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With snow blowing around, frosty mornings and a cold snap in the air, the time for riding bikes is coming to a close for the year for most people.

This past summer marked the first with the city's new helmet bylaw in effect - if you're on a bike or skateboard and you're under the age of 18, you're wearing a helmet. No ands, ifs or buts.

The city's bylaw officers took the right approach for the inaugural season for the bylaw - rather than immediately handing out tickets to children left, right and centre, they instead took the opportunity to remind and educate parents and youth first. If youngsters were caught riding their bike around town without helmets this summer, they would be told by bylaw that helmets are now the law of the land. And if you were found with a helmet? That's one free ice cream cone for you! Everyone loves ice cream.

However, a bylaw such as this is going to be tough to enforce. As it stands, residents need to take Dennis Marchiori, the city's director of public safety, at his word that they won't be seeing bylaw officers chasing helmetless children around in an attempt to give them a ticket next summer. There is nothing to argue about Marchiori's sentiment that he doesn't want bylaw to "scare kids about our presence in the community."

What would scare children? The checkstops proposed by Coun. Cory Vanthuyne. Last week, Vanthuyne said he would like to see bylaw officers on the McMahon Frame Lake Trail flagging down helmet bylaw offenders.

More bylaw patrols on the trail wouldn't be a bad thing, especially in terms of enhancing public safety, the perception of which has taken a hit in recent years after a number of sexual assaults and muggings were reported there. But "checkstops" have a different connotation all together, not at all far removed from Coun. Niels Konge's fear that bringing in a helmet bylaw would only further the "nanny state."

Yellowknifers want their children riding bikes, and safely enjoying it, not pedaling in fear of running into a bylaw dragnet around every corner.

Such a scenario is bound to discourage ridership not increase it.

The municipal enforcement department would be wise to carry on with kid gloves rather pick up Vanthuyne's enforcement hammer and drive away the goodwill that has been established.

The NWT Teachers' Association hosted it second territorial educators conference last week - a full house as just about every single person associated with education in the territory descended upon the city for three days of plenary sessions, workshops and breakout sessions.

With a price tag of $850,000, it must have been a wonderful show and let's hope it was worth it because there are still major issues in the classroom, especially when it comes to student performance.

According to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's own numbers on student attendance, students are absent 17 per cent of the time during the school year. When those numbers are stretched out over time, a student who misses one day per week will eventually miss one year's worth of school every five years attending school. That doesn't help anyone.

Even more noteworthy are the scores from the 2013 Alberta Achievement Test, which measures how well students in grades 3, 6 and 9 are doing in math and English language arts.

The scores are nothing to write home about, showing some staggering results in terms of non-achievement. For example, in Yellowknife, barely 50 per cent of students who wrote the Grade 3 English Language Arts test met acceptable standards, right on par with the Grade 9 math test.

If the knowledge that one out of every two students in the classroom is merely treading above water in those subjects doesn't scare you, it should and it shows there is a long way to go to improve.

The best thing to come out of this conference was the chance for teachers from around the NWT to network with other education professionals and trade stories about what is working for them.

That's one way things can improve in the classroom and if it continues, things could get better.

Right now, the only way is up.

A diamond mine could be in the Deh Cho's future.

Sometimes a small portion of a presentation or speech, and maybe not even the part that the speaker thought was the most important, is what people latch onto and can overshadow the rest of the message.

For many of the 24 people in attendance at the Fort Simpson Chamber of Commerce's evening with Minister David Ramsay on Oct. 6, the reference to diamonds might be one such overwhelming force. When asked what Ramsay talked about, diamonds might be their first answer.

Diamonds, however, weren't the focus of Ramsay's speech. There weren't the first thing he talked about or even the second. They didn't make an appearance until at least half way through his comments.

Taken as a whole, fitting with his position as the minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Ramsay's speech was about ongoing and future initiatives that could benefit the region's economy. That's how the revelation that a resource assessment on the proposed protected area called Five Fish Lakes south of Jean Marie River uncovered 18 kimberlite pipes tied in.

The report from the assessment apparently says there is a high degree of probability that the kimberlite could contain diamonds. You can jump directly from here to people in the audience envisioning giant, shiny diamonds being pulled from the ground.

