings are happening a year after the federal government decided not to extend the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's funding. The foundation's funding for programs in communities by Inuit for Inuit was essentially replaced by what's called "Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support" from Health Canada.
Had the government seen fit to keep community-based healing programs running for another year or two, residential school survivors and their families would have more places to turn to for help as they go through this painful process.
As it is, survivors' wounds are being cut open, but then they're being abandoned on the operating table with the healing process half-done.
For those in need of immediate help, the Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Helpline at 1-800-265-3333 is available from 7 p.m. to midnight. There is also a 24-hour national residential school crisis line at 1-866-925-4419, with an Inuit language speaker available on request.
But a crisis line cannot help a person get back the cultural skills and the language they lost. Nor can it help an entire community bridge generational gaps in parenting skills and traditional knowledge.
Residential school survivors and their families have been given the opportunity to share their haunting stories. Now they deserve the opportunity to heal.
Eagle later became unresponsive after vomiting in a detachment cell, and he was taken back to the hospital. He was flown to Edmonton, where doctors found and operated to stop the bleeding in his brain. After surgery he entered a coma and stayed that way until his 2010 death.
A person who is drunk may be dazed, confused, unbalanced and nonsensical, or completely unconscious. The symptoms are similar to those of a serious concussion, and if a person is drunk enough to be unsteady, it's possible they've fallen multiple times before entering custody to sober up.
No matter why a person is arrested, if they are taken to the hospital then they cannot be released unless they are medically sound enough for release. Hospital beds come with straps for those who resist, and sedatives are another option.
It is commendable that the RCMP accepted recommendations, such as monitoring prisoners more often and having medical information posters on walls, but the responsibility rests with medical professionals to ensure patients are not released to those with little medical training.
Mayor Gord Van Tighem can blame the timing all he wants, but even if Earth Hour were held in the bitter dark of January instead of late March it's doubtful Yellowknife would have performed much better.
The mayor reasoned that because Earth Hour was held March 26, when clocks have already been moved forward and daylight hours in the North are longer, people were less likely to have their lights on at 8:30 p.m. when Earth Hour began, which he said skewed the results.
Had Earth Hour been held in a darker month, Yellowknife's altruistic instincts to use less power would have shone through more brightly, so to speak. Alas, Earth Hour the world over fared miserably this year as it's clear few people bothered to turn off their lights anywhere. The sun was surely still not beaming at 8:30 p.m. in Toronto, where energy use barely dipped. It actually went up in Edmonton, where the Oilers were facing off against the Calgary Flames in a critical race for the playoffs.
The fact is Earth Hour, now in its fifth year, is a fad, and like all fads, people eventually tire of them. Most generally want to do the right thing, but unlike the demonstrable results evident in cancer runs and charity fundraisers, most people have a difficult time understanding how spending an hour in the dark on a Saturday night will do the planet any good. Symbolic gestures will only go so far.
Northland Utilities must clearly demonstrate how power reduction has saved some customers money, but even that is a dubious claim in a territory where the power corporation has admitted it will have to raise rates if energy consumption dips too much because associated revenues fall in tandem.
It's a dilemma that's leaving very few of us in the dark.
Such signs are common in southern centers where there is more than one gas station in a community competing for business. If they were present in the Deh Cho, motorists would probably avoid looking at them.
Gas prices, as everyone knows, are on the rise. Signs displaying gas prices would only remind motorists what they'll face when pull up to the pumps.
Higher gas prices, however, could be the new reality. The price of oil is rising and with instability in some oil producing countries it shows no sign of returning to lower levels soon.
A world of higher gas prices is going to be particularly hard on the North, where many families are already struggling with high costs of living.
Driving is a part of Northern life. In small communities that are widely spaced, driving, often long distances, is the only option if you want specialized items or to stock up on supplies such as groceries.
Deh Cho residents can't take a transit bus or a subway to the next larger grocery store - they have to drive. They also don't have the option of a bus or a train if they want to travel a few communities away to visit family and friends or just go for a trip.
As gas prices rise, residents are going to have to start making choices and changing their habits.
Some gas-saving measures are obvious. Cutting down the time that vehicles are left to idle as they warm up in the winter will save money. Drivers will just have to deal with colder steering wheels and seats during their first few minutes of driving.
Driving tours, a popular pastime in some communities, will also have to be looked at critically. The number of people who drive around communities seemingly in endless loops in the evening for something to do may have to find other pastimes.
Deh Cho residents may also have to call on their neighbors more. Supply trips where one vehicle is shared between a few families will cut down on gas consumption. The same goes for carpooling outside town.
Although toughness and durability are favoured in vehicle choices for the Deh Cho, drivers will also have start to looking at gas mileage as a critical factor when purchasing their next vehicle.
Rising gas prices will only be an inconvenience for some, but, for others, financially it will mean the difference between turning on a vehicle or leaving it parked. Deh Cho residents need to take note of gas prices now and start making plans for how they're going to cope.
That's right, it was purely comical for those dozen faces I couldn't avoid as first I went from my focused-adventurous face, to the chewing-on-something-so-tough-I'd-never-get-my-teeth-through face, to finally (and I think the best part), the tasting-the-flavour-of-whale-blubber-for-the-first-time face - sorry you missed it.
I know every few years a new editor comes up and experiences Muskrat Jamboree for their first time and just has to write about it, but that's not going to stop me from saying that this town hosts one massive festivity.
The excitement of the grand events was obvious, but it was the smaller details that set this Jamboree apart for me. One was the participation from everyone young and old. No teen seemed too cool for nail driving or the egg toss, and couples joined the bush skills competition, moving at a pace as if they were just there to make bannock and tea for the crowd, no big deal.
