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Two. That's the number of women - Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro and Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen - in the territory's legislative assembly. That's a paltry 10 per cent, which gives the NWT the jurisdiction in Canada the dubious "honour" of having the least amount of female representation in government.

This issue is being addressed, with Premier Bob McLeod proposing the creation of a women's parliament for the territory, much in the same vein as the already-established youth and elders' parliaments. While this is a symbolic parliament, it is still a good start.

The proposed women's parliament, like its counterparts with youth and elders, would see a group of women get together for scheduled sessions to discuss the matters of the day much in the same way elected MLAs already do.

However, in contrast to the rotating basis of those two parliaments, the one for women needs to be held on a more regular basis. Once a year would be a good place to start.

And who would make up this parliament? The first people being looked at should be those who have run in the past, but weren't successful in their campaigning. Give these women a voice and, more importantly, keep them interested in politics. With the extra experience and a platform to be heard from, these women are more likely to run for public office again.

A lack of women in politics is a worldwide issue, not just here in the NWT. According to a 2007 study by the Annual Review of Sociology, only about 10 per cent of sovereign nations had more than 30 per cent female participation in politics. Seeing that the world is split 50/50 among the sexes, something is wrong here.

So, why aren't there more women in NWT politics? Is it because people prefer male candidates? A study from the University of Montreal shows that female candidates are often associated favourably with health care and education, but that can be seen as not being as authoritative as their male counterparts. A women's parliament would hopefully work to erase that image, showing them to be strong in all fields.

While it wouldn't be sound to go full out and institute a ballot quota system - where women are mandated to represent a certain percentage of a given ballot - as seen in Germany and Norway, a women's parliament would introduce more women to the world of politics without having to go to the huge step of actually running for office. It's easier to decide to go into the political sphere if you've already gotten your feet wet elsewhere.

And to make things easier, efforts to help women get campaigns off the ground need to be promoted, encouraged and, most importantly, funded. Not everyone knows who or where to go to to help secure campaign financing or who to hire for a successful run at public office.

At the end of the day, this women's parliament, if taken seriously by the GNWT, would serve as a strong tool to bring more women into politics. Because after all, society is only as good as those who lead it, and it doesn't help if the majority of voices heard only represent half of the population.

All 10 athletes who represented the Deh Cho and the NWT at the Arctic Winter Games have returned to their respective communities, some with ulus in tow.

By all accounts, the games in Fairbanks, Alaska were a success. The athletes from the Deh Cho certainly have glowing reports about their week at the competition.

The athletes I spoke to, regardless of whether they won ulus or not, talked about how much fun the games were. They all liked competing against other athletes and challenging their own athletic abilities.

They also spoke about being able to meet new people, visit a different city and the kindness they were met with. None of them made a critical comment.

The games are a large -scale example of what it is like to be an athlete in the North and a reminder of how important sports competitions can be.

Athletes in the Deh Cho often have to travel great distances to compete against anyone other than each other. The 10 Arctic Winter Games athletes are perfect examples, as is Chris Stipdonk, who recently went to Edmonton to compete in a judo championship.

Athletes who play individual sports can at least practice by themselves, but they are also often on their own when it comes to funding travel to competitions. Athletes who play team sports, like soccer, get to travel and fundraise as a group, but in the smaller Deh Cho communities, sometimes there aren't even enough youth in the same age range to put together a full soccer team. Those limitations makes it difficult for the athletes who are really dedicated.

It does take a lot of work to get athletes to competitions. Sticking with the soccer example, practices have to be held, paperwork has to be filled out, chaperones have to be found and transportation, lodgings and meals have to be arranged.

There is also the fundraising, a seemingly never-ending project that draws family members, teachers and coaches into manning canteens, holding bake sales and calling bingos.

Taking athletes anywhere is a daunting prospect.

But then there are the rewards. As the Arctic Winter Games athletes can attest, competitions can be occasions they will remember for the rest of their lives, even if they don't win a medal or ulu.

