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Hypocrisy over city deadline
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 20, 2015

Miss a property tax payment and the city won't hesitate putting your house on the auction block and your address in a public notice saying your taxes are late.

If the city makes a mistake on your tax assessment, however, and you don't catch it within the 45-day window the city provides, too bad. That's your mistake. This is the message and the hypocrisy signalled by the city's insistence that it's up to the taxpayer to catch its mistakes within the time-allotted window.

Telling people, "sorry time is up. Better luck next year," adds credence to the accusations of arrogance at city hall.

Tax assessments are complicated and difficult to interpret at the best of times.

Providing an example of just how difficult it can be to untangle the web of numbers and equations making up city tax assessments, last week Coun. Adrian Bell shared the story of a Yellowknife property owner who had been met with a rather unwelcome surprise -- after dutifully paying his taxes without questioning his assessment for several years, he learned he was being taxed for a non-existent basement extension as a result of an error made by the city's assessor.

The example was rightly offered up by Bell as a cause for concern. While the imaginary basement unit was the only specific instance cited by Bell, he pointed out, quite worryingly, that oversights like this one probably happen a lot.

Even more astonishing than the revelation that residents are being unjustly taxed for property improvements that don't exist, is the city's response. Rather than admitting fault and making amends, administration doubled down and said even if the assessor had conjured up the new suite out of thin air, the onus was on the property owner to catch the mistake. Alas, this year's March 9 deadline has already passed. In other words, if you've only just realized the city is charging you a little extra for that new loft you never got around to building, tough luck.

If the recent Kam Lake tax debacle is any indication, there is certainly more than enough reason for residents to be wary about the city's ability to crunch numbers. After assessments were sent out last year, administration repeatedly assured the public not to fret - mill rates would be adjusted to account for the property assessment increases.

Then came the property bills for Kam Lake and 300 per cent increases.

Bell's suggestion, subsequently supported by all of council, that the city should make it easier for residents to check the accuracy of their statements by setting up a comprehensive website to demystify the process is a no-brainer and will go a long way in reassuring those who feel overwhelmed by the numbers.

However, it will do little to ease the pain for those whose wallets are a little lighter this year because they have failed to catch the city's errors. If the city really wanted to give residents a surprise they could look forward to, they could be more lenient with the time frame for appealing their tax assessments, especially when it is the city in the wrong.


Cabin spaces help make North attractive
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 20, 2015

Nobody needs to be reminded the territorial government is having a difficult time in its Northern resident recruitment strategy.

The jobs up here are well-paying, steady and long-term, yet government postings remain unfilled and the fly-in-fly-out mine worker population continues to grow.

Turning this trend around is not about offering better paying jobs. That strategy is unrealistic and self-defeating; at some wage-point it becomes cheaper to fly in a worker on rotation than to pay a wage premium. Wages will always be capped at that point because it's not in the interest of a corporation to subsidize northern residency. Moreover, our largest employer - the GNWT - must keep wages under control for fiduciary reasons as much as to avoid skewing the labour market further.

That's why Lands Minister Robert C. McLeod's decision last week to open 22 already-existing recreational property leases to the public through a lottery was a good idea in the context of improving Northern residency.

Creating recreational opportunities for those who may choose to live in North is part of a sober plan for growing our population. Not only does it not cost the GNWT anything to open these lots up for use, it may add 22 reasons to why moving to Yellowknife is a good idea, or add 22 reasons to why it's a good idea to stay.


Where's the plan?
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 19, 2015

The amount of money it could cost just to shore up the bank along the Mackenzie River in Fort Simpson is eye popping; between $19.5 million and $31 million depending on the option picked.

What's much worse is the reason village Mayor Sean Whelly gave for why the community has shoved the report outlining those costs in a drawer for the last two years.

He said it just seemed like bad timing to ask for money when the territorial government is cutting back its spending. It would likely be rejected, he said. But it's hard to know if you don't try.

Even if funding didn't start flowing for five or 10 years, if the GNWT at least knew about the problem it could be put on a priority list to be balanced against other potential projects, money could be put aside over a period of years in order to either shore up the river bank or to cover moving vital infrastructure away from the areas most at risk.

Since the village hasn't gone to the GNWT to at least get the ball rolling, surely it is saving up money to repair or relocate its water treatment plant or water intake line should erosion continue over the coming years. Well, not exactly. Village leaders have been spending but not saving in a capital reserve fund.

