Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

When tragedy strikes and hearts are racing with a desire to get help quickly, who are you going to call?

That is the dilemma in Yellowknife and smaller communities in the Northwest Territories, where emergency services providers have different telephone numbers. For police in Yellowknife, it's any local prefix then 1111. For fire services or an ambulance in Yellowknife, the number to call is any local prefix then 2222. For others in North America, there is only one number to remember - 9-1-1.

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro is one of many people who want 9-1-1 service to be established in the capital city and the rest of the territory. She raised the issue in the legislative assembly last week and, quite correctly, pointed out that 85 to 90 per cent of territorial residents will have cellphone service in their communities within two years.

Cellphones have become so popular that many residents don't have a landline at home, relying instead on their mobile devices to stay connected. Given the nature of Yellowknife's transient population, how many people who find themselves in a precarious situation know the number to dial when emergency help is required?

Given a situation where seconds count because a victim is in serious need of medical attention, the difference between finding the right number to dial rather than calling 9-1-1 can mean the difference between life and death. It's happened before, in a 2000 incident involving a woman who fell through the ice outside of the city. She froze to death because help did not arrive in time, partially because cellphone coverage was spotty and partially because the person calling for help didn't know the correct number.

It is encouraging that Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Robert C. McLeod is willing to look at proposals to establish 9-1-1 phone service. And it has been proposed in previous feasibility studies that the logical next step is for 9-1-1 phone service to be established in Yellowknife using the existing RCMP call centre for emergencies in Yellowknife, Dettah, Ndilo and the Ingraham Trail before expansion to the communities.

There has been enough discussion and delays. Now is the time for the city of Yellowknife to get busy preparing a proposal, thus preventing another tragic outcome.

The Yellowknife RCMP's decision to reopen the investigation into an alleged assault of a woman by a municipal enforcement officer just prior to the start of last year's Santa Claus Parade was the right choice to make.

The altercation unfolded after a driver and her two grandchildren, age 11 and 4, were pulled over near 51 Avenue and 49 Street. Two bylaw officers were on the scene, and one of them allegedly tried to pull the still-belted driver out of her seat after twice trying to grab a cellphone from her hand, with which she was trying to call a family member.

The video cameras on the dashboard of the municipal enforcement vehicles had, unfortunately, been shut off.

Yellowknifer and some members of the public were concerned when RCMP declared the case closed earlier this month because police had not yet interviewed one of the witnesses who had come forward.

Thankfully, Chief Supt. Wade Blake, commanding officer of the RCMP G Division, asked officers to re-examine the file after reading an article in Yellowknifer ("Bylaw officer cleared of wrong-doing," Feb. 8).

Whether or not the bylaw officer in question, who has since left the city's employ for an unrelated reason, behaved rightly or wrongly, it is important RCMP rigorously pursue the truth. That includes interviewing all witnesses.

The city originally asked the RCMP to conduct the investigation to avoid any public perception of bias. However, for some, the premature closing of the case did the opposite. Now it is up to officers to shed light on what happened in a manner that bolsters public confidence in their investigation and in the way alleged infractions by bylaw officers are dealt with by the city.

The question being asked right now is whether Nunavummiut should be happy, upset, guardedly optimistic or simply complacent over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's appointment of New Brunswick Tory Bernard Valcourt as minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

That actually depends on who you believe and which portrayal of Valcourt you see as being accurate.

The appointment came earlier this month after former minister John Duncan resigned after some ill-advised letter writing.

Valcourt is a hold-over, once removed during the Kim Campbell-led Tory annihilation, from the Brian Mulroney days.

He has held a number of ministerial portfolios over the years, including Fisheries and Oceans, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Consumer and Corporate Affairs and Employment and Immigration.

On our coasts, while certainly not as reviled as Fred Mifflin (author of the infamous Mifflin plan), he is dismissed in many corners as being more of an aquaculture minister than a true fisheries minister.

Valcourt is also viewed on the East Coast as Harper's pale rider, sent to trumpet the virtues of employment insurance reforms that hit hard a region that is desperately dependent on seasonal and parttime employment.

Suffice to say, for all Valcourt's selling of the reforms to the good people on the East Coast, they remain extremely unpopular among the populace.

And, he did about as much for the region heading up ACOA as any who preceded him, which is to say not much.

Valcourt still carries some dubious distinction with him from the 1980s. Although he paid a high price for one mistake with the loss of an eye, he was unceremoniously given the boot from cabinet after crashing his motorcycle while driving drunk.

