Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

As much as people would like a world entirely free from discrimination, such a place isn't possible - not as long we have private property and a market economy.

Yellowknife's largest landlord, Northern Property REIT, raised the ire of the NWT Human Rights Commission last week after announcing it was no longer accepting tenants receiving income support from the territorial government.

The company erred by basing its discrimination on people's source of income rather than on how much they made, their credit rating or their references.

From a human rights point of view, Northern Property would have been well within its rights if it instead said it was following its application process in all cases, regardless of where income is coming from.

After all, it's no more a human right to receive housing from a private sector landlord than it is a brand new Lamborghini from a local car dealership. If you can't afford it, you're not entitled to it.

The problem, as identified by Northern Property, is that there is no guarantee tenants will be able to pay their rent once the government income support payments stop. The company claims to have lost $250,000 in unpaid rent in 2013, a "high number" of those arrears coming from income support recipients.

Most tenants collecting income support have their eligibility assessed on a monthly basis, just as most of those tenants have their rent paid by the GNWT directly to their landlord, up to $900 for a single person.

One thing is clear: if residents are being denied housing, for whatever financial reason, it inevitably falls on the government, not the private sector, to come up with a solution.

According to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, there are 320 families on income support, with the average time receiving payments being eight months.

If the GNWT can't offer landlords proper guarantees against the financial risk renting to cash strapped tenants, where are these people to go?

Coming off income security with one wage earner and facing an average rent of $2,000 per month for a multi-bedroom family apartment from a private landlord is crippling. The experience of Northern Property indicates many people fail to meet their rental obligations. In fact, the $2,000 monthly rent may well discourage people from looking for work if it means losing a stable place on income support.

So what's the solution?

The majority of people in public housing do not collect income support, but are instead low wage earners or on a fixed income.

As people coming off income security are likely to be on the lower end of the salary scale, it appears the only answer is more public housing.

It's either that, or watch as more people are thrown out onto the street or leave the North for affordable rent or accessible public housing.

Far too much of the rhetoric surrounding what may, or may not, follow in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been sadly adversarial in nature, and will undermine the efforts of those trying to build bridges between peoples, both home and abroad.

Why anyone would go off the deep end over a few voices claiming forced residential schools weren't really that big a deal, our aboriginal population should just get over it, and the Government of Canada has grossly overpaid for the injustices done those affected by such schools is beyond me.

Please! Consider the source. They're idiots!

They spew nothing but derision, divisiveness and distrust in their comments -- always posted anonymously online -- based on their own personal feelings and twisted points of view.

They have no facts to substantiate their claims, nor any understanding or compassion toward the issues being debated with them.

They don't want to understand, represent no one but themselves, and certainly do not speak for the average Canadian.

They are guilty of possessing, in abundance, one of humanity's worst traits, that of ignorance.

But those angered enough by their words to respond in-kind, on a public forum, are guilty too.

In their anger, they're guilty of allowing themselves to believe (or at least wonder if, maybe) deep inside, all non-aboriginal Canadians feel the same way.

It's a fool's game and they're playing it.

Far from building bridges, they put up walls when claiming Canadians attempted genocide -- cultural and actual -- against them, renounce their Canadian standing in the name of being indigenous peoples from a variety of sovereign nations, and claim racism and anti-aboriginal teachings were embedded in Canadian school curriculums for generations and still exist today.

We get enough of that from people who should know better, like commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair and his "... All Canadians have been taught to believe in the negative stereotypes of Canada's indigenous people in our public schools and that long-term racism needs to be brought to a halt."

Well, here's one Canadian who sure wasn't taught that in his school.

Sinclair's credentials might be impeccable, but, unless he has divine power to look into my heart, I strongly resent his implication.

And can we please refrain from the incessant usage of the term colonialism when referring to today's Canada?

If you want to discuss something that truly holds people back -- any people -- let's talk first-past-the-post and non-party politics.

Through immigration, Canada has become a vast collective of cultures and we're stronger for it.

Colonial Canada? No sale. Not for awhile now.

But, I must have missed something.

I thought this process was about healing, awareness, reconciliation, equality and coming together as peoples.

Yet most of what I hear today is aggression, which may burden some average Canadians with guilt or shame for acts they played no part in.

But in the majority, they will kindle nothing but resentment, indifference and disconnect.

Is this the best we can do?

It's official - construction of Norman Wells' new long-term care centre is about to begin and the Sahtu region will welcome a new state-of-the-art facility that will enhance health services in the entire area.

Not only will the new centre bring all services under one roof, it will allow elders in the region who require long-term care to stay closer to home instead of having to travel to Yellowknife or southern facilities for care. The facility will also provide full-time access to a doctor instead of having the community rely on visits from locum physicians which can disrupt the continuity of care.

Aside from improvements to health care, the facility will also offer economic benefits to people in the community, opening up 29 new positions. Many of those jobs, with the proper training, will be available to people in the Sahtu region.

Building the centre is only the first step to maximizing its benefits, however. The people of the Sahtu and the community of Norman Wells need to be ready to take advantage of the benefits.

