Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

It's become apparent that after almost three years of giving Yellowknife's homeless a place out of the cold, support for the downtown day shelter is not solid.

The GNWT has pledged to provide $125,000 in funding over the next year but, beyond that, there are no guarantees. Likewise the city is extending its $25,000 annual contribution for another year but, according to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, the only additional commitment the city will make is that it will evaluate the shelter's performance.

Meanwhile, officials with mining company BHP Billiton, which had been providing $50,000 a year, say no one approached them to renew funding when the three-year pilot project comes to an end this November.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins says he is an avid supporter of the day shelter but problems need to be fixed before he is willing to support continued funding from the GNWT.

Not surprisingly, drinking and drug abuse on-site, neighbourhood disturbances, and unsafe work conditions have all become issues since the facility opened its doors in 2009.

It would be a real shame if the city lost its day shelter. One only has to go back a few short years, to when homeless people were treating the alley between 49 and 50 streets as an open latrine, to realize how much the situation downtown has improved since the homeless shelter opened.

Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society, says the shelter will remain open for the time being. She told Yellowknifer yesterday that shelter staff realize that keeping problems from spilling out onto the street is a high priority but it's difficult with only two staff members available at any given time. She said more funding would allow the John Howard Society to hire more staff and keep a tighter lid on neighbourhood disturbances.

This might be a difficult pill to swallow for some but one thing is clear, the shelter is simply too important to see it close for a lack of good will.

A Northern-based aviation company averting catastrophe via a $34-million government bailout seems like a plot line for an episode of a TV melodrama.

However, this unlikely narrative unfolded in reality back in 2009 when Discovery Air finalized a 48-month loan agreement with the GNWT's now-defunct Northwest Territories Opportunities Fund in the midst of a continent-wide credit crunch.

The GNWT had a brief opportunity to lend a considerable sum at a moment when a large company needed an updraft to stay in the air. Just like in a television drama, the gamble paid off. Late last month Discovery Air announced the debt owing to the Opportunities Fund has been fully repaid, 10 months earlier than the Feb. 1 due date.

While it's always questionable for any government to lend so much money to one company, this investment has resulted in a sizable return to NWT residents, especially through an increase in jobs at the company as it has expanded and moved its headquarters to Yellowknife.

While the government should always be cautious in approaching similar situations in the future through any pot of money, this scenario is a reminder that business doesn't succeed without a degree of risk and sound terms to benefit Northerners.

There are some dark topics covered in this week's issue of Deh Cho Drum.

Sexual assaults feature in two of the articles. One article describes a training program that was offered in Fort Simpson designed to teach adults how to recognize, respond to and report child sexual abuse.

A number of participants in the training remarked that the statistics given during the program were enough to disturb them. According to the Department of Justice, one in three girls and one in six boys in Canada experience an unwanted sexual act before the age of 18. Ninety-five per cent of child sex abuse victims actually know and trust their offender.

According to those statistics, the facilitator told participants that each of them knows at least one child sexual assault victim and one perpetrator. In a small community it's a chilling thought.

Sexual abuse and assault, of course, also occurs among adults.

Supreme Court Justice Ted Richard gave some strong messages while concluding the sentencing of a sexual assault case in Fort Simpson on April 4.

As the jury heard, the circumstances around the assault included the victim drinking throughout the day and reaching a point that evening where she could no longer remember anything. Her next memory is waking up the following morning in a bed in the accused's living room.

"The prevalence of this type of offence in the communities in this jurisdiction is appalling," Richard said.

Sexual abuse of children and sexual assaults on adults are a national problem, but such incidents evidently take place in the Deh Cho with more frequency than some people would like to admit.

The pertinent question is, what can be done in the region to decrease the instances of this kind of deplorable abuse?

The Stewards of Children training program is one example of a step forward. Increased levels of education will allow residents to take proactive steps to stop abuse before it starts and to address the abuse that is already taking place.

More importantly, communities need to start taking steps to becoming free of abuse.

People who are committing or thinking about committing any type of abuse need to know it won't be ignored or allowed to go unchecked.

It is only by banding together and giving everyone some responsibility for the solution that the region will be able to start decreasing the statistics related to sexual abuse and create a better future for all residents of the Deh Cho.

