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It's easy to romanticize about the importance of the year that was as calendars change over to 2015. Nonetheless, we at News/North are holding fast to the notion that 2014 will go down in the books as a remarkable year in the Northwest Territories.

Over the past 12 months, devolution has taken effect; courts in the territory and elsewhere have heard landmark cases about indigenous rights; residents, politicians and industry have been locked in heated debates over what the future of resource development should look like; a grassroots movement to raise awareness about Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women has taken root and started important conversations about violence and gender equality; accusations of assaults by police have arisen; and the future of caribou and the people who rely upon them has returned to the forefront, among other things.

Power play

Bureaucrats are currently wrestling with the $250-million question of how to power the territory.

An unprecedented lack of water in the Snare Hydro System has turned Yellowknife into the North's largest diesel community. This, along with a technical report that found the proposed hydro grid expansion linking the North and South Slave would cost over $1 billion, has killed the dream that was creating a connected hydro grid in the NWT.

The biggest issue impacting daily life is poverty, driven in large part by the cost of living in the North. On this, there appears to be consensus -- but what to do about it remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger is poised to invest big money into energy – as long as the federal government approves the GNWT's request to raise its debt ceiling by $1 billion.

But before we can fix our energy problems, the monopoly currently enjoyed by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and Northland Utilities Ltd. has got to go. Those who don't agree that there is a power monopoly in the NWT need look no further than to what happened when Borealis GeoPower proposed to build a geothermal plant in Fort Liard.

News/North would humbly suggest that the government think small. Stop being distracted by grand-scale projects that rely on industrial customers. The NWT's diamond mines – none of which are expected to survive beyond a couple decades -- have never said that they want to purchase power from the territory, so let's let it go.

Instead, focus on small-scale projects that will provide residents with affordable, sustainable power.

The climate is changing, now what?

Climate scientists have upped the urgency in the alarm they have been sounding for years: the climate is changing and without immediate action there will be serious consequences.

In 2014, the messaging from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) changed from – and this is paraphrasing – "we need to cut emissions or bad things will happen" to "bad things are happening and we need to get ready."

It's not hard to see the effects looking around the NWT. In the Beaufort Delta, the shoreline has eroded to the point that homes will have to be moved back or be swept into the sea, and hunters are dealing with ice conditions the likes of which they have never previously seen.

Then there were the fires. This past summer saw the worst fire season on record – highlighting a drought that is not only negatively impacting the land and animals, it is now hitting the government's pocketbook.

All the more reason for the government to double-down and invest in community alternative energy projects -- for both power and heat -- such as wind, biomass, geothermal and solar power. Not only will it reduce carbon emissions, it will save money long term.

While there are definite glimmers of possibility as the Northwest Territories embarks into the new year, there are plenty of potential pitfalls ahead.

There is no end in sight to the persistent and worrisome population drain despite GNWT efforts to reverse it. The territory, despite the government's devolution deal, remains vulnerable to rising costs and a lack of money to pay for massive infrastructure needs.

As 2015 unfolds, we will see whether the GNWT can rise to the challenge.

The new year brings much promise but also many reasons to be wary. We wish our government leaders and everyone else the best of luck in navigating this uncertain year.

It was quite a year for Nunavut on the national and international stage in 2014.

Historians lauded the discovery of the lost ship HMS Erebus, missing since Sir John Franklin's ill-fated voyage in 1845. Where dozens of explorers and searchers had failed before, modern technology and determination by the Harper government was finally successful when the wreckage was finally found, under Nunavut water in an area that was described previously by an Inuit expert in Gjoa Haven as a good place to look.

Nunavut performer Tanya Tagaq of Cambridge Bay made national headlines by winning the $30,000 2014 Polaris Prize, awarded in Toronto in September, for her album Animism. She shocked the audience when she pointed to her sealskin armbands and proclaimed seal meat as delicious, before uttering a few choice disparaging words at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for its stand against the seal hunt in Canada.

In Clyde River, meanwhile, the hamlet has banded together with Greenpeace in its efforts to stop seismic testing in Davis Inlet and Baffin Bay to map the water for future oil and gas development after a multinational company received approval from the National Energy Board. Greenpeace, known worldwide for its efforts to protect the environment, is helping to bankroll legal services by a high-profile lawyer.

A significant black mark against Nunavut was the fire at the Iqaluit landfill, colloquially referred to as "Dumpcano," which burned for an atrocious 100 days before being finally extinguished on Sept. 16. Residents with health problems were forced to stay indoors and others were affected by the toxic smoke, depending on wind direction, while requests for help by city officials from other levels of government fell on deaf ears and the Iqaluit fire department struggled to come up with a game plan.

But nothing has cast a darker shadow on Nunavut in the eyes of outsiders than the damning report by the auditor general of Canada on Nutrition North, the food subsidy program administered by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. It concluded that there is no way to determine if subsidies are being passed on to consumers. The resulting coverage, including images of food products displayed on Nunavut grocery store shelves above outrageous price labels, have outraged Canadians and prompted a startling response.

Now, people in southern Canada are holding fundraisers, organizing assistance online and shipping groceries north like Nunavut is a Third World country hit by a natural disaster.

The issue was exacerbated by Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq's response, which ignored pointed questions in the House of Commons and called out an elected leader in Rankin Inlet for drawing attention to food insecurity in a televised documentary which showed elders picking food from the dump.

The territorial government's primary focus is on education, but how can young people learn when they are hungry and don't have a stable place to live?

In the year ahead, leaders at all levels need to wake up to the severity of the trouble Nunavummiut face in finding healthy, affordable food and adequate housing. There is no single solution but, just as there were many people involved in making the news, there must be multiple efforts to address issues of basic need.

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