Training will be essential so people living in the region can take advantage of new jobs. For those jobs that will require bringing people into the community, such as a new doctor, will also require places to live. Norman Well's housing market is saturated.

Mayor Gregor Harold McGregor said the town is looking for a developer to build a multi-unit residential complex on property it owns. Norman Wells has also put in the work to upgrade service infrastructure to ensure it can accommodate the new facility.

The $35-million health centre is a great investment by the GNWT but the government also has to ensure it invests in training while creating an atmosphere that will help attract housing development to Norman Wells. Without these things, its hopes to meet the potential of its multi-million-dollar investment will fail.

People in the NWT jumped on a recent story that the Elders' Parliament led by mock premier Melody McLeod - wife of Premier Bob McLeod - approved a ban on fracking in the territory.

Social media comments and comments to media have indicated many see the symbolic gesture as more pressure for the GNWT to ban the controversial practice.

Fracking is a volatile subject and there is no question it comes with serious environmental concerns. Unfortunately, the rhetoric is out of control. Granted, the failure of government and industry to be upfront about the dangers of fracking and their habit of ignoring requests and petitions from the public for more stringent environmental assessment is not helping.

But, the opponents are not being constructive either. Screaming for an end to fracking is fine and well, but what is the alternative? The territory is starving for jobs. If not fracking then what? Tourism? Agriculture? No one wants to trade the health of the land and our people for money. However, nor do people want to struggle to put food on the table or pay rent.

We need to find balance. If resource development is not the way to go, then we need constructive alternatives. So far, all we see is infighting and name calling between two groups who cannot compromise.

Yes, the Elders' Parliament stood up and sent a message. However, not only did that mock session not represent the process of government, the mock MLAs have the luxury of going home at the end of the week and leaving the real problems - such as the territory's declining population and employment rate - to someone else.

Strategists with the Government of Nunavut are entirely correct with their observation that there is not one single magic solution to the territory's problem with food insecurity.

That was the conclusion when the tasks for the Nunavut Food Security Coalition to undertake over the next three years were revealed. There are six themes in the approach, which calls for nearly 70 actions to be taken in an effort to reduce hunger.

It is a monumental issue with the government acknowledging that food insecurity among Inuit households in Nunavut is eight times higher than the national average. What that means is people are going hungry, some people don't know where their next meal is coming from and others are forced to choose whether to spend money on utility bills, other household necessities or groceries.

Leaders at the release of the 22-page Nunavut Food Security Action Plan on May 5 were optimistic that the challenge to get healthy food to the people at an affordable cost can be met. After all, there are 30 organizations and government departments committed to different aspects of the strategy, funded in part by Health Canada.

With so many people involved in such a far-reaching strategy, it is vital going forward that realistic and meaningful action be taken. Actual results are needed, not more words which describe the issue and advance possible solutions. That means realistic strategies need to be put into action.

Efforts to support country food harvesters, improve community infrastructure to store, prepare and share country food and encourage expansion of country food harvesting is worthy of much attention.

With that must come the recognition that more and more Nunavummiut rely on store-bought food to fulfill their nutritional needs. While we wait for the Auditor General of Canada to complete and release an audit of the federal government's Nutrition North program, methods must be found to make store-bought food go farther. Leesee Papatsie of Iqaluit, the founder of the 20,000-member Feeding My Family Facebook group, likes the life skills theme of the action plan because it encourages Inuit to learn new ways of preparing food. The new reality involves using recipes in the kitchen and preparing meals that are healthy, nutritious and bountiful, rather than heating the contents of a can or boiling something out of a box.

The place where change really has to happen is in people's individual lives. It's great that 30 organizations and government departments are involved, and that each are tasked with carrying out 70 different parts of the strategy. But, at the end of the day, the test of success will come by analyzing what is being served at the kitchen table and how often nutritious food is available to people.

When one is trotting along on a horse, a rider must be mindful of the condition of the road, conscious of the weather and prepared to yank the reins and shout ''woah'' when faced with unexpected obstacles.

The rider must react to the environment in which they travel - if they forge ahead, ignoring their surroundings, they put themselves in danger.

The same can be said for the City of Yellowknife, happily trotting along with blinders on, looking at a possible tax hike while the economy and population remains stagnant.

City administration presented the preliminary 2015 budget to council last week that would have residents digging deeper into their pockets to fund a proposed 4.68 per cent tax increase and a proposed three per cent increase in user fees for city facilities such as the swimming pool.

Meanwhile, the canary in the coal mine is over at the city's two predominant school districts which have been facing declining enrolment - and consequently government funding - for years. Last week, Yellowknifer reported 12 teacher's jobs were cut between Yellowknife Catholic Schools and Yellowknife Education District No. 1, with the latter district citing enrolment decline as the direct cause.

Total enrolment in the territory, for which Yellowknife holds half the population, dropped by 1,218 students between 2003 and 2012, according to the NWT Bureau of Statistics - hardly indicative of a population that could bear the burden of a municipal tax hike.

