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Trustees with Yellowknife Catholic Schools best curb their penchant for high-stakes drama lest they lose even more pupils and tax dollars.

The latest dust-up over the school board's attempt to dismiss two of its most popular employees, superintendent Claudia Parker and assistant superintendent Johnnie Bowden - who together represent 59 years of service - mercifully came to an end last week. The longtime educators still have their jobs, and protesters went home from the school board meeting happy, if not a little confused as to why the board wanted to get rid of them in the first place.

There have been other Catholic school board controversies: its refusal to allow Gardasil vaccinations of female students for the HPV virus -- a sexually-transmitted infection - and its attempt to keep non-Catholics off its democratically-elected board. The fallout from those decisions has lingered, with very damaging effects.

We have been pointing this out over the last few years because there is clearly something at work here. Up until six years ago, the Catholic school district was quietly laying down surplus budgets and raking in an increasingly larger proportion of tax support from residents compared to its rival, Yellowknife Education District No. 1.

Catholic schools were seen by many parents as superior to their public school counterparts, never mind the religion. And clearly religion didn't matter to many because 40 per cent of Yellowknife Catholic Schools' students were non-Catholic.

What mattered most to parents, as it still does today, is that their children get a quality education while attending state-of-the-art facilities, staffed with competent and professional educators.

Yellowknife Catholic Schools, by most accounts, still provides an excellent academic environment but so does Yk1, especially now that public school trustees have overcome the board infighting and administrative turmoil that used to plague that district.

What did change the Catholic district's fortunes was the disastrous religious crusade the board launched prior to the 2006 municipal election.

Suddenly, religion was an issue where previously it was not. Attempting to keep non-Catholics off the board may have played well to the hardcore faithful but not with other Yellowknifers who had two school districts to choose from when deciding where to send their kids or put their taxes.

The French school board offers a third option for a smaller number of city dwellers.

The Catholic school district's tax support - 44.5 per cent in 2006 - dropped to 40.2 by 2010. Student enrolment is also dropping - 1,556 in 2006; 1,314 in 2010.

Administration blames the decline on a sluggish economy but it's surely not the only reason the Catholic district has had its troubles.

Religion may not have played any part in this latest debacle with Parker and Bowden, but the board's poor handling of the situation showed it is out of touch with rank-and-file Catholic school supporters and reinforces the perception of a board of trustees behaving recklessly.

Privacy rules likely prevented the board from explaining its position to the hundreds of angry protesters who showed up for last week's public meeting at St. Joseph School. Still, the board did a poor job of explaining even that.

Whatever the reason, if the trustees' wish was to make for an interesting election season this fall, they surely have accomplished their goal.

It's that time of winter again in the Deh Cho, the season when there seems to be at least one tournament if not two every weekend.

The Wolfpack Invitational Basketball Tournament got things rolling from Jan. 6 to 7 followed by the Fort Simpson Men's Recreational Hockey Tournament last weekend. Coming up is the Fort Simpson Merchant's Mixed Bonspiel this weekend followed by the Scott McAdam Badminton Tournament and the Kingland Ford Hockey Tournament on successive weekends in February. Later that month, soccer will take the stage with two separate tournaments in Fort Simpson.

All of these tournaments are important to the region for a number of reasons. Their most obvious role is to provide a venue for local athletes to test their skills.

It's fine for a hockey or soccer team to practice in their own community and potentially play against another local team, but it's not until they come up against competition from another community that they can really gauge their skills. Regional tournaments allow teams to take stock of where they are really at and look at the areas where they can improve.

Although tournaments exist for the purpose of creating competition in a sport that is really just one small portion of what they do.

During the Wolfpack Invitational Basketball Tournament Geoff Buerger, the coach for the Hay River senior team and the principal of Diamond Jenness Secondary School said the tournament allows athletes to meet old friends every year. Michael Vandell, the captain of the Fort Providence Bulls, made a very similar comment at the hockey tournament. Vandell said one of the things he enjoys about the event is seeing all the boys again, "it's like a hockey family."

