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The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has established a goal of growing the NWT tourism market by more than $20 million by 2015.

It's an ambitious objective considering tourism spending peaked at $140 million in 2006 and declined to $111 million last year. Although 2011 saw a $4 million increase from 2010 -- creating a glimmer of hope that more tourists will begin to look North again -- a lot of work needs to be done if we are to see continued growth.

An area of emphasis in the GNWT's 2015 tourism strategy, titled New Directions for a Spectacular Future, is aboriginal tourism. The department plans to invest $200,000 to increase aboriginal participation in the tourism industry. The funds will also develop an aboriginal tourism strategy to determine how to best market eco- and cultural-based tourism opportunities. Enhancing that goal would be an additional investment in training opportunities, creating jobs for NWT youth and enhancing skills of those already working in tourism.

Aboriginal tourism may well be the solution to replacing the all-but-dead sport hunting sector. More restrictions on game and the transport of animal parts, not to mention the increased desire for sustainable and green tourism, means the decline in sports hunts will continue. However, a focus on aboriginal tourism could include wildlife viewing with trained aboriginal guides.

A lot has changed since the NWT hit a record in 2007-2008 when more than 79,500 visitors came North. People have become more prudent with their money, the Canadian dollar is stronger -- which deters American travellers -- and the tourism atmosphere in the NWT has changed dramatically.

Aurora viewing, once the backbone of the NWT tourism market, has been steadily sliding since 2005. Nearly 50 per cent fewer people - 5,400 in 2009-2010 compared to 10,200 in 2005-2006 -- came in search of the aurora borealis; and it's going to take more than marketing to make aurora tourism stronger than ever.

ITI's strategy recognizes accessing the NWT by air is a challenge, not only in terms of cost but due to the fact direct flights to our territory from European and Asian markets do not exist. Alaska, on the other hand, does offer direct flights and has since 2004.

From a tourism readiness point of view, the strategy, if enacted, will go a long way to enhance tourist options in the territory, as well as the tourism experience. However, what it doesn't address as well is how do we physically get more visitors to the territory?

Only $100,000 has been identified in the strategy for infrastructure. Although that money is, in part, allocated to help identify infrastructure needs and find large pots of seed money to fund them, there are longstanding needs that have previously been identified.

Expanding the runway in Yellowknife to allow for larger aircraft to land would help us compete with Alaska. Japan Airlines is offering 18 flights to Fairbanks this winter, a 50 per cent increase from last winter. Improving the road system, especially around Fort Liard where declining tourism numbers have been blamed, in part, on poor road conditions, will go a long way to bringing people back to the region. More ambitiously, extending the road link into the Sahtu and then to Inuvik is a long-term project that would provide tourists with more options when deciding to visit the North.

The GN agreed to add three more seats to its legislative assembly last week, and the only people who will really benefit are the three lucky Nunavummiut who get those jobs.

The rest of the territory will be paying approximately $300,000 per new MLA, on top of $1 million to renovate the legislative assembly in order to accommodate these additional politicians.

Really, what are the people of Nunavut paying for? This move won't result in more schools, more nutritious food, more housing and infrastructure, just more voices in the legislature to bemoan the poor state of all those things.

Twenty-two MLAs nears a ratio of one MLA for each of Nunavut's 25 communities, though Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit each have extra MLAs, arguably justified by their larger populations.

Iqaluit, the largest city in the territory, had a population of 6,184 as of 2006. It now has one MLA for every 2,000 of its citizens. Nunavut, on average, has one MLA for every 1,514 residents. By comparison, Ontario has one MPP for every 123,464 of its citizens - and its taxpayers, 8.1 per cent of which are unemployed, are better equipped to pay for those positions than Nunavut, where the unemployment rate stands at 16.6 per cent.

Last year, MLAs sat for a mere 33 days out of the entire year. Is it necessary for Nunavummiut to pay approximately $6.6 million for 22 MLAs to vie with each other for the little funding available for Nunavut each year?

