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News Briefs: Monday, May 21, 2012
Ready for emergency
The Town of Fort Smith activated its Emergency Response Advisory Group on May 16 to be prepared for the upcoming forest fire season.
The meeting updated contact information and the town's emergency plan.
Mayor Janie Hobart said no future meetings are planned unless an emergency situation arises.
Many organizations are represented on the advisory group, including First Nations, the Fort Smith Metis Council, Parks Canada, territorial and federal government departments, the RCMP and others.
- Paul Bickford
Cleanup in Fort Smith
The Town of Fort Smith has begun its annual spring clean up.
It started May 18 and will run until June 4.
"I think that this is an exceptional service that is offered by the town," said Mayor Janie Hobart. "There are three weeks where people can put just about any garbage out on the curbside and have it removed to the dump."
Plus, the mayor noted there are no tipping fees at the landfill for residential garbage during the cleanup.
- Paul Bickford
News/North earns awards
NWT News/North garnered the Best News Story Award from the Canadian Community Newspaper Association at a ceremony in Toronto earlier this month. The award-winning article, the work of reporters Galit Rodan and Nicole Veerman, was based on coverage of the Arctic Sunwest Twin Otter crash in Yellowknife last September.
News/North also took home a blue ribbon, signifying general excellence.
The Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association issued NWT News/North a blue ribbon at a separate awards ceremony in April.
- NNSL staff
Leaders discuss children and families
Aboriginal leaders, GNWT representatives and social program leaders recently met to discuss the development of Child and Family Resource Centres and current child and family resources.
"Early childhood development is imperative for the future of the Northwest Territories," stated Jackson Laferty, minister of Education Culture and Employment in a news release. "The expertise of aboriginal and social program leaders will continue to be heard to assist us in bettering support for communities, families, and parents."
Early childhood, zero to three years old, was a primary focus and several action items, including community ownership, were declared by the end of the discussions.
- Lyndsay Herman
NorthwesTel service interruption
Tthek'edeli/Jean Marie River
Trees were to blame for NorthwesTel service interruptions between May 17 at 10 p.m. and May 18 at 8:45 a.m in the Mackenzie region.
Emily Younker, corporate communications manager for NorthwesTel, stated in a press release that repair technicians discovered fallen trees had cut a fibre wire at a microwave radio site near the community.
Communities in the Mackenzie Valley and Mackenzie Delta north of Jean Marie River experienced a loss of long distance calling, data and internet services as a result of the cut fibre.
Cell to cell or cell to landline services to Yukon and northern British Columbia were unaffected.
- Lyndsay Herman
Prizes for mom
Tsiigehtchic/Arctic Red River
Moms in Tsiigehtchic were treated to a barbecue and moms-only Indian Bingo last Sunday on Mother's Day.
Charlene Blake, a community volunteer in Tsiigehtchic, said Indian Bingo is a big draw and the moms had a lot of fun participating.
"Usually when you host Indian Bingo, people bring prizes," she said. "You give them a limit, you know $20 and under or whatever. You get dice and once you get doubles, you can go and get whatever item you want, and you go on for ... say 10 to 15 minutes.
"Everything is just back and forth and, after 10 minutes, what you have is what you get. Everybody enjoyed themselves and there's lots of laughter in the Indian Bingo."
Blake said volunteers shifted gears to get ready for this weekend's mini-carnival which was scheduled to start on May 19.
- Lyndsay Herman
Sewing and dancing for youth
Paulatuk
May has been busy for Paulatuk youth with two two-week workshop programs held through Brighter Futures.
A 10-day traditional sewing workshop began May 14 and is open to any youth in the community 30 years old and younger.
Celina Wolki, a program co-ordinator for Brighter Futures, is running the workshop and said participants can learn to make mukluks, moccasins, mitts and many other traditional items. Important things students learn are traditional sewing patterns and how to cut out materials, she said. The classes will run from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Friday.
The sewing workshop followed a 10-day drum dance workshop held by the Paulatuk Moonlight Drummers and Dancers at the Paulatuk Youth Centre. Wolki said around 30 youth participated in the workshop.