Sports tournaments play an important role in creating ties between communities as athletes from different places come together, compete and form friendships. When the same teams and players come to a tournament, often enough the event takes on the feel of a family or class reunion.

While the tournaments are important for the athletes, they are equally important for the communities they take place in. Tournaments give residents a chance to see some live sport action during a season when there's not much else to do. The tournaments also create fundraising opportunities for groups and economic spinoffs for local businesses.

Sports tournaments are clearly important events for a number of reasons, both related to and independent of the sports competition itself. Residents need to continue to step forward and volunteer at these events to ensure communities continue to benefit from them.

There is never a lack of things to do in Inuvik. As an added bonus, most activities in town serve a greater purpose – raising money for a school field trip, a new children's centre or youth sports programs.

This town has an incredible knack for fundraising, with organizations knowing what event will go over well and effective ways to communicate the message of their event.

This past weekend, Samuel Hearne Secondary School students and teachers put together a successful Kids' Carnival. Money raised will now go to the high school's sports teams.

Many Donations

Local businesses gave funds or in-kind donations to the Cafe on Mackenzie for its stocking contest leading up to Christmas. Everything raised through that initiative is being distributed among the youth groups in town such as minor hockey as well as the high school's impending trip to Ethiopia.

Another class trip will receive funds in the near future through A Night in Paris next weekend. The money raised through a dinner, dance and auction will support the Sir Alexander Mackenzie School grades 5 and 6 French immersion classes trip to Quebec.

One important project that garnered the help of the community at large is the Children's First Centre.

At a recent Town of Inuvik committee of the whole meeting, Peter Clarkson of the construction committee said community members have been fundraising for this project for the past 10 years. People of Inuvik have invested more than a decade of hard work making this centre a reality.

The Town of Inuvik budgeted a contribution of $2.3 million, businesses from the community and surrounding area have donated both funds and materials for construction, which has all assisted in pushing the project forward. All of these efforts have left the Children First Society with its final push of raising about $1.5 million to meet its goal.

When it comes to fundraising, every little bit helps. It's the individual donor who makes the difference in community development efforts.

A history of consistent giving creates a foundation for strong organizations and there is comfort in knowing the support of the community is backing up these essential projects 100 per cent.

Yellowknifers watching the bustle of city hall are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed and wondering how recent actions relate to costs passed on to taxpayers.

No sooner did city council complete budget discussions in mid-December, including hitting residential property owners with a 2.83 per cent tax increase, than the general plan was on the agenda. Extensive talks resulted about a desire to include environmentally friendly initiatives in the future development of 35 large residential lots at Grace Lake.

The attention of residents was then drawn to new garbage bag pickup restrictions and a change in fees.

Then Yellowknifer reported on negotiations between the city and a private company, Corix Utilities, to move ahead with a district energy project, which is expected to provide heat to buildings in a vast section of downtown. This story was sparked by the city's desire to create a subsidiary to manage the district energy system as a utility, a move which would also help set the stage for landing federal funding should the geothermal part of the district energy prove viable.

Then came the city's release of the latest version of its draft harbour plan, a wide-sweeping 150-page document outlining an ambitious blueprint for changing and regulating the use of Yellowknife Bay, private and public waterfront property, the Woodyard, floatplanes, houseboats, the snow castle and Jolliffe Island.

The plan was prepared by private consultants and a 17-member harbour planning committee. It includes the city's short-term, medium-term and long-term vision. A preliminary estimate of key capital and administrative costs for a finalized harbour plan is pegged at more than $10 million but implementation, according to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, is dependent on finding funding.

We fully support the principle of strategic planning to allow for orderly growth and community enhancement. However, we have some concerns about the draft harbour plan.