Why not let Nunavut's mayors steer the territory?

They mayors are elected by the people, just like MLAs.

They meet through the Nunavut Association of Municipalities to discuss issues specific to their hamlets as well as common concerns that burden communities across the territory.

Most mayors do not work full time in their mayoral capacity but they do earn a salary. So we should simply do away with the mayors' pay and just put them in the legislative assembly instead.

We can save money that way and we can also make territorial elections a thing of the past, saving even more money.

It may sound like a radical idea, and one that surely won't come as a welcome concept to our existing MLAs. They would rather not ponder such a thing as they grow in number and millions of dollars that could be used for urgent needs are instead lost on their compensation.

Instead of excitedly dressing up as ghouls, goblins and princesses for a Halloween celebration at school last week, children attending Mildred Hall and a couple of other Yk schools were asked to wear orange and black clothing while being paired with younger or older students for reading and crafts.

A newsletter to parents from NJ Macpherson School advises the Big Buddy Orange and Black Day "allows those who don't celebrate Halloween to continue to be part of the class,and provide a calm and less stressful day for our students."

In the schools' efforts to level the playing field, they seem not to realize they're also robbing these students of some fun.

If this change was made to appease persnickety killjoys or parents with different cultural backgrounds,it's at the expense of traditions and activities most Canadians enjoy, including many who immigrated to this country. No one is going to look back fondly 20 years from now and remember how fun Big Buddy Black and Orange Day was.

We should try to embrace other traditional and cultural practices while not forsaking our own. A single Big Buddy classroom could have been set aside for those students whose parents insist they not participate in wearing costumes and sharing treats.

At least schools here aren't banning Halloween costumes like some have down south.

Still, it's troubling how quickly some educational institutions are willing to throw our long-held traditions under the bus in the name of political correctness.

Just last week a school in Ottawa came under fire after it cancelled a Remembrance Day event rather than allow veterans to bring nonfunctioning weapons and war memorabilia into the school. The school'spolicy is no guns, period, even if used to teach students about the horrors of warfare.

As well-intentioned as these schools may be, it's hard to understand what's harmful about a little bit of history and fun but it's easy to see what we lose without it.

Residents of Northland Trailer Park are justified in demanding an interest-free loan from the territorial government as the solution to their aging and crumbling water and sewer lines.

The cost of replacing the infrastructure is estimated at $18 million, which includes paving.

But now that Mayor Gord Van Tighem and Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro are pushing for this loan, and Premier Bob McLeod may go along with it, we must also recognize that it does come at a cost to taxpayers.

A major bank is likely to charge in the range of 8 per cent annually on a loan. On an $18 million dollar loan, that amounts to $1.4 million in interest during the first year alone. If Northland residents agree to forfeit the paving to shave close to $4 million off the costs, the interest would still stand around $1.1 million for the first year. Depending on the life of the loan, we're talking tens of millions of dollars in interest, all told.

That's a significant amount of money for the GNWT to have tied up for decades to come, and money that won't be invested in other much needed areas.

Yes, there are 258 Northland residences and it would be disastrous should Northland fall apart and its 1,000-plus residents are forced to relocate. Yes, we'd like the payments to be as affordable as possible for homeowners there.

That said, as unfortunate as their circumstances are, we hope those living in Northland appreciate that an interest-free loan would come as a sacrifice by their fellow territorial residents.

It seems these days there's a day or a week or even a month for just about any cause you can think of.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Feb. 4 is World Cancer Day, November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day and the list continues. While all of these causes are significant, one particularly important week lies ahead.

Nov. 14 to 20 is National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW). The week is a time to focus on the harms associated with alcohol, drug, tobacco and gambling addictions.

NAAW is particularly important in the North because, while not everyone is affected by AIDS or lung cancer, there isn't a person in the territory who hasn't been touched in some way by addictions.