That's what other municipalities use to save up for those rainy days when they have to replace big ticket infrastructure.

"There is no money," the mayor said, citing a measly $1 million transferred to the municipality from government coffers for capital spending each year that goes to projects needing immediate attention.

Sure, things that need to be fixed right away should be covered but that doesn't mean potential disasters should be swept under the rug.

It's likely erosion won't pose an immediate risk to village infrastructure for several or even many years from now. However, the erosion issue is just one part of the fiscal puzzle that makes a lack of a capital reserve fund astounding. There's money that's going to be spent in a few years to clean up the dump and the water treatment plant is due for work in about five years, Whelly said.

The recreation centre isn't new and will likely need either a renovation or rebuild at some point.

This all leaves us wondering: where is the long term plan?

Keeping up with the yearly capital costs and operations and maintenance isn't good enough.

Leaders need to have some foresight and look many years down the line to anticipate the needs of the community. Without a plan in place, future councils will face some hard choices.


Worth seeing majestic 3,000-head herd cross
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, March 19, 2015

Excitement is mounting over what promises to become a major tourist attraction for the Beaufort Delta region. That would be the annual movement of the Canadian Reindeer herd from its wintering grounds east of Inuvik to the summer calving grounds on the coast.

While the migration has been an annual rite of the late winter and early spring season for many years, it was only in 2014 that it caught the public eye in a serious way

Photos and videos show that hundreds of people, primarily from Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, made the 75-minute journey north during the Muskrat Jamboree weekend last year to watch the spectacle as the 3,000-strong herd crosses the ice road like a river of antlers and hooves.

That was primarily through word of mouth.

Now, in celebration of the 80th anniversary of reindeer herding in the region, the spectacle is on the verge of becoming an event.

Inuvik's Lloyd Binder, the manager of the herd, is arranging for shuttles to take a limited number of people north to see the herd cross on the morning of March 29.

He's also scheduled interpretive tours of Reindeer Station, the former headquarters for the herders, the same day as part of the 80th anniversary celebrations.

The Inuvik tourism department has also hopped on the bandwagon, and is happily advertising the event diligently.

It's exactly the kind of unique, signature event the town and region needs during the winter. Yes, there are also the jamborees to look forward too, but there seems to be a particular allure and mystique to watching the reindeer crossing.

That's almost certainly because it's the closest thing most people in the region can find to comfortably watch something so similar to the great caribou migrations that are now largely in the past.

Like dog sledding, it's also a particularly Northern spectacle that strums a chord in the souls of residents and tourists alike.

The real question will be how viable the reindeer crossing will be once the permanent road from Inuvik to Tuk opens in the next year or two.

That road will spell the end of the ice road to Tuk, of course, and it's not clear whether the reindeer's path will take them near the new highway.

So this could be a case of enjoy it while you can.

If you can, make plans to be there to see it.


Don't throw baby out with bathwater
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Getting a bad grade on a test is always a kick in the teeth. When it happens, a student has a choice. Criticize the test, the teacher and the system or to turn that pain into a learning experience and, with a little hard work, knock the next one out of the park.

According to the most recent results from the 2013 Alberta Achievement Test, only 37 to 49.8 per cent of NWT students are meeting grade level.

That's some tough medicine for students, parents, educators and policy makers but by the same token it's also good to know.

"This tells us we have to make significant changes in our education system," said Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, back in September.

But now that Alberta is looking at a new way to assess its students, Education Minister Jackson Lafferty wants to follow suit with a new learning assessment tool of our own -- one with a "Northern perspective."

Certainly, many Northerners tire of assessments formed by well-intended southerners. A few months ago, the territory got a failing grade from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on its red tape report card. The grade was not supported and was in fact criticized by the executive director of the NWT Chamber of Commerce.

But our young people -- who must often go down south to get the education they need to pursue their career goals -- must still adhere to national standards so they may remain competitive with their southern classmates. A test that takes into account the Northern perspective must also take into account the competition our students will face down south.

Of course, the danger now is that GNWT foot-dragging will lead to no assessment being done at all.

Back in September, the department had plans to take steps to address poor results from the Alberta Achievement Test over the next 10 years.

A decade from now, how will we be able to figure out whether they were effective or not without some kind of test? How will we know how they will do in a southern classroom?

