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Too often it seems Yellowknife MLAs keep their heads down when a controversial issue does not directly concern our city or the people living here.

Bring up the Deh Cho Bridge or changes to supplementary health care benefits, and our local politicians not seated on the cabinet side of the legislative assembly are jumping to their feet every chance they can get.

When the issue is something along the lines of: should the NWT Housing Corporation be evicting tenants who refuse to pay rent, however, Yellowknife MLAs remain largely mute.

On the proposed all-season Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk highway, local MLAs finally seem willing to tip over some sacred cows. Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny isn't the only MLA critical of the project but he is the most vocal. He implored the government not to give in to "emotional feelings" and "political lobbying" in his member's statement on Feb. 15 and took to Twitter earlier this month, chiding the GNWT to "see the warning signs before we spend $300 mil."

The warning signs he refers to are revised cost estimates that put the highway at up to $300 million to complete from the original $200 million announced last year. This means the original 75-25 split proposed by Ottawa - which is pitching in $150 million - might actually wind up being more like 50-50, and leave the GNWT with such a huge bill that there will be little room left on its $800 million borrowing limit for other desperately needed infrastructure projects.

Many MLAs, including all regular members from Yellowknife, gave the project a rough ride in the legislative assembly after Transportation Minister David Ramsay announced $2.5 million for environmental assessment work Feb. 14.

First and foremost on their minds is why spend such an enormous amount of money - even with federal help -- to service a moribund oil and gas industry and link a community of 3,500 (Inuvik) to a community of less than 1,000 (Tuktoyaktuk).

It doesn't add up when one thinks of all the other infrastructure needs of the territory, particularly long neglected repairs for existing roads such as Highway 7 that may actually benefit large portions of the NWT with increased tourism traffic from the Alaska Highway through the Deh Cho and North Slave and South Slave. The influx of visitors will only increase if we actually turn these perilous routes into serviceable roads that tourists would be willing to drive on with their expensive RVs but strictly avoid now because of their poor condition.

Isolation remains a fact for many communities of the Northwest Territories, and unfortunately we won't be able to connect them all via all-season roads any time soon. It would be nice to have a highway poking out to the Beaufort Sea but is it something Northerners really need?

Thankfully Yellowknife MLAs are challenging this project when in previous years they might have stayed silent lest they be cast once again as the big bad bullies from the capital city.

Perhaps, ironically enough, this was prompted by cost overruns on the Deh Cho Bridge. Whatever the reason, we can only hope our MLAs don't waver and get suckered in by "free money" from Ottawa that will add to our debt at the expense of projects for which there is an actual need.

I can't hazard a guess at how many games I've been on the ice as a player or official during my half century of involvement with hockey.

But, with the last puck dropped in Rankin Inlet for tournaments and league play this season, for the first time in my life I face a summer of reflection and indecision as to whether I've reached the end of the line.

I can look any person in the eye involved with the game and say I can still cut the mustard, at a high level, as far as actually reffing, but that's not what I'm wrestling with.

The game has changed greatly during the past decade, and a lot of that change has been for the better.

One area, however, that's not so great, is the amount of abuse officials now take from the players, fans and, especially, the parents.

I often chuckle when I hear people say players have no respect for each other anymore.

If you want to know how it feels to be a true Rodney Dangerfield of hockey, try officiating for a few years.

It's no laughing matter.

The profanity and insults a ref now hears at the peewee level rivals that of the junior leagues of the '70s.

I wish I had a camera on the face of an official here in Rankin when he assessed a minor penalty and the peewee player told him to (ahem) "take" off and referred to him as the child of unwed parents.

A peewee player! Funny stuff, eh?

Complicating matters in a hotbed of hockey such as Rankin is that many people don't understand the constant intensity a small group of officials face when tournament season rolls around.

For each separate age group, it's a big weekend tournament and that's that.

But, for the officials, it's an intense six weeks of pressure with, during an average year, senior men's playoffs through the week and then weekend after weekend of the Polar Bear Plate, Avataq Cup, bantam or midget territorial, Powerful Peewees and the Jon Lindell Memorial in Arviat thrown in for those of us who travel.

Don't believe the playoffs or these tournaments are that intense? Then, by all means, come out next year and give it a try because we could surely use the help.

In the south, an official may have an exchange with a player, fan or coach and then not see that person for another month or more.

In Rankin (and many other Northern communities), you're back at the arena with that person within a week, if not the very next day.

My golden rule -- which I've never broken -- is that it stays on the ice.

You leave the community behind when you enter an arena, and leave what happens on the ice behind when you exit.

But it gets harder every year because many of the comments have become so personal.

Early in the NHL playoffs, bad calls on an offside goal and a phantom glove pass directly impacted a game's outcome.