Going to sports competitions won't turn many Deh Cho youth into high-level athletes, but it will help them expand their horizons, see more of the world and challenge themselves.

It's gratifying to see that a new Inuvik Ground Search and Rescue team should be in operation within the next year.

It's a badly-needed service in this region, and one residents never should have been without.

It's doubtful anyone truly needs reminding that Inuvik, despite all of the comforts of being a regional centre, is plopped in the middle of a wilderness that belies those comforts.

A few minutes travel outside of town puts people into the bush with all the dangers that go with it. You don't have to be some hardcore athlete to get into lots of trouble here not very far out of town. Boaters, hikers, hunters, trappers, skiers, snowshoers, snowmobilers, all are vulnerable. Even people who go out on the land, with all their expertise, are potentially in need of this service.

That's exactly why search and rescue is so necessary.

Jerry McKenna, along with Alana Mero and a few others, have been the movers and shakers in this project, because they recognize the danger that anyone faces when they venture out.

It's never safe to underestimate the wilderness anywhere, much less in the climate that exists in the Mackenzie Delta.

It's never safe to underestimate the importance of formal organization when it comes to mounting

a search for a missing person, either.

Yes, there is a huge amount of expertise, experience and knowledge of the land and the delta here, but without a framework to apply it, mounting a search-and-rescue operation can be both frustrating and futile.

That's where this search team comes in. It's hopefully going to provide the framework to efficiently manage a search, while other people provide their individual expertise.

The best part about this is that it's a civilian-based group, rather than relying on the "authorities"to manage it.

That gives it the potential to be more democratic and grassroots, suited to the unique needs of the area, and will hopefully encourage more people to participate than might be the case if it was a police-controlled endeavour.

As McKenna noted, many people would be less interested in joining the team due to an aversion to "officialdom."

So if you are interested and have talents to share, please jump in.

Teachers at Yellowknife Education District No. 1 are about to be given a defined benefit pension plan, putting them on similar footing with Yellowknife Catholic Schools and others across the country.

The Yk1 board made a request to the GNWT to help cover the cost of the pensions but so far have received no answer.

Board chair John Stephenson has assured teachers the pensions will happen with or without government help, a move that will cost the board $400,000 a year and brings the 2013/14 budget to $32.1 million.

In return, teachers have agreed to give up their sabbatical leave benefit and a pay increase retroactive to 2013.

The silence on territorial funding has left many wondering if the GNWT is playing favourites again. Teachers in all the communities outside of Yellowknife get government pensions. Yellowknife Catholic Schools started their pension benefits in February 2013,

Friday's Yellowknifer editorial questioned the motives of the government in asking the boards to pay for the new junior kindergarten program with their surpluses, money which could have been reinvested in other areas, such as paying for pensions.

The new kindergarten programs outside the city are fully funded by the GNWT.

While the territorial government has an obligation to help support smaller communities and encourage teachers to live there by offering incentives, it should not being done by sacrificing fairness and ignoring equality of employment benefits.

Such dependencies eventually breed resentment and will drive people away from the capital to the south which also costs the GNWT, contributing to the already dropping population numbers and reduced transfer payments.

Beach-goers with children no doubt rejoiced to hear David Ramsay, the minister responsible for parks, firmly commit to "eyes and ears on that beach" - referring to the public space at Long Lake, the site of a drowning tragedy last summer.

Though it remains uncertain which option Ramsay will pursue - lifeguards or waterfront attendants, a lesser designation but still capable of performing CPR - a vital need is being addressed. There will be employees on the beach dedicated to keeping their eyes on the water as children frolic. This will greatly reduce the risk of further tragedies.

Ramsay is on the right track. But there is another problem.