Construction companies in the North invest yearly in training to ensure they have the work force ready to jump on projects.

Through programs like BIPS (Building Inuvialuit Potential Society), aboriginal workers in and around Inuvik are able to learn new skills, upgrade existing skills, and become multifaceted members of the work force.

However, if the jobs aren't available due to a downturn in the construction market, the newly-skilled workers have to move to where the jobs are offered.

It's been quiet in town on the construction front for the past few years. Mineral and oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Delta tanked by 80 per cent in 2009 when the global recession hit. A lot of people who had been working on these jobs found themselves unemployed and looking to do something to increase their marketability.

The courses for heavy equipment operators, Class 1 and Class 3 drivers pump people into the workforce every year; people spanning from twenty-somethings looking for a career to 50-year-olds who had the skills all along but needed the proper certification to gain employment. Training skilled Northern workers benefits the North when the projects are moving and the jobs are available.

Last week it was announced that funding for the Mackenzie Gas Project was reduced, with development stalling due to low natural gas prices. A potential project for the North is now in limbo as offices are being shut down or reduced in size across the territory.

There is hope for the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway project, yet. Currently, construction of the all-weather, 137-kilometre road is scheduled for this coming winter, barring any impediments through land negotiations, environmental reviews, financial aid from the federal government and public consultations. The workforce is trained, and just waiting for the green light.

But until then, the construction job numbers aren't on par with the people willing to work. And that's when people leave their homes and their families to earn a living where there is work. Training the workforce is crucial, but ensuring there are jobs available for skilled workers once the course is over completes the package: benefiting the community's residents, companies and strengthening its economy.

There is a little doubt that union leader Todd Parsons is serving his own purposes by supporting a 2.9 per cent pay hike for MLAs that went into effect April 1.

The president of the Union of Northern Workers doesn't want to give the territorial government any wiggle room while pushing for higher wages for union members.

Rumour was - unconfirmed by the minister himself - that Human Resources Minister Glen Abernethy tried to convince his MLA colleagues to accept a raise more in line with what the GNWT is offering the union - 0.75 per cent for the first year. That move would have seriously harmed the union's negotiating position, which is threatening to strike if the government doesn't offer wage increases more in line with the rise in the cost of living.

Many workers, both in the private and public sector, are seeing wage increases dwindle as the effects of the global recession linger into a fourth year. Even more stinging, the federal government announced 19,200 public service job cuts last month.

Fortunately for the Union of Northern Workers, MLAs are deciding to take the pay hike.

This, of course, undermines the GNWT's bargaining position as strike votes are being held across the territory.

If politicians feel it is acceptable to give themselves a raise equitable to the rise in the cost of living, it's quite understandable that rank and file government workers will want the same.

Caucus chair Norman Yakeleya claims MLAs had no choice because the decision was made in the previous legislative assembly.

No doubt the Union of Northern Workers will say it had no choice either when it takes its membership into, possibly, a long and disruptive strike.

MLAs have missed the chance at setting the standard for fairness.

As Yellowknifer celebrates its 40th year, beginning last month with a commemorative reprint of is first edition, originally published on March 22, 1972, the capital city's newspaper of record is talking to some longtime residents.

We're mining recollections from days gone by for a series of stories we call, aptly enough, Yellowknifers. The series began March 30 with a profile of cab driver Andy Hrstic, who came to the city at age 20 in 1968 for a job at Giant Mine. He shared fond memories of his first time driving on an ice road, playing cards with former mayor Fred Henne and buying a sports car from the Frame and Perkins Ford dealership, located where the newspaper offices are today.

The series will continue Friday with a profile of Barry Taylor, who also came here in 1968 and landed a job working underground at Giant Mine before he became an outfitter in 1982.

It's not unusual for Yellowknifer to publish feature stories which delve into history. We recently wrote about peoples' memories of the Gallery Pub, located where the new Gallery Building is now, and chronicled Mike Vaydik's recollections about "that old shack" next to Kim's Confectionery, where Vaydik spent seven years of his childhood with his family.

A common theme is how friendly the residents were to newcomers and the sense of community they felt from the time they arrived, elements which continue to this day.

