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Strong women help build strong communities.

With that in mind, the future of the territory is bright indeed.

Recent stories in News/North and our sister papers have highlighted the achievements and aspirations of some remarkable female role models from across the NWT.

Janelle Nitsiza, an 18-year-old from Whati, is one example of a young woman who has the potential to blossom into a strong leader for her people and the territory as a whole.

She has endeavoured to learn about municipal and territorial issues by attending meetings that are of no interest to most people her age. It is promising that Nitsiza's goal is to earn a political science degree and then apply her knowledge to benefit her community and her people.

Focusing on developing youths' skills to take on important community roles should remain a focus of governments and organizations in the NWT. The RCMP youth camp that Fort Smith's Brenna MacKay-Johnson attended is an excellent example of such an initiative. Developing a relationship with the authorities and fostering a desire in Northerners to enter policing is a worthy and important task. It is vital we train more RCMP officers with Northern roots to work in NWT communities.

Fort Liard's Blair Kotchea is another young woman to watch from the NWT. Staying focused on education is opening doors for her as she works toward her goal of medical school and becoming a doctor. Hopefully she plans to ply her skills in the North after graduation because we are in need of not only full-time medical professionals, but doctors and nurses with Northern experience.

These are just a few examples of young people pursuing their dreams and acting as exemplary role models for NWT youth. We wish them the best in their pursuits and encourage more young people to learn from them about the importance of education, self-respect and civic pride.

Talking about sex with young people has always been a challenge and, at times, a controversial subject. Who should be teaching children and teens about sex? How much responsibility do schools have in the matter? What can be done if parents are unable or unwilling to communicate about the subject?

These are important questions, especially in a territory with the second highest rate of sexually transmitted infections in Canada, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Teen pregnancy, according to the 2011 NWT health status report, is decreasing but is still 2.5 times the national rate.

The GNWT departments of Health and Education, Culture and Employment both have resources to help teach sexual education.

The respectyourself.ca website covers everything from teaching basic anatomy and sexual health to contraception and emotional health. Resources are also available to teachers.

Despite the information being out there, some still believe more is needed. Those behind the Sex Ed North initiative, which can be found through Facebook, are trying to find ways to better educate youth about sex.

Erin Sellek-Chocolate, a facilitator with the program, which is being spearheaded by assistant university professors from New Brunswick, said sex education needs to be more balanced. She finds too much emphasis is placed on the dangers of sex. It's an approach she said isn't conducive to effective education.

Part of the Sex Ed North study includes possibly setting up youth advisory groups to find out what adolescents think would be most effective.

It's not a new idea. Hay River has been doing that very thing for years and Yellowknife Education District No. 1 has picked up the torch as well. Hopefully the efforts pay off in the form of fewer cases of STIs and fewer teen pregnancies. In the end, there is no such thing as too much education.

There's a lot wrong with what's left at the Cape Dyer Dye-Main Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line site - a very big, dirty part of the territory. While few would wish for pollutants as a source of employment, this mess is resulting in hundreds of Inuit and Nunavummiut jobs, and millions of dollars being infused into Nunavut businesses.

Currently, there are 175 workers at the site, on the east coast of Baffin Island - about 85 per cent are Inuit.

The site is 94 square-kilometres, almost double the size of Iqaluit, with 6,500 metric tonnes of contaminated soil and debris being moved off-site. There's petroleum products and battery fluid soaked in the ground. Paints made up of toxic PCBs and lead were left on site. All were left after the U.S. military ran the site from 1957 to 1989.

The silver lining of the huge clean-up job is it has created a massive job opportunity for Nunavummiut. Qikiqtaaluk Logistics Inc., a wholly-owned Inuit firm, which currently has the two-year $16.5-million remediation contract. Ninety-five per cent of the project cost is staying in Nunavut.

The entire cleanup process is expected to bring in more than $575 million in federal money to Nunavut.

This project is one of many in the North, many of which have long-term plans. Some work is expected to continue well into the future as site monitoring is scheduled to take place for years to come.

These sites, after decades of neglect, are being groomed by the people who call the area home. They are witnessing the fruits of their labour and, fittingly, reaping the benefits.

He served as mayor of Iglulik since December, and now, Nicolas Arnatsiaq is taking the best interest of the community into his own hands by stepping down from his position.

Arnatsiaq sees the potential for a conflict of interest due to his employment with Baffinland Iron Mines, which is proposing to build a huge iron ore project that will affect Iglulik, among other communities, if it goes ahead.

He acknowledges that Iglulik needs a leader that is able to participate in all discussions affecting the hamlet, and knows he can't provide that.

Instead of continuing to sit as mayor and stepping out of important discussions regarding the hamlet, Arnatsiaq is offering the position to someone who should be more objective. His actions are responsible and gives his community a sense that he's an honest politician.

Shifting demographics are forcing a new reality on the North, one that will require a considerable amount of planning and resources to prepare for it.

According to a recently unveiled report completed on behalf of Avens - a Community for Seniors, seniors ages 60 and over made up seven per cent of the Yellowknife population in 2010, but this figure will climb to 16.2 per cent by 2025, with a projected 3,725 seniors living in a city of nearly 23,000.

