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Nobody likes having to pay taxes and the prospect of another tax on booze won't be well received by some.

That said, the idea of the city introducing a tax on beer, wine and spirits as a means to boost efforts to lessen the damage done by people with addictions in Yellowknife's downtown has some merit.

Mayor Mark Heyck was warm to exploring the idea after looking at a recent proposal by a municipal councillor in Swan River, Man., who wanted to introduce a bylaw which would impose a three per cent tax on booze to pay for community policing initiatives.

Heyck sees a tax on alcoholic products as a way to diversify the city's revenue stream, which he says is too dependent on property owners.

He isn't saying the city will adopt a tax on booze, but other municipalities across Canada are looking at the idea and he thinks Yellowknife should have the discussion, too.

We're not talking about an excessive burden on alcohol consumers here. A three per cent tax would add about 45 cents to an average six-pack of beer and about 55 cents to a mickey of hard liquor. It would generate about $1.2 million annually, based on the amount of booze sold in the capital city for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, enough to cover the cost of maybe three more RCMP officers. Increasing the presence of police in the downtown core may help reduce public intoxication, a rampant problem, and associated crime.

Yes, the government already collects substantial taxes from liquor. That revenue goes into general coffers and the GNWT is strained to cover rising expenses related to health, education, transportation and other sectors.

There isn't enough left over for hiring additional police officers, so that's where those who consume alcohol come in, even if problems from over-consumption only exist among a small percentage of drinkers.

The extra money generated wouldn't have to go to strictly to policing, either. City council would do well to look at supporting those agencies dedicated to helping those with addictions as well as those impacted by the issue. Of course, for this to get off the ground, the city would have to work with the territorial government to make changes to the NWT Liquor Act and set a mechanism for collecting the tax and distributing the funds.

The Dene Ko Day Shelter, run by the John Howard Society, could put more funds to good use, as could the Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army.

It's a problem with far-reaching consequences, and a three per cent tax on alcohol isn't too much to ask to help combat it.

The Idle No More movement has gathered a following in the Deh Cho.

The first event in the region was a march held in Fort Simpson on Dec. 10. Quickly planned, the event attracted approximately 30 people.

Building strength, a second event in the village on Dec. 21 brought together approximately 55 people to a fire feeding ceremony, which led into a longer march. In both cases, the participants, aboriginal and otherwise, were primarily from the village.

The most recent event in the region, in Fort Providence on the weekend, was even larger and gathered wider interest. Participants say more than 100 people from multiple communities gathered by the Deh Cho Bridge to demonstrate on Jan. 5.

There are a few interesting aspects about the movement. First is the speed at which it has spread across the country and even other parts of the world from its roots in Saskatchewan in November. Second is the way it has drawn together both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. Third is the way that different people involved in the movement have different understandings of what it is about and emphasize different aspects of it.

The most interesting aspect of the movement, however, is where it is going.

One common theme at many of the Idle No More events that have been held is the call to repeal the contentious omnibus bills including C-45 and C-38 that have affected a wide number of issues including treaty rights and environmental protection. The movement, however, is about more than that.

It's also about honouring and fulfilling indigenous sovereignty and changing the way the Canadian government interacts with aboriginal governments and their treaty rights. The support that Idle No More has found in the Deh Cho may be traced, in part, to the fact that getting the federal government to recognize, respect and act appropriately to treaty rights is something First Nations groups in the Deh Cho have struggled with for a long time, often to great frustration.

With that comes the realization that Idle No More has some very broad goals and, as a result, it may be hard to tell if real progress is being made and to sustain the level of involvement and enthusiasm in the movement.

Do changes in the relationship between Canada and First Nations peoples need to be changed? Absolutely. Will Idle No More successfully lead to those changes or will the movement gradually lose momentum? That is the real question and part of what makes Idle No More so interesting and something we'll undoubtedly hear more about as the new year unfolds.

The cold nights and endless days of darkness have been draining.

At times it has felt almost impossible to roll out of bed, get dressed and venture outside the comforting warmth of the house.

But it's a time of renewal. The sun is back, it's 2013 and everyone is feeling fresh from the holidays.

In the spirit of the new year, many of us have likely challenged ourselves to make a change. Perhaps you've convinced yourself this is the time to lose weight, exercise more or get better organized.

Personally, I'm working on breaking myself out of the winter rut. It's easy sometimes to just stay inside and stare at a TV, but I want to brave the cold and get out there because Inuvik has a lot to offer.

This past weekend, for instance, the town lit up with the Sunrise Festival. There was the Taste of Inuvik, a free pancake breakfast, outdoor activities at Jim Koe Park, fireworks and an impressive bonfire for all to enjoy.

The event reminded me how great this town is and how wonderful it is to get out and interact with everyone. It spurred me to want to do more and it was easy to find more ways to get involved.

This weekend alone, Inuvik is hosting well-known Canadian singer Lights, the energy fair, the Beaufort Delta Regional Council meeting and the German Space Agency.

There is much more to do than attend special events, as well.

There is the Inuvik Ski Club with its large network of groomed trails, free skating at the Midnight Sun Complex, and lots of athletic clubs to join.

