Keep tabs on the cashYellowknifer - Wednesday, February 18, 2015
With Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger predicting tough times ahead in his budget address, we should all be closely following the approach Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny has taken in calling on cabinet to justify expenses.
"Most residents would agree the Government of the Northwest Territories has an obligation to support and promote, both globally and nationally, an open-for-business position. This is a given. But it's the blurred line of government travel that always has to be put in perspective," said Dolynny in the legislative assembly.
The question must be asked: Why $750,000 for travel to China, Japan and Ottawa? Dolynny suggested it could have gone to assist the junior kindergarten rollout but there are any number of worthwhile projects. Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya pointed out that the cost of a trade mission to encourage Chinese and Japanese investment might have gone to improve the living conditions of Tulita nurses living in rodent-infested homes.
"Somehow we find $300,000 to promote investments in the NWT but at the same time we can't take care of our basic, essential health-care workers in our small communities," he said.
Every time cabinet finds money for one project, it takes away from another cause, whether its reallocating money already in the budget or borrowing $20 million to avoid a 3.7 per cent power rate hike.
Priorities are based on values and that means they're usually up for debate.
But surprise announcements -- such as the premier's mention of an all-weather road estimated to cost $300 million and a study looking at an energy, transportation and communications corridor along the Mackenzie Valley -- squash that debate.
Cabinet controls the purse strings and is therefore responsible for making the calls but the ministers should also be transparent when doing so.
In light of the budget address Miltenberger gave with the most recent territorial budget, this discussion is only going to get more important.
"We have been spending everything that we receive. This can work when revenues are growing but with a forecast of flat revenue growth over the medium term we need to make sure our expenditures grow in line with our revenues," said Miltenberger.
In times of plenty, decisions become less difficult with fewer immediate consequences on the horizon. That may not always be the case.
Cabinet should see transparency as best practice and a failure to be transparent as a missed opportunity to get proper public input.
Downtown businesses need more support, not taxesYellowknifer - Wednesday, February 18, 2015
A proposal to form a business improvement district is not going to happen because there are not enough businesses to support it.
Coun. Adrian Bell once again floated the idea of creating a downtown business district last week. His vision calls for a designated zone where taxes apart from the property taxes they already pay would be used to fund services such security, beautification and marketing.
It was shot down by Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director Deneen Everett, who reported a majority of businesses surveyed rejected the idea.
Bell has been pushing this idea since 2012, when he proposed a lobby group be formed to speak on behalf of downtown merchants to city council.
While a business improvement district may have merit elsewhere, especially in communities with a business base large enough to make the scheme worthwhile, it would in all likelihood be too much of a burden for downtown merchants. The core is simply not big enough to make much of a dent on fixing downtown. More likely, an improvement tax would only accelerate their closure and exodus to the suburbs. The central character in the city's quest to revitalize downtown is Centre Square Mall.
Until this split ownership group from down south gets its act together, any additional enhancement efforts are moot. As it stands, the two mall owners, Huntingdon Capital Corporation and Royal Host, seem entirely unphased by its dwindling number of tenants and a blocked off entrance to keep out vagrants.
The city can squeeze the remaining downtown small businesses all it wants but until the Centre Square owners are doing their part, a business improvement district is pointless. Bell should be commended for bringing ideas to the table while others remain silent. But downtown businesses would be better off spending their money on themselves and make their own improvements.
Pushing for a sequel
Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, February 18, 2015
I appreciate everything former Rankin Inlet deputy mayor Sam Tutanuak had to say in a public farewell story I had the privilege to write in this past week's edition (The calm after the storm, Feb. 11, Kivalliq News).
I could relate to a number of things he said about stress and the toll it can take on one's overall health.
Yet I still have an empty feeling in regard to the situation and a compelling sense of some unfinished business with Tutanuak.
The odds are high the public will never know the true chain of events that went down from the time Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq picked up the phone in Ottawa and called the Hamlet of Rankin Inlet in regards to a piece Tutanuak took part in on an APTN-produced TV show.
The now infamous piece, in Rankin at least, insinuated a number of elders made a practice of scavenging the local dump for food.
The rest is, as they say, history.
For all the he-said, she-said attributes of this fiasco -- played out so dramatically and sucked bone dry by southern media -- there is only one certainty we are left with.
Both the community and the Municipality of Rankin Inlet lost a darn fine man!
They say time is a healer.
If that's so, despite the finality in his words and tone this past week, hopefully, the day will come when Tutanuak reconsiders his position.
The one part of his spiel this humble scribe will never be able to agree with, is Tutanuak's contention that it's OK not to be the voice speaking up.
But it's not OK. We have precious few in Kivalliq, or across Nunavut for that matter, unafraid to speak up and ask tough questions for fear of reprisals from the powers that be.
And that small number of people does not go up much when we include our politicians.
That's why the loss of a politician or community leader who has demonstrated honesty and integrity throughout his political career is such a serious blow.
We simply don't have many options to draw from in our perilously low political talent pool, especially at the municipal level.
All politicians, good or bad, occasionally rely upon theatrics to make a point.