That retirement-age Yellowknifers are increasingly more likely to remain in Yellowknife is good news. A less transient community, linked through multiple generations of family members, is a more stable and viable one.

Clearly an improvement in facilities and services is making a lot of this possible.

But the Avens report warns much still needs to be done to ensure seniors here can live in relative comfort. The wait list for Avens' facilities earlier this year was at about 30 to 40, and between three and four at the Mary Murphy Seniors Home.

Theresa Crane, a longtime volunteer with Avens, was on a wait list for three years but never made it into a seniors home before her death last month.

Care options also need to be flexible enough to address the needs of independent seniors living at home who only need a little bit of help with meals and chores.

The Avens report calls on private developers to pay closer attention to the growing market needs for senior-friendly condos and apartments, while Michele Ray-Jones, director of care for Avens, proposes the establishment of a communal facility with various care level supports depending on the person's needs. Such a facility would be an attractive addition to the city and could also benefit elders and families in outlying communities, who at least wouldn't have to look down south for long-term care.

Sending a contingent of NWT representatives on a trade mission to China sounds like a good idea.

After all, visitors to Yellowknife and the NWT from East Asia are increasing and the capital city has a lot of unique adventures and experiences to share with tourists from abroad.

No one knows that better than Verda Law of Yellowknife Tours, who is fluent in Chinese languages and has made it her business to host visitors from China and co-ordinate their activities while visiting Canada.

Just this week, Law took two schoolmates from Shanghai - both were winners of a Canadian Tourism Commission competition to explore Canada - around Yellowknife and to Trout Rock Lodge. A film crew from the Travel Channel in China documented the trip and scenes from Yellowknife are expected to be broadcast to the world's most populous country. That's great publicity and hopefully it will result in more Chinese tourism in the NWT's capital city.

Meanwhile, speculation is growing about who will go on a Council of the Federation trade mission to China with Premier Bob McLeod, who is accompanying other Canadian premiers on the trip Sept. 13 to 20. NWT Tourism chose Law to participate but other details are sketchy. For example, GNWT officials don't seem to know the costs associated with the trade mission to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Excitement in China about visiting Canada is growing, particularly since Canada made the Communist country's list of approved tourist destinations in 2009. That's one positive development since September 2007 when then-premier Joe Handley and delegates from the tourism industry travelled to China to drum up business.

It is wise for the territory's leaders and NWT Tourism to jump on the bandwagon. That said, we'd like the premier's office to be open and transparent about what the trade mission will cost taxpayers, who exactly is taking part, the objective of the travel overseas and follow-up on what was accomplished.

It was pretty amazing to watch the process that took place during the youth leather workshop four youth held Fort Simpson last week.

Under the guidance of D'Arcy J. Moses, seven youths started with a table covered with hides and furs and within five days had created high-quality leather vests. Some of the garments that emerged from the workshop could have been sold in any clothing store.

The youths had the opportunity to learn about fashion design and working with leather thanks to Devonian Metals Inc. The company, which holds mining leases near Wrigley, sponsored the workshop.

In the Deh Cho, there has been a lot of concern about the development of non-renewable resources, particularly through mining. One common theme across the region has been that communities and First Nations want to benefit from any developments that take place.

Discussions about those benefits often revolve around contracts, employment and training opportunities for local people. Youth leather workshops, to my knowledge, have never featured prominently in discussions and agreements.

Communities, however, need to broaden their concepts of what can be gained as companies try to build good working relations with residents in the area they are hoping do business in or have already established a base in.

Let's be frank.

If a resource development company, or any company for that matter, is looking to begin operating in your area, you should look to get every conceivable benefit out of that relationship. It sounds greedy and probably is, but it's also practical.

Communities in the Deh Cho don't have a lot of spare resources to devote to activities and facilities that aren't essential. Junior resource development companies may not have a lot of money either, but they will have a budget for community relations.

Communities and First Nations' governments need to work openly with companies to identify their community's needs and the best ways to meet them using local resources and talents. If this relationship is done right, things such as youth leather workshops can arise.

Such workshops aren't creating contracts for development corporations, employing large numbers of people or providing training related to an industry, except perhaps the fashion industry. But that does not negate their value or importance. Communities need to remain open to taking advantage of smaller opportunities that could enrich residents' lives.

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Take the time to teach
Editorial Comment
Danielle Sachs
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012

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A young girl borrowed my camera last week. After a quick five-minute lesson, she was off snapping photos like she was the next Jimmy Olsen.

The moment was soon forgotten until I uploaded the photos onto the work computer and saw she had taken some hauntingly beautiful portraits of her fellow campers.

I wish I had taken the time to look through them while I was there so I could have told her how great I thought they were.

We can talk about visiting ministers, tourists and military personnel all we want, but they're not the ones who run this town.

Sure visitors have an impact. They spend money on food, tours and lodging.

The people who keep it going, however, are volunteers.

They organize events, ump ball games, supervise dances, help out at the Inuvik Youth Centre, give up weekends building a cabin and even unofficially take in a lost dog or two to keep it out of the pound.