According to Ramsay, some of the deposits are so close to the highway you could throw a stone and hit them. Cue even more visions of a large mine, people streaming to work and a steady stream of traffic heading over the now chipsealed surface of Highway 1.

With a functioning diamond mine, all of the Deh Cho's economic and employment issues could be solved for years to come. With proper impacts and benefits and socio-economic agreements, Jean Marie River First Nation could become the wealthiest First Nation in the Deh Cho overnight.

But the glare from the sunlight shining off of all of these imagined diamonds hides some inconvenient truths. The presence of diamonds hasn't been confirmed and imagine trying to open a new mine in the Deh Cho where the Dehcho Process hasn't been settled yet. And a mine beside or in a proposed protected area? The red tape and objections only thicken.

Even if diamonds exist, the Deh Cho needs more than one basket to base its economic future on. It will take a lot of work in different sectors and a lot of years before the region has a more vibrant economy.

But still, think of those diamonds.

You have to give the Inuvik Ground Search and Rescue team full marks for enthusiasm.

The team, which has about 50 members, has been active nearly every weekend since its inception with training opportunities.

Last weekend was no exception, when organizers invited the Inuvik Drum to observe some of their course on basic search techniques.

The team, when it is ready, will fill an urgent need for the region. There's no real excuse as to why a search team hasn't been able to remain active here. Yes, the population is transient, but perhaps that's an indication that a great deal more effort recruiting people with roots in the region should be attempted.

The sub-arctic topography of the Delta area is unforgiving. Anyone coming in from the south will need time to acclimatize and adjust to it. When you factor in that people born and raised here with on-the-land skills get lost from time to time, it shows you just how dangerous the bush can be.

That's why it's a bit unfortunate to see how few people born and raised in the region are participating in the team. Their knowledge and experience can never be adequately substituted by all the training in the world.

The training being provided to team members is by no means sub-standard. It looks quite impressive, and shows the team isn't some fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants organization.

It is however, somewhat bureaucratic and paperwork heavy. It's quite a process to wade through the red tape to apply for a position.

The proof of the team's training is going to be found whenever team members are ready to be called in for the first time. Their performance will tell the tale of whether southern search methods and techniques will stand up to the challenges of hunting for a lost person under Delta conditions, or whether the so-called "locals" will succeed in finding the person independent of the team.

Perhaps it's time for those two solitudes to find a way to draw a little closer together.

The team's leadership should ensure an effort is made to reach out to the people with valuable knowledge and find a way to pique their interest.

A new concept of law and justice in the NWT offers a proactive means to deal with people caught up in a criminal justice system who would be better served with addictions and mental health counselling rather than time behind bars and hefty fines many cannot pay.

Wellness court heard its first case on Thursday. It provides a sorely needed venue that addresses the root causes behind much of the criminal behaviour in the territory, namely drugs and alcohol and mental illness. This new court allows offenders who plead guilty the opportunity to get into treatment right away, instead of languishing in a court system limbo that often takes months to complete.

The goal is to break the vicious cycle of addiction, jail, release and repeat.

Sylvia Haener, deputy minister for the Department of Justice, explained this court will take people on a case by case basis and those who are accepted will remain under the court's supervision. The court will take the person's progress in the program into consideration when they return to be sentenced.

The program is modelled after a similar program in the Yukon, where a wellness court has been running since 2007. According to a 2011 report by the Canadian Research Institute for Law and Family, the number of people opting to go through wellness court in the Yukon increased to 79 in June 2011, from 34 in December of 2007.

A majority of people going through wellness court for substance abuse had success getting access to programs, finding supports and adhering to conditions of the program as well as helping to break their addictions cycle, get jobs and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Haener said they have been working closely with officials in the Yukon and said that territory has seen fewer repeat offenders since the program began.

For a backlogged court system in the NWT, filled with cases of petty criminal offences - many of them breaches of court orders handed down to hardcore addicts who have no real hope of abiding by them - a wellness court makes the most sense.

