Give a whoop about consultationNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, May 11, 2015
Parks Canada has plans to offer a cool opportunity to whooping crane enthusiasts.
The federal organization has scheduled tours of the endangered animals' Northern habitat, either by hiking or helicopter tours. The trips are priced from $1,330 to $3,820 depending on the package and will run at different times from May 25 through Aug. 20.
At least, that was the plan. While whooping crane habitat tours look interesting on paper, several First Nation groups are crying foul over what they are calling a lack of consultation.
"We were all pissed off with having no consultation on the issue," said Ken Hudson, president of the Fort Smith Metis Council.
"Yet Parks Canada was proposing it as something that was just going to go ahead."
So now, according to Hudson, Parks Canada has agreed to consultations. Unfortunately, the federal government has not spoken to media to give an update on the status of these consultations - or the whooping crane tours.
According to the Parks Canada website, heli-hike tours scheduled for May 25 through 28 have been fully booked. It's anyone's guess as to whether those in charge of the project think they will be able to speed through the negotiation process within two weeks. It's also anybody's guess as to whether anybody has contacted the people who have invested the more than $3,000 it costs to go on these tours to let them know if they've been postponed.
Patrick Simon, a Deninu Ku'e First Nation band councillor, has concerns about the fundamental nature of the tours.
"We do have concerns in regards to the disturbance of the bird," he told News/North last week.
"We didn't feel that they were doing it in a way that would minimize or limit the effects that the activity would have."
Parks Canada is clearly in a bind for patently avoidable reasons. How often do we hear First Nation leaders reminding governments proposing to do work on traditional lands of their duty to consult? It's like a broken record.
It was only a month ago that researchers in the South Slave halted a study to accurately diagnose tuberculosis in wood bison because these same groups had concerns over lack of consultation. It would have been a valuable study. Now, it looks like it might not happen at all.
With Northwest Territories tourism on the upswing, does Parks Canada want to find itself in a position where its inconveniencing people who have invested thousands to come visit the territory because they weren't proactive about First Nation consultations? How embarrassing.
First Nations have established the need for consultation over and over again and it's about time the government respected that.
Widespread appetite for art created in NunavutNunavut/News North - Monday, May 11, 2015
It is a monumental occasion for filmmaking in Nunavut, which bodes well for the future of the arts in the territory.
Director Zacharias Kunuk's epic 2001 film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was named last month to the number one spot on Canada's All-Time Top 10 List by the Toronto International Film Festival.
The stunning cinematography shot on the land in Nunavut, including a memorable scene of an Inuk runner being pursued through snow, ice and water, certainly influenced the judges this year and 10 years ago to heap accolades upon the production.
The film piques the interest southerners are increasingly giving the North -- and Nunavut in particular -- and the recent award may very well result in new audiences viewing the 168-minute production now. Despite the fact the film's dialogue is entirely in Inuktitut, with English subtitles, it is at once a captivating and amazing work, dramatic, informative and inspiring, with all the roles being played by people from Iglulik with no previous acting experience.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner not only received immediate success, earning almost $4 million at the box office as the top grossing release of 2002, it was the first feature film to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut and won at least 17 awards at film festivals around the world, including the Camera D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
The success of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and the recent popularity of other artists from Nunavut demonstrates the large appetite people across Canada and beyond have for what is being produced in the territory.
Cambridge Bay throatsinger Tanya Tagaq just received nominations for her album Animism by the Western Canadian Music Awards in the categories of independent album of the year, top aboriginal recording, top world recording and the year's top spiritual recording after winning the 2014 Polaris Music Prize and the 2015 Juno Award for aboriginal album of the year.
Her success has inspired dozens of young women in Nunavut to learn throatsinging, tapping into the knowledge of elders and joining arms with a partner to feel the vibrations as they perform.
Nunavummiut can look to other success stories for inspiration, among them aboriginal recording artist Susan Aglukark and Iqaluit band The Jerry Cans, which performs a unique mix of Inuktitut country swing, throatsinging, and reggae. Nelson Tagoona of Baker Lake is finding wide success with his unique blend of elemental hip hop beatboxing with traditional Inuit throatsinging. There is growing financial support for artists in Nunavut and established products, like prints made in Cape Dorset studios or carvings created in numerous communities, continue to fetch high prices in southern galleries. The Nunavut Film Development Corporation alone awarded $1.13 million in funding to 34 projects in 2013-14, triggering a total production volume of almost $5 million.
