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Colleges are places of higher learning, but there is one service Northern students - especially women - are in need of besides a solid education.

Female students are being forced to bring their children to the classroom or spend less time studying because of the lack of daycare services available while they are in school. Two students, Jocelyn Apps and Michelle Bourque, both attending Aurora College, have stepped forward to voice their concerns over the lack of daycare at the Yellowknife campus.

The missing daycare is a barrier to women's education. Many like Bourque, who can't make arrangements with family, are forced to take on jobs to pay for outside daycare, cutting into their study time and threatening their chances of earning their degrees.

There are also several students who have resorted to bringing their children to class, which creates a distraction for other students, hindering their education as well.

Aurora College is not alone in having so many students with children. There are more people attending college later in life due to many circumstances, such as second careers or upgrading for their current jobs. Other colleges and universities around the country have been offering daycare service for years to meet the changing demographic of mature students who are often going back to school after spending years in other fields or raising families.

College administration should be looking at other post-secondary institutions that run daycares on-campus - either through private organizations, or as part of an existing degree or diploma program - and use it as a model to develop its own service. Everyone from students to professors want to see Aurora College offer daycare to make it less stressful for everyone.

Yellowknifers are being told to choose between hosting the Arctic Winter Games in 2018 or the Canada Winter Games in 2023.

With five years between these two events, the city's argument that volunteer burnout will be an issue is specious at best, but cost certainly isn't.

Fortunately, the city appears well-equipped in facilities, such as the Multiplex arena and the Fieldhouse. In fact, many other Canadian communities would rightfully be envious of these facilities. They were funded, for the most part, by taxpayers who demanded state-of-the-art facilities in a city that experiences winter seven months of the year.

As the territorial capital and regional sporting centre, we should proudly show these facilities off. With 10 years to prepare, hosting the Canada Winter Games shouldn't be out of the question. Yellowknife certainly deserves the right to claim them, as well as the potential tourism opportunities they will bring.

The 2018 Arctic Winter Games would be an expensive distraction, so Yellowknife should take a pass this time. Doing so might also hammer home the point to the organization's governing board that if it wants participation from communities with elite facilities, it shouldn't give the games to communities - such as Nuuk, Greenland - that can't handle them.

Hockey, figure skating, speed skating and curling will always have a home in Yellowknife as long as this city is hosting premiere sporting events.

The world became colder this past week, and it had nothing to do with climate change.

The death of Nelson Mandela, 95, was mourned around the globe.

Not since the days of American president John F. Kennedy - both the youngest American president elected (43) and the youngest to die - has an individual had the ability to polarize so many people around the world.

Kennedy's battle was as much inside America as abroad, despite the infamous Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Despite efforts to keep him out of civil rights by his administration, Kennedy's domestic policy (The New Frontier) included his promise to end racial discrimination.

That promise and the actions to follow (including being the first president to call on Americans to denounce racism as morally wrong), led to him losing his life in the pursuit of equality.

It was as hard to believe racism could be so rampant in 1960s America (a so-called enlightened age), as it was when Mandela toppled apartheid in 1993 and became South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994.

The two leaders shared much in common, despite Mandela's 27 years as a political prisoner.

Kennedy was born into a politically powerful and affluent American family, while Mandela was born the son of a tribal chief.

Both were destined for greatness, fought ruthless foes and will be forever recorded in the annals of history as greatness personified.

They were extremely charismatic, and projected an image of warmth and caring rarely seen among world leaders.

Even Kennedy's alleged marital missteps have done little to dim his star.

He remains one of the most beloved presidents in American history, both within America and around the world.

Even those in the fascist and communist regimes of the times begrudgingly gave the man their respect.

As dedicated to the spoken word to affect change as both men were, neither was afraid to reach for the sword when needed.

While Mandela helped found the National African Congress's (NAC) Youth League, he also helped found its gorilla movement, Spear of the Nation, which took credit for more than 70 acts of sabotage against apartheid.

Despite other charges of the past, such as treason, it was his link to the Spear of the Nation that ultimately landed him in prison for 27 years.

Upon being released, at the age of 71, Mandela resumed his struggle against apartheid as leader of the ANC, which was, by then, legal.

He, for all intensive purposes, retired from politics and public life in 2004.

With his death this past week, he leaves behind a powerful legacy.

While Kennedy took patriotism to new levels by beseeching Americans to ask what they could do for their country, instead of what their country could do for them, Mandela showed the world the true power of conviction in fighting for what's right.

He provided the ultimate answer to the power of the individual, and what one person could hope to accomplish when up against insurmountable odds.

The NWT's regulatory regime is going to be drastically altered in 2015 with the elimination of regional regulatory boards and the creation of a single super board.

That became inevitable when the Conservative government lumped changes to the regulatory system and Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act into Bill C-15 - The Northwest Territories Devolution Act.

