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Devolution. It's a word that has been circulating the halls of the GNWT and Northern communities for more than two decades.

Over those years, four premiers have sung the benefits of the territory assuming province-like powers and each has, at one point or another, claimed to be close to a deal with the federal government.

Like Moses's biblical quest across the desert in search of the promised land, devolution has become a shimmering mirage. Most people are at the point that they'll believe the tales of wealth and autonomy when the ink finally hits the paper.

There is no question the Devolution Agreement-in-Principle has brought us closer to finalizing the transfer of power than at any time in the past. However, the road ahead won't be easy. Many concerns have been raised by aboriginal groups and MLAs about how devolution will truly benefit the GNWT. Premier Bob McLeod insists the NWT will save millions per year and make millions more in resource revenue.

Aboriginal leaders who have not signed on to the agreement-in-principle have not bought into the benefits, nor do they believe the consultation has been sufficient. Although the premier has said the devolution caravan will push ahead without that support, there is potential that lawsuits could further delay an agreement.

MLAs Bob Bromley, Norman Yakeleya and a few others are also raising alarm bells over the NWT's role in environmental protection when devolution takes effect. Instead of assuming the power to legislate our own regulatory regime, we will be left to administer on behalf of the Government of Canada. The NWT needs autonomy over development. It is vital that Northerners dictate the type of development they want to see on their land and the levels of protection in place.

It is also important to note that devolution will in no way free us from the purse strings of Ottawa. Had devolution been in place in 2012, the territory would have retained approximately $65 million in resource revenue, according to the GNWT devolution office. Despite the government's assertions that federal transfer payments won't be affected by devolution - a point we remain skeptical about - $65 million comes nowhere near the billion dollars we receive from Ottawa every year, which makes up the bulk of our budget.

There is no question devolution is important and every premier over the past 20 years has been hoping to be the one to sign their name to the historic document. Nevertheless, we should not grow impatient or view the length of time to ratify an agreement as a failure. The choices made under devolution will have sweeping effects on the territory, so ensuring we get the best possible terms is worth the wait.

Hopefully our political leaders can keep that in mind and not settle for a second-rate deal just so they can say they were the ones to finally make it official.

As many of our readers know all too well, the land of the North can be a treacherous place.

One must always be vigilant and situationally aware.

The predatory beasts that inhabit this land are of less concern than the winds, snow and temperature - the inherit risks of the Northern environment.

The modern world is no less dangerous, though its dangers and obstacles are different, and perhaps more difficult for which to prepare.

The skills one uses on the land are clear and well-defined; they can be learned by watching and taught by doing. Though life skills for the modern world are less clear and well-defined, they can be taught and honed, and are just as essential to young Nunavummiut.

Nunavut News/North has consistently stressed the necessity of maintaining traditional skills and values. It's important both for the survival of culture and for an individual's physical survival on the land.

The modern world's direct parallel to nature's hostilities must be recognized, and we must - as peers, parents, teachers and friends - enforce modern values with the same gusto as we do traditional values.

Being late for a meeting, or for work, is no more a moral issue than heading for shore when the wind picks up. It's just what one must do to get by. Failure in academics is not something to be ashamed of - or a sign that these subjects are not worth learning - but a step in education.

Inuit are incredibly lucky to have profound knowledge about living on the land; knowledge that has been passed down and honed since time immemorial. Much of these related skills, however, do not directly apply to the world that began overseas and imposed itself upon North America. This world was vastly different, and most, if not all, Inuit were hit hard by its differences and are trying to adjust while holding on to the ways of life that define them.

Maintaining both is possible, but adaption to the modern world cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of teachers brought up from the south. Its importance must be recognized by all, and we are seeing every day the effects of not adjusting.

Our high rates of alcoholism, youth suicide and terrible violence all have roots in this culture clash. Skills of conflict management, coping strategies and goal-setting - such as what is being taught in Arviat's Leadership Resiliency Program - must be emphasized as much as hunting and survival. These are, after all, survival skills as well.