The future is bright for the arts community in Nunavut. It takes courage, creativity and connections to achieve success. But it is refreshing to observe there is a ready market anxious to see more of what Nunavummiut have to offer.
City raises the drawbridge Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 8, 2015
Arguably, the greatest issue facing mayor and city council candidates in the last election was poor communication between residents and city hall.
There was a growing sense among the public of the moat being dug between them and the people who provide city services. Residents complained of difficulties getting staff to respond to their concerns. Several candidates reported getting an earful on the subject while going door-to-door.
"I hear that at every second door I'm knocking on," said Linda Bussey during a candidates' forum held a week before winning her seat on council.
Mark Heyck, the eventual winner in the mayoral race, promised to maintain an open door policy if elected.
The city has made some efforts to live up to that promise since then. A year after the election, more than 200 city staff were given customer service training in an attempt to turn the page on the "horror stories," as Coun. Niels Konge called it, of rude interactions with the public.
Alas, less than six months before the next municipal election, city staff are being denied an opportunity to show off their revamped customer services skills. That's because their names, phone numbers and e-mails have been removed from the city hall website - replaced with general departmental phone numbers and an e-mail filtering system that supposedly takes e-mails but doesn't provide an actual e-mail address.
It doesn't stop there. If one is looking for an e-mail or phone number for the mayor or a city councillor, they're not going to find it on the city website.
This is a gross departure from the previous website that had virtually every city staff member listed by function and department, along with their phone numbers and e-mails.
A city official explained the new contact directory was built with "better customer service" in mind, so that citizens won't be distracted by dozens of contacts and be able to get to the person they need to talk to quicker.
Most councillors, of course, are not buying administration's buzzword logic. They shouldn't be blamed if they were to suspect this move has less to do with "better customer service" and more with city bureaucrats' desire not to be bothered by residents while at work.
Fortunately, not all levels of governments in the territory aspire to become a faceless monolith. The GNWT revamped its online staff directory a couple years ago but still lists staff phone numbers and e-mail addresses. And contact information for trustees and senior staff at both public school boards are readily available on their websites.
Mayor Heyck, who didn't comment for our story was quick to take to Twitter to defend the city's new system after it was published May 1, insisting mayor and council can still be contacted "directly."
But he misses the point. People don't want some anonymous window popping up with the City of Yellowknife logo blazoned atop of it when e-mailing city council. They want their individual e-mail addresses. And their phone numbers would be great too. Maybe they want to c.c. all of council. People can't do that now unless they already have their e-mails.
The city has come along way since the days of muzzled directors and silence that marred the previous administration.
But with an election looming and votes on the line, one might expect Heyck to persevere in continuing to make small steps toward engaging "all sectors of this community on an open and transparent basis," as he put it last election, without resorting to taking two steps back.
North is ripe for entrepreneursDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, May 7, 2015
We live in a world of incredible opportunity. Pioneers have explored every corner of the earth, but man has yet to come any closer in satiating his fellow's demands. Each step on that path to discovery only spreads the horizon further.
A career fair in Fort Liard's Echo Dene School gave students in the Deh Cho an idea of what kinds of opportunities they could pursue after high school.
Principal William Gowans said there are few job opportunities in Liard, which doesn't even have a hairdresser.
But there's a job opportunity. And anyone with a pair of scissors and a bit of initiative can corner the hairdressing market there in one fell swoop.
Where there is need, there is opportunity.
Public school needs to place a higher priority on financial and entrepreneurial education.
We are taught to get good grades, get into college, get good grades there and then find a "career" working for somebody else.
Rarely are we taught to grow up to be the employer or learn how to manage expense sheets.
Nothing is wrong with working for someone else, but to create new jobs, we need leaders. And that goes for the Deh Cho, too.
Small communities in this region show incredible entrepreneurial potential. Anything that you want but can't find locally is a future business opportunity.
