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Inuvik Mayor Floyd Roland's confusion over the fact government workers in his community will see a reduction in their Northern Living Allowance benefit is understandable.

Inuvik, perhaps more than any community in the NWT, as been hit hard over the past year with substantial increases to the cost of living. Driving that increase has been the jump in home heating costs after the community was disconnected from the natural gas system when Ikhil well was no longer viable for production.

Since then, community members have been complaining about the high cost of living, some saying they are no longer able to pay their bills. A look at the population numbers for Inuvik also indicate something is amiss in the hub of the Beaufort Delta. Between 2011 and 2013, the number of residents of the community declined by approximately 250 people.

Unfortunately, calculating the Northern Living Allowance is not as simple as adjusting to changes in the cost of living, though it should be.

The benefit is calculated by tallying the value of goods and services, comparing them to the same costs in Yellowknife and then setting payment based on the difference. So, if cost of living in Yellowknife goes up and the cost of living in another community stays the same - based on that sample of goods and services -- the Northern Living Allowance benefit in the other community will decrease to reflect the smaller difference.

That in itself is a flawed system. A benefit meant to offset the cost of living should be reflective of the costs in individual communities. People in Tuktoyaktuk aren't happily buying their more expensive loaf of bread with less disposable income comforted by the knowledge that Yellowknife is paying more too.

The fact the goods and services used to calculate cost of living does not include things such as home-heating costs is unfathomable. It is no secret utility costs in Northern communities are high. Paying hundreds of dollars to heat a home every month is not uncommon and has a huge influence when people decide if living somewhere is worth the cost. That example might best be illustrated by the situation in Inuvik.

During the most recent territorial budget, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger committed to attracting people to the territory to combat the economic uncertainty looming due to the NWT's declining population. Many factors play into a decision to relocate to a place. Among those are how far a paycheque will take you. That becomes especially important when the location is more remote and isolated than what people are used to, not to mention a climate that has deterred many.

If the territory is to realize Miltenberger's objective, policies that do not take into account Northern realities will have to change. Near the top of the list should be the faulty Northern Living Allowance calculation that fails to accurately compensate for true community costs.

Iqaluit and Apex schools, along with the elementary school in Iglulik, are about to put a security system between students and the public, including parents.

The idea was brought to the Department of Education from the Iqaluit District Education Authority (IDEA), on the heels of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting - the Connecticut tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were fatally shot.

As reported in last week's Nunavut News/North, as early as September school entrances will be locked during school hours and monitored by school receptionists through a buzzer and camera system.

Aside from the logistical headache this creates in actually ensuring the receptionist is on standby at their desk at all times to open the front door, the potential issues run deeper. Will parents be left waiting in the foyer?

Barry Cornthwaite, manager of capital planning with Nunavut's education department, said that if the system is successful and liked, it could be implemented in schools across the territory, provided the department reaches understandings with local district education authorities.

What remains vague is what Nunavut-based concern, if any, the plan grew from.

Andrew Tagak Sr., chairperson of IDEA, did note the Department of Education worked collaboratively with schools and parents on the initiative. But what seemed to be the tipping point that made this a reality was bringing in a consultant from down south who reviewed the schools through the lens of what is being done elsewhere and who ultimately came up with the recommendation for the camera and buzzer system.

When determining the success of the project, it's crucial for the department to get all perspectives - parents, students and staff - and consider it with as much weight as what the consultant had to say.

Do students feel unsafe without cameras? Would they feel safer with them? Sometimes increasing security can lead to people feeling less secure because it hadn't occurred to them their safety was in jeopardy.

Is their safety in jeopardy?

Are there real safety concerns for schools in Iqaluit? Apex? Iglulik? Beyond? Is this something the majority of parents are supportive of?

Also, what may work in Iqaluit, may not in Nunavut's other communities, although Cornthwaite told Nunavut News/North Iqaluit has a "good cross-section of the types of schools in Nunavut."

The community that surrounds each school is intrinsically part of it and needs its voice heard before a decision is made.

