The territorial government seems to have some explaining to do.

Last week, Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche took Premier Bob McLeod and cabinet ministers David Ramsay and Glen Abernethy on a tour of the six communities in the riding. These tours are relatively common and normally follow the same pattern.

Menicoche, either alone or with a variety of ministers, arrives at a pre-arranged community meeting and listens to the concerns of community members. There are generally few surprises. Variations on the same issues arise again and again -- the most common being housing, transportation, economic development and education.

The recent tour between Aug. 7 and 9 followed the pattern perfectly in all but one community -- Nahanni Butte.

Nahanni Butte, as most Deh Cho residents are aware, suffered a significant flood in early June. Rising water levels forced the evacuation of the majority of residents who were not able to return home until almost the end of the month.

The list of damage is well known. Casualties of the flood water included the band office, local store, new gymnasium and the crawlspaces and ground floors of many houses.

With such significant damages happening to such a small community, it would be reasonable to think the territorial government would be keeping close tabs on the recovery efforts. This doesn't appear to have been the case.

Menicoche said at the meeting in Nahanni Butte the community representatives greeted them and then immediately explained how no one had been taking care of them for the last two months since the flood. Outstanding issues include the community access road and road to the landfill, which are both still partially under water, and houses that haven't been repaired, among other things.

Speaking later, Menicoche, McLeod and Ramsay all expressed their surprise about the situation and the level of frustration among Nahanni Butte residents.

None of this should have been a surprise, especially not to the MLA for the region or the premier of the territory. The territorial government should have had someone monitoring the rebuilding efforts and liaising with the appropriate departments and officials.

In light of what elected government leaders now know, the territorial government clearly needs to reassess how it has addressed the aftermath of the flood in Nahanni Butte.

Changes need to be made so the community receives the assistance it needs quickly and to prevent future frustration in other communities hit by natural disasters.

Important issues were covered at the most recent constituency meeting held by MP Dennis Bevington on Monday.

Subjects included the high cost of living, the imminent depletion of natural gas and impacts of the new omnibus budget Bill C-38.

Too bad there were only seven people in the room, or five if you don't count Bevington and this one humble reporter.

Actually, it was only four participants if you don't count one person who had to leave a few minutes into the meeting to make it to Fort McPherson. Coming for part of the meeting is better than not showing up at all.

The event was advertised on Facebook, in the newspaper and on the community channel.

"Focus discussions on economical and energy issues as well as the Conservative budget cuts," read the ad.

These are issues that affect all Inuvik residents and everyone in the North. It was a good opportunity to make your voice heard and share ideas. Instead, everyone stayed away.

Inuvik has a population of 3,500. Four people at the constituency meeting represents 0.1 per cent of Inuvik. Do you really want less than one per cent of the population representing what matters to the community?

That's not to say good ideas weren't exchanged between the few who did clear a couple of hours off their schedule to come.

Yes, it's summer and a lot of people are on vacation. It can also be hard to find a babysitter. But it was sad sitting there with empty chairs outnumbering the taken ones.

Without speaking up, people give up their right to complain. Sure, it could be argued that one meeting doesn't make a difference. Bevington is here to bring the voices of Northerners to Ottawa – a place that barely recognizes the existence of the region until new resources are discovered.

Bevington admits that when speaking in Parliament he only has one voice. But the more people that go to him, the more weight and power that voice has.

If it's impossible to make it out, there are other options. Start a discussion online, throw ideas around when talking to friends, family and loved ones.

When talking about things that matter to everyone there aren't any bad ideas.

The only bad idea is staying silent.

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.

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