Aglukkaq reading the daily papers while the food issue in Rankin Inlet was being discussed in Parliament was exactly that -- theatrics.
And, although she apologized for the move later (sort of), there can be no denying the effectiveness of the picture it provided us.
As insensitive as it may have been, the Nunavut MP casually reading the paper sent a message loud and clear on just how much credibility she gave the APTN report.
Unfortunately, there were no theatrics involved with Tutanuak's thoughts this past week.
As always, he was honest and sincere in expressing his thoughts on how he truly felt at that particular point in time.
Yet, he cannot change the man he is, and he is a man who cares deeply about his community and those who call Nunavut home.
Tutanuak has some teeth-grinding days awaiting him in his life away from the public spotlight.
And should the day ever come he decides to change his mind about politics, that would be a sequel worth watching for.
The shackles of bureaucracyNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, February 16, 2015
Soon after arriving by ambulance to Stanton Territorial Hospital on Nov. 4, 2009, Allisdair Leishman wandered into the hospital's kitchen, found a knife and stabbed himself in the chest.
To this day he remains in long-term care at the hospital, brain damaged, unable to speak and physically disabled.
How he was able to stray from the care of hospital staff, make it to the kitchen, get his hands on a knife and injure himself all remain a mystery his mother, Margaret Leishman, who has spent the past six years imploring the Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) to provide some answers.
Leishman understandably wants to know the details of the chain of events that led to her son to injure himself while under the care of the health authority.
She also wants to know why the recommendations from the report were never acted upon and why hospital security to this day can't physically intervene in violent confrontations.
While these requests seem simple to fulfill, Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy assures Leishman - and the rest of us - it's not so simple. In fact, he says, he requires a hefty bureaucratic arsenal to tackle the problem.
Abernethy talks about a working group that will develop a framework to deal with security issues at Stanton. Or maybe it's that he's building a framework to form a working group. Somewhere in there, he's thrown in a dash of 'strategic plan.'
To this day, none of the department's strategic plans, frameworks or working groups have equated to action.
In fact, this array of bureaucratic arsenal Abernethy touts actually seems more like the hefty weight of shackles that keep the minister from enacting change.
Abernethy is a minister, the boss. He has the power to at the very least require Stanton to hire security guards that do the one fundamental thing they are, by definition, mandated to do - provide security.
And when he's unshackled himself from his department's robust supply of policies and procedures, he could also ease a mother's pain and share the information he has on what happened to her son.
Good initiative doesn't go far enoughNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, February 16, 2015
Last week John Colford, manager of traditional economics, agriculture and fisheries for the territorial government touted fish as the "worst kept secret of Great Slave Lake."
On the contrary, fish has to be the lake's best kept secret as the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is rolling out a new program to let the market know there's good fish in that water and it's available for purchase.
To let the world know, ITI is slapping an NWT logo on local fish packaging so consumers know they are "getting the freshest product."
According to a September 2014 Yellowknifer story, branding isn't the problem. A Yellowknife chef, who asked not to be named, bemoaned at the time the fact he sells Kazhakstani zander in lieu of Great Slave pickerel because, he said, local fishers aren't catching a reliable supply of pickerel.
According Colford at the time, the problem isn't that fishers aren't catching enough pickerel, it's that there aren't enough fishers on the lake.
According to Colford's numbers, just over a third of the available Class A and class B fishing vessel certificates were spoken for in 2013.
A good brand will arguably push product, fatten fishers' wallets and maybe even convince a few more would-be commercial anglers to get a piece of the piscine action.
But what is the GNWT doing to help fishers expand their operations so they can compete with Kazhakstani behemoths who can undercut local fishermen, sometimes by half?
Stickers and the official NWT whitefish cookbook the government plans to publish with recipes it received last weekend in return for free fresh fish last week are wonderful things.
But any expectation local fishers will be able to turn their likely negligible rise in profits to expand to the point the local market needs is just as silly as claiming Great Slave Lake's fish is, in any way, a secret.
Hockey commentator reflects racism and ignorance Nunavut/News North - Monday, February 16, 2015
Despite being labelled "savages and barbarians," Inuit families have been eating healthy seal meat for thousands of years.
Inuit families will still be eating seal meat when the word "cherry" once again makes people think not of bitter bigotry, but of the tiny, sweet little fruit that it is.
The North stands to lose aboriginal voice Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, February 13, 2015
The North lost an important aboriginal voice when the Native Communications Society was forced to cut live CKLB programming last summer. Since then, much media focus has been on the mechanics of CKLB's funding through Heritage Canada as if the fault lay with how CKLB's funds were managed. This approach loses sight of what is at stake.
As the "voice of Denendeh," no one has suggested CKLB, a not-for-profit, failed in that respect. With approximately half the Northwest Territory's population being aboriginal, their mandate is an important one: to "revitalize, strengthen and preserve ... Aboriginal cultures through radio, television... and new mediums as developed."
The radio station had programming in Deh Cho Dene, Sahtu Dene, Chipewyan, Tlicho, Gwich'in and English, while broadcasting in more than 30 communities in the NWT and northern Alberta. In the absence of CKLB, there is no one to step in to fill that role, not even CBC North.