While old news, the fact remains the outcome could have been a lot worse and shows Valcourt, at least as a younger man, was prone to some bad decision making.

On the other side of the coin, there are many who refer to Valcourt as a down-to-Earth, straight-shooting man who is not adverse to rolling up his sleeves and applying whatever amount of elbow grease is needed to solve a problem.

It's early in the game, but, to date, most of the attention on Valcourt's new position has been focused on the first part of his title and precious little on the latter.

Understandable, to a point, with Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence and the Mushkegowuk people being part of an urgent action on the elimination of racial discrimination being filed with the United Nations.

And, of course, there's that other little matter of protesters there illegally blockading an ice road to the Victor diamond mine.

But, eventually, we here in Nunavut will get Mr. Valcourt's attention on some of our always seemingly, less-important matters on the national front, and we'll finally get a read on just what kind of a new minister we have.

We can only hope Valcourt turns out to be the all-star performer many pundits have been crying to have appointed to the position, and one good enough to ensure his compass points North often enough that we will recognize him without our federal health minister holding his hand.

On Valentine's Day, NWT cabinet ministers and some regular MLAs showed their love for the federal government when they stopped Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley's motion on federal changes to environmental law.

The rare vote by cabinet ensured the defeat of Bromley's motion, which would have directed the GNWT to express its disappointment over the federal government's failure to consult with the territory when it passed bills C-38 and C-45. Both contained changes to Canada's environmental legislation.

Bromley, well-known for his passion concerning all-things environmental, called the changes a "federal assault" on the health of the territory.

Whether you share Bromley's passion for protecting the environment or not, there was a deeper, disturbing message carried in the response from cabinet.

Premier Bob McLeod proclaimed it to be the duty of the GNWT to respect the decisions and jurisdiction of the federal government. Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger argued that the GNWT cannot "tell them (the feds) we are unhappy and, oh, yes, we want more money."

Miltenberger concluded his statement with a theme common to like-minded MLAs, which was to say with a devolution deal so close, the territorial government can't rock the boat.

We don't necessarily agree that Bromley's position is correct. There are valid points made that environmental protections within the NWT will remain stringent enough to protect the land. It is also fair to say some regulatory relaxations are needed, considering the difficulty developers have had in the past, which have contributed to our suffering economy.

All those arguments would have been enough for cabinet to stand on, but instead they chose to use their speeches to publicly pucker up to the prime minister.

Contrary to McLeod's statement, the GNWT has a duty to criticize the federal government if it's warranted, just as it is the role of our MLAs to represent the will of their constituents.

In this case, that would be to stand up and tell the federal government Northerners demand and deserve effective consultation.

By kowtowing, the GNWT has shown its weak hand to the world. That does not bode well for success at the devolution negotiating table. Is our government strong enough to ensure the deal is fair? Is it fighting tooth and nail to ensure the people of the NWT get what they deserve? Or, as the recent legislative assembly exchange would suggest, is it nodding and smiling politely at everything the Government of Canada says?

It seems gone are the days when premiers such as Stephen Kakfwi would stand toe-to-toe with the federal government. He acted in solidarity with his Northern counterparts in 2003 to fight for more health-care funding, a deal that generated an extra $20 million for the NWT over three years.

Has the hunger for a devolution deal turned government leaders into mute ptarmigan who would rather allow Ottawa to walk all over them for fear it may jeopardize the deal and projects such as the Inuvik-Tuk highway?

The recent message from the assembly is clear: Dangle a few treats in front of our leaders and they will sit obediently for their masters in Ottawa. And that is the wrong message to send.

Northern mining executives must have grimaced at the news earlier this month that Shear Diamonds Ltd. abandoned its Jericho mine site, unplugged its phones and is hiding under a rock. It's this kind of thing that makes it hard to do business in the North.

When mines are being vetted by the public, during the impact review process, old grievances are often brought up. Companies like Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. and Baffinland have tried hard to drive home the message that mining today is different than it was years ago.

The spectre of projects such as Yellowknife's Giant Mine haunt the industry to this day - its infrastructure left to rot and its 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide and 13.5 million tonnes of toxic tailings abandoned, all of which was eventually put on the taxpayer's bill to clean up.

Shear was required to pay a liability, although everyone's mum on whether it was actually paid.

When Royal Oak Mines Inc. went into receivership, the government was left footing the Giant Mine cleanup bill. Nunavummiut rightly want to know how they can trust that situation won't happen again today, on their land.

