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When it comes to city firefighters, most of the time there is nothing to offer them but praise and admiration.

This praise is usually amplified when lives and property are on the line. These type of situations, including house fires and traffic accidents, tend to draw a crowd, so many people are often present when firefighters are performing their heroic work.

This also creates potential pitfalls, as evidenced by last Friday's incident when local dog musher Terry Woolf fell through the ice on Yellowknife Bay.

Not only did the dozens of bystanders on the shore and on the lake ice make it more difficult to locate the dog musher in distress, they were there to witness the fire department's initial confusion, mistakes made, and the department's rigid observation of safety protocols.

This has led to some criticism of the firefighters who were called to the scene from people who were exasperated by the department's seemingly slow response.

Jennifer Waugh, a certified team leader with Yellowknife Search and Rescue who had a front row view of the incident from her home on School Draw Avenue, said firefighters putting on ice rescue gear were "dilly-dallying" on the shore while Woolf struggled to stay afloat. She said the four-member crew was ill-equipped for the job: lacking blankets and a toboggan to carry the benumbed sledder back to shore. The fire department was also criticized for not carrying a knife to cut the sled dogs loose from their harnesses.

It was Waugh's father, Victor Waugh, who ultimately rescued Woolf from the ice by venturing onto it with his snowmachine while firefighters were still trying to reach the scene, and pulled the musher to safe ice with a rope.

It was a heroic act and he should be commended for it. But the choice to rescue the man was his alone to make.

Firefighters don't have that luxury, especially in an extremely dangerous situation where someone has fallen through the ice. Victor Waugh offered to ferry the firefighters to the accident site on his snowmobile but common sense and safety protocols dictate that under no circumstances should emergency personnel be involving civilians in life or death situations or encouraging them to take part.

Many people chafe at the hyper-regulatory climate hanging over public safety issues these days. But the Yellowknife fire department knows all too well what happens when it doesn't follow the rules.

On March 17, 2005 firefighters Lt. Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson died in a shed fire when the weight of snow and firefighters collapsed the roof on top of them. Not only was it a tragic date, it was the beginning of three years of Workers' Compensation Board hell for the Yellowknife fire department. Charges filed, reputations in tatters, a fire hall left demoralized and divided - all because a momentary lapse in safety protocols put firefighters in a place they shouldn't have been.

A similar scenario could just as easily have unfolded on Yellowknife Bay last week had the rescue team not checked their impulse to rush in, rules be damned.

We would hope safety protocols don't become so stringent the fire department is left paralyzed and unable to act when lives depend on it. But there is no evidence that this was the case last Friday. It was a chaotic episode that obviously left firefighters confused when the danger level was high.

Thankfully, people were around to help. It was sad two of the sled dogs died but no people perished and the rescue crew did manage to save the rest of the dogs.

Public safety director Dennis Marchiori says no one is harder on the firefighters than the firefighters themselves. No doubt they will look upon this day as not their finest. Hopefully, a thorough review of the incident will lead to improvements, with the continued understanding that, hiccups aside, they very much still have the public's support.

It's interesting to see what's truly important to residents of the Deh Cho.

On May 15, a public meeting was held in Fort Simpson about devolution. Residents had the chance to learn more about the devolution agreement and to ask questions of the territorial government's chief negotiator on devolution. Fifteen people attended the meeting.

A day later, the Fort Simpson Community Garden Society held its annual general meeting. At that meeting residents had the opportunity to learn more about the society's plans for the year and to get involved in the garden. More than 35 people participated.

Gardening, at least in Fort Simpson, seems to be twice as popular and of more interest than devolution. In many ways, it is easy to see why.

Through the community garden and gardening in general, Fort Simpson residents have the opportunity to grow their own food. This can be an empowering experience, especially for people who haven't gardened before.

Numerous other benefits also come from gardening. For one, it can help lower the cost of food. Anything from potatoes to tomatoes to chives can be grown for much less than it costs to purchase them in the store.

Food grown in community and personal gardens is also much fresher and likely contains fewer pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers than in store-bought produce. Environmentally-conscious people can also feel better knowing that large quantities of fuel hasn't been burned transporting the food from wherever it was grown to their community grocery store.

Gardening is also a good form of physical exercise and in the case of the community garden, provides a good opportunity to socialize.

In two years, the Fort Simpson community garden has transformed a mostly unused grassy plot of land into an incredibly productive garden that is helping Fort Simpson residents live healthier lives and develop gardening skills. The society has plans for even more improvements to the garden for this year.