The unique perspective that Dene people of the North can bring into the business world offers two advantages: they can cater to their own people's demands better, and that traditional Northern authenticity is much sought-after in the south.
Entrepreneurship aligns with the values of freedom, resourcefulness and using the land that are championed in the North.
It's with entrepreneurship that freedom of lifestyle is achievable and in 2015 we can still dream of being adventurers.
Schools need to focus more on stimulating children's minds in a way that can teach them how they can best serve others and create something out of nothing.
Not everyone needs to go to college, not everyone needs to excel in school. All that matters is your ability to improve the lives of others.
Everyone needs to find a way to serve each other.
In the North, we have the abundance of resources.
We have the need for services.
We have bright, creative, eager young people.
Now where are the entrepreneurs?
Sad to see the need for second food bankInuvik Drum - Thursday, May 7, 2015
Inuvik now has two food banks open. While that's good news in some quarters, there's an argument to be made that it's both shameful and embarrassing.
The members of the Midnight Sun Mosque, with some help from the Muslim Welfare Centre in Toronto, opened the Arctic Food Bank over the weekend.
The official opening came May 2.
Without doubt, those two organizations should be applauded for stepping forward after recognizing the need for another food bank here in town.
It's the need for a second food bank that's disturbing.
With a population of a bit more than 3,000 people, and being a regional government sub-capital, it seems astounding that there should be the kind of social needs such as those demonstrated in Inuvik. But no one who lives here should seriously argue that there isn't.
The economy in town has been in a flat line for some time now, perhaps a couple of years or more. Energy costs have increased precipitously over the same period as employment has fallen and businesses have closed.
The high cost of transportation to reach or leave Inuvik is also a compounding factor. Chances are there are some people who might want to leave to look for more opportunities who don't feel they can afford to, and thus are left in limbo. It's a hellish existence if you can't afford to live where you are and you can't afford to leave either.
While people are accustomed to a boom and bust economy here, many are saying it's perhaps the lowest ebb they can remember.
The municipal council is well aware of how precarious the situation is becoming. That's one of the points raised in its recent economic strategy report, which seeks fresh ideas on how to bolster the economy.
It's not quite clear whether the territorial government has quite the same understanding, although Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay reiterated the need to diversify the economy during a recent visit.
So it's not at all surprising that there's a huge need for services such as a food bank.
The long-established Inuvik Food Bank has done its best to keep with the demand, but it's been a Herculean task to manage that with modest funding.
Margaret Miller, one of the directors of the Inuvik Food Bank, said she is very happy to see the Arctic Food Bank open.
"We're complimentary services, not competing," she said. "I only wish we have this much food at our location."
While there's no easy solution to all of this beyond a total re-imagining of the town's economy, it's clear that Inuvik residents will continue to rally together to assist one another while they wait for better days.
Transport Canada buffaloedYellowknifer - Tuesday, May 6, 2015
Reading the crash landing report on Buffalo Airways flight 168 one gets the impression of an immense ego at work versus a platoon of weak-kneed safety inspectors with Transport Canada.
According to the report, clashes between the airline and Transport Canada inspectors were frequent prior the August 2013 incident where a Buffalo Airways DC-3C barely made it back to the airport intact after an engine caught fire on takeoff.
When Transport Canada requested changes be made at the airline, the competence of inspectors was called into question by Buffalo management. The airline was told its responses to safety orders were "not the appropriate venue for 'repeated diatribes against Transport Canada.'"
No names are mentioned in the report but it's not hard to imagine the main catalyst in these disputes. That would be the airline's owner, the reality television star and larger-than-life flying legend "Buffalo" Joe McBryan, who has railed in the past against stifling safety rules and the burdensome paperwork created by an ineffectual aviation watchdog headquartered far away in Ottawa.
Both McBryan and his fleet of venerable aircraft - some of them predating the Second World War -- appear to be living a charmed life. There have been several brushes with disaster over the years, close scrapes that tested the skill and nerves of the pilots flying those planes but aside from minor injuries and some wrecked planes, close brushes are all they remain.