However, this program must not forget the victims. The first case to be heard in wellness court involves a man charged with sexual assault. Where victims of crime exist, their feelings should be considered before an offender is allowed to enter a wellness court.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a new style of justice in the territory that avoids warehousing people in jail for lesser crimes while providing them a better chance to work through their problems and defeat their personal demons.

Playing the game of debate
Editorial Comment by Darell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Two documents to make their way across the public domain recently provided a telling look into how global warming is perceived among the masses.

One was yet another editorial cartoon-type of image depicting the plight of the polar bear due to global warming.

The ice quickly disappears from under the bear, until he is left clinging to the top border of the cartoon, asking what it takes for humans to finally get the message.

On every Internet site the image appeared, tons of people commented on the poor bear and colourfully typed-down anyone who dared post a thought contrary to the concept of global warming destroying our planet.

Powerful stuff.

And impact is exactly what those who are on the side of global warming destroying the world look for at every opportunity.

You can't tug at the heart strings of people by showing a photo of a strong, healthy polar bear.

You need to hire guides and tromp around for days upon days, passing by dozens of healthy bears until the guides lead you to that one sickly looking bear that wasn't paying attention during mama's hunting lessons.

Nothing says impending doom quite like being able to see the ribs of a starving bear.

Perception is everything in this battle.

It's the same as taking a stand against seal hunting.

If you want people to support your cause, you don't show photos of happy Inuit children being supported by the meat and fur of the seal as a staple of their culture.

You show a baby harp seal under two weeks of age, with its beautiful fluffy white fur and soulful black eyes, staring forlornly into the camera, as if begging for help.

It's the way the game is played.

The second document, a news release issued by the Fraser Institute, caused hardly a whisper.

No cartoons, no heart-wrenching photos, just boring old facts that show there has been no significant temperature change during the past 15 to 20 years.

The study, authored by University of Guelph professor Ross McKitrick, shows the pace of global warming during the past 20 years has slowed well below almost every climate-model projection (fancy way of saying computer simulations that predict warming trends).

A number of recent studies also show greenhouse gases have less effect on climate than most climate models project.

The gist of McKitrick's study was to warn of the dangers of crafting policy without taking the pause in global warming into account.

He recommends policy-makers wait a few years to see if climate models change, maybe dramatically, before locking Canada and other countries into what could prove to be costly and inappropriate policies.

The message, for the most part, seems to have fallen upon deaf ears.

Chicken Little just doesn't seem to have the clout it once had.

Maybe the next study should be released by semi-nude models wearing cute little CO2 balloons.

They could even put a Mythbuster behind them with a large hatpin.

In today's social-media-driven society, that would at least get people's attention!

Many Northerners welcomed the news that the GNWT is coming up with $20 million needed to prevent a territory-wide power rate hike triggered by low water levels in the Snare hydro system.

While that may temporarily hold the line on the ever escalating cost of living in the North, it will be going directly on the GNWT's debt and doing nothing to prevent the same thing happening next year if not for the foreseeable future.

The question is: how serious is the GNWT about finding a lasting solution to our power needs?

In December 2013, two action plans laid out what the next 20 years of energy infrastructure projects will look like: the Energy Action Plan and Power System Plan.

The Energy Action Plan sets ambitious goals to increase renewable energy infrastructure to lessen our reliance on diesel. One target is solar power systems meeting up to 20 per cent of power needs in diesel communities.

Again and again, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger and others on cabinet have committed to increasing the amount of renewable energy in the territory and ending our expensive reliance on diesel generators.

Keep this in mind when reading two stories that appear in this week's paper on pages 11 ("Few returns for new solar panels on senior's home") and page 27 ("Geothermal project killed to protect monopoly: MLA").

There was a golden opportunity to get Fort Liard off diesel when Borealis GeoPower, a Calgary-based company, offered to install a geothermal system that would meet all of the community's power needs. The project would not have cost the territory anything, as the company could have taken advantage of a federal clean energy fund.

However, NTPC procrastinated in getting the company the power purchase agreement it needed to secure the financing. The company blames NTPC's obstruction for killing the project and there is little evidence to the contrary.