When a company like Shear skulks away under the cover of darkness, it damages the trust companies have been trying to rebuild. Worse yet, neither the Nunavut Impact Review Board or the federal government will yet say whose dollar might have to pick up Shear's cleanup tab. The taxpayer should be worried.

The government must go public on this situation. If the liability money was paid, get the word out now before the industry's reputation is further tarnished. If it wasn't paid, the government needs to come clean and start beefing up, or at least enforcing, its legislation. If it were enough to just trust a company would pay its liability eventually, we wouldn't need liability payments in the first place.

The Pangnirtung fishery industry is proving itself to be a huge economic boon to its community.

Pangnirtung Fisheries Ltd. created 35 jobs in 2012 - twice as many than the previous year - and had 92 licensed fishers hauling in 575,000 pounds of turbot, which it purchased and processed. Since this year's season started in late January, 240,000 pounds have been brought in.

General manager Michael Neumann predicts the plant could get 800,000 pounds this season, which ends in May. The fish is flown to Montreal and then sold to Asian markets abroad. Pangnirtung's role in these markets has brought more than $400,000 into the hamlet's economy this year for fishers and workers, Neumann said.

Those are great numbers for a sustainable industry that fits Nunavut like a glove. It's also a gold star for the Nunavut Development Corporation which made the necessary investments to set the stage for present and future success.

Eyebrows were raised in the legislative assembly last week when Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny brought up his concerns about the amount of money the territorial government is spending on health care, particularly in the area of medical travel.

Dolynny suggested that the GNWT is spending $100 million annually on medical travel. He asserted that leaves only 17.9 per cent of the overall territorial budget on "true health," much less than in other jurisdictions, which spend an average of 42 per cent of their total budgets on health-care delivery.

Considering that Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger's 2013 budget calls for $360 million in health spending, spending $100 million on medical travel would represent almost one-third of the health department's budget for 2013.

However, a quick look at the Stanton Territorial Health Authority's annual report for 2011-2012 reveals that there were 1,036 medevac trips in 2011-2012, which cost almost $9.8 million. In the same fiscal year, nearly $9.2 million was spent on non-emergency medical travel for 11,931 trips. That totals just under $19 million, a far cry from what Dolynny suggested while calling for more money to be allocated for health care in the budget. In fact, the cost of medical travel, including medevacs and scheduled trips for medical purposes, decreased in 2011-2012 from the previous year.

To be fair, Dolynny told Yellowknifer that his research on the topic involved looking at supplementary health program reports, contracts with airlines who provide medevac services and reports on other related contracts and services. He said there is not a consolidated costs figure and stopped counting when the number reached more than $80 million.

Now, there is no question that providing good quality health care across the vast expanse of the Northwest Territories is challenging. When an emergency situation happens, either because of a tragic accident or because a person experiences a life-threatening medical condition, a system must be in place for the victims to receive timely and professional health care, whether they live in Aklavik, Behchoko, Deline or Yellowknife.

How that is provided in a cost-effective manner has been put under the microscope before. A comprehensive territorial medical travel program evaluation was completed in 2009. It looked at expenditures from 2005-2006 to the 2007-2008 fiscal year, which ranged from $18.2 million to $23.5 million, including medevacs, scheduled medical trips, ground travel, administration, boarding homes and subsidies for patients and escorts. Cost recovery from various federal agencies and departments during that period ranged from $10 million to $13 million, resulting in a total cost to the GNWT of between $8.2 million and $13.5 million.

Combined costs have gone up substantially since the evaluation. However, because of advances in technology and with a $200-million budget for future renovations at Stanton Territorial Hospital, which are bound to expand services and lessen the medical profession's reliance on health-care services in the south, it is realistic to believe costs will go down.

During his budget address, Miltenberger touched on how advances in technology will result in future savings, pointing to more use of electronic medical records for better chronic disease management and more effective consultation with specialists. More than a half-million dollars is being spent in the current year. The government is also setting aside money to keep dialysis services open and has earmarked $472,000 to improve medevac triage and co-ordination.

Efforts are being made to reduce the amount of scheduled medical travel and its inherent expense by offering more medical services within the territory.

Dolynny's main point is that the territorial government is spending less than other jurisdictions on "true health" delivery as a percentage of overall budgets. However, the numbers seem to be somewhat skewed because of the way they are reported and may have been presented in a calculated fashion by Dolynny to make his point about his desire to see overall spending increase.