The CBC carries aboriginal programming but it is not an aboriginal broadcaster. The difference between the two should not be glossed over. An aboriginal-led broadcaster should exist in the North that can identify and give voice to aboriginal matters in the unique tone, cadence and style of aboriginals themselves and the communities they live in.
Can CKLB fill this role on the just over $600,000 in annual funding (2012/13) doled out year-to-year without any assurance of long-term stability? Can CKLB fill this role on funding that comes with restrictions that preclude its being spent on paying down previous operating loans, required capital improvements, or even basic equipment and property maintenance? We doubt it.
The CBC, which at least in part has a similar mandate to CKLB in terms of providing regional aboriginal language and content broadcasting, operates on federal funding of approximately $1.1 billion.
The CBC does not provide a breakdown in terms of regional budgets but that works out to about $29 in funding per Canadian. You can bet once employee benefits and the cost of operating in the North is figured in, that figure is closer to $40. At $600,000, CKLB has $14.50 in funding per NWT resident. That CKLB's management was unable to continue operating under these circumstances is not only to be expected but is a testament to the organization's tenacity in fulfilling its mandate for as long as it has.
Our only aboriginal broadcaster of 30 years needs real support. It begins with putting long-term stable funding in place equal to the organization's purpose.
Few morsels for region in budgetDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, February 12, 2015
When Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger stood to deliver his budget speech in the legislative assembly last week, there wasn't much for residents of the Deh Cho region.
Locally, there's more money allocated for long-term care in the village.
We appreciate seeing the GNWT has budgeted to spend $300,000 on the hot water heater replacement program, something this paper called for just before the budget was released.
It was piloted over the past two years here and in the Sahtu.
Hopefully, this means more homeowners in this region can replace electric heaters.
Fort Liard was also mentioned as one of three communities that could be included in a liquefied natural gas feasibility study.
The largely maintenance budget adds some spending to social programs and shuffles money around for other projects but doesn't stake out any bold legacy programs.
That's likely related to the rather gloomy outlook the minister outlined for the finances.
Miltenberger repeated themes in his budget speech he spoke about during a pre-budget tour of the territory.
The GNWT is getting close to a fiscal cliff, and it needs to be careful.
Revenues are expected to flat line. More people need to move to the territory to bolster the amount the GNWT gets in transfers from the federal government.
While the territory is still pushing to increase its population by 2,000 over the coming years, there's no significant money allotted for that purpose.
Perhaps the oddest part of the budget was what didn't see any new spending.
After spending more than $53 million last year fighting forest fires when about $7.5 million was budgeted, this year the GNWT cut funding by more than $100,000.
Miltenberger has said in interviews with other publications that isn't adequate but won't stop the government from spending what is needed this fire season.
With the minister himself and Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials telling people attending recent community meetings to expect another bad forest fire season, the logic of the spending cut is fuzzy.
Hopefully, it wasn't an attempt to avoid needing to increase revenue - read: tax hike - ahead of an election year.
Late high school grad inspiresInuvik Drum - Thursday, February 12, 2015
When Crystal Fraser speaks about her post-doctorate research, her confidence and articulation about five years of research easily inspires.
The University of Alberta PhD candidate is a prime example of perseverance and determination to do something important with her life. A young Gwich'in woman who dropped out of school in Grade 10 after moving to Edmonton from Inuvik, Fraser's path to her current research on education and residential schools in the Inuvik region seemed like a dream then.
She worked in bars and restaurants while living on her own, trying to get by. In 2003 she decided enough was enough and physically went to high school in Yellowknife to get her diploma. She wanted more in life than just a job and money. She wanted to make a difference in the lives of her people.
Fraser is close with her family. Her great-grandmother and grandmother were important figures in her life, strong women who helped shape her into the person she is today. Touched by residential schooling - the elder women in her life, mother included, all attended the Catholic church-run schools in the region at points in their lives - Fraser wants to empower others to have a better understanding of what the residential school experience was actually like.
She's faced criticism for her work, with other scholars saying the issue has been over-researched, or that it isn't important, not only because she's aboriginal, but because she's a woman.
In the 21st century, Fraser has been faced with challenges and pushed forward with the work she believes is important. The Canadian history narrative largely ignores the sad and tragic circumstances and resulting impacts of residential schools on aboriginal peoples in Canada. The history is shaped in large part by Canadian and British government documents, in other words, shaped by colonialism and non-aboriginal people.
She wants to change this. Fraser believes she has a responsibility to the some 60 people from the region she interviewed to tell their stories, to change the public perception of residential schooling and to better equip the aboriginal population in the region to find ways to move forward.
A better working knowledge of what actually happened will allow for people to better heal and move forward.
While her research is important, so is Fraser. Aboriginal success in post-secondary education is few and far between. The 35-year-old Fraser is an example of the success that can be found with determination and drive. Young women, in the territory and across Canada's aboriginal population, can look up to Fraser as an example of the success that can be achieved.
Anything is possible, if you really want it.
Fraser's research will make a difference in her community. And so will she, as the woman she's become.