As pointed out by Yellowknifer last summer, although the water remains shallow almost all the way out to the buoy markers, there are deep, unmarked holes as close as 30 metres from the shore. The sudden six-foot drop can be a shock to adult swimmers, let alone children who can't swim. These holes have the potential to completely submerge most adults, meaning that younger beach-goers are even more at risk. A child can suddenly be engulfed and disappear, even with eyes and ears stationed on shore.

It should be repeated that in the absence of any other explanation as to how seven-year-old Lodune Shelley drowned, the most obvious one is that he fell into one of those deep holes close to shore - as demonstrated by Yellowknifer in video and pictures. The video can be viewed here.

If people continue to ignore the role of what the coroner briefly alluded to as "bottom terrain," there can be no doubt that there will be more tragedies in future.

Chicken Little, a.k.a. global warming, a.k.a. climate change, lost more feathers to a stinging article by Friends of Science communication manager Michelle StirlingAnosh this past week.

The vast majority of the article debunking the climate change carbon baggers kept me rather comfy, as I trucked around Rankin Inlet on a balmy spring day with a windchill of 43 C.

I have devoured more information on climate change and humanity's contributions to it during the past five years than I ever would have believed I could digest.

Long story short, I continually see and hear doom and gloom prophecies from those who stand to make oodles of cash off of a scared 'silly' (and I use the word literally) population.

The science in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth the 2006 Academy Award-winning documentary that jump-started worldwide panic over global warming -- has been judged as everything from accurate to junk science by socalled experts around the world and the media.

The one thing many agree on eight years later, however, is that the dire predictions and time frames in the documentary were grossly overestimated to create instant global warming alarmism under the guise of instant action.

You have to give Gore credit (no pun intended) he hit a home run with that swing.

People forget another inconvenient truth about Al Gore and his jet-setting around the globe to promote the documentary.

He had arranged some of his business affairs around carbon credits so he was balancing carbon offsets with himself as chairperson of a firm he helped found in Generation Investment Management.

And, the whole carbon credit fiasco benefits the average bear nothing.

As StirlingAnosh correctly points out, the World Bank might make a billion bucks in under 30 minutes buying and selling emission credits, but not a single ordinary investor has made a dime from carbon credits.

That makes sense, since ordinary investors are not able to sell or trade the carbon credits they acquire.

The inconvenient truth is -- to those still trying to convince you your grandkids are going to be baked or fried thanks to global warming -- there's been a natural pause on global warming for more than the past 16 years (acknowledged by NASA).

As StirlingAnosh correctly writes, earlier this month the U.K.'s Global Warming Policy Foundation reported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has "significantly overstated" the impact of carbon dioxide on climate change.

If you require further credibility on the report, it was endorsed by renowned American atmospheric scientist Judith Curry, who agreed to pen its forward.

Big business continues to fan the flames of global warming alarmism, and quack for Canada and the U.S.A. to implement carbon taxes.

This despite the fact similar moves in Europe have led to electricity rates rising 37 per cent in the past nine years, and an economic atmosphere created that has seen one of the biggest transfers of wealth from poor to rich in modern European history.

No offense to Chicken Little, but if it looks like a duck and walks a duck ...

Northern and isolated schools have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to the variety of classes they can provide at the high school level.

For that reason, many students in the NWT who travel to southern universities after graduation find the road to higher learning a steep one littered with obstacles. Students from the territory's smaller communities often need to upgrade courses before beginning their post-secondary programs because classes required to take their program of choice weren't available during their high school years.

Although the NWT attracts enthusiastic and talented teachers, low school population means limited resources, smaller faculties and hence fewer options beyond the regular curriculum.

Ideas ranging from regional schools to better funding have been floated to help correct the problem but both are impractical for their own reasons. Regional schools take students away from much needed family support, while more funding is difficult to justify from a per capita standpoint.

E-learning, however, could be the solution to bridge all the gaps in our current system. With the fibre-optic link up the Mackenzie Valley promising to radically improve Internet connectivity in communities up the valley, the time is right to capitalize on technology-facilitated education.