We prefer to see a proactive approach to reduce medical travel costs by lessening the need for patients to be flown south for scheduled medical appointments by providing more services at Stanton.

Enbridge Pipelines Inc. has a cleanup job on its hands on two fronts.

The first is a very literal cleanup. Earlier this month contaminated soil was found at two locations along the company's pipeline, which runs from Norman Wells to Zama, Alta., crossing the Deh Cho along the way.

Approximately 30 cubic metres of contaminated soil was found around 60 km west of Fort Simpson and an additional 60 to 70 cubic metres of contaminated soil was found approximately 120 km west of the village.

With an environmental assessment underway, the company has been very careful to avoid speculating on what the contaminate is and how it got there until it has definite answers.

It is understandable why Deh Cho residents who have heard about the soil, however, may already have reached the conclusion that the contaminate, likely oil, came from the pipeline.

This theory can only be strengthened by the knowledge that the soil was found beside two features, as they are called, on the pipeline that the company was digging down to examine. Features can refer to such things as dents, cracks or corrosion.

The company is avoiding words such as spill or leak, but those are the words that at least some residents of Fort Simpson have been using to describe what is happening. This means that Enbridge's second cleanup job will be in the area of public relations, and it's not going to be easy.

The oil leak that occurred in May 2011 on the same pipeline is still fresh in many people's minds. That spill was originally estimated at four barrels. It later became apparent that between 700 and 1,500 barrels of sweet crude oil had leaked into the ground, affecting 8,980 tonnes of soil.

That spill already raised questions in some people's minds about how environmentally safe the pipeline is and how well Enbridge can monitor what is happening to it. The spill was first discovered not by the company, but by hunters who were in the area and could smell an odour.

Some measure of assurance can be taken from the fact that Enbridge found the contaminated soil in areas where flaws were expected to be found in the pipeline. Also, of the approximately 20 digs the company has done so far this season along the pipeline, only two turned up contamination.

Even if testing shows the soil wasn't contaminated as a result of the pipeline, Enbridge is still going to have an uphill battle in front of it to assure Deh Cho residents the pipeline is a safe piece of infrastructure.

Sometimes it's good to be living in a small town.

Last week, I decided on the spur of the moment around 10 p.m. to go have a look for the Northern lights on a cold, clear night. I drove a short ways out of town with the temperature hovering at around -32 or -33 C. A marvellous crescent moon was well up in the sky by then, as the town lights started to fade into the background.

I stopped and parked along the side of the ice road. As soon as I hopped out, the lights were draped across the sky like a shimmering curtain of green-grey across the horizon. Already, they were the best that this "southerner" had ever seen.

In southern Ontario, where I hail from, the display of the aurora that's common here happens maybe once or twice a year, and with my usual bad luck, I always miss it.

The best I've seen has been a milky grey translucent curtain, and that's been in northern Ontario at Moosonee and Moose Factory on the shores of James Bay. The chance to see them was one of the reasons why I took this job at the Drum.

So I set up my camera, using the hood and roof as an impromptu tripod and started snapping while openly ogling the lights. I had the entire road to myself, or so I thought.

About 10 minutes later, I saw headlights coming from the north. Two men in a truck towing a trailer, obviously from some kind of construction site, drove slowly past me, braked and them came back around.

"Hello, how are you?" one cheerily called out. "Oh yeah, you're taking photos." He cheerily smacked his companion and said "I told you that's what he was doing.

"They're pretty tonight, aren't they," he said. "We could see them all the way down."

We chatted for a few more minutes, with the men telling me about the lights, and how they had just wanted to make sure I wasn't stranded with a broken-down vehicle. Then they headed off, and I decided to go a bit further to take some photos from a different angle.

Not 10 minutes later, the scenario repeated itself. Once again, headlights blazed from the north as I tripped the shutter. This time, it was an RCMP officer on patrol. As had the men before her, she stopped to ask whether I was all right and immediately realized I was taking pictures.

We chatted for a while, and she was delighted when I provided some advice on how to take photos of the lights. I'm no expert with a camera, but everyone thinks a reporter should know these things.

In other circumstances, and before I mellowed a little with age, I might have become annoyed with these interruptions. Here, though, where the pace is slower and the weather is colder, I appreciated that two drivers stopped to check on me.

That kind of courtesy is one of the things I like about a small town, and Inuvik has a lot of it.

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