First, residents only have until Feb. 9 to comment on a comprehensive and somewhat intimidating document, filled with colourful graphics, charts, comparisons and generalities which involve an assortment of government jurisdictions, historic users and property owners.

Second, and more importantly in our view, the city's preferred approach for harbour management calls for the immediate "establishment of a specialized municipal-led agency headed by a senior city bureaucrat with dedicated staff support and comprised of a team of other senior staff members cross-appointed as members of the agency."

That sounds like pretty big dollars to us, especially since the short-term goal is for the city's jurisdiction within the harbour to be established within one to five years.

The way we see it, establishing jurisdiction is just paperwork. And hiring a highly paid senior staff person to create an agency with a vague mandate will have little if any meaningful immediate impact on ordinary citizens.

Van Tighem said that there will be a more precise cost analysis done in the second and third stages of the harbour plan process.

In the meantime, residents and stakeholders should make their views known soon via the city website's public feedback forum, especially if you agree that hiring senior staff for this project at such an early juncture is putting the cart before the horse.

It was more than a little interesting to listen to Repulse Bay teacher Jeremy Chippett's views on video games and their ability to help students learn this past week.

But as positive and credible as many of his points may be, they only tell one side of the story.

I agree completely with Chippett's contention that video games can help people learn, especially when designed for that purpose and built from the ground up with a specific goal in mind.

I also believe video games can help develop eye-hand co-ordination, and help players learn how to formulate strategies, learn from mistakes and avoid repeating them, and plan one-step ahead and prepare for unseen difficulties.

Yet, for all their positives, video games are part of a rapidly-growing family of high-tech devices that have become so all-consuming as to be almost addictive.

Now, no doubt, there are already more than a few people sneering at that term.

But, the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of cellphones that do almost everything for you except go to the washroom, iPads, iPods and the Blackberry, are never far from their owner's reach.

There are few things more irritating than being in the middle of a conversation with someone when they pull out their device and start texting or scrolling merrily away.

Face it, at that point, you can tell them about your morning chasing a giant tuktu-eating siksik around the roof and they'll nod knowingly with that distracted grin on their face or, even worse, ask you how it all turned out.

Like pretty much everything in life, moderation plays a huge role in the use of this modern day magic.

But how do you moderate their use without following someone around almost 24 hours a day?

You don't, and that's the rub.

The biggest problem many folks have with the saturation of these devices into our society is their power to retard our ability to interact with one another in person.

And that's not to mention the significant side effect of so many of today's young adults, teenagers and adolescents wanting -- and expecting -- the same instant gratification in real life as they receive in their virtual universe.

Never in the history of humanity have so many wanted so much while doing so little to earn it.

That annoying little characteristic also comes to us courtesy of the technical age.

Another aspect of these little toys is the ability to create a false impression or ruin a person's reputation with one click of a button.

There's a politician with a table full of booze at the local watering hole, or, depending on the angle the photo was taken, there's a married man sneaking more than a little peek at the pretty waitress in the restaurant.

Just this past October an NHLer had to publicly explain his choice of costume at a, supposedly, private Halloween party when a guest brought in a cellphone and shared photos with a friend.

Hopefully, Chippett proves his theory correct and another check mark gets added to the positive side of the ledger with today's gadgets.

Then we can all gather at a local eatery to text each other the news while our ear buds play the sweetest notes a computer program can generate.

Self-discipline. It's a trait many people lack, especially when it comes to finances. But, what if that poor fiscal restraint harms a community and not just the individual?

That is exactly the situation Tuktoyaktuk was faced with up until last September. Leaders in the community noticed food bank usage -- meant for emergencies -- was on the rise as people were choosing to spend welfare money on bingo instead of necessities.

Ulukhaktok has seen the same trend since its voucher system for social assistance was replaced with cheques.

Tuktoyaktuk's hamlet council, in an effort to reduce the strain on emergency food supplies, requested the government change the way it distributes social assistance funding. Instead of cheques, the GNWT was asked to begin providing recipients with food vouchers for the Northern Store and Stanton's.