Many other communities in the Deh Cho also have communal garden plots, although most are not as well developed as the Fort Simpson garden. If it came to a toss up between a meeting on devolution and one of community gardening, however, gardening would probably draw more crowds in most communities.

Gardening, communal or otherwise, has the potential to empower Deh Cho residents and make the region healthier and more self-sufficient.

I'm about to take a giant leap into the unknown, thanks to the Inuvik Community Greenhouse.

I've been assigned a garden plot for the season, which is enough to make me quite nervous.

I know I requested one, but sometimes when I do things like that I'm not sure I'm in my right mind.

Let me explain. You've heard of green thumbs? Well, I have a black thumb. I can kill anything that grows, other than the grass on my lawn and dandelions.

About 25 years ago, my mother made the serious mistake of leaving me in charge of her plants while she and my father were away on a trip to the United Kingdom. She didn't leave explicit, step-by-step instructions for me, so I still use that in my defence to explain why, three weeks later, her flowers were withered.

I still remember the shouts of "Didn't you water them?" that nearly made my ears bleed.

Last year, I tried to grow tomatoes twice during the summer. Both times proceeded well as the shoots grew to about five to seven inches long. After that, they simply died, and this was with me paying attention to them and watering them.

Still, I thought it might be a good idea to at least make a stab at growing some of my own food. I'm a big fan of the concept, and the price of groceries here in the North make it much more appealing.

I've seen some very interesting things done with gardening and community growing as I've travelled Canada. My favourite has been the roadside gardens people in Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula plant right off the TransCanada Highway. That's some innovative thinking – and the moose seem to appreciate their efforts too.

So on May 14 I attended an orientation session with the greenhouse people and heard gardening enthusiast Shona Barbour brag about the $1,000 of produce a good gardener can grow during a season.

It turns out the greenhouse offers the equivalent of about 2.5 seasons of growing compared to sunny southern climes, and her enthusiasm, as well as other experienced gardeners, was almost infectious.

Still, I don't have a clue yet as to what I want to plant, or where to get seeds or much of anything else, which is bound to make this endeavour into something resembling a comedy routine.

Fortunately, I have a wealth of people offering me assistance. My plot is next to Jerry McKenna, the senior RCMP officer here in town, who quickly saw my total befuddlement. After a few chortles, he said he'd help me out. So did others such as David Bob from Aurora College and board members Jordan Lenz and Janet Boxwell.

If nothing else, I think they'll guilt me into giving it a serious try with all their boundless encouragement – or is that nagging?

So you'll probably be reading about my misadventures from time to time in these pages over the summer.

It seems some Government of the Northwest Territories employees have lost sight of who, ultimately, benefits from the jobs they are supposed to do. The people.

There are two recent events that have us scratching our heads, wondering why there was such a lack of foresight that residents and businesses were left inconvenienced, having to pay extra costs and feeling frustrated. Both situations could have been avoided, either through better communication, better planning, or both.

The most egregious is the situation faced by retailers and other business operators who are now faced with higher shipping costs because no one in the GNWT took the initiative to spread the word that load restrictions would be a likely result of the spring melt on Highway 3, as is common on other NWT highways. It hasn't been an issue in the past because traffic was virtually non-existent on that highway during spring breakup, the time between the closing of the ice road across the Mackenzie River and the beginning of ferry service.

Given that the situation is common on other highways, where the roadbed softens during spring thaw, one would have thought that someone could have raised the alarm and given frequent users of the highway more notice. Transport trucks are restricted to 75 per cent of the maximum weight capacity to prevent damage to the roadbed.

The Department of Transportation's manager of communications, Earl Blacklock, found out about the weight restrictions on May 15, one day before they came into effect, and agreed the short notice was regrettable.

We're on the side of those who are upset about the lack of foresight - including the general manager of the Yellowknife Co-Op, the past president of the NWT Trucking Association and the owner of a crane company, who is losing between $6,000 and $10,000 a day when he could have relocated the piece of heavy equipment earlier had he known.

The second example of poor planning by the GNWT was the sudden closure of the Department of Transportation's motor vehicle licensing office in Yellowknife. A sign on the door and a notice on the department's website told people wishing to renew their driver's licence or renew their licence plate tags that the office was closed for two days to allow employees to attend training workshops.

The registrar of motor vehicles said it was unfortunate that a person who travelled from a remote community to Yellowknife to renew their vehicle's registration was unable to do so, but stated in an e-mail that "it is important for our front-line staff to have an opportunity to improve their existing skills and develop new ones through training and development."