Then there is the more touristy stuff.

Over the holidays I ventured out to the Arctic Chalet for some dogsledding and it reminded me that there is a reason tourists do tourist things – they're fun!

It was such a thrill being pulled by three gorgeous white huskies as they raced along small paths carved throughout the forest.

Meanwhile, the Northern lights will continue to take my breath away until the day I die.

The point is, it's easy to stay cooped up in the house, but if you do you're missing out. There is an endless list of things to do, so let's get off our couches and get out there.

I challenge you to rediscover Inuvik.

In a manner of speaking, Prelude Lake Territorial Park is a victim of its own desirability.

Nestled on a Precambrian shore a short half-hour drive from the city, it is the premier camping site around Yellowknife.

Visitors have access to a 17-km long lake filled with attractive islands, pristine water and tasty lake trout. The sheltered, sandy terrain above the lake provides a perfect location for the park's 63 campsites and an ideal staging point for two idyllic hiking trails.

Granted, Prelude Lake is a relatively busy place when compared to other Ingraham Trail locations. Not only does the campground have the highest average daily occupancy rate in the territory at 61 per cent, there are 32 full-time private residences in the park in addition to 100 or more seasonal cabins also dotting the landscape. But in the great scheme of things, considering the congestion and hassle one encounters in other parks south of the 60th parallel, the situation at Prelude is far from being a woebegone state.

Still, the GNWT is at a crossroads when it comes to park access in the Yellowknife area. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has been timidly tackling the need for more camping opportunities during the last several years but it clearly has not been enough. The department's own Prelude Lake draft management plan indicates the daily occupancy rate at the park has jumped by 90 per cent since 2009. The GNWT has been aggressively promoting NWT parks to tourists - not a bad thing - but Yellowknife residents remain by far the largest user group at Prelude Lake, and the two other area parks at Long Lake and Reid Lake. This leaves city dwellers frustrated when it comes to the growing demand for limited camping opportunities.

Over the last four years the government's response has been to take 40 popular, full-season campsites - used almost exclusively by Yellowknifers - and turn them into 80 half-season campsites, ensuring nobody would be happy. Add to that the decision to build another loop of 18 campsites where it was least needed, at Reid Lake Territorial Park - 65 km from Yellowknife. Meanwhile, a plan to build an RV park in or around Yellowknife to relieve tourism pressure on nearby Fred Henne Territorial Park - by far the busiest location, accounting for nearly one third of all 24,323 NWT park visits in 2009 - has long since succumbed to not-in-my-backyard political pressure.

The GNWT's proposal for upgrades at Prelude Lake is long overdue. The plan to add an additional 15 campsites is bound to be controversial to permanent residents who complain the park is busy enough as it is. Other upgrades, however, such as replacing the dock and expanding the wholly inadequate marina parking lot will surely be met with widespread approval.

Yellowknifer would also argue, as it has several times in the past, that the GNWT should add additional campground loops at Fred Henne in conjunction with the construction of the Ingraham Trail bypass route around Giant Mine. This would seem a logical step, which the GNWT has acknowledged, considering that the new road will run next door to the park.

In any event, ITI has chosen this Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Tree of Peace Building as the date to hear from the public on its proposals for Prelude Lake. People interested in Prelude Lake park and camping in general should attend this meeting and make themselves heard, or e-mail the government with suggestions if they can't be there on Sunday.

This is an opportunity to let the GNWT know how important it is for Yellowknife residents to have an adequate number of camping sites available at a reasonable distance from the city. Other alternatives, like building a cabin, are not an option due to ongoing land claims.

Hopefully this is the year the territorial government takes Yellowknifers' camping needs seriously and acts on them.

Having a liquor ban in place during the holidays, and crediting it for why people behave themselves, is a mug's game.

The problem with the approach is, of course, some people don't always behave themselves, liquor ban or no liquor ban.

In Rankin Inlet, the RCMP admitted the annual ban on obtaining a permit to order booze from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3 had no effect in slowing down calls to the police.

The number and types of calls the police received during the holiday season didn't change at all.

And it may not change next year or the year after that. Then again, it may.

And, if so, does that mean the import ban is magically effective again?

Of course not, because the import ban has absolutely nothing to do with how people behave during the holiday season or any other time of year.

There's but one group of people in a community who benefit from any type of liquor ban and you can find them under the B for bootleggers. If you believe hamlet council's ban on ordering liquor for a certain period of time truly keeps booze out of your community, you must also believe, by extension, nobody underage drinks in Canada.

It's the law, right?

And it's a law passed by a government with considerably more power than our local hamlet councils. Yet, every weekend, pretty much anywhere in Canada, a percentage of underage teenagers roam around with a snoot full.

Some studies suggest liquor bans can actually set the table for binge drinking.

As the police will attest, people will, in fact, place large liquor orders close to the ban deadline.

Many do it with the intention of having enough to make just a little merry throughout the holiday season.

But booze is no different than anything else. When there's an excessive amount of something, people will use more of it.

Bring the price of bootleg liquor into the picture, and people act more radically.

They mix their drinks stronger, if at all, and drink faster because at that cost, they want their money's worth.