No Inuk asked for the Western world to come and fundamentally change the way life works on this beautiful and powerful land mass, but this is the world we have today. This is the world our children are inheriting. To live optimally, they must retain a grasp on their Inuit heritage while adapting to values promoted in school and the workplace.

Money should be no obstacle when it comes to desperately-needed treatment services for Yellowknife residents afflicted by alcohol and substance addictions.

Professionals and a designated treatment centre are needed to help people live productive lives, not only because it is the compassionate thing to do but also because it will save taxpayers money in the long run.

Take, for example, the case of Rose Martel, a 39-year-old 14-time repeat offender who is serving five months in jail for a shoplifting spree that took place over 21 months. Martel's string of crimes began at Canadian Tire in April 2011, followed by Shoppers Drug Mart, the Yellowknife Downtown Liquor Store and, last month, Barren Land Jewellery, where she stole a rack of earrings valued at $1,665.

Martel has a painful past, and satisfying her crack cocaine addiction is the motive for her crimes, according to her lawyer.

Also disturbing is the case of Shane Elanik, a 35-year-old offender with 56 prior convictions who was sentenced to 30 months in jail for nine more convictions, most of them related to a month-long rash of thefts late last summer. He stole from the Old Airport Road Extra Foods, Sears, and broke into Acme Analytical Labs Ltd., the Super 8 Motel, and Staples, where he stole laptops valued at $1,945. He also attempted to steal cash from the Monkey Tree Gas Bar.

Like Martel, Elanik suffered a painful past, and similar to Martel, his lawyer said feeding a crack cocaine addiction was the motive for his crimes.

Clearly, the court costs and costs to businesses that were the victims of these crimes makes a mark on the public and private bottom lines. Reaching out to support people with addictions before they end up in jail, or soon after they are released, is key to cutting this human and economic toll.

Yesterday's territorial budget announced $1.15 million for mental health and addictions prevention and awareness initiatives. The funding also aims to develop detox program models, improve case management for people dealing with mental health issues, and connecting clients with mental health treatment and follow- up services through the tele-health system.

Another $339,000 is being set aside to continue the pilot alcohol and drug treatment program at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River, where a majority of the offenders suffer substance abuse problems.

However, the new funding merely represents a refinement and maintenance of the status quo when it comes to pulling addicts away from the criminal margins of society.

More in-depth intervention is needed given the scale of the problem in the NWT, which is concentrated in the capital - the North's largest centre and the place where many addicts from communities land. This will come at a cost.

Operational expenditures for the Department of Justice, of which court costs account for a substantial portion of the expense, amount to almost $117 million in the 2013-2014 budget. Each person accused of crimes costs thousands of dollars in expenses related to police, court clerks, judges, and jail staff if they are kept in custody or given a sentence behind bars.

Money spent on a Yellowknife treatment centre would be a wise investment to help lower these lofty figures over the long term while improving lives along the way.

It's great to hear about the strength of the Canadian Ranger patrol in Fort Providence.

The patrol has more than 30 members, 21 of whom participated in a training session and on-the-land patrol last month. As the five-day patrol demonstrated, the Ranger program brings with it a number of positive benefits.

One of the great parts of the Ranger's program is the emphasis it places on traditional and bush skills.

Being on the land is one of the parts of being a Ranger that Sgt. Clifford Vandell, the officer in charge of the Fort Providence Rangers, enjoys most. Vandell joined the Rangers 13 years ago after being away from Fort Providence for approximately eight years.

He wanted to get out on the land more often and learn more while he was there. It's great to be on the land and learn from more experienced Rangers, he said.

In the Deh Cho, a lot of emphasis is placed on the importance of teaching youth traditional skills. However, there is seldom talk of how to pass on or strengthen those same skills in adults who may not have learned them, or simply haven't had many chances to use them.

The Rangers fills that gap. Sgt. Marcy Maddison, a Ranger instructor, said the annual patrols gives the older Rangers a chance to pass on knowledge to the younger ones.

"They've got that experience on the land," she said.

In addition to passing on bush skills, the Canadian Rangers can also play an important role when disasters strike or search and rescues have to be undertaken.