It's a thankless job but luckily there are so many people in this community that give up time for, well, their community.

Did we mention they put out fires? Both literally and figuratively.

That fight that almost happened at some dance? Solved by volunteer security.

The youth in this town have so much talent and they need volunteers to help nurture that.

Inuvik is kind of isolated, everyone knows that. The fact is, you can't offer endless courses at school when there are only so many people who would be interested in them.

It's also hard to get longevity out of programs. Residents come and go depending on their work contracts and with them leave skills they had to share with the community.

Unless, of course, they took the time to teach someone else.

Volunteers make time because they care and want to help make the community everything it can be. It's what makes some people come for a year and stay for 30 more.

It brings me back to the young female version of Jimmy Olsen.

I hope there's someone out there who can show you the next step and help teach you about photography.

All it takes is five minutes.

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Digital healing
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012

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Yellowknife-based general practitioner Dr. Ewan Affleck has shown leadership in the Canadian medical community by striving to improve NWT patient care through technological innovation.

Throughout his two decades living and working in the North, Affleck has sought strategies to more equitably and efficiently serve 42,000 people spread across more than 30 NWT communities, a quarter of whom were physically moved for health-care purposes last year, according to statistics the physician shared during the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) conference in Yellowknife last week.

Affleck describes the delivery of health care in the NWT as "a difficulty, a challenge, and a gift all at the same time."

His compassion and creativity have helped him find ways to humanize health care by moving information, instead of patients, over long distances. By promoting modern health information systems, which he pioneered as part of his work for the medical clinic offered to clients at the Centre for Northern Families, his team has managed to digitize records for more than half the NWT patients on the electronic medical record system.

Last week, Affleck also introduced CMA delegates to a mental health pilot program that couples electronic medical records with teleconferencing technology to connect NWT patients with physicians at Stanton Territorial Hospital or at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Stanton's partner facility in the project.

The initiative, which is being designed for two yet-to-be-identified NWT communities so far, will allow follow-up care in cases where personal visits might not otherwise be possible or practical. Digitized charts allow doctors to remotely access patient histories, permitting them to write prescriptions and order lab tests.

The theme of this year's CMA conference focused on how social and environmental factors affect the health of Canadians. Affleck's example offered insight into how obstacles to health care can be overcome with technology and compassion.

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Little hope for Robertson Headframe
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012

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What we need to save the Robertson Headframe at Con Mine, shuttered now for nearly a decade, is an eccentric person with money to burn.

If no one fitting that description steps forward then the inevitable day will come when the NWT's tallest structure gets knocked down and another part of Yellowknife's gold mining past will be tossed into the dustbin of history.

The immense size of Robertson Headframe alone has sealed its fate. Who is going to pay to operate and maintain a 76-metre tall building that can serve no apparent purpose other than its original one? It was designed to lower and lift workers and equipment down to underground mine chambers now filling up with water.

A report to the city's heritage committee in 2008 pegged the cost of refurbishing options for the headframe as follows: $20 million for a geothermal plant and indoor gardens; $20 million for a glassed-in lookout on the rooftop; $40 million for a science and technology park; $50 million to build condos in the tower; and $100 million to convert it into a luxury hotel.

These schemes all very nice and grand but every one of them is a deal-breaker, unless taxpayers are willing to foot the astronomical bill any one of them would require. Considering that the city is already borrowing $20 million to build a new water treatment plant and fix crumbling roads and sewer pipes, council is wise to keep this one off the table.

What a shame. Where is a zany, rich admirer of mining heritage monoliths when you need one?

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A weekend at the games
Tim Edwards
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012

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The Rankin Inlet Co-ed Softball League hit the ball out of the park with the Calm Air Cup on the weekend of Aug. 10.

The event itself was a success - only one injury, four of the 10 teams were from out of town, a lucky draw on the weather after storms had been forecast, plenty of attendance and an appropriate amount of good-natured jeering from the beer gardens, which also were very popular.

Tournaments such as this are fantastic and real feats in a region where there are no roads connecting any communities. Calm Air's reduced rates to Rankin for the weekend and continued sponsorship of the tournament also deserve serious props.

Not only was it a chance for softball players, who practise all summer, to compete for a trophy and a spot at the territorials, but it was a chance for the community to get together for one big party. Whether they watched from the bleachers or from the beer gardens, the audience was either constantly entertained or providing its own entertainment.

Teams from around the region had a chance to play on the new field, which, by all accounts, is a marked improvement upon what they'd been playing on before.

As well, a big sports competition like the Calm Air Cup creates a buzz among the kids in the community that lasts past the end of the games. Young softball players could be seen tossing balls around in the streets before the tournament, but afterwards it was hard to find a street where there weren't any kids being baseball stars.

Whether they had real gloves and baseballs or a foam ball and a stick, Rankin Inlet's children had their minds on the sport. Sugary foods and TV have taken their toll on the physical fitness of many of today's young, but tournaments like this help fight back against easy inactivity. The kids see their older brothers, cousins or friends playing well on the field and the kids want to step into their shoes.

So thanks to the league, the volunteers, the Royal Canadian Legion, Calm Air, the teams and the audience - you done good!

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

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