Through E-learning, access to teachers, classes and peers becomes nearly limitless, allowing students in even the remotest and smallest communities to access virtually any education opportunity they can think of.

Schools in the Beaufort Delta are already taking advantage of the opportunities that E-learning can offer, with reportedly excellent results. As the department of education prepares to implement its education renewal plan, a territory-wide E-learning program should be looked at as one of the priorities to enhancing the education system and as a means to better prepare our students to succeed at the post-secondary level.

Northern students have enough challenges to contend with following graduation - such as the shock of leaving the North for the daunting world of the south and being isolated from family due to distance and steep travel costs. The fewer obstacles and frustrations our students face after graduation, the greater their chance of success. Their level of education, dictated by factors beyond their control, should not be the thing that holds them back from pursuing further studies.

Last week the Mackenzie Valley Review Board and the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board released, upon request, the travel costs paid to members of the federally-appointed boards.

The number is high - more than $1.6 million over the past five years for approximately $325,000 a year.

Alone, the numbers do not say much. We know one former staffer is suing the review board, alleging wrongful dismissal after raising concerns about overspending by senior board members.

Without a full breakdown of what the money was spent on, it is difficult to determine whether the costs were unjustified or were a product the distance and cost of travel associated with conducting business in the NWT.

What is notable is that the two boards freely released the figures and that kind of transparency should be the norm.

The public will draw its own conclusion about whether the expenses of the two largest environmental oversight bodies in the North were justified and we encourage the boards to release a more detailed picture of the spending so those opinions can be based on fact and not assumption.

It is a majestic beast, a wonder to behold, beautiful, speedy and dangerous. So revered, in fact, that its image is depicted as a symbol of the North, on company logos, licence plates, used in the names of sporting events and recognized across the world as an inhabitant of the Arctic.

That is why recognizing the potential impact of outside influences on the future of the polar bear is so important as the government of Nunavut looks at a new way to manage the harvest of the animal.

Environment Minister Johnny Mike wishes the territory wasn't subject to outside forces. But that is the reality.

"Polar bears are an iconic species being heavily scrutinized by animal rights groups in the southern locales, and there are still many misinformed zealots who want to place the polar bear in the threatened category," said Mike.

It is encouraging that the territorial government realizes it must take an approach in developing a polar bear management strategy that finds a balance between misinformed animal rights advocates and the reality of the animal's importance to the Inuit. After all, Ottawa labeled polar bears as a species of concern under Canada's Species at Risk Act in 2011. It is because of that designation that Nunavut is in the process of developing a management plan.

On the other side of the balance sheet is the fact that many Nunavummiut depend on the polar bear for food, clothing and money. It has been hunted and harvested for years as a vital part of a traditional way of life. The polar bear population in many parts of Nunavut is thriving. Arviat has an abundance of the animals. In fact, there are so many that it becomes a safety concern from time to time.

The approach being taken by the Department of Environment's wildlife division realizes the importance of the animal to the people and, in its community consultations, is gathering information from those closest to the polar bears about how they are to be harvested.

Essentially, the division is preparing a made-in-Nunavut plan to be presented to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board for approval. It proposes that people in the communities will get to decide how many polar bears can be hunted in a season, based on the population of the bears in the area and scientific research.

We applaud this approach which, unlike attempts by the Government of Northwest Territories to manage caribou, gives prominent consideration to the grassroots - the people who possess the traditional knowledge about the health and status of the polar bear population.

The goal of the management plan is a healthy, viable population of polar bears. That is achieved by keeping a firm grasp on the numbers, which is accomplished by working closely with Inuit hunters, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and regional wildlife organizations.

We are hopeful the polar bear management plan, with its emphasis on community consultation, will be approved and put into practice. With the plan in place, the polar bear can be assured of its continued revered place in the minds of people in Nunavut and around the globe.

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