And so the schools prepare to walk the balance beam - on one side there is increased security and on the other, unknown consequences. The outcry after Sandy Hook ranged from more mental health screening services to armed guards in the schools.

What is the level of threat in Nunavut?

Only engaging all people affected will illuminate the answer; only when that is known and understood should cameras in schools become a valid security measure.

Greenpeace is making its return to the North, hoping to rebuild bridges burnt as the result of past environmental campaigns that all too cast First Nation traditional and hunting practices in a negative light more than their intended whaling and fur industry targets.

The organization itself admitted last month while protesting a meeting of the Arctic Council that it had "fractured relationships" with First Nations in the North due to these campaigns - over seal hunting in particular.

Now Greenpeace says it wants to work with these groups to go after a larger enemy - those evil gas companies.

Unfortunately, the organization is proving yet again its difficulty casting aside hysterics and hyperbole.

Case in point is the attendee at a recent Greenpeace meeting complaining about the lack of foxes in Norman Wells, saying local oil and gas development are responsible.

Really? There are many species that are sensitive to human activities but it's hard to imagine a northern animal more common around civilization, other than perhaps the raven, than the red fox. There is certainly no shortage of them around Yellowknife despite decades of mining activity and growth. In fact, recent studies show the red fox range is likely expanding due to climate change. Perhaps this person from Norman Wells isn't looking hard enough.

Alas, her message will inevitably travel south and get swallowed up by other Greenpeace members, and before you know it environmentalists will be talking about how oil and gas development in the Sahtu kills foxes.

That isn't to say that oil and gas development - like all industrial efforts - doesn't cause environmental problems. This is well documented. Whether it be through its by-products, such as carbon dioxide leading to a bevy of environmental problems around the world, or through incidents leading to local catastrophes. Just ask anyone in Prince William Sound in Alaska following the Exxon Valdez running aground there in 1989, or the American Gulf Coast following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill just four years ago.

The problem with Greenpeace and groups like it, isn't their lack of passion for protecting the environment. It's the lack of credibility that corrodes its brand when it allows myths to pass as fact and blanket views on hunting and fishing that inevitably conflict with Northerners.

The organization made a good first step by admitting the misguidance of its previous campaign against seal hunting. The trick will come with stamping down the zealots among them.

Passing through Yellowknife, it is unlikely one would find art as permanent, prominent and iconic as Francois "T-Bo" Thibault's monumental United in Celebration sculpture - standing tall, fierce and magical at the award-winning Somba K'e Civic Plaza.

It served as a backdrop for the 2009 Olympic torch relay and for the royal visit by Prince William and Duchess Catherine in 2011.

When celestial events occur, such as the planet Venus passing over the face of the sun in 2012, United in Celebration makes it into the photos. It's not unusual to spot passersby taking shots of each other, or simply lounging, in front of the statue on any given day.

But beyond that sculpture's already ubiquitous existence, beyond the fact that Thibault's jewelry and carvings can be found all over the world, due to his own travels to international events or thanks to international travellers stopping in at one of his shops over the years - his legacy involves more.

As an artist and entrepreneur, he was a tireless advocate for the arts, a devotee to the idea - sometimes so difficult to grasp - that artists are valuable, should be valued and, most importantly, should be paid for the work they do.

In 2001, he walked into the Yellowknifer office with a vision of an arts centre constructed of old steel fuel tanks abandoned by Giant Mine. He had vision, he was an innovator. That project never did get off the ground, but it eloquently demonstrates the importance of stepping outside the box, to imagine.

In the city where he lived and died, he serves as an example for citizens, city administrators and fellow artists.

Art matters and contributes to the betterment of the daily lives of all citizens in a tangible way.

Across the Deh Cho, a group of people are getting excited about the onset of spring.

They are leafing through seed catalogues, making purchases and may even have seedlings started in sunny windows or under special lights. These gardeners are waiting, sometimes impatiently, until conditions are just right for them to start working and then planting their garden.

