Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

Addictions and dysfunction, trauma and neglect - these are issues that even physicians will struggle to mend.

Yet these troubling conditions, laid bare on the streets of Yellowknife, are not something Dr. Anna Reid planned to hide from her colleagues. The Canadian Medical Association has brought close to 300 delegates to our city for its annual general meeting this week. As the physicians circulate around the city, they are sure to encounter some of Yellowknife's social problems, particularly downtown.

"Some people are saying it'll be an eyesore and, I think, 'You know what? It's really good.' It opens people's eyes," Reid told Yellowknifer last week. "These are the problems that are going on in our country and we've got to do something about it."

She's right. These problems are not unique to Yellowknife, they are nationwide. Just the same, it would have been easier to dodge the issue, but Reid chose not to.

Doctors, like everyone else that strives to assist in this overwhelming problem, cannot provide a simple solution, a magic elixir to cure the ills. However, steps have been taken to offer dignity and humanity to the downtrodden through various programs like the Salvation Army's foot bath and a Tuesday clinic through the Centre of Northern Families.

Dr. Ewan Affleck has been tending to the needs of afflicted people from low-income backgrounds for years at this clinic. Many of these patients are the very people Reid was referring to when she said those lacking in good health are often deprived of healthy food, safe and adequate housing and a solid education.

The clinic at the Centre for Northern Families, among others, represents an opportunity to educate those who have had to make do in the face of arduous circumstances with their exposure to life on the streets increasing their incidence of disease and psychological trauma.

Affleck addressed the latter issue during a presentation at this week's medical conference, putting the focus on the Mental Health Program, which would use telecommunications to provide access to mental health professionals elsewhere in the country.

Yellowknife lacks an adequate long-term psychiatric facility and services are further complicated by a lack of continuity in psychiatric professionals. It wouldn't hurt to have medical professionals advocating for such a facility for Yellowknife. Many troubled people from outlying communities are brought to town by the Justice and Health Departments, and sometimes they can't or don't leave. There should be something here for them and other residents in need.

Prior to opening this week's medical conference, Reid also mentioned how physicians can be hit by gag orders on touchy subjects by their employer. That's unfortunate, and often unnecessary.

What many of us want in a family doctor is an individual who is going to be frank. It looks like that's what we have in Anna Reid, who will be speaking on behalf of doctors across the country through the Canadian Medical Association.

Her approach will open some eyes to the issues, and let's hope it is successful in persuading the federal government to make some informed improvements for all Canadians.

Things are looking good for people's pocketbooks across the Kivalliq, with projects such as Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s Meadowbank mine near Baker Lake, the proposed Meliadine mine near Rankin Inlet and Kivalliq Energy's uranium exploration.

Living in the North, where industry is sparse, it's important to look into projects such as these - perhaps integral for communities' success and the well-being of residents. However, these projects, while lucrative, do not operate invisibly. A mine can be a large project and no matter how effective the remediation that comes afterward, while in place they change the landscape of the tundra.

It's vital, of course, to monitor how the flora and fauna of the tundra interact with new activity and new structures. Meliadine has already had caribou visit its exploration site, and much of its activity lies on a constantly-shifting migration route. Very much to the credit of Agnico-Eagle, the company has stated in no uncertain terms it wants to work with Inuit organizations, the territorial government and the Kangiqliniq Hunters and Trappers Organization to develop a plan to minimize disturbance in its interactions with wildlife, and not somewhere down the line but now, while the interactions are beginning.

In addition to that, however, the herds passing by should be monitored with a heightened urgency to see just what the effects of mining activity on animals may be.

Look to the west at the NWT - something caused a massive decline in caribou, to the point where the government has introduced legislation to slow hunting to a trickle, and no one seems to know exactly why it happened. It wasn't a gradual realization either. Caribou surveys were happening every few years and in 2009, the government saw the number of Ahiak caribou in the NWT drop to less than 32,000 from 128,000 in 2006. Controversies over the science behind the count aside, the data just simply wasn't there to explain the loss away.

Monitoring needs to be constant and thorough, especially in Nunavut where hunting is so ingrained in culture, economics and community health. Kivalliq News has been looking at the Arctic Raptors study, which has been monitoring peregrine falcons in the Rankin Inlet area for more than three decades, and this research has produced invaluable data and a thorough picture of the health of the species in the area. It's a great example of effective monitoring.

Concerns over mining activity interrupting wildlife activity are completely justifiable, but natural resource extraction is by far the most promising industry in the North and the North needs money badly. While that money starts flowing in, however, it would be a good idea for the GN and the Inuit organizations to set a chunk aside to keep watch on how the animals that have travelled the tundra since time immemorial adapt to the changing land.

- Tim Edwards is the acting editor of Kivalliq News. Editor Darrell Greer will return in September.

An Inuvik-based program to train lifeguards is an excellent opportunity for community youth from across the Sahtu and the Beaufort Delta.

Water safety is an essential skill in the NWT, where every community is near a major lake or river. Having trained lifeguards in the community is also an excellent opportunity for employment for NWT youth.

