The education drainNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, August 10, 2015
The great sucking sound heard every time Statistics Canada releases population figures for the Northwest Territories will only be stifled if people are given good reasons to stay or move here.
Right now, the high cost of living and a lack of opportunity in some communities has proven a major obstacle in the territorial government's goal of building up the NWT's population and - as a consequence of the federal government's per capita funding formula - the size of its budget.
The GNWT recently took at least one positive step in its effort to plug up the swirling vortices draining the territory's population away. Its decision to top up an already generous post-secondary student loan program is bound to give graduates greater pause before deciding a move south outweighs the benefits of staying North.
The basic grant awarded to Northern aboriginal students and non-aboriginal students who went to school in the territory has been increased to $2,400 per semester from $1,925 and the contribution for books has gone up to $550 - up from $400.
Even more significant are the changes to remissible loans, which don't have to be paid back providing the student comes back to the North to work after graduation. The rate at which these loans are forgiven has been increased to $6,000 from $4,000 per year in Yellowknife, $8,000 from $4,000 in Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Inuvik and Norman Wells and $12,000 from $8,000 in the smaller communities.
These increases offer a huge advantage to the NWT in terms of attracting new residents and convincing students who grew up here to come back and work. Parents who obtained student loans down south and are still paying them off well into middle age will be encouraged to stay so their children won't be saddled with the same burden. NWT-raised students can look forward to paying off their loans at an even faster rate than before.
The real problem continues, however, with the dismal number of people making it past high school and entering post-secondary institutions - particularly aboriginal graduates from smaller communities.
According to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE), although an improvement from a decade ago, only 54 per cent of aboriginal high school students graduate. In smaller communities, only 8.1 per cent of residents hold a university degree.
It's hard to imagine, as Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya envisions, how one day "90 to 80 per cent of our teachers" will be Northern and aboriginal residents unless this appalling situation is reversed. The GNWT can go on increasing its debt forgiveness schedule all it wants but it will be a meaningless gesture if no one is taking advantage of it.
And unless this course is reversed, the population drain will continue remorseless southward where it's easier to make a living without a higher education and the associated higher income needed to pay Northern bills.
ECE is currently embarked on 10-year education renewal plan in an effort to increase student test scores. The plan won't pass the test if it doesn't succeed in increasing the number post-secondary graduates in the North.
The legacy of residential schools has harmed greatly the idea of a need for education in the minds of many Northerners. The virtues of higher education must be vigorously extolled and successful aboriginal role models exemplified to change this view.
Showing subsidies good start toward real changeNunavut/News North - Monday, August 10, 2015
Listing how much the price of a grocery item has been reduced by the Nutrition North subsidy in receipts given to consumers at the checkout counter, starting next spring, is a big step forward to improving the transparency of the often-criticized federal government program.
Implementation of a point-of-sale system will allow shoppers to see what the cost of an item would have been before the subsidy was applied and how much the subsidy has reduced the cost of an individual product.
Because the Nutrition North program is aimed primarily at reducing the cost of healthy food items, and since 98 per cent of the subsidy was applied to perishable food in Nunavut stores in the past year, the breakdown and details on the receipt can also be used by the consumers to save money on future purposes, simply by purchasing the most heavily subsidized items.
Some stores in Nunavut already display on signs in the produce and dairy aisles the amount a product has been reduced in price because of the subsidy. But this extra step, to list the subsidy on receipts consumers take home, not only give careful shoppers information on how to stretch their grocery budget but also allows people to focus on healthy foods that members of the family like to eat.
Hopefully, this will also provide an incentive for some people to cut back on unhealthy choices, including high-sugar and high-sodium products such as pop and chips.
While this change in the Nutrition North program is welcome, its implementation is the responsibility of the retailer and won't change the amount individual items are subsidized. It also leaves other important issues identified by the auditor general's report last November unaddressed.
The price of meat products and essential items such as disposable diapers will remain unreasonably high for many residents of Nunavut hamlets. Shoppers will still not know how much shipping grocery store products actually costs and whether the Nutrition North subsidy provides an extra benefit for retailers who order large quantities of subsidized products.
And, of course, the change does nothing for the communities who are not included in the Nutrition North program.
There are many variables -- different communities are subsidized at different levels, retailers use different shipping methods to get products into stores, and it costs more to ship products to more remote communities.
There are millions of dollars at play. An Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada spokesperson said Nutrition North paid retailers in Nunavut $36.6 million in subsidies in 2014/2015, with just under $1 million going to Kugluktuk alone.
Just as shoppers are encouraged to stretch their grocery budgets, Nutrition North program administrators should seek ways to improve the program even more. Food insecurity isn't going away anytime soon.
Dirty, filthy, nasty, but ... Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, August 7, 2015
The last two issues of the Friday Yellowknifer have revealed a dirty habit, an embarrassing tendency and a complete lack of civic pride in our community. From tires, oil barrels and bike parts pulled out of Frame Lake, to shocking amounts of glass dug up in playground sand, there is no shortage of evidence that Yellowknife has a problem.