The territorial government may have the lofty goal of increasing the population of the territory by 2,000 people in the next five years, but this is a goal not rooted in reality nor backed by history or statistics.

Yellowknife's population has hung slightly above stagnation between 2006 and 2011, according to Statistics Canada figures, with an overall percentage increase of just 2.9 per cent- significantly less than the national growth average of 5.9 per cent.

It's expensive to live in Yellowknife, and the city should be making it attractive for people to live here - not giving residents little jabs in the stomach via unreasonable tax hikes.

With the unveiling of the proposed budget came disapproving comments from city councillors, including Coun. Phil Moon Son who said, ''If we can't get below the (proposed) property tax increase I think there will be some serious repercussions from the community.''

Coun. Rebecca Alty said each city department should aim to reduce its budget - property taxes are mostly used to fund the city's operations and maintenance spending - citing a full-screen TV installed at the Fieldhouse last year and its coinciding cable costs as an example of how budgets could be trimmed.

Between the pricey water bills, power bills and mortgage payments most Yellowknifers are saddled with, an increase in property taxes and user fees propel residents further down the road toward unsustainable living.

Most dangerously, it could push people out of the city or bar them from moving here in the first place.

Considering the tax hike is merely proposed at this point, it's time now for the city to shout ''woah'' and slow down that horse before the surrounding environment of stagnating population cripples it.

Breakup is a highly anticipated time of the year in the Deh Cho.

Every community in the region is located beside a body of water, either a river or a lake, that residents can watch for ice transformations. Some people station themselves beside the river and wait for the first sign of the ice to crack and move.

But it seems like breakup could be destined to become one of those tall tales that parents and grandparents tell their offspring – those stories that begin with, "back when I was a kid" and often end with the young listener wondering if something like that ever happened.

Breakup, as some have realized, just isn't quite as exciting and dramatic – or as dangerous depending on your viewpoint – as it used to be.

For instance, the ice in the Liard River at Fort Liard during breakup was described as slushy by a local leader.

In Fort Simpson the ice on the Liard River, and further along on the Mackenzie, looked about the same.

Almost completely missing were the white or blue iceberg-like pieces that used to be incredibly thick and often jutted out of the river at odd angles after being pushed around by the pressure.

Instead there are mushy looking blocks that are off-coloured and not very thick.

The Liard and Mackenzie Rivers didn't put on a dramatic show this year; it was rather anticlimactic.

Anyone who was new to the region and had never seen breakup before could be left wondering what all the excitement is about.

The scale of the rivers and the ice is still impressive, but mushy ice just doesn't provide the same effect.

The flip side to all of this is the risk of flooding is greatly decreased.

There are no guarantees, but without ice jams to back-up the water, things flow much more smoothly.

Mayor Sean Whelly has seen the breakups become less dramatic in his more than 30 years in Fort Simpson.

He has no interest in seeing the drama return.

Flooding, after all, can cause varying levels of damage and thick ice blocks are like a ready-made tool for carving away chunks of the island's already overhanging banks.

So where does that leave Deh Cho residents?

People will unquestionably still look forward to breakup every year and place bets on when they think the ice will break.

But if we truly are at the end of an era of dramatic breakups, it will be up to the people who saw and remember the exciting ones to remind everyone else what they are really missing.

It was clear after last week's NWT Association of Communities conference in Inuvik that concerted action on homelessness is not on the GNWT's agenda.

The reaction of the Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Robert C. McLeod struck all the right political notes – except for anything that demonstrated real action.

The association passed a resolution asking that all homeless shelters be fully funded by the GNWT. That's not an unreasonable request, given that the Inuvik Emergency Warming Shelter that opened in December and will close soon for the season will have cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100,000 to operate for six months.

Most of that money came from the coffers of the Beaufort Health and Social Services Authority, so in effect, the GNWT did subsidize its operation.

That's a heavy burden for many of the communities to bear, particularly with the economy sagging badly and just showing some signs of life here in the Mackenzie Delta region.

As McLeod said, the problem is a complex one that "can't be solved overnight." That certainly won't happen if the GNWT keeps offering a few hundred thousand dollars here and there for pilot projects instead of grappling with the issue wholesale.

The association's resolution says homeless numbers are swelling to a point not seen previously here in the NWT, and the members could well be right.

That makes it a problem that isn't well suited to incremental steps and pilot projects. An in-depth program to tackle the problem is what's needed before it gets further out of hand, and that's going to require the GNWT master some political will instead of rhetoric.

One of the solutions to homelessness and poverty starts with making sure there is adequate housing available.

Most people with knowledge and experience of working with the homeless, such as Father Stephen Martin and Donald Prince here in Inuvik, say that providing the chance for some independent housing is the foundation for encouraging any individual person's desire to change and improve their lifestyle.

That's what the government should be aiming for, along with rehabilitation, skills development and education upgrading.

It's an integrated process that does take will and the political courage to say what has been done in the past isn't working very well, and it's time for a new approach.

So how about it, GNWT officials? Is it time to try to do what's right, or is it time to play more politics?

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