Gardening is a great summer time activity in the Deh Cho for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is relatively easy.

The region has lots of warm summer days, ample hours of sunlight and few pests that want to eat garden plants. Many communities are also blessed with fertile soil that plants easily flourish in.

Community gardens, which have been established in almost all Deh Cho communities, make it easy for residents who have little to no gardening experience to try their hand at planting a few vegetables. Community gardens encourage members to share their experiences so those who have been life-long green thumbs can pass on their knowledge and tips to the less experienced.

Gardening is also a great activity because of what it produces. Gardens in the Deh Cho are capable of growing almost anything. The Fort Simpson Community Garden has had success with run of the mill vegetables like potatoes, beans, spinach, peas, kale, carrots, and cabbage, but has also produced things like eggplants, hot peppers, cantaloupes and garlic.

By growing produce locally, Deh Cho gardeners are ensuring they have the freshest and maybe the healthiest food possible. A tomato fresh from the garden is certainly more nutritious and likely tastes better than one that has been over countless kilometres in a truck to sit in a grocery store produce section.

Gardening also reduces grocery bills and provides people with exercise. There is also the pride that comes with growing food yourself. A cabbage that a gardener planted as a seed and tended, watered and cared for has a lot more meaning for them than one purchased at a store.

The start of the summer growing season is still a month away, but now is the time for Deh Cho residents to get prepared and organized. Given the ease at which gardens can be grown in the Deh Cho and the numerous benefits that they create every community should have a flourishing community garden in addition to the personal gardens that individuals have already established.

There's no question that health care is expensive.

That point was driven home recently as the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority unveiled a new state-of-the-art digital mammography machine at its diagnostic imaging department.

The unit, which can process twice as many patients as the film unit it's replacing, rang in at a cost of about $260,000.

Along with the capacity to serve more patients, the machine allows data to be transmitted instantly to a Calgary medical centre where it can be viewed almost immediately. That's in contrast to waiting weeks for traditional film images to be processed, read and then reported on.

By any standard, that's progress.

The machine is also safer, with about half the dosage of radiation per test than the older unit. Like a digital camera, technicians can also review the images immediately, deciding on the spot whether more need to be taken.

It's hard to argue that isn't an improvement.

The only rub, if there is one, lies in the fact that mammography clinics are only scheduled for three times a year at the Inuvik Regional Hospital.

I've already heard people question whether it's sensible to have a machine worth more than a quarter-million dollars lie mostly dormant through the year, and that's a valid point.

However, the principle isn't much different than the other clinics, including vision clinics, that operate intermittently here in Inuvik.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether the pressure to keep modernizing equipment at the hospital pays off in better medical coverage which means, bluntly, whether it's going to improve the health of the general public and to save lives.

The answer, equally bluntly, is yes it will.

So while $260,000 is a "big chunk of change," I doubt too many people will want to argue it's not worth it to save a single life. If this new mammography machine will help to detect cancers earlier, it's going to save lives and, not so coincidentally, save costs in the long run.

Like many things, it's more costly to try to repair serious health problems that it is to try to prevent them outright, or to treat them at an early stage.

Hospital and health care equipment is a huge cost, and one that's not likely to get cheaper any time soon.

So it sounds to me like the new mammography machine is money well-spent in the long run.

There is a reason why people wax poetically about the good old days.

Times truly were simpler. People put out their trash without fear of having too many bags, went through airport security without having to take off their shoes and pour out their drinks, and went to the beach with a reasonable expectation that it would be staffed by lifeguards not tied to their deck chairs in red tape.

It's government that finds a way of complicating things, and that was no less true in 2003 when after years of steadily supplying lifeguards at Long Lake Beach, the government made them extinct, with the city and the GNWT both blaming each other for the cataclysm. First it was a lack of qualified lifeguards, next it was the territorial government's "liability."