Students are owed every opportunity to flourish in post-secondary education and beyond. Part of that is making sure they are at the same academic level or -- why stop there? -- even better than their southern classmates. The only way to do that is with a test that tells us how they're doing.


Phone book shows city can't muzzle artists
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Past attempts by the city to micro-manage artists and performers has become a running joke, and the latest barb has showed up in a place where the city has little control.

Northwestel released its 2015 phone book last week with a not-so-subliminal political statement on its front cover. It features a painting of the Wildcat Cafe by Terry Pamplin, with a group of mice picketing outside the historic eatery, holding signs reading "Take back the Cat."

Pamplin said the inspiration came from the tempest in a teapot that erupted last year over T-shirts designed by fellow artist Nick MacIntosh depicting the Wildcat populated by mice enjoying meals. The city ordered MacIntosh to hand over the T-shirts, citing copyright infringement. A backlash ensued and the city quietly backed off and returned the shirts. The building belongs to everyone, Pamplin said, as the city used taxpayers' money to renovate it and the city is supposed to work for the common good.

Pamplin's tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the issue didn't go unnoticed by the Northern telecom giant, which chose the painting for its cover despite the controversy.

This isn't the only time the city has riled artists. Last summer, it released guidelines for buskers full of condescending rules, including a diktat that they play for free and even ordered how to dress. City administration has shown they think they can control how artists depict the city, yet they haven't ordered Northwestel to hand over its phone books.

Artists and their supporters will ultimately decide how they will represent the community, with or without approval. Rest assured, the city will be reminded of this by the multitude of phone books at city hall.


The sting of online disconnect
Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 18, 2015

It's been a while since I took the plunge and joined the modern world of Facebook.

For the most part, I must admit, it's been a rewarding experience.

On the down side, there are more than a few posts that get my blood boiling.

I know the rest of a post is going to result in nothing more than me gnashing my teeth painfully into my lips and bouncing pillows against my apartment walls.

I will sit and stare at the screen, waging a 10-minute battle with myself not to respond to what I have read.

Thankfully, it's a battle I continue to win.

But, for the life of me, I don't understand why I can't simply look away, or keep scrolling, when I know, after the first few words, a post is going to upset me.

It's become one of life's great mysteries to me.

I honestly don't look when I'm in the south and have to drive past the scene of an accident.

That's one mental image — should I actually see something terrifying with my rubbernecking — I would never get out of my head.

I suppose it's my writer's curiosity in always wanting to know how people honestly feel about a topic that keeps me reading, and personal anger be damned!

Thankfully, a fair amount of it could be (not unfairly) labelled as superfluous ramblings.

There are, however, a few topics that get me every time.

I have developed great disdain for the wannabes, apologists and paternal types among us, who see racism in almost everything, have convinced themselves white people really have no culture (no matter where they're from) and believe there are but two opinions on everything: their's and the wrong one.

And don't get me started on the perfect life of getting up, eating a healthy breakfast, working 8.5 hours, going to the gym for 1.5 hours, having 1.75 hours family time and eight hours sleep per day for as long as you're alive.

These days it seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It baffles me how so many Kivalliqmiut living in the south could have become so disconnected from life here.

I mean, OK, a good percentage of them are well to do, financially, and that accounts for some of it, but not all.

I don't know how many people truly take food from the dump here in Rankin, but I do know how many here struggle to be able to put healthy food on the table day in and day out.

Some struggle a lot more than others and not all of the struggling are unemployed, or spend all their money on drugs, alcohol or gambling.

Food is darn expensive here. It's reality.

To insinuate on Facebook that everyone who's going hungry from time to time is a degenerate or, at the very least, a bad parent, is truly despicable.

So, too, are the jokes about those in the south who are trying to help by sending food to various hamlets.

You know, we're all happy for those financially secure and living in the south — even those who may have just got lucky — but it wouldn't hurt for some to add a little compassion and humility to their five-star daily diet.

Life can be a struggle for many good people and those willing to lend a helping hand are no laughing matter.

Not even on Facebook.


A much needed discussion
Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, March 16, 2015

There is no magic bullet that will solve the deep-rooted socio-economic causes that have claimed the lives of more than 1,200 indigenous women in Canada over the past 30 years.

Many have pushed for an inquiry, but others have countered such a measure would be expensive and would only result in piles of even more expensive recommendations with no guarantee of follow through. Others, such as Toronto illustrator Evan Munday, simply want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to acknowledge there is a problem.