Should those opportunities be at the expense of members of the motoring public they are tasked to serve?

We suggest that a majority of employees in both the private and public sector require training and upgrading on a regular basis. That can be done through on-the-job training, online courses, out-of-office retreats outside of business hours, and in countless other ways. We haven't heard of other establishments who feel the need to close their doors in order to accomplish training requirements.

It is indeed unfortunate that the lack of foresight in both these incidents have caused inconvenience, frustration and monetary loss because, at the end of the day, there is only one group of people left holding the bag. It is ordinary people who are paying for these mistakes. And that is unacceptable.

Like the vast majority of Kivalliq hockey fans known to cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, I've been inundated with e-mails and texts since the team's collapse in Game 7 of their opening series with the Boston Bruins.

And, I'm sure, like most of my fellow Kivalliq Leafs-loving brethren, most of said e-mails elicited little more than an odd groan or shake of the head from this devoted fan.

The truth is, for many of them, the feeling I had while glancing at the screen was one of been there, done that.

I'm not saying none of them were creative, as a few did tickle the funny bone.

The one that replaced the international choking sign with the Maple Leafs crest was original, as was the hockey gods rolling around an arena cloud, laughing hysterically, with a caption that reads, "I can't believe they fell for that."

Facts are facts, and there's no denying blowing a three-goal lead with a little more than 10 minutes to play in the third period is nothing short of mind-numbing.

But, for all you Leafs bashers across Nunavut who insist on calling it one of the all-time-worst chokes in sports history, I beg to differ.

In fact, it's not even close.

Let's not forget the Bruins are the same team that led the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 in games in the 2010 semifinal, only to watch the Flyers claw back to force a game 7.

Then, to top it off, the Bruins blew a 3-0 lead to Philly in the final game to lose the series.

Staying in Boston, how about the 1978 Red Sox?

They let a 14-game lead slip away and then lost a one-game tiebreaker to New York on a home run by Bucky Dent, who had hit a mere five homers all year.

And we won't even mention the ground ball hit to Bill Buckner in 1986.

In 1996, supposedly elite pro golfer Greg Norman shot a course record 63 on opening day in his quest to win a Master's title.

He led by six strokes on the final day before playing one of the worst rounds of golf ever seen at that level, losing his best chance to ever wear the green jacket.

Sticking with golf, Jean Van de Velde stood at the tee of the 18th hole at the 1999 British Open needing only a double bogey to win.

de Velde proceeded to hit the rough, a sand trap, a water hazard and, believe it or not, the grandstand on his way to a triple bogey.

He then lost the playoff hole to Paul Lawrie to seal his choker fate.

In 1927, Bill Tilden led the tennis semifinal at Wimbleton by going 6-2 and 6-2 in the first two sets.

In the third set, Tilden led 5-1 and was up 30-0 in game seven before self-destructing and losing the entire match.

And, finally, there's the Miami Hurricanes football team that led the 1984 Orange Bowl 31-0 at halftime.

The University of Maryland Terrapins then rode six second-half touchdown passes from backup quarterback Frank Reich to a stunning 42-40 win.

So there you have it, Kivalliq Leafs fans.

There's been plenty of worse chokes in the world of sports than what we saw in Boston earlier this month.

That just might help sooth your nerves as you mumble incoherently for the 46th consecutive time - just wait until next year!

A massive wastage of meat was discovered by patrolling Department of Environment and Natural Resources officers outside of Gameti late last month. The parts from at least 50 caribou at 12 different sites near the south shore of Hottah Lake were abandoned by hunters.

The animals are believed to be part of the Bluenose-East herd, a species being monitored to help recover the declining population. A moratorium on resident, outfitted and commercial hunting of barren-ground caribou was initiated by the GNWT in January 2010 and the herds' sizes have been growing steadily ever since. For the Bluenose-East herd, a limited aboriginal harvest started up again in December 2010 but the wildlife zone where this recent incident took place is open to an unlimited aboriginal harvest.

But after observing such a blatant disregard for the animal, the herd and the environment, it is necessary that no caribou, of any herd, be hunted without tags. While the aboriginal subsistence harvest is important and ingrained in tradition, this situation needs to be brought under control.

This slaughter undermines aboriginal hunters' claim of being stewards of the land, and the lessons that have been taught through the generations to use the whole animal and not leave anything behind. This issue also reinforces a feeling of discrimination on the resident hunters who have been forced to put down their rifles when it comes to caribou for years now.

It is a horrible sight to see, an appalling waste of meat, and a show of cruel disrespect for the animal.