Of course, not everyone suffers from addictions, but almost everyone has a family member who has an addiction or a friend or a co-worker or even sees a community member on a regular basis who is struggling with an addiction. There are a lot of people in the North, for a variety of reasons, who have addictions.

NAAW is worthwhile because, for a week, the focus is turned on addictions -- something that it is often just easier to ignore. For one week, community events are held designed specifically to support people with addictions and their families and support groups. Healthy choices are praised during the week and information is disseminated that will hopefully help prevent the younger generations from developing an addiction.

NAAW is all about addictions, but of course it only lasts for a week. Addictions, on the other hand, don't follow calendars. When the week ends, people with addictions keep struggling with them.

To make NAAW more meaningful, the support and understanding that comes forward during the week has to be carried on throughout the rest of the year. Organizations have to continue running events to support families and individuals in making healthy choices and residents have to remain aware of ways they can offer assistance to friends, family members and co-workers.

Addictions are not going to disappear any time soon but communities can make changes and support programs that will help people with addictions break free of them and perhaps prevent others from developing them.

It would be wonderful if the North could reach a stage where addictions are no longer so prevalent that a whole week needs to be devoted to raise attention about them.

Nov. 13 to 19 will be National Addictions Awareness Week across Canada.

It's a chance to raise awareness on different types of addictions as well as the services available to treat them.

Maybe though, we should take a look at where and how addictions start. According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, 77 per cent of NWT residents over the age of 15 drink alcohol, 36 per cent of those drink five or more drinks at once; 20.7 per cent use cannabis. An estimated 55.9 per cent of the NWT population 15 years of age and older have experienced some form of harm from a drinker.

There are many other numbers you will likely hear over the next week. The NWT is not in a good situation when it comes to addictions. No one will argue that.

The curious fact is that all the data is for residents over the age of 15. There is no official data for children under the age of 15. Various studies have been done by specific school boards, but for a territorial picture on what the situation is like for youth under 15? Nothing.

It's kind of maddening. It's not like people turn 15 and are handed a pack of cigarettes and alcohol and told to go crazy. Addictions in adults start with experimentation as children and though the Department of Health and Social Services knows the average age for first use is 11 or 12, and that experimentation turns to habit by 13, it has no surveys, no data.

Why is this not being done? Why has the department not taken this on and interviewed the youth while they are starting to experiment?

The GNWT has done a youth tobacco survey in 2009 that looked at the habits of youth between Grade 5 and 9, but what about the other addictions? Alcohol, marijuana, crack, cocaine, ecstasy? Far from giving them ideas, it might just save the government money in the long-term by preventing addictions later in life when they're adults.

If the government is so concerned with helping people overcome their addictions, shouldn't they take a look at where it all starts? More in-depth surveys need to be done in the territory as a whole to get a complete picture on what is happening in youth before the age of 15. Without it, another generation could grow up with addictions.

We have to wonder what kind of example the public school district thinks it set when it asked a city business owner to change his school tax support in return for continued business last year.

The practice sounds inexcusably wrong to us, and fortunately it did not escape the watchful eye of Elaine Keenan Bengts, the information and privacy commissioner for the NWT.

The business owner complained that school superintendent Metro Huculak contacted him in January 2010 to ask "that he allocate some of his school taxes to Yk1 in return for their continued business." In fact, the company was "blacklisted" by Yk1 for some time.

The business owner said the school district shouldn't have had access to his tax information. Further, the details from his tax filings were improperly used against him in a way that threatened his livelihood.

Two weeks after Huculak delivered his "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" message, an employee of the school district called the business owner to ask if he had changed his school tax designation. That Yk1 employee said she had been instructed to take the district's business elsewhere if 100 per cent of the business owner's school taxes continued going to the Catholic system. Talk about strong-arm tactics.

The school superintendent and district employees clearly stepped over the line here.