Often communities have to hire lifeguards and aquatic instructors from down south and this training provides an excellent opportunity to put local people in those jobs and an ability for them to help train their successors in the community.

Geoff Solomon, organizer of the training session - scheduled for this past weekend - was hoping the training would attract 15 people. A similar course Solomon led back in June taught six people lifeguard skills for shallow pools.

More programs like this should be held in every region of the NWT and efforts should be made to educate at least one person from every community in lifeguarding, how to teach swimming lessons and both deep and shallow water rescues.

The result will be safer communities and the ability to create a sustainable lifeguarding workforce comprised of Northerners.

The NWT fire marshal says recruiting volunteer firefighters in the territory's smaller communities has been a challenge in recent years.

Small populations aside, being a volunteer firefighter demands a lot of commitment. It's not merely responding to fire calls. Volunteers are expected to attend training sessions and perform other public duties for the fire department.

Although it is an excellent community service to be involved in and comes with its own personal sense of satisfaction, it can be difficult to attract people without some level of compensation.

Departments in cities such as Yellowknife have a system that combines full-time paid, paid on-call and volunteer positions. This combination might serve as an example for the rest of the territory.

Although, it doesn't make sense to have full-time paid firefighters working in communities with populations of a few hundred, perhaps paid on-call positions would help bolster the ranks.

A reasonable honorarium for attending training sessions and public appearances at schools, and a decent hourly wage for fighting fires, would probably be enough.

Funding such an endeavour is the tricky part. As fire services are in the best interest of the community and save lives and money, it should be looked at as investment.

Between 2003 and 2007 the NWT Fire Marshal's Office reported to the Council of Canadian Fire Marshals and Commissioners that fire departments in the territory respond to nearly 100 fires each year, on average.

The loss over that five-year period was $8.8 million and 22 lives.

In that vein, the GNWT, federal government and large businesses should set aside money to help communities cover the cost. In many cases, these buildings make up a good portion of community infrastructure and having a well-trained and well-staffed fire department at the ready would pay for itself if it saved one or two buildings a year.

In Inuktitut, Nunavummi Nagminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti means assistance for Nunavut businesses.

The NNI policy, initiated in 2000, was intended to give an advantage to businesses owned by Nunavummiut and Inuit firms bidding on government contracts.

But the system isn't working and businesses around the territory are voicing their frustrations through roundtable discussions headed by the territorial government and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

The policy has been plagued with concerns for years, and its body of registered businesses has fallen to less than 200 from 350.

Earlier this year, the auditor general's report criticized the practice of bypassing the public service contract system when awarding sole-source contracts.

The report further revealed documentation to support awarded contracts was often missing and flagged instances of work beginning on the contract before it was actually awarded.

The policy, which was created to enact the Government of Nunavut's obligations under Article 24 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, is also meant to increase access by Inuit to on-the-job training, apprenticeships and upgrading.

Of major concern is the potential for the policy's rules being used to award bidders from only partially Inuit-owned instead of wholly Inuit-owned businesses - to the benefit of large companies in the south with minimal connections to the territory's communities.

Used improperly, this system can hurt employment opportunities in Nunavut and hamper the success of Inuit-owned and Nunavut-based businesses, so the contract process must be transparent, constantly reviewed and monitored.

Its stated mandate recognizes that achieving its objectives will require "consistent and persistent effort."

To that end, a review committee is to analyze the policy at least on an annual basis to ensure progress is being made "in a demonstrable and balanced way."

Ideally, the jobs and contracts go to businesses from the area where the contract is being carried out, particularly those businesses majority-owned by Inuit.

Bringing business people to the table who are most affected by the awarding of contracts and deal with the application process on a daily basis is a sound idea.

Now the GN and NTI must make changes so contracting out works in the interest of Nunavummiut and Inuit.

One of the main jobs for a city council, mundane though the task may be, is to ensure roads and sidewalks are safe to use and in good condition.

Yellowknifer spoke to a number of residents for last week's feature stories identifying the issues facing the city, and the state of our roads was the number one concern for some of them, particularly among residents living in Yellowknife's largest neighbourhood - Frame Lake South.

Ken Pearman, who lives on Banke Crescent, offered to take council candidates running in this October's municipal election for a motorcycle ride to show them just how bad the streets are around nearby Johnson Crescent and Finlayson and Dagenais drives. None of those streets are identified for road reconstruction in the city's capital plan over the next three years.

In fact, the city only budgeted $700,000 for road rehabilitation this year - down $2.1 million from last year. And of that $700,000, only $100,000 is being spent in Yellowknife proper. The rest of the money is going toward helping the Yellowknives Dene pave the roads in Ndilo, half of which is being funded by the Yellowknives band itself. It's a worthwhile and overdue project, but it's not going to address the bumpy ride on many roads in town.

It is somewhat galling to witness city council approve a $70.7-million budget but set aside only $100,000 of that enormous sum for fixing streets in Yellowknife outside of Ndilo. Last fall, some city councillors barely blinked at administration's $200,000 request for a report on the renovation needs at city hall.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem argues that there is additional money available for roadwork this year through the city's program for replacing corrugated pipes, the sale of lots at Phase VII of Niven Lake, and the $20 million the city borrowed this year to pay for its water treatment plant, but this a bit of shell game. The 2012 budget clearly states that funding for fixing roads this year is "historically low."