With the changes come concerns that regional voices will be diminished and community interests weakened when development projects go through the review process. Last week, the Gwich'in leadership came out publicly in opposition to the regulatory changes.

Those valid concerns can be alleviated with strong legislation. Equal regional representation on the so-called super board combined with regional panels - already included in the Bill - will, if done properly, ensure public opinion still factors strongly into all regulatory reviews.

Our regulatory system serves three purposes.

The first is to safeguard the environment with stringent controls to protect land, water and wildlife or denying development outright when the environmental damage cannot be adequately mitigated.

The second is to deal with development applications quickly and efficiently, providing developers and investors the confidence they need to invest in local economies.

The third is to protect the interests of regional populations by ensuring proper consultation and, if development moves ahead, ensuring local benefits.

As long as the public continues to engage in the regulatory process by voicing either opposition or support for proposed development, we believe the super board can be effective. Public engagement in the past has been enough to either help development along or force regulators to scrap it.

Will the new super board be an improvement over the current system? Unfortunately, no amount of legislation can fix the real problems of the past - Ottawa's inefficient management of its role in the Northern regulatory system.

The irony of this overhaul is it would not have been necessary if the federal government from minister on down hadn't repeatedly dropped the ball.

Gwich'in president Robert Alexie Jr. says his people have made numerous applications to have people appointed to the regulatory board. None - we suspect for partisan reasons - have been approved.

Too many development applications, having successfully navigated the Northern boards, collected too much dust waiting for approval from the federal minister of the day.

As well, whether it is the old system or the new system, the board cannot do its work without sufficient staff. Nor can the integrity of the process be maintained if the board seats are stuffed with Conservative appointees.

The federal government, having taken the drastic step of re-designing the Northern regulatory regime, which it created in the first place, has a chance of doing it right this time.

Hopefully, hard lessons have been well learned and history will not simply repeat itself.

Alarming statistics about the high rate of violence against women in Nunavut are one of the reasons behind a call by the president of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women for the development of a strategy centered around prevention.

On the heels of last month's statements by Qulliit president Charlotte Borg on the need to create a family violence prevention group, a similar call for action came from Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo.

Last week, Atleo appeared before a Special Parliamentary Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women, which was established to propose solutions to the root causes of violence against indigenous women and girls.

In Nunavut, the rate of violent crime against women is eight times higher than the rate in the rest of Canada.

A look beyond the numbers is helpful to better understand the severity and the high incidence of family violence in the North. It is sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, daughters and granddaughters who are the victims. In Nunavut communities, family violence is happening in homes, in public places, in vehicles and on the streets.

Not enough is being done to stop the legacy of abuse. There are only four shelters available in the territory's 26 communities, and the resources available to a woman who wants to leave an abusive relationship are not only severely lacking but are virtually non-existent in many remote communities. That is unacceptable. There have been repeated calls for a family violence prevention strategy in Nunavut, but not much progress has been made.

There needs to be a number to call and a place to go for a woman in an abusive situation. There needs to be a mechanism to remove abusive men from the family home so the women and children can live safely. And there needs to be support for initiatives by the community at large.

A suggestion by the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women to establish a council involving itself, the YWCA Agvvik, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the RCMP and the territorial departments of Health, Family Services, Justice, Education and Housing must be followed in earnest.

The initiative must also increase awareness among the perpetrators, educating men that it's not OK to use violence against women and girls.

The initiative should encourage reporting, so action taken will realistically address the issue and resources can be established that meet the need. Central to action being taken is a need for funding.

The numbers used to describe the level of violence against women in Nunavut are frightening.

However, politicians, health-care providers, social agencies and the groups becoming involved in a prevention strategy should not be afraid of how much money it will cost for meaningful changes to happen.

Yellowknifers have a love-hate relationship with the city's bus system.

For those who use it, it is a much-needed service that gets them around the city, saving them time and money.

So too there have been numerous complaints about lateness, awkward stop locations, even the size of the buses not being compatible with the city's streets, evidence it's a transportation model operating in a much larger southern city transplanted to a much smaller Northern city.

City councillor Niels Konge's call to scrap the bus service drew immediate criticism, but he did raise valid points. For one, the length of the bus routes have been a bone of contention for riders and even drivers for the amount of time it takes to service so many parts of the city.

There have been many complaints about buses being late, especially on Saturdays. Konge also cited the $1.28 million taxpayers will pay next year for transit.

These criticisms echo similar ones identified in a 2008 study, such as crowded peak-time buses, empty off-peak-time buses and revenue issues related to different fares for adults, children, students and seniors.

Ridership remains flat, with people hopping on about 175,000 times per year. That may sound like a lot, but the buses are often near-empty for most of the day, save the weekday morning rush.

Despite the problems, there are plans to expand the service, costing anywhere from $62,000 to $559,495 per year, depending on the routes and services implemented.