After Harper admitted during his annual sit-down with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge last December that the issue "isn’t really that high on (his) radar, to be honest," Munday started sending him illustrations of these women daily via Twitter. He explained the project was intended to "adjust his radar."

Grassroots calls for action like these have culminated in a recent national roundtable discussion in Ottawa, led by Premier Bob McLeod. No concrete plans for action came out of the day-long, closed-door meeting, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened.

Just the fact that two federal cabinet ministers, all 13 premiers, indigenous leaders and families of victims met in one room to talk about missing and murdered indigenous women is unprecedented.

Throughout the day more than 100 family members who have lost loved ones, such as Yellowknife’s Kathy Meyer, shared their stories with these leaders.

Meyer lost her daughter, Angela five years ago. While home on a weekend pass from Stanton Territorial Hospital’s psychiatric unit, she stepped out onto the porch for a cigarette and hasn’t been seen since. She was battling schizophrenia.

Last August in Whitehorse, Harper bared his ignorance toward the issue in dazzling display by saying the fact that indigenous women are three times more likely to go missing or be murdered is not a sociological phenomenon. Instead, he said it’s an issue for the police to solve.

So maybe aiming so high as to expect the federal government to lead an inquiry into a problem it doesn’t even come close to understanding is a fool’s game. Instead, perhaps we need to have conversations such as the roundtable in Ottawa, where bureaucrats listened to families describe how mental illness, addictions, unemployment and the legacy of the residential school system lead to vulnerabilities in indigenous communities.

As McLeod so aptly said to the Toronto Star after the roundtable, "those of us who are aboriginal, that have attended residential schools, that have lived in smaller communities, isolated communities, where you see the effects of poverty, poor housing … and very low educational opportunities and very little opportunities for jobs, I think you certainly get a different perspective."

Whether it’s through an inquiry, a series of roundtables or people using the all-powerful tool of social media to force our leaders’ attention, a good first step is to open the federal government’s ears to these differing perspectives.


Corrections in critical condition
Nunavut/News North - Monday, March 16, 2015

There is added incentive for Nunavummiut to be of good behaviour, keep the peace and, beyond all other considerations, avoid being arrested for a crime so serious that a court official orders the accused be held in custody awaiting trial.

If the time spent in custody is remand in Iqaluit, that means time in the Baffin Correctional Centre, which has not only a long history of deplorable conditions but now has a healthy dose of official criticism from the auditor general. It is so bad, in fact, that a person awaiting a court appearance would be justified to fear for their life.

To paraphrase some of the highlights from Michael Ferguson's damning report, the place is a firetrap. There have been three fires in the past and, to make things worse, there are no regular fire drills or evacuation exercises because of a shortage of staff. In the event of another fire, who knows if all the inmates would be able to escape.

If an inmate does not die in a fire, there is a good chance they could be assaulted by another inmate or staff member, as demonstrated by the auditor general, who said there were 185 incidents of assault in 2012-13.

Also to be considered are the dangers posed by contraband, which is regularly smuggled into the jail and includes drugs and weapons. There are eight incidents of contraband discovered monthly and likely many more that aren't discovered.

What is the greatest crime is that all these deficiencies and many more are known by the Department of Justice and have been known for a long time, without significant action taken at the Baffin Correctional Centre to remedy the situation so that inmates and staff are not at risk. The territorial government has an obligation to not only keep inmates safe and secure, but also offer programs toward rehabilitation with an eye to reintegrating inmates back into society. It must be noted that a majority of inmates are serving sentences of less than two years, or are on remand awaiting trial. Those with longer sentences are transferred to federal facilities in the south.

That the auditor general's report is damning is no surprise. The Department of Justice has known for two decades that corrections facilities are critical. A consultant in 2002 charged hundreds of thousands of dollars to recommend the facility be replaced. A former justice minister, after an arson-set fire in 2011, reminded legislators about his 2009 request for $300,000 to improve conditions at BCC. He was told that spending on education and health was more important.

There has been $850,000 earmarked for renovations at BCC, to start when inmates are moved to the recently opened Makigiarvik minimum-security facility next door.

Outside observers suggest construction of a new full-sized facility is needed.

Justice Minister Paul Okalik said last week he will table a response to the report in the legislative assembly.

Urgent action is required before tragedy happens to someone being held in the custody of the territorial government.

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