We will be profiling more longtime Yellowknifers in the weeks ahead and are asking readers to send us suggestions for more people who fit the bill.

In the meantime, complimentary copies of Yellowknifer's first edition remain available in our office for those who want to take a walk down memory lane.

Forty years may not seem like it was so long ago. However, it was a different time with a population of only about 6,000 hardy residents who welcomed others to share a Northern adventure. Who better to look back at the past than those who have lived it?

When it comes to political correctness and people taking what is said out of context, there are times I think the world has gone crazy.

Then there are times I read someone's complaints, and I know it's transcended crazy and taken up residency on the plane of utter madness.

That's how I felt when I heard the complaints of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's (QIA) Okalik Eegeesiak aimed at the Children's Aid Society in Ottawa.

The society used a poster in its search for a loving adoptive home, preferably with a "strong Inuit family," for a three-month-old baby boy.

Apparently, according to the QIA, the society made the baby sound like a puppy with the poster stating the little tyke "loves being cuddled."

There are so many issues with the contention that this approach was "offensive," that it's almost difficult to know where to begin.

Just as infuriating was the society issuing a statement of apology and scrapping the poster, albeit after people had expressed interest in adopting the baby.

An apology for what? For trying to find a good home for a "calm and loving" baby?

I'm facing my 54th birthday this coming month and, all my life, I've listened to babies being referred to as cute, cuddly and adorable.

Never once did the image of a puppy (or a kitten for you feline lovers out there) cross my mind. What rubbish!

If anything, I was more perplexed when family members would gather right after a birth, look down on this fresh bundle of wrinkles (my apologies to Shar Pei owners everywhere), proclaim how cute the baby is and say he or she looks just like their mother.

I mean, OK, maybe there was a slight resemblance minutes after childbirth, but Mom just went through a pretty difficult task, you know?

I'm among the many who feel if the Children's Aid Society should apologize for anything on its marketing-tool poster for adoptive parents, it's for including the stipulation of an Inuit family.

For those of us still capable of it, let's be brutally honest for a minute.

Can you imagine the uproar if the society put out a similar ad asking for white (caucasian for those of you offended by the term white) parents only?

Are we going back to the dark ages of segregation and the perception of ability based on skin colour?

Is the priority not to find a loving family capable of raising the child in a caring, supportive environment?

And if that family should happen to be interracial or multi-cultural (pick your term), that's bad ... why?

Truth be told, parents of interracial families are often the most diligent in ensuring their children are immersed in their own culture, especially during their formative years.

We can only wonder why the QIA would overlook that aspect of the poster and its possible affect on the baby's well-being, and choose, instead, to use the little guy as a way of creating an over-sensitized, overdramatized and utterly nonsensical issue.

The Children's Aid Society may not be perfect, but our regional Inuit associations should have more pressing issues to devote their time to in order to improve the quality of life for all Inuit.

They're certainly paid enough to.

In terms of positive efforts to make a difference, this time around the QIA was barking up the wrong tree!

As well worn as cliches become, they often fit. When it comes to regulatory reform, the so-called 'elephant in the room' is the federal government.

In 2007, Neil McCrank was hired to dissect the flawed Northern regulatory system and make recommendations to fix it.

In his 2008 report, McCrank identified most of the problems -- layers of boards with empty chairs, mushy timelines, vague mandates and authority, absence of rules, ministerial inattention and, to the credit of most of the parties he interviewed, good intentions. He laid out succinct directions, with various options, for producing an environmental protection process that would serve the land, its people and the companies keen on creating economic development with Northern resources.

While not frankly stated, what McCrank could not conceal was the role of the federal government as the primary creator and operator of the North's regulatory system.

In 1988, the federal government negotiated a Dene/Metis Agreement in Principle. When negotiations got tough for the final signing in 1990, the feds threw up their hands and did precisely what good sense told them not to do and what they had pledged not to do - deal with the Dene/Metis regions individually. This set the stage for the hodgepodge of agreements struck with the Gwich'in, Sahtu Dene and Metis and Tlicho, no two of which are the same. After 12 years, Dehcho and Akaitcho have yet to complete a deal.