While there are inefficiencies, cutting bus service outright is not an option. Too many people rely on it and it offers a cost-effective solution to reducing traffic. A regular fare costs $2.50 and a monthly adult pass (tax deductible) costs $63, roughly less than a tank of gas for the average truck.

There has already been much discussion about the buses being too large for the population and city streets. On some roads, especially in Old Town, riders and drivers have to hang on as the huge vehicles pitch and shake over the winding streets.

The introduction of the low-floor buses over the summer showed those large vehicles, built for streets in southern cities do not work in the North.

Before city council looks into expanding the bus routes, they should also be looking at making public transit more efficient and reliable as a whole.

Part of the problem is the contract process that leaves the configuration of the services up to the contractor, who doesn't appear to take into consideration the size of the buses compared to the number of people who ride it and the conditions of the city streets. Contractors, not surprisingly, operate on past practices and simply present their proposal to council with a profit margin.

The perennial questions are:

• Why can't smaller buses service routes during off-peak periods?
• Why can't long routes be broken up and smaller buses used?
• Why are the buses not on time more consistently or don't show up?
• Why can't the bus go to the hospital all year?
• Why aren't more people riding?

As difficult as it may be, resolving the issues raised by the first four questions may well resolve the perennial issue in the fifth - encouraging more people to ride the bus. A new approach is needed.

Once again Deh Gah School in Fort Providence is at the centre of something new and exciting.

The school is collaborating in a three-year pilot project to discover if having a physical literacy co-ordinator in the school will make students more physically active. The other partners in the study include the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) and Sport Canada.

This project is a great opportunity for the students in the school and the broader community of Fort Providence. Although the study will take three years to collect its evidence, it's difficult to see how the co-ordinator position could do anything other than make students more physically active and increase their physical literacy.

Patrick Kippax, the co-ordinator, has implemented a number of initiatives since starting in April, including running twice-weekly physical fitness classes for students that focus on developing their fitness levels. He has also been developing a physical literacy curriculum that will be incorporated into the gym classes for kindergarten to Grade 6. The curriculum will make students more comfortable with the fundamental movement skills that all sports are based on.

The students can only benefit from this project and Kippax's work. Study after study have found that youth in countries like Canada aren't getting enough physical activity. The result of increasingly sedentary lifestyles is obesity and a rise in type 2 diabetes. By getting students more active, the project could reverse these trends.

The project could also lead to long-term benefits for the students. If youth become comfortable with, and grow to enjoy different types of physical activities and sports at a young age, they are more likely to stay physically active as adults. The healthy habits that are being taught through the project could save the students from a variety of health problems as they age.

Community members in Fort Providence can also benefit. Kippax is running boot camps for women twice a week, and the school's gym and cardio room is open for women to use four evenings a week.

Schools are usually viewed as places where students come to learn academic subjects. The projects like this one that Deh Gah School is undertaking show that schools can take a holistic approach to students' development, including their physical development and health, and can also create positive change in communities.

Hopefully, the success of this project will lead the territorial government to create more physical literacy co-ordinator positions, so other NWT communities can also reap the benefits.

I can say with complete honesty I'm not looking forward to being in the dark.

Come tomorrow, when the sun doesn't rise, if you see a strange figure shambling around town wearing what looks like a hi-tech version of the old banker's visor, that's likely to be me wearing my rather odd sun therapy device, called a YumaLite.

I've been battling seasonal affective disorder (SAD) for quite a few years now, and I knew the polar night was likely to be a struggle for me.

So far as I can remember, my first brush with SAD came while I was in my second year of university.

It was a particularly unpleasant, rainy October where it seemed liked the sky opened up every day.

At the time, I couldn't understand why my mood soured steadily over the course of that month.

It didn't occur to me until years later, while interviewing someone with SAD when I was working at another newspaper, that I realized I had the same symptoms.

I had thought about coming North for more than 20 years before deciding to take the plunge, and it was largely my reluctance to tackle the polar night that held me back.

So this is going to be an interesting experience for me.

Whenever I hear the term polar night, I think of that rather gory but still enjoyable horror movie Thirty Days of Night.

I'm fairly sure that's not a good frame of reference, or at least no better than watching Ice Road Truckers ... but maybe no worse, either.

I know it will cause some chuckles around parts of town, but I might be grumpier than normal. Yes, it is possible, people.

I'm not always as mellow as I have been during my time here.

Hopefully, though, I'm going to avoid the worst of that. I'm planning on hanging around the tropical atmosphere of the pool ... and maybe I can get them to turn the lights up a little.

I'm also hoping to get out regularly to see the auroras and maybe do a little snowshoeing if we get enough of the white stuff. (Side note: where is the snow?)

Hopefully, I won't replicate an experience I had last winter, where I caught my snowshoes in a tree hidden in a snowbank north of Muskrat Road one crisp night.

The sound of a pack of wolves howling was all the incentive I needed to get back up in a hurry.

So it's not going to be all bad, but it will be an adventure.

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