While on patrol, the Fort Providence Rangers did a search and rescue drill in which they were tasked with locating two hunters, known to be in their area, who were two days overdue.

If two hunters had really been missing, they would have counted themselves lucky to have the Rangers on their trail. In the simulation, the Rangers found the two mock hunters in approximately 45 minutes and were quickly administering first aid, warming them up with blankets and a fire and setting up a tent for shelter.

The patrol members in Fort Providence and other Northern communities are upholding the history of the Canadian Rangers. They are keeping traditional bush skills alive and preparing to serve when they are called on.

The distinctive red hoodies that Canadian Rangers wear should be considered a sign that deserves respect.

It shouldn't be news to anyone that Inuvik is struggling through a difficult economic period.

Nevertheless, a visit by the GNWT Economic Opportunities Strategy panel last week brought many issues to the forefront.

Several local business owners grumbled about the lack of proper marketing, direction and resources from the GNWT when it came to tourism. Others blamed the government for creating a regulatory nightmare that chases potential big-bucks developers off. Still others blamed the government for contributing to, if not creating, a system of dependency that is robbing people of their independence by making it difficult to cut themselves off from support programs, if not outright discouraging it.

All these claims have validity to them, but the onus cannot be put solely on the government.

Rather than take the blunderbuss approach, I'm going to narrow my focus to the tourism market, and the problems it has that we can fix.

"Tourism is a 24/7 business," assistant deputy-mayor Alana Mero said at the panel. "Tourism has to be a lifestyle. The community has to be motivated, or there's no buy-in."

I think Mero put her finger on one of the cruxes of the problem when it comes to tourism here. I've travelled extensively across Canada, in small Northern towns and larger urban centres, and there are places that just "get" the concept of tourism, which is strongly associated with customer service, but far more don't.

Now, I don't want to ruffle too many feathers here in Inuvik, particularly since I've been here only a week or so – but I am going to stir the pot a little. Or maybe, I'm going to stir it a lot.

While I've found most people here to be extremely friendly and welcoming (which is something I truly appreciate), Inuvik immediately strikes me as a place that doesn't, to use Mero's phrase, buy into tourism. By extension, customer service in town needs to satisfy tourists. Instead of enthusiasm, apathy abounds.

While people are fiercely protective and loyal to the town, and justifiably proud of many things associated with it, my first impression is that there is a profound ignorance, if not outright obliviousness, as to why someone would want to visit here. It's an indication of a troubling and perplexing lack of curiosity and appreciation for what surrounds you.

I've seen the same thing in town after town and region after region. It's not so much that residents are jaded about the charms of where they live, instead, it's more likely they've never experienced them at all because the "grass is always greener somewhere else."

I lived just outside of one small town in Ontario for more than 10 years. Just beyond the town limits is a fantastic cave system with spectacular photographic possibilities. You know who visits it though? Tourists and transplants. Most people born and raised there had never visited.

I see signs of the same apathy in Inuvik, and that's clearly one of the problems with tourism here. Many people just aren't excited to be living in the town, and I think they should be. That's also something that visitors will quickly pick up on, and word of mouth, especially with social media, travels fast and far.

As chamber of commerce president Newton Grey said at the meeting, "we have to get Canadians excited about coming to the NWT."

The people here already have to be excited, too.

The disparity in the price of gasoline in NWT communities has some motorists angry as they pull up to the pump in Yellowknife, faced with paying $1.38 per litre for regular grade gasoline while our southern neighbours in Hay River were paying only $1.12 last week. The price has since climbed by nine cents.

Mixed with the outrage that the cost has remained high in the capital city for so long is the question, "Why?"

Finding that answer is no easy task because there are so many factors at play.

Included in the price of gasoline is the cost of producing the fuel itself, of course. Then there is federal tax, the GST, which is unfairly applied to the after-tax price, territorial tax, the cost of delivery and a built-in margin of profit for the retailer.