But my favourite part was the never-missing-a-beat, even tone of Gerry Kisoun who'd suddenly drop some sideways joke, half hidden by his calm tone. Twice it took me a moment to register what was just said and by the time I was snickering he had moved on to another tale - all in the same, calm drone.
Brooks wasn't present when the memo was issued March 21, just one week after voters decisively rejected the city's plan to borrow up to $49 million to build a downtown district energy system using wood pellets and geothermal heat from Con Mine. But most of Brooks' council colleagues were at that meeting. Their silence and seeming lack of interest in administration's plot to do away with the need to seek voter approval on multi-million dollar projects is very troubling.
Coun. Cory Vanthuyne, while insisting he wouldn't allow the city to proceed with another $49 million borrowing scheme without voter approval, said he didn't think administration "was trying to be devious in any shape or form," which is simply a naive thing to say in light of the glaringly obvious timing, and administration's gall to press forward with it in spite of it all.
Fortunately, the memorandum's authors - in their haste to respond to the decision handed to them by voters - assumed too much. The GNWT's Cities, Towns and Villages Act does not, in fact, give the city authority to do away with referendums as administration learned just a day or two after presenting council with the memo.
Well, what a relief. Thank heavens there are some checks to administration's petty little schemes because council is certainly not jumping to our defence.
It's bad enough that administration would charge ahead with a contemptuous and hastily written attack on our right to vote on major borrowing plans, but council's inability to fully recognize the danger is even worse.
No doubt there are some good minds at city hall, and many, if not most of the city's programs, are ably run. But there is also some testiness and impatience showing through when administrators are forced to answer to the public. Late last year a senior public works official lashed out at the perception that the private sector can do a job more efficiently and cheaper than the city; last week another senior official balked at answering Brooks' question on whether referendums would continue should a debt management proposal be approved.
Obviously, being put on the spot is not the favourite part of the job for most bureaucrats, especially when dealing with a public that's not always well-informed or well-versed in public policy.
The real problem comes when city councillors start empathizing with and internalizing administration's frustrations and annoyances. This leads to council meetings moving behind closed doors with undisclosed discussions. Ultimately, as was the case before the late 1990s, the danger is that council will start voting in secret.
City council clearly became very emotionally attached to the Con energy plan and because of that, councillors stopped asking hard questions of administration, except for David Wind. The result was the appearance of city council as pitchmen for city hall rather than guardians of the public trust.
If council supports administration in throwing up walls to guard the city from public input, then councillors are cutting themselves off from everyday people, some of them with considerable expertise, who would otherwise be there to give them advice.
Sixty years ago German playwright Bertolt Brecht penned a famous retort: "Would it not be easier for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?"
It was in response to the exasperated cries from East Germany's rulers regarding a workers' uprising. They were shocked their subjects would be so insolent as to not trust their guiding hand to lead them.
From the manner in which city hall has reacted to the voters' rejection of its $49 million borrowing scheme last month, the city's senior bureaucrats aim to follow Brecht's advice.
It's therefore critical that council doesn't follow their lead.
As this was written on April 1 (oh, the irony), the Liberals - regarded by many to pose the biggest threat to Tory MP Leona Aglukkaq in the upcoming federal election - still hadn't named a candidate.
Most Canadians are not looking forward to going to the polls yet again.
But, for Aglukkaq, the timing for a federal election couldn't have been better.
Aglukkaq has fared fairly well during her time in office, proving herself to be far more than a token appointment to a ministerial position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
She's avoided the "sexy" issues that have all but claimed the political careers of others, and has shown the instincts of a far more experienced denizen of capital hill than she actually is.
On her best days, Aglukkaq comes across as truly pushing Northern issues to the front burners of the Tory agenda, and her openness to consulting on issues with Senator Dennis Patterson is a lot more than window dressing to keep folks happy at home.
On her worst days, Aglukkaq can come across as someone who's made the big time and forgotten her roots.
And, nowhere is that more obvious than in her unbridled support of the new Nutrition North Canada program that has replaced the old food mail program.
Has Aglukkaq's paycheque become large enough that she no longer remembers what it's like to stand in a major Nunavut grocery store with the sick feeling in your stomach that comes from knowing the cash in your purse isn't nearly enough to cover the items on your list?
We all know the saying if you want something bad enough in one of our stores, don't look at the price, just put it in your basket.
Unfortunately there are many good people in Nunavut who do have to look at the price, no matter how bad they want something.
And, as a further memo to some of the good folks in Ottawa, we're not slow on the uptake in Nunavut.
We get it. We know the importance of trying to eat healthier foods and we understand your new program is aimed at promoting healthier choices, not lowering that big number staring back at us from the bottom of our grocery bills.
But that doesn't change the fact $300 doesn't buy $600 of totally healthy food items to feed a family.
Leaving the government's totally ridiculous claim of the pitiful low number of Inuit who own a credit card aside: the old program, at least, offered everyone a chance to use southern retailers to keep their cupboards full without having to build a garage big enough to store a year's worth of items at barge time.
And, whether the Tories admit it or not, it is, indeed, subsidizing junk food when you give our major retailers the power to negotiate a flat rate across the board for the items they bring in by air.
Second memo to Ottawa folks: this is not rocket science.
Aglukkaq may win this election before the majority of Nunavummiut realize how badly conceived the new program truly is (in its present form).
But, then again, a strong Liberal candidate still has time to make a good run.
After all, they may have more money than a lot of us, but, the last time we checked, shareholders in our major stores (those who actually live in Nunavut) still only have one vote each.
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