- Lyndsay Herman
65th anniversary celebration
Inuvik
The Royal Canadian Legion is preparing for a milestone in June. The legion will celebrate its 65th anniversary over the weekend of June 8.
"It's a three-day thing we'll have going on here with a lot of family activities, barbecues," said Derek Lindsay, the branch manager of the Royal Canadian Legion in Inuvik. "We're going to wind up on the Sunday with honours and awards."
Lindsay said he has sent letters to members who have moved south and expects a couple hundred people to be in attendance, though it's too early to give concrete numbers.
The festivities begin on Friday with games and a meet-and-greet at the legion. Families will enjoy a family day barbecue on Saturday which is followed by an adult barbecue and dance that night. The weekend will end with recognition of outstanding members and awarding milestone membership pins to those who have earned them.
- Lyndsay Herman
Student art to be exhibited
Thebacha/Fort Smith
Art by students at Paul William Kaeser High School in Fort Smith will be displayed in June.
The artwork will be exhibited at the Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre throughout the month.
It is expected the show will feature a wide variety of art that students have created over the course of the school year.
- Paul Bickford
Cupcake Wednesdays
Thebacha/Fort Smith
Cupcake Wednesdays - a fundraiser at Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre in Fort Smith - will be returning next month.
The cupcakes, along with tea and coffee, will be offered at the museum from 2 to 5 p.m. every Wednesday throughout June, July and August.
The fundraiser started last summer and proved very popular with residents of Fort Smith.
- Paul Bickford
Enterprise seniors workshop
Enterprise
The Enterprise Senior Society is planning a workshop for May 28. The workshop will be for all seniors - those older than 55 - to discuss ideas and develop a plan of action for a June 18 public meeting on establishing an information resource centre/museum in the community.
The workshop on May 28 will begin at 7 p.m. at the community hall in the hamlet office building.
Peter Groenen, the senior administrative officer with the Hamlet of Enterprise, will facilitate the meeting.
- Paul Bickford
Leadership, resilience and adventure
Tetlit'Zheh/Fort McPherson
The eight high school students who participate in the Leadership and Resiliency Program at Chief Julius School are counting down the days until their adventure trip to Whitehorse.
The second annual five-day trip, this year from June 24 to 29, will include zip-lining, rock climbing, hot springs, whitewater rafting, horseback riding, a visit to the wildlife nature preserve and paintballing.
The program is open school-wide and has students as young as Grade 6 in its volunteer membership. Once each month, the students participate in an adventure trip, a service learning (volunteer) activity, and an in-class resiliency group. Only the high school students are taking part in the trip to Whitehorse.
"We do different exercises or group talks to build on resiliency," said Jolene Ross, a teacher at Chief Julius School. "We focus on ways to cope, healthy relationships, and goal setting."
Recently the students participated in mask making, where partner students would use plaster to make mask molds of their faces out of plaster and then paint them. The masks became an opportunity to discuss trust and the "masks" people wear in daily life.
- Lyndsay Herman
Pangnirtung bargainingtalks break down
Panniqtuuq/Pangnirtung
Talks between the hamlet of Pangnirtung and its unionized employees broke down May 17 with several issues unresolved, a hamlet release stated.
"The key issue for the hamlet was getting additional flexibility to provide improved water and sewage services to hamlet residents both now and as the hamlet grows in the future," the release stated.
The hamlet is asking the federal labour minister to step in and appoint a conciliator. Nunavut Employees Union president Doug Workman was not immediately available to respond.
- Casey Lessard
Fire causes $15,000 in damage
Ikaluktutiak/Cambridge Bay
Four people were treated for smoke inhalation after a kitchen fire in Cambridge Bay on May 12. A man and woman were found unconscious inside a unit ablaze in a multi-dwelling building on May 12 at 1:55 a.m., according to an RCMP press release. An RCMP constable evacuated the unconscious woman, who was on a couch, while the unconscious man was evacuated from a bedroom. Police said all four people were treated for smoke inhalation and released.
Officers were responding to a call from a community resident who had seen flames.
A pot left without supervision on a stove element, causing the range hood to catch fire and melt, was the cause of the fire, stated police.
The fire caused about $15,000 in damage to the unit, according to police.