The hunters that did this don't seem concerned they will be caught, or concerned for the wildlife. This type of unsustainable harvesting cannot be allowed to continue.

Enforcing the use of tags for all caribou so each animal is accounted for and nothing is wasted will hopefully ensure something like this doesn't happen again.

Hunting is a privilege that comes with responsibility, and if this responsibility is disrespected, serious consequences must ensue.

A report issued by an oil response working group, including departments from the territorial, federal governments as well as the Inuvialuit Game Council, expresses the need for an oil-spill-response team for potential drilling project in the Beaufort Sea.

While industry needs plans in place for issues that might arise in accordance with the National Energy Board, a supplementary team made up of members of Beaufort Delta communities to help respond to disaster would benefit the area through training and jobs, as well as offer support to drilling companies. While there are currently no active offshore drilling projects, the proactive development of such a team would instill a sense of inclusion from residents in the event of any future activity in the area.

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben is asking for a team similar to the Beaufort Sea Oil Spill Cooperative, which was in place in the 1970s to the 1990s when hydrocarbon exploration was booming. It is significant for Gruben to say this should be in place, and encourage the training of residents as well as situating specialized equipment - such as booms and skimmers -- in the Beaufort Delta. It shows an active interest from the area in regards to possible development in the region. People in the region want and deserve to benefit from future employment, training, and the knowledge they are participating in the protection of their environment.

Getting residents involved in industry projects down the road and giving them the ability to mitigate environmental threats will cultivate confidence in exploration, and create a community-based foundation for development in the region.

The ideas coming out of Nunavut's Food Security Symposium are providing momentum for change.

There is hunger down south, but in the North's geography and climate aggravate the issues. There are no economies of scale. Communities were established not due to regional industries and economic opportunities, but to organize nomadic peoples into more easily-governable communities that at the same time would establish Canada's claim to the Arctic. Compared to the prosperity of the provinces, Nunavut is a misfit jurisdiction - the basic human needs of food and shelter enjoyed by the rest of Canadians are fulfilled inadequately at best for much of the population.

Government and resource extraction jobs pay very well but they aren't available to everyone. A large chunk of the population is struggling. According to the Nunavut Anti-Poverty Secretariat's report Understanding Poverty in Nunavut, half of Nunavut's population of 34,028 people accesses income support for at least a portion of every year, and nearly 70 per cent of Nunavummiut children live in households deemed food insecure. While the report does not define the age range of "children," according to Statistics Canada, 10,430 of the territory's residents are under 14 years old.

The difficulties in putting food on the table in Nunavut are legion. With no roads linking Nunavut communities to each other or the south, as well as an ocean and climate that provide a very small shipping season, food is mostly flown in. Although shipping of certain foods is subsidized by the federal government through Nutrition North, it's still consistently more expensive to buy food in the North than in the south.

Since Nunavut is part of Canada, the food brought up is part of the sophisticated Western supply chain. Grocery stores have aisles dedicated to mass-produced, cheap junk food such as chips and candy, which are relatively inexpensive. These foods, though carefully crafted to satisfy taste buds on the cheap, are detrimental to the health of those who eat them regularly. As of 2006, a little less than a quarter of Inuit adults were obese, according to Statistics Canada, and more than a quarter of children ages six to 14 were obese. Being "well-fed" does not mean being nourished - chips and pop offer nothing but salt and sugar, which will pack on pounds while providing little to no nourishment.

Food insecurity gave rise to protests across the territory, placing much blame on Nutrition North, but there are many factors at play in this issue. Leaders have begun to take action. The Nunavut Food Security Symposium brought together Nunavummiut business leaders, political leaders and others to discuss possible solutions in January. People discussed how to commercialize country food - a key component in local food production - and considered a territorial sales tax designed to help hunters.

A sales tax of, say, two per cent on goods - other than food - could help the territory to develop community infrastructure so hunters can store, prepare, share and sell their harvests. Another big step has been Quttiqtuq MLA Ron Elliott's Donation of Food Act, which was passed by the legislative assembly earlier this year. Food donors no longer have to worry about liability when donating food to organizations such as food banks. This is vital to ensuring these community-run organizations, which provide a much-needed safety net, can have the resources they need.

These are small steps and are welcome, but bigger steps are needed soon. Without first tackling people's basic needs of food and shelter, efforts to grow Nunavut into a prosperous territory - complete with devolution and a bigger tax base - will remain hamstrung. More than that, the territory's regular people will not have the quality of life they deserve.

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