Indeed, what would an episode of the hit History Television show Ice Pilots NWT be without one of Buffalo's airplanes limping back to the airport on one engine or with landing gear that won't deploy. If these incidents did not make for good business they certainly made for great television.
But the reality of just how close Buffalo Airways came to disaster on Aug. 19, 2013 is hard to ignore in the cold light of the transportation safety board's damning report.
Buffalo management flaunted the rules and Transport Canada inspectors didn't have the guts to stand up to them.
"The current approach to regulatory oversight, which focuses on an operator's (safety management system) processes almost to the exclusion of verifying compliance with the regulations, is at risk of failing to address unsafe practices and conditions," the report states.
The plane, with 21 passengers and three crew, was overweight by 1,235 lbs, which had not been calculated prior to takeoff. Was this just a chance oversight? No. The report stated that not calculating weight was common practice at the time and Transport Canada did not pick up on that.
Because of mechanical issues and the plane being overweight it could not gain enough altitude to climb to a safe height and attempt to re-land. Instead, the pilots were forced to make a quick go-around at 180 feet above ground level, clipping trees before belly-flopping to the ground short of the runway.
Despite their brush with death, the passengers and crew survived with hardly a scratch. For this Buffalo ought to be thanking its lucky stars it didn't have a fatal plane crash on its hands, up to its eyeballs in lawsuits and flight stoppages.
Transport Canada officials refused to comment on the safety board's report but did issue a written statement Monday. It says since the 2013 incident Buffalo Airways has been in full compliance.
After reading the report, however, one has to wonder who is making sure Transport Canada inspectors will never put themselves in a situation again where an airline is calling the shots.
Feeling seriously disconnectedEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Tuesday, May 6, 2015
I have to admit to being momentarily stunned by the total lack of customer service being shown by the good folks at my Internet service provider, as it continues on its path of unprecedented expansion of high-speed Internet to all of rural Canada.
Since its innocent little e-mail landed in my inbox months ago - telling me I'd soon be zipping around the Internet at breathtaking speeds - my service has disintegrated to the point where dial-up would kick my tush and laugh while doing it.
Oh how it harkens me back to my early days in Rankin, when I'd click to open a page and then saunter off to make a coffee, do a little cleaning up around the crib, or write an opera of roughly the same reading duration as War And Peace before realizing my attempts to log on had just logged me off.
Ah, the good old days.
Basically for about the past three months, I've had e-mail service at home and a bit of cruising speed on the information highway if I care to get up at about 3 a.m. to take advantage of it.
Now I admit to being about as tech-savvy as Jethro Bodine (there's one to Google), but, as near as I understand it, we're moving to a brand-new satellite link-up just as soon as they find a technician willing to come to Rankin and install the new dishes.
In fact, the last I heard, a Yellowknife-based company now involved with the process was looking at asking the community to chip in for airfare to get the technician here and then take turns billeting and feeding him until all the new hardware is installed.
Only in the North!
The whole thing would actually be a bit humorous, except for that, you know, little thing called no Internet at home.
It could still be funny, except my provider has taken to treating me like someone it wishes would take their $90 a month and go away.
Nobody answers phones or returns calls, nor do they respond to e-mail inquiries or provide any information or updates.
But I did receive a brochure asking me if I'd like to drop my existing satellite TV service, and sign up for southern direct TV beamed through my existing Internet hardware.
I'll pass.
I've been with my provider for years and we've always had a happy, somewhat symbiotic relationship.
I give my money on a monthly basis, and it provides decent Internet to my humble abode.
The good folks in Yellowknife, at least, do answer calls, and seem to be honestly trying to right the ship, even if some of their ideas are a tad off the wall.
But, heck, I've reached the point where I'll billet.
Hopefully, to the many customers my provider has in Rankin - many of whom are going through the same thing right now - this will all be sorted out soon, and the new system will prove itself to be all that and more.
And, on the bright side, I was given one month's credit for the three months I've had little more than e-mail.
At least that's something.
And, I must admit, I do prefer the silent treatment to the courier company that once tried to convince me its truck had tried to deliver my parcel twice that day, but there was nobody home.
That's a disconnect of a whole different kind.