- Jeanne Gagnon
Environmental technology students go to the edge
Mittimatalik/Pond Inlet
Eleven students from Nunavut Arctic College's Environmental Technology Program in Pond Inlet spent four days, May 11 to 14, at the floe edge learning more about the ocean's secrets.
"The purpose of it was to assess salinity, water temperature, and the mini, little bits of life like plankton, shrimp and worms and all the things that are the basis of the food chain," said instructor Shelly Elverum.
The students used sampling techniques used by marine biologists, such as visiting instructors Chantal Begin from the University of Florida and Stephanie Green from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, who spent the weekend with the students.
- Casey Lessard
Tarnow made deputy minister
Iqaluit
An experienced government lawyer is now its top legal bureaucrat, as Norman Tarnow goes from acting to newly-appointed deputy minister of justice. Assistant deputy minister since last year, he has been acting deputy minister since January, after Janet Slaughter resigned before Christmas.
"A hard-working legal advisor and senior manager, Mr. Tarnow brings years of experience to his position and has a solid understanding of Nunavut's justice system, and the objectives under our Tamapta mandate," Premier Eva Aariak stated in a news release.
Tarnow has been a lawyer since 1974, spending much of his career as a government legal advisor in British Columbia, the NWT and Nunavut.
He has worked for the Nunavut government since 2005.
- Casey Lessard
Day trips on the land
Iglulik
Elementary students were taking day trips on the land the first half of this month.
Ataguttaaluk Elementary School principal Jeela Allurut said all classes were taking day trips on the land on a rotational basis ending on May 17.
"There's fishing going on, there's sliding, there's some games. It's like doing different things outside of the school," she said.
- Jeanne Gagnon
Fish derby covers five lakes
Ikpiarjuk/Arctic Bay
Anglers were set to spend the long weekend fishing in five lakes near Arctic Bay for the annual fishing derby, economic development officer Clare Kines said.
"The town pretty much empties out on the May long weekend," Kines said, noting people who can't go on the land will go to the small lake in town that has land-locked char.
The derby was set to go from Friday to Monday. Each lake has a set of prizes to reflect the fact that some of the lakes are more difficult to reach but typically have the largest fish, he said. The event is organized by the Nunavut Quest organizers.
- Casey Lessard
Resolute turns 25
Qausuittuq/Resolute
Resolute will officially turn 25 this fall but the community is celebrating early.
The hamlet was incorporated Nov. 3, 1987, though the community invited its residents to enjoy the outdoors, go camping or go out on the land on May 18, said Martha Kalluk, the hamlet's senior administrative officer.
She added they chose hamlet day to coincide with the Victoria Day long weekend.
"We are proud to have the hamlet (turn) 25 years," said Kalluk.
Mayor Tabitha Mullin said the hamlet did not plan any formal activities on May 18 as people would like to take advantage of the long weekend. She said the hamlet will likely do something more formal this fall on the official birthday.
But Mullin said they're "very happy" to turn 25.
"We have too many people out of town to celebrate at that time. I wish we could do more but it can't happen right now," she said.
- Jeanne Gagnon
Basking in the seal hunt
Qikiqtarjuaq/Broughton Island
Hunters in Qikiqtarjuaq are having a lot of success now that ringed seals are basking on the ice, Inuktivut hunters and trappers organization manager Harry Alookie said.
"It looks like it will be abundant for the juvenile ringed seals, and now the adults are starting to bask on the sea ice," Alookie said. "Most of the harvesters are quite happy about it because mid-winter they're hard to wait upon, but the majority are going for the juvenile seals because they're healthy and survived the winter."
There is no quota on ringed seals because they're "abundant and healthy," he said.
- Casey Lessard
Spring concert
Kinngait/Cape Dorset
Elementary students will sing, play music, act and dance during Sam Pudlat School's inaugural spring concert on May 17.
Principal David Webber said they've been practising for several weeks in anticipation of the performances - one of which will happen in the morning for the school and the other in the afternoon for the community. The concert is to celebrate spring, he said.
"We're looking forward to that," he said. "Every class, every child will be participating. It's sort of a variety show," he said.
The school has had Christmas concerts but this is its first one in the spring, explained Webber.
- Jeanne Gagnon
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News desk 