Unfortunately, with hard liquor, that's almost always a volatile cocktail that ends with someone getting hurt and/or getting to wear a shiny new pair of bracelets for a little while during the holidays.

When you look at it from those two perspectives, holiday booze bans don't seem quite so compelling. Good people sometimes make bad mistakes, so there are always exceptions, but police in most jurisdictions, when they're in the mood to be forthcoming with the facts, will tell you they pretty much deal with the same five per cent of the community during the holidays as they do any other time of year.

Some folks just don't get it and they never will.

But the vast majority of people in wet communities are responsible folks who can have a few drinks - and even a couple too many on occasion - and not get on the wrong side of the law or their family.

In the end, whether one wants to accept it or not, it all boils down to human behaviour, and some humans choose to behave badly.

Oh for the cure to dumb behaviour to be as simple as passing a motion!

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus came out firing at Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week, stating that if Chief Theresa Spence, of Attawapiskat, Ont., dies on her hunger strike it will cause tensions between Canada and its indigenous peoples comparable to the 1990s Oka crisis.

That clash in Quebec was a violent land dispute between a Mohawk band and the Canadian government. Erasmus went so far as to suggest the prime minister might be in danger if the Ontario chief dies.

Although Erasmus' comments drew very little reaction, he may be right about the potential explosiveness of the situation.

It can be argued that Canada's relationship with aboriginal populations is at an all-time low. Tensions are not only being fuelled by Harper's initial decision not to meet with Spence but by recent pressure from the United Nations for Canada to improve the rights of aboriginal people. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's office helped fan the flames when it ridiculously stated that the United Nations had no business wasting its resources on countries such as Canada.

Fortunately, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan doesn't display the same political buffoonery as his counterpart. Duncan, at least, has expressed concern for Spence's health and has offered to meet her in person or speak to her by phone. Canada can no longer sweep these issues under the rug, tack the corners down and ask people not to look, hoping the problem will disappear.

Low education levels, poor nutrition and diabetes, poverty, inadequate housing, addictions, and a host of other issues plague aboriginal communities across the country.

This predicament has divided the country. On one side there are those who blame chiefs and other indigenous leaders for fiscal mismanagement. On the flip side, others say the Canadian government has for too long ignored aboriginal rights and allowed near-Third-World conditions to persist.

Idle No More protests are being held in communities in every province and territory, ranging from marches to blockades of major transportation routes. The movement is being supported by aboriginals and non-aboriginals alike.

We have reached a boiling point and the anger is real. Here in Yellowknife hundreds marched in support over the Christmas break, sporting signs such as "Moosehide tanners against fascism." In the south, signs reading "Nazi Canada" and "Racist Canada" have also popped up.

Spence has become the figurehead of the movement and if her broth-based hunger strike causes her health concerns, or worse, if she were to die, the movement will have a martyr.

Martyrs have the power to inspire extremism and then diffusing the situation will become much more difficult. A violent backlash might follow.

It is time for Canada to swallow its pride and recognize that this grassroots problem requires a grassroots solution. Harper must step up and show his leadership by agreeing to meet with Spence and other aboriginal leaders. It is time for a nationwide summit between aboriginal leaders and the federal government to find solutions and review concerns associated with the omnibus bills, which cram aboriginal legislation in with broader economic law.

Our country stands divided and it is our prime minister's responsibility to broker peace. In fact, at this point, it is his duty to do that. Word came Friday that Harper will meet with a delegation of First Nations chiefs on Jan. 11. He must seize the chance to begin mending relations.

The death of six-month-old Isaac Appaqaq in a Dec. 22 plane crash was tragic beyond words. Worse yet is to imagine his mother's grief, having her son ripped from her arms by the force of the plane's violent crash landing.

The only way to prevent this from happening again is to apply the same safety standards to infants as are already in place for other passengers - they must be buckled in their own seats.

When a plane travelling hundreds of kilometres an hour comes to an abrupt halt, anything unsecured inside the aircraft keeps travelling at a high rate of speed. This is the reason baggage is stowed securely in overhead storage bins or under passengers' seats upon takeoffs and landings.

It's time we stop letting safety standards slide when it comes to our children.

This is by no means a simple fix. Air travel in Nunavut is exceedingly expensive, and surely being able to avoid purchasing a second plane ticket - which can easily cost $1,000 apiece - for the first year or two of a child's life is a necessity for some parents, many of whom opt instead to just hold their child on their lap during the flight.

Considering other alternatives, standard plane seats are not designed for infants. Airlines should consider having child seats available for their youngest passengers.

Though incidents such as the one in Sanikiluaq have not been common, the risk is always there. The risks of flying in the North have been underscored by recent accidents such as the First Air crash that killed 12 passengers in Resolute in August 2011, as well as two smaller aircraft crashes in Yellowknife that same year.

Fierce winter weather adds another hazard.

The factors leading to the crash in Sanikiluaq are not yet public, and depending on what happened, other steps toward safer flying might be necessary.

Even before the investigation is concluded, it would be advisable to begin making flying safer for infants.

The arms of a human, no matter how much love exists in their clutch, are just not reliable enough to be able to keep a child secure.

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