Yellowknifer warned them someone, probably a child, would drown while they threw up roadblocks and dithered. Last year, the inevitable did happen even though there had been plenty of warnings and tragedies averted leading up to the drowning of seven-year-old Lodune Shelley, including a near drowning the year before.

Ten months after Shelley's death, a report written by the Lifesaving Society of Alberta/NWT has been released by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment that finally addresses the one service residents have been demanding all along - lifeguards at Long Lake.

Lifeguards are indeed on the radar - for a price, financially and practically. What cost the city and GNWT $21,000 to staff lifeguards at Long Lake in 2002, now costs $444,354 to have full-time lifeguards at Long Lake and in Hay River. Perhaps the lack of lifeguards in Hay River is an issue but it didn't appear to be one at the time of Shelley's drowning. That's one complication.

In addition to the enormous increase in cost - no issue, swears parks minister David Ramsay - is the report's warning that attendance at a fully lifeguarded beach will have to be limited. That's another complication.

This is all reminiscent of the saga that followed the call for 9-1-1 emergency phone service after a snowmobiler was seriously injured on Prosperous Lake but no one knew who to call for help. Study after study was written, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, and yet 14 years later the only 9-1-1 service Yellowknifers ever received was the imaginary one billed on Bell customer cellphones.

The shear exhaustiveness of the options the lifeguard report details, the lack of advertising for suitable contractors, the carefully inserted "if it will make the beach safer" qualifier added to Ramsay's stated commitment to bring some form of supervision back to Long Lake, makes one wonder just how committed the government really is in doing so.

Time will tell but the track record to date is less than inspiring.

I had the privilege of reading two articles earlier this month -- one by Michelle Stirling-Anosh, who is fearless against critical reprisals from the bleatings of misinformed public opinion -- which led me to a mind-numbing report from the United Kingdom entitled, Climate Control: Brainwashing in Schools.

It's mandatory reading for any educator who catches a referred episode of the Nature of Things and, along with learning how to be a wild elephant, becomes an in-class purveyor of global warming propaganda after sealing a letter of apology to their great-grandchildren for all the environmental damage their generation has wrought.

The report was so damning it prompted U.K. Education Secretary Michael Gove to publicly remind educators who preach an eco-agenda that they are breaking the law.

This is the same Gove who is under fire from U.K. educators for his support of corporate-backed free schools, many of which provide top-tier education for children of low-income families (We can't have that now, can we?).

The big business connection -- plus the fact some of the free schools, like any other system, don't do as good a job as others -- leaves the secretary open to claims of kneeling to corporate greed.

It's a familiar tactic of those who support the man-made global-warming theory.

They rabidly condemn any study that does not support their beliefs and receives corporate dollars, but keep their own cone of silence firmly in place when it comes to where a great deal of the funding for science-for-sale originates from.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation report finds environmentalism has permeated curricula in an astonishing variety of subjects.

I have the highest respect for many of our teachers here in the Kivalliq, and others across Nunavut who were once in our region.

Yet, in conversations with a number of them, I must admit to feeling worried about the message they may be passing onto students concerning climate change.

My worry stems from the fact that, like many environmentalists, they adamantly state man-made global warming is real.

Yet, I hear little of substance to support the claim, other than mentions of that inconvenient, self-promoting documentary that was all the rage so many years ago.

They tell me of scientists warning of global warming to the United Nations, then profess support of a trendy means of alternate energy such as the wind.

However, as Stirling-Anosh and many others have pointed out, wind energy is backed by gas plants to offset wind variability and can be up to nine times the cost of conventional power.

And they're silent when it comes to the collateral damage the clean power of the wind can be responsible for.

When you pull back the curtain to see the wizardry of wind power, you see mining to uncover turbine magnets.

If global warming is to be discussed in classrooms, then for every reference to David Suzuki, there has to be one to Brian Fagan.

Every video clip of falling ice has to come with statistics showing no global increase in the trend of violent or extreme weather.

Instead of using fear to polarize young minds, both sides must be presented in a fair and balanced manner.

After all, knowledge is power of a different sort.

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