And these are the best officials in the world.

That's something to keep in mind the next time you're ready to give it to a local ref because you don't agree with the call.

Refs aren't looking for anyone to give them a dinner, but a bit of respect would keep more of us on the ice doing our best for the game we love.

The $16.2 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline endured more than nine years of painfully slow regulatory review.

There were scores of community hearings across the NWT and stacks of reports that would take weeks of non-stop reading to complete, although much of it would be incomprehensible due to terms used by industry and environmental regulators.

All of this preceded federal approval, which came in December 2010. The oil and gas companies proposing to build the pipeline, which would carry natural gas from three large reservoirs near Inuvik 1,200 km to Alberta, have until the end of next year to decide whether or not to proceed with the project and must start construction by 2015.

However, another critical fate has befallen the Mackenzie Gas Project in the intervening years: natural gas prices have plummeted.

In the most common measure, natural gas was worth just over $15 per unit in late 2005 and $13 in 2008. Some analysts had suggested that it would take a minimum price of only $6 per unit to make the Mackenzie Valley pipeline viable.

But last week, natural gas fell below a lowly $2 per unit for the first time in more than a decade. Two factors took a bite out of the commodity: the recession caused a furious downturn later in 2008 and new technology allowed natural gas to be extracted from shale rock, which has opened up enormous supplies globally, but particularly in North America.

All this may lead to the conclusion that the future looks bleak for the pipeline. However, because oil supplies continue to dwindle around the world and the price of a barrel of oil is expected to continue to climb in the future, at some point natural gas will look so attractive that conversion on a large scale will undoubtedly be considered.

For those who are hoping the pipeline will proceed - including the Aboriginal Pipeline Group - for the 7,000 construction jobs and 150 or so permanent jobs, the various contracts and the ongoing benefits the project will bring, the economics of ever cheaper natural gas could eventually be its saving grace. If and when natural gas is widely adopted as the obvious alternative to oil, then the prices start to once again make a steady climb.

De Beers Canada is advancing its proposed Gahcho Kue diamond mine 360 km north of Fort Resolution, but it isn't doing so without hearing from those who may be affected.

On March 28, De Beers and Chief Louis Balsillie of Fort Resolution's Deninu Kue First Nation signed a $175,000 traditional knowledge study. That agreement will result in a review of historical documents and interviews regarding traditional and current use of the lands in the Gahcho Kue project area. Balsillie said his band members continue to hunt and trap in that region of the Barren Lands.

The chief is hopeful the traditional knowledge study will lead to a impact benefits agreement for the Deninu Kue.

These types of meetings, negotiations and agreements are necessary for the co-existence of industry and aboriginal people. While there may be some tensions in reaching these milestones, they are mild in comparison to the lawsuits that will inevitably result if industry turns a blind eye to First Nations and Metis peoples' ties to the land.

The best way to combat misinformation is by presenting the facts, plain and simple, to the people of Canada.

Senator Dennis Patterson, representing Nunavut, told the Senate earlier this month that he was concerned Canadian conservation organizations were getting foreign dollars to spread misinformation.

There are bigger issues on Nunavut's table than environmental activists. We need action on infrastructure, health funding and social issues.

Patterson should be trumpeting these issues while he sits in such an esteemed position, but instead, with this latest stance, he comes off as a Tory mouthpiece.

His arguments echo those made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver earlier this year.

Yes, organizations like Tides Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation frame things in ways that align with their causes, but they also wear their biases on their sleeves - everyone knows where they lean, and most independent thinkers will take their information campaigns with a grain of salt.

Green-minded Canadians have lost faith in the government for its stance on climate change and environmental science communications and, therefore, policy. Scientists, both university professors and ex-government workers, have been making headlines this year speaking out about Conservatives "muzzling" scientists working for the federal government.

Environment Canada's David Tarasick was barred from speaking to media about finding one of the largest ozone holes ever discovered, in the Arctic, almost a month after he'd published his research in the prestigious science journal Nature last year.

On the west coast, Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist Kristi Miller was prevented from talking to media about a virus that might be killing wild sockeye salmon last year.

In February, 30-year veteran science reporter Margaret Munro, with Postmedia, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that government scientists have traditionally been very free to speak with media, but that changed dramatically for the worse when the Tories were voted into power.

On one hand, environmental organizations tout science that supports their view.

On the other, what publicly-funded scientists can speak publicly about is being dictated by politics when these should be the people Canadians can trust for accurate information.

If Patterson is truly committed to public debate and environmental preservation, as he told the Senate, he must ditch the party line and tackle the issue from all angles - even if these angles aren't favoured by the party that appointed him.

He should leave the rhetoric to House of Commons debates and use his position to bring meaningful change to Nunavut.

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.

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