In her report on the matter, the privacy commissioner advised the school district to undertake seven actions, including an apology to the business owner and training for employees.

Obviously, the publicly funded body of educators fell far short of teaching good values here. We're hoping a lesson was learned and a sincere apology was extended.

A hospital is an expensive machine to keep running, with constant maintenance needed and new technology added to ensure the best possible health care is available to the public.

Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation has raised close to $65,000 toward the chemotherapy and intravenous treatment suite, with the goal of raising $720,000. A chemotherapy and intravenous facility will allow for increased comfort and privacy for patients. That unit saw 1,400 patient visits between 2009 and 2010, so there is a need.

The hospital foundation's last fundraising endeavour resulted in a new digital mammography machine with the price tag of $420,000.

The foundation and the Run For Our Lives committee raised enough money to purchase the machine in October 2010. Forty-seven generous corporations, organizations and individuals made the digital mammography machine a reality, which is allowing women in the North to have more accurate breast exams on a regular basis.

Kay Lewis, Stanton Territorial Hospital Authority CEO, said donations improve the quality of care for patients through new equipment such as a CT scan machine and physiotherapy tools. She said the value of the donations reaches further than the equipment. It allows staff to do their jobs to the best of their ability and improves the hospital's ability to recruit.

Once one campaign ends in success, there is no rest for those planning the next goal as they organize events and get the word out to the public to begin another fundraising cycle. The hospital foundation is again appealing to the community, and the community, through organizations, corporations and individuals, is answering.

It will be interesting to see what effect Rankin Inlet hamlet council's attempt to harness the community's dog problem eventually has.

Under its most recent bylaw, all dogs must be registered and wearing tags, and only two dogs can be owned at one time as pets.

That stipulation was grandfathered for those who already own more than two, but they won't be able to replace any above that number when a dog passes on.

While the bylaw is a step in the right direction, we also need action aimed at those who needlessly abuse our furry friends.

Now, let's make a couple of things clear right from the start.

We're not talking about people having the right to defend themselves against an aggressive dog. Everyone knows Rankin still has a problem with too many loose dogs roaming the community.

I'm a dog lover and have been around, and owned, dogs almost my entire life.

That said, I readily admit to being a tad nervous around loose dogs, especially if they're a fair size or travelling in packs, which is often the case in Rankin.

As far as Rankin has come in its treatment of dogs since I arrived in 1998, there are still far too many people in the community who go out of their way to abuse them every chance they get.

I recently witnessed a neighbour's pet - a small, gentle animal with a wonderful personality - attacked and injured on its owner's property by a band of roving dogs.

At about the same time, a youth in the community took a young puppy while leaving school for lunch break and, for reasons known only to the youth, deliberately hurled it through the air.

The poor creature was on the ground crying in pain when it was reportedly rescued by a teacher.

It had suffered a broken leg and other injuries and had to be flown to Winnipeg for treatment.

The pup was lucky, however, in that its injuries could have been worse, and a pair of local dog lovers cared enough to bear the cost of sending it to a veterinarian.

We understand the dog is now in the home of a loving owner down south.

Hopefully, the traumatic experience hasn't scarred the poor animal for life in so far as how it views and interacts with, supposedly, superior beings. Like so many transplanted southerners, when I first came North 13 years ago, I was under the impression those who owned working dogs were responsible for the animal abuse I had heard so much about here.

I was soon to learn nothing could be further from the truth and the majority of them were, in fact, among the most responsible dog owners in the North. It's the everyday person, young and old, who doesn't seem to understand (or want to understand) owning a pet is a big responsibility.

You are 'paid' for honouring that responsibility by the love, loyalty and happiness the pet brings into your life.

Then there are others, perhaps cruel by nature, who know there are rarely any consequences in the North for brutalizing an animal.

Council should continue its efforts and pass another bylaw, or two, with enough teeth to take a serious bite out of the real problems.

If so, they'll be aimed at the mammals among us of the two-legged variety.

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