Aside from the chaos the different deals created, virtually every criticism McCrank heard regarding regulatory process can be traced back to the federal government. He found regional board members and staff lacked training and capacity for dealing with complex industry proposals. This is directly related to federal funding levels. Often board seats sat empty waiting for federal approval of the candidates put forward by Northerners. McCrank frequently emphasized that completed land-use plans were an essential first step to fixing the logjams, yet to date only one land-use plan is complete. When recommendations were finally sent to the minister's office, it could be months or years before a decision was rendered.

In May 2010, former Hay River mayor and past territorial finance minister John Pollard was hired to lead consultations and negotiations with the GNWT and aboriginal leaders on how land and water boards will be restructured according to McCrank's recommendations.

Despite initial high hopes, little has been heard from Pollard until recently. Apparently, he sent a letter out to aboriginal leaders before Christmas sketching out the changes to come and has held a few meetings. To date, he has managed to further alienate aboriginal leaders who are prepared to dig in their heels on any changes that roll back hard-fought rights. Understandably, they resent paying for all the federal mishandling of the regulatory regime.

In truth, the federal elephant is too busy in Ottawa running a country and while mining, oil and gas projects are of critical importance to Northerners, they are small potatoes to the federal government.

The GNWT is a different story. These projects are crucial to the territorial economy. Aside from being hugely motivated to see responsible development, the territorial government understands Northerners and with the present leadership of Premier Bob McLeod, should be in the best position to avoid a protracted and ugly public battle over changes that won't have any effect on investor confidence without good will on the part of aboriginal leaders.

The feds may have the parliamentary hammer but this situation calls for intense negotiation, diplomacy and a partnership approach rather than brute force.

In 2009, the GNWT's position was that the present regulatory system is adequate, it just has to be properly financed, implemented and refined. Aboriginal leaders would agree.

The bottom line is, only the GNWT has the muscle to influence the federal government and aboriginal leaders.

By working with and on behalf of Dene, Metis and Inuvialuit, whose financial success benefits all Northerners, McLeod and his cabinet will be demonstrating the kind of leadership that will make devolution a forgone conclusion.

The Inuit seem to have been short-changed by last week's federal budget.

One would think with Inuk MP Leona Aglukkaq representing Nunavut in cabinet, there may have at least been a nod given to the territory's biggest issue that can be solved by money alone - infrastructure, specifically housing.

The March 29 budget brought word of regulatory changes, which Aglukkaq touted as a boon to the region's resource industry - though it remains to be seen how Nunavummiut will react to having less environmental oversight. The Health Canada office opening in Iqaluit and the already-pledged money for Pangnirtung's harbour were among the other highlights for our riding.

A dark cloud hangs over the latter announcement, though, as Ottawa also made the vague but ominous pledge to hand over responsibility of Arctic ports to territorial governments. If this means it's now going to be the GN's responsibility to fit its communities with harbours, there's no way Nunavut can afford this. It would be a severe drag on the fisheries' growing momentum.

Also mentioned were changes to the Nunavut Act to allow for "consistent treatment of borrowing" but again, further detail was absent.

It's a recession budget, sure, but the oft-repeated argument still stands: if Canada wants Arctic sovereignty, it needs to help its Arctic people, and it can't be dime by dime.

It's time to put Inuit place names on the map.

Thousands of place names, detailing the history of the land and its uses, are awaiting GN approval. The office tasked with approving the already-collected names is overburdened, and at the rate it's going, it could take decades for all the place names to get the go-ahead. That's not the fault of the department, it's the fault of the approach the government is taking.

There may be disputes on whether a name is correct, or duplication of certain names, but don't those disputes themselves illustrate the history of the land? Different groups of people crossed over many of the same areas and may have different names for places. Until all the names are out there, how will the discussion over which names are best suited ever be sorted out?

Every time an elder dies, a crucial database of knowledge goes with them. If the naming process keeps going at its current rate, people with invaluable knowledge of the land will disappear as the GN works its way down the list at a snail's pace.

Put the names on the map. Revisions can always be made, but now's the time to get the history out there for public viewing and discussion, before those who best know the stories behind the names are all gone.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.