We're dirty.
Rather than dealing with our junk, we have taken to tossing it away at our convenience, whether it's in a lake, a park or on the street.
Granted, not all residents are prone to freely tossing their trash - some even take it upon themselves to clean up after others - but there are enough litter bugs around to keep city staff on a daily rotation of scraping the streets for other people's scraps.
The fact that children are at risk when hopping onto the swing-set because some person felt their bottle was best left shattered at their feet, shows how bad the problem has become.
That residents would evade the proper recycling fee and trip to the landfill by opting to dump their refuse in a lake or on the side of the road, is just plain wrong.
And that despite the abundance of reasons not to litter - which people of any mental capacity can comprehend - people still do it.
This may not be groundbreaking news but perhaps it can be, in some way, ground-clearing.
If you're among those who litter public spaces, the solution is in your hands - as was the trash before you chucked it on the ground. Hold on to it. Find a garbage. Have a little pride in your community.
If you don't litter, keep an eye out for abandoned trash and, like the good people mentioned in stories over the past two weeks, lend a hand to pick it up. Your community will be better for it.
The state of our public spaces is embarrassing and city staff have much better things to do than clean up after residents who treat the city like the bedroom of their teenage years.
Let's clean our act up, Yellowknife. We're better than this.
Dedication required for seven terms Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, August 7, 20155
Longtime city councillor Bob Brooks said goodbye to city staff and council colleagues last week and was greeted with much applause and a few kind words.
First elected in 1991, he went on to serve seven terms. Brooks had already indicated earlier this year that he would not seek an eighth term during this fall's municipal election and is now stepping down early because of a new job at the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Yellowknifer has not always seen things eye-to-eye with Brooks on a variety of stances with issues affecting the city, whether it be obtaining geothermal energy from Con Mine or the purchase of property downtown.
For his part, Brooks rarely hesitated to provide us with a rebuttal in the form of pointedly written letter to the editor.
One thing worth noting is that it takes special dedication for politicians to stick around for so long at the municipal level.
Many political aspirants merely view a term on council as a springboard to territorial politics.
Aside from a failed run for mayor in 2000, Brooks has resisted the call to higher office, choosing to remain in the trenches of municipal politics where the hours are often long but the pay won't cover the rent.
"You really can't be doing it for the money," Brooks told Yellowknifer in 1999. "You have to do it because you want to get things done."
People can criticize Brooks all they want for ideas said and decisions made but they can't fault him for his dedication to city governance.
Who should hold keys to water plant?Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, August 6, 2015
On Aug. 4, Fort Simpson councillors voted to delay a policy that would require the village to promote local water haulers to out-of-town customers, allowing for more debate and revision of the policy.
The issue that sparked the policy started small, after local business owner Pat Rowe made a complaint. Rowe hauls water for in-town and out-of-town customers, both of which can currently get their water directly from the water treatment plant if they so choose.
Over the past few weeks, the question of allowing out-of-town customers to haul their own water spiralled into a debate over village council's role in upholding and promoting business in the community. How far is too far? At what point does support turn into favouritism?
During numerous committee discussions, council divided on the issue of whether forcing out-of-town customers to use local business would be an inappropriate use of the village's authority.
Last week, village councillor Leah Keats resigned from council altogether over what she saw as an attempt to undermine business. Her view was simple: business is the lifeblood of any small community, and the village should support its taxpayers.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sean Whelly upheld his belief that to tell out-of-town customers to go through local business would create an undue monopoly on water controlled by Rowe's company, P.R. Contracting, as he is the main water hauler in the village.
Both sides raised valid concerns, but should also take into consideration the nature of business in Fort Simpson.
For instance, the key question is simple: would requiring out-of-town customers to use local businesses hinder or dissuade someone else from starting their own local business?
Would a hypothetical local business have a harder time starting up if council were to pass this?
It would be interesting to hear arguments from that perspective. Instead, many arguments have been based on emotion and until now devolved into less-than-civil proceedings.
It can be difficult for a council to make decisions affecting the community without appearing biased in favour of or against something, especially where business is concerned.
Council members, like those in many public service jobs, often face tough questions from residents because as the saying goes, it is impossible to please everyone.
The fight to maintain credibility and integrity is a laudable one, as long as it does not cross the line into fear - whether of appearing corrupt or failing one's residents.
However, it is the village's responsibility to look after its residents, first and foremost.
When the fine line between good decision-making and favouritism rears its head, council members need to put aside their personal feelings and make a decision in the best interest of the community.
Our future is in the starsInuvik Drum - Thursday, August 6, 2015
With the announcement of the new satellite antenna outside Inuvik, the question remains: How can we best turn that to our advantage?
The answer is likely on its way.
The federal government recently made funds available to the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization to provide workshops and initiatives to prepare for the expected economic spin-offs from the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway.
With the soon-to-be-completed Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link, there can be the same kind of funding made available to prepare for what we could call the "Inuvik-to-World Superhighway."