Setting the wholesale price at the refinery gets complicated simply because gasoline is a commodity. Its price is set in part based on the trading price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the global market. There are other factors to throw into the murky mix as well, such as the location of the refinery being used to supply communities in the North. When a refinery shuts down for regular maintenance, it is not uncommon for there to be a spike in prices before they gradually come down again.

Some are ready to blame Deh Cho Bridge tolls - which have been in effect for a little more than two months - for keeping the prices high. However, the Department of Transportation insists that those tolls account for only up to half a cent per litre in additional costs.

Gasoline is perceived as a necessity. It keep the wheels of commerce turning because it is a basic ingredient of the transportation industry. Groceries wouldn't get to the stores, the gasoline itself wouldn't be delivered and many goods in the North wouldn't be available if it wasn't for the diesel fuel used to power the vehicles used to transport them. As well, most consumers use gasoline to get to work and back.

That is also why emotions run high when there is a disparity in price, especially when the difference in price is 26 cents per litre. People feel like they are being unfairly targeted. Adding to the frustration is the fact that there is no single entity through which people can vent their anger. Therefore the best place for people to make their opinions known is to their elected officials, who can give those concerns voice in the legislative assembly. That isn't to suggest that Yellowknifer is endorsing government regulation of gasoline prices, as exists in some other jurisdictions, like Nova Scotia. That would surely result in residents of the capital subsidizing gas prices in far northern and remote communities, where prices are much higher than here.

What we do need is for some authority to at least force answers to emerge. In the absence of a competition bureau, the territorial house of government is the obvious place to turn. The problem is that the government is notorious for acting slowly and motorists will spend the interim growling at the pumps and lighter in the wallet.

While we're confident the new Rankin Inlet Healing Centre should, in the long run, prove itself beneficial to the region, it is not without hiccups despite all the back-slapping surrounding its grand opening in Rankin this past month.

The news of construction overruns and staffing difficulties is nothing new to the Kivalliq, nor across Nunavut for that matter, but there are some disturbing trends surfacing at the new facility.

Despite Minister Daniel Shewchuk's assurances to the contrary, word coming out of the healing centre is that not everyone's walking around all smiles and contentment.

Supervisors are putting in far too much time on the job waiting for proper staffing, and a number of the caseworkers and supervisors appear to be less than enthralled by the leadership, or lack thereof, they've seen at the facility to date.

And, let's be honest, it's never a good thing when your first choice for leader is suspended and investigated for workplace incidents during his first year on the job.

We can't help but wonder if the right message is being sent to the inmates using the titles of warden, and deputy warden, etc., to begin with.

After all, Nunavut's Department of Justice is going out of its way to build the new facility up as a healing centre and downplay the whole "jail" concept.

If that's truly the case, and the message we want to send the inmates, maybe programs co-ordinator and general manager would help make a more positive connection with the inmates.

That's always the problem when you start tinkering with concepts and terminology, and decide you don't have a jail with guards, you have a healing centre with caseworkers.

The same can be said when you guarantee your healing centre will only be home to low- and medium-risk inmates, while knowing full well it will also be home to people on remand.

Even though they've yet to be convicted of a crime, those held on remand are considered high risk.

Many don't want to be in custody to begin with and others aren't exactly looking forward to their day in court.

They are regarded by the system as high risk because there's more likelihood they may try to escape.

In the every day life of the incarcerated, inmates have to be taken out for such things as a dental appointment or a hospital visit, especially in an emergency if, for example, one inmate were to injure another.

Sentenced inmates in low- or medium-risk institutions are almost always escorted by a single guard (caseworker) while someone on remand is escorted by two.

We can't help but wonder, also, if our healing facility is properly prepared if an inmate decides to act more like a criminal than a client being rehabilitated.

If you're too focused on being a healing facility, and downplaying the fact your inmates did break the law to be there, some priorities may slide down the list.

It would be nice to know the healing centre has pepper spray on hand should one inmate try to hurt another and a supervisor intervene.

Jails and healing centres are very different concepts in their practical application, and the people who inhabit them on both sides of the legal line stand to lose the most when decisions are made on concepts rather than reality.

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