In Hay River, a NWT Housing Corporation's seniors facility installed a solar panel system, thinking that under the new net metering program, approved in January, it would be able to sell its excess power back to the grid. However, it now seems the array adorning the top of Whispering Willows is too large. Northland Utilities has so far declined to provide the senior's home with a smart meter, essentially meaning the facility will be feeding power into the grid with no return. Northland operates under the same agreement as NTPC, one overseen by the Public Utilities Board, that stipulates it's only for renewable energy systems producing five kilowatts of electricity and they can't be a government organization. The housing corp.'s solar power system would have produced 60 kW.

Yet the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment had no problem getting NTPC to purchase the power from its 100 kW solar array in Fort Simpson, so what exactly are we missing here?

Mixed in with the announcement that the GNWT would offer a $20-million bailout to the power corp. was the news that the proposed transmission line to connect the Taltson hydro system in the South Slave to the Snare system in the North Slave has been called off.

Studying the most recent route for this power, around the western shore of Great Slave Lake, cost the government half a million dollars. This does not include money spent considering a route from the Taltson River dam to the diamond mines by way of Lutsel K'e in the previous attempt to sell hydro electricity to the diamond mines.

All of this was done without the mines expressing firm interest in purchasing power from NTPC.

Two failed attempts on a hopeless project, expending valuable staff time and taxpayers' money. Why didn't they simply ask NTPC chair Brendan Bell, who is also a vice-president with Dominion Diamonds, which owns Ekati and 49 percent of Diavik, whether they were the least bit interested?

We think it's time the government makes good on its public commitments.

NTPC may masquerade as a private corporation obligated to its shareholders but there is only one shareholder: the GNWT, which is supposed to promote the best interests of all residents.

If, in the face of undesirable expensive diesel and an equally unreliable hydro-electric system, the shareholder says renewable energy and liquid natural gas is the way of the future, then we would suggest the GNWT rein in its utility. The future of the territory depends upon it.

It is an issue wherever there are humans living, eating, drinking, breathing and creating waste.

How that waste is managed has a huge impact on people's quality of life because of its potential impact on a source for fresh water.

In the case of Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, how waste has been handled has caused immense problems, with both the capital city and the hub of the Kivalliq region experiencing fires at their waste management facilities, or dumps, in the past year. Iqaluit's dump fire, of course, was particularly nasty with the fire smouldering under piles of garbage several storeys tall. It serves to illustrate just how much waste people create and, coupled with the realization that a vast majority of Nunavut communities are operating without a valid water licence, prompted further investigation by Nunavut News/North, which resulted in a three-part series. It concludes in this edition.

What we found is a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare. Only a few Nunavut communities are in compliance with the Nunavut Water Board's water licence regulations. Inspectors from the federal government's Aboriginal and Northern Development Canada visit communities to check method of waste disposal, test water quality and infrastructure. Many are found to be lacking because of improper waste disposal, leaking sewage holding ponds and inadequate fencing.

Several senior administrative officers in Nunavut hamlets feel they are fighting a losing battle in their efforts to meet the water licence requirements. Already working with a tight budget to provide services to residents of small municipalities, the prospect of spending significant dollars to get a piece of paper from a regulatory body often gets pushed down the list of priorities.

Are Nunavut communities facing a version of the Walkerton Tragedy, where the water supply in the small Ontario town became contaminated with a strain of E. coli bacteria from farm runoff into an adjacent well, resulting in the death of seven people and severe illness in hundreds of others?

Not likely. Many remote Nunavut communities have access to some of the cleanest, most pristine fresh water in the world.

Is there a problem? Yes. Testing fresh potable water as it is sourced, stored and distributed is vital to protect human health. Managing the disposal of waste -- raw sewage, household trash and garbage -- is important to the long-term health of any community.

We suggest water and waste issues should be a higher priority for all levels of government, municipal, territorial and federal, in terms of funding and regulations.

There are also many contributions that individuals and communities can make, by diverting recyclables from the waste stream, looking for methods to have waste shipped out of communities and making efforts to protect the integrity of freshwater sources.

Look around. Ask questions. Raise concerns. Demand action.

A community's ability to survive and flourish depends on the proper handling of water and waste.

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