While the city has a minor role to play in affordable housing and social issues - other prominent concerns voiced by residents - at the end of the day, ensuring clean water keeps flowing through our taps, our sewage lines function, and traffic lights and signs are present and are directing traffic efficiently around the city on well-maintained roads should be job number one for city council.

There is a growing sense that after eight straight years of property tax hikes and a city budget that has more than doubled over 10 years, council is losing sight of its priorities.

The city has been ratcheting up spending by hiring more and more staff, pursuing seemingly endless matching government grants to fund "streetscaping" and a harbour plan and buying up downtown property with the hazy idea of supplying "eco-housing." It has also borrowed against our future by taking out a $20-million loan to pay for infrastructure needs that should have been taken into account long ago.

This has put our city on unsure footing as we stare into a future that promises little beside the closure of the NWT's two largest diamond mines.

We hope as summer gives way to this fall's election season, both candidates and voters will give some thought to the city's pedal-to-the-metal spending habits over these last few years. It will be up to them to put on the brakes.

Sometimes people forget just how easy they have it.

The services and goods we have available to us today in the Deh Cho would have been unimaginable in the North 100 years ago. The life of Catherine Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux is a wonderful example of the strength and tenacity many people in the region have descended from.

Today, as long as people have the necessary money, people have easy access to a wide array of food and have the ability to travel with ease in little time between destinations, among other things. In Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux's lifetime, 1836 to 1918, things weren't anywhere close to this easy.

She was, by all accounts, a tough woman and she had to be to help provide for her family. She had her own farm and raised cattle for milk and meat.

She was also skilled in bush craft. According to Bob Norwegian, one of her descendents, Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux would snare bears during berry season.

Not liking the taste of bears that had died from being left in a snare, and culturally not allowed to use a gun as a woman, Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux would approach the dying bears and kill them with an axe. It must have been a nerve-wracking and dangerous venture because you never knew if the snare might break and let the bear loose, said Norwegian.

She also knew how to travel. She was skilled with a dog team and would make trips in the dead of winter between Fort Providence and Fort Rae, approximately 150 miles away.

Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux cut trail during those trips, camped along the way and carried mail between the communities, along with other supplies.

Stories of perseverance and survival such as hers are not unique in the North. The conditions in the region could be harsh and people had to learn and use the necessary skills to survive.

A unique thing about Beaulieu Bouvier Lamoureux is the degree to which her story has been preserved and the way she is still remembered in Fort Providence and by her more widely-spread descendents. The celebration of her life and legacy and her designation as a National Historic Person, which will take place in Fort Providence from Aug. 17 to 19, is a fitting time to reflect not only on her, but also on all of the other people who contributed to the region's history.

There is an incredibly strong history behind the people of the Deh Cho, and that history should be celebrated and not forgotten.

---

Thieves in the night
Editorial Comment
Danielle Sachs
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012

---

It's summer and there's plenty to do in Inuvik.

There are ball tournaments, fishing, hiking, biking, relaxing in the sun while swatting mosquitoes and apparently breaking into the Inuvik Youth Centre and stealing from the facility.

The Inuvik Youth Centre officially opened June 29. Since then, the centre has had video games, pool balls, PlayStation controllers, food and laptops stolen.

A lot of the expensive items have been returned and the youth centre did receive an apology.

It's a place to go and play some music, watch a movie, play sports or just hang out.

In an ideal world, the Inuvik Youth Centre could be open 24 hours a day. It wouldn't matter if you wanted to hang out at 2 a.m. or 2 p.m.

But we don't live in an ideal world and everybody needs to sleep sometime.

There are youth who depend on the centre and go there whenever it's open.

Every single time there's a break-in, the individuals who use the centre lose a little trust in their community.

There's no money for additional security and even if there was, installing a video camera isn't necessarily the answer.

Having a safe space to hang out with friends loses some of the appeal when you know you're being filmed.

It's sad that a video camera even has to be brought up as a solution to this situation.

That money could go to programs and supplies. Instead, it has to be spent on chains to secure the now-broken door.

Since the beginning of July, there has been a new Inuvik Youth Centre co-ordinator. The centre now has extended drop-in hours and continues to plan activities and programs for youth all over the community.

It's frustrating that there are a few individuals who don't seem to think twice about the impact they have on others.

It becomes easy to lay all the blame on one, two or maybe a few people. It's a lot easier to put the blame on them than it is to find a permanent solution.

Yes, $100 worth of food was stolen and now the fridge is locked at night to prevent it from happening again. But someone was desperate enough to steal food. Hopefully it was actually eaten instead of just stolen for the fun of it.

The centre can't be supervised every minute of every day, but for all it offers youth in the community, it would sure mean a lot if those who are causing these headaches to take a step back and see what they are ruining: a safe haven for Inuvik's youth.

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