Initially, the change was met with resistance. Many said the shift reinforced negative stereotypes of aboriginal communities and believed the government had no place dictating how their money was spent.

However, the results speak volumes. Since the change, food bank use has more than halved and bingo sales have also dropped, proving many were making poor spending choices.

The new system will be in place until March when it will be re-evaluated. At that time, the GNWT will be faced with a difficult decision: when is limiting personal freedoms for the greater good justified?

Indeed, this might be one such time. Income assistance money is meant to help buy food, clothing and shelter, not to be wasted on gambling or other frivolities. This was also a clear case of double dipping, some social assistance recipients were obviously choosing to waste tax dollars and then capitalize on the food bank, which is also supported by donations from everyday taxpayers.

Social assistance is a vital resource in our communities with high unemployment, but we can't allow that money to be thrown away.

Restricting how it is spent will ensure people have the food and living expenses they need while leaving emergency supplies intact.

In 2010, a deputy minister of health was appointed as the public administrator of the Beaufort Delta Health Authority. At the time, the health board was dissolved with the goal of bringing spending under control after racking up more than $3 million in debt.

Fast forward to last week when the authority reported more than $8.5 million in accumulated debt. It would be easy to say the authority and the department failed and have let spending balloon out of control.

However, health spending, especially in the North, is difficult to control without lowering standards and the problems that caused over-spending in 2010 remain today.

One such issue is the hiring of locum or temporary doctors -- the last time a permanent doctor was signed to the region was in 2004. Overtime costs and staff relocation costs were also big contributors pointing to the need for more nurses or better nurse retention.

Although it won't completely solve the deficit problem -- about $2.9 million each year -- better staff retention and finding ways to get Northern-grown nurses into the Beaufort Delta would certainly help.

Last year the health department reported Aurora College's nursing program was on track to bring staff in Yellowknife to capacity and officials were trying to find ways to translate that success beyond the capital.

Perhaps it is time to expand the nursing program to the Inuvik campus with the hopes that nurses trained from communities in the Beaufort Delta and Sahtu will land jobs in those regions following graduation.

The announcement that funding to train Nunavummiut for the fishing industry will continue for the next three years should be welcome to many in the territory. Now it's time to keep building the industry.

First of all, fishing harbours need to be in every coastal community that wants to get involved in the fishery. Too ambitious? Not when you consider there are about 248 harbours in Newfoundland. Nunavut has none, with just one in Pangnirtung to be built.

Harbours are viewed as a necessity in Newfoundland and the federal government needs to view harbours in Nunavut in the same manner if Nunavut's fishing industry is to flourish.

In terms of the size of the fishery, there's a lot of room to grow.

Turbot is the biggest commercial fish haul Nunavut has, but it's still not getting all of what rightfully should go to the territory.

The waters off the northeastern coast of Nunavut have been identified as 0A zone. Nunavut is entitled to 100 per cent of that fish quota.

The waters off the southeastern coast have been identified as 0B zone, of which Nunavut is entitled to 41 per cent of the quota. The 0B quota has been on the rise, but it needs to at least double.

Overall, at this point, Nunavut can only have 67 per cent of the turbot fished off its shores. That's not good enough.

Nunavut fished all of its turbot quotas last year. It's earned more room for growth.

Even worse, though, is the shrimp quota. In Nunavut's offshore shrimp fishery zones, the territory is allotted only 31.3 per cent of the quota.

Nunavut's slice of its own pie is grossly disproportionate to how much other jurisdictions get from their waters.

Harbours and quota are two keys to getting this industry on its feet and the best opportunity to diversify Nunavut's economy and lessen dependence upon mining, presently Nunavut's most lucrative venture.

Investing in Nunavut's fishery will bring Nunavummiut employment and much-needed revenue to the Government of Nunavut so it has its own resources to deal with expensive challenges, such as housing and health care.

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