There are plans to install at least two more dish antennas at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF), one for the Swedish Space Agency - which is expected to arrive within the next couple of months - and one more slated to begin construction next year. When that happens, Inuvik will become Canada's premiere satellite sensing station.
That means Inuvik will become ground zero for a sort of satellite-uplink-to-world interface. If parlayed properly by local businesses, the education system and territorial and federal governments, Inuvik has a real opportunity to create amazing new jobs for our young people.
Imagine small local companies, staffed by young people fresh out of colleges, technical institutes or universities finding ways to create and operate information systems that take raw data provided by the satellite uplinks, crunch the numbers and turn it into information that can be used to help resource extraction companies, farmers, boaters, hunters and fishermen to find and harvest their bounty.
No other generation is better poised to take what we build today and turn these developments into real, creative and exciting future employment than the youth of today.
Nobody else is using (though some may say misusing) computers and technology as aptly as those currently coming up the ranks of our education system.
These are the kinds of jobs our youth are interested in. It is what inspires them to want to stay in school. It is what they need for their futures.
In the words of Premier Bob McLeod at the funding announcement for the ISSF on July 30:
"We ask our children to stay in school, and make sure they work hard and graduate. As a government, we must keep our end of the bargain, which includes providing opportunities for employment in many different sectors."
One can expect that in order to keep that promise, the government will soon be looking at what they can do to best use the satellite station and the fibre optic link to meet these expectations.
Lottery proves cabin demandYellowknifer - Wednesday, August 5, 2015
The takeaway from the land lease lottery is that demand for cabin lots around Yellowknife is extremely high and the territorial government has a long way to go to satisfy it.
Consider that 913 people were willing to pay $100 each for the chance to win one of just 22 Ingraham Trail cabin leases available at last week's lottery - the first in 30 years.
At this rate, people have a better chance digging a diamond out of their backyard than obtaining a legally available piece of land on which to erect their wilderness getaway.
Of course, there is lots of land out there, and lots of cabins - more and more are sprouting up all the time. Blink, and you might just open your eyes to find your favourite picnicking spot now has a dock at the water's edge and an A-frame standing behind it with a barbecue on the deck.
This is the legacy of unsettled land claims in a vast territory with very little enforcement.
So while government officials wring their hands about the need for consultation and studies before handing out more cabin leases, people are taking the calculated risk that as long as they are not being too obvious they can build an illegal squat by the lake - without paying leases or property taxes or submitting to building code requirements - with little fear.
This situation doesn't serve anybody well: neither the government that can't seem to get a handle on the squatters; the legitimate owners of the land, the Yellowknives Dene, who don't make a dime on the squatters building these illegal cabins; legitimate cabin owners, some of whom are watching helplessly as squatters build across the shore from them; and the hundreds of people who would like to buy a cabin lease while only a handful are made available.
The lack of cabin availability, as Yellowknifer has written before, merely further hamstrings the GNWT's attempts to convince people Yellowknife is an attractive place to live even though the government is desperate to increase the territory's population.
Yellowknives Dene First Nation has bristled at the possibility of more leases in the past, saying it would interfere with their traditional way of life.
But realistically, the Ingraham Trail is already cabin country for those lucky enough to have obtained their leases back in the day.
It should be reasoned that this is where future cabin development should take place, to discourage further incursions into wilderness areas so traditional harvesting activities can continue unheeded, and to provide the Yellowknives with some leasing revenue.
To allow the status quo to remain is to surrender to an increasingly irreversible situation with lawlessness breeding at our city's doorstep.
The indispensable value of eldersEditorial Comment by Michele LeTourneau
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, August 5, 2015
This past week in the Kivalliq region has given me much food for thought. The running theme is the incalculable value of elders.
It began with Louie Angalik of Arviat, to whom I was first introduced when I wrote about the projects going on in that community during the very first week I arrived. Elders are a vibrant well of wisdom with much to offer.
It continued with Madeline Makkigak's 100th birthday a few weeks ago, and featured in last week's paper. I cannot even fathom the wealth of knowledge this woman has from her experiences. One hundred years, plus all the years of learning from her own elders and going on through the past. Her children and grandchildren speak of the stories she tells.
Increasingly, over the last several years, I've spent time with elders and learned so much from them. I'm still thinking of the lessons from the two years I worked with elders in the Northwest Territories from 2011 to 2013.
But something else I witnessed and learned: there are two responses to elders these days ... listening and impatience.
On impatience first. In our speedy, speedy world, it's not surprising that younger generations may have lost the ability to sit still and listen. I'd lost it for sure, if I even ever had it. It's certainly not part of my upbringing, or my experience. I had to learn that. Hot under the collar, quick to freak out ... I had to learn to have patience. To hear a story out. To hear a story told in which I could discover the incredible wisdom spun out in words.
Then there are those who know elders carry within them that wisdom that comes from generations of stories and the knowledge they contain. For those, such as Tongola Sandy, the memory of him features large in this week's edition of Kivalliq News.
If there is something I do know it's that looking back over thousands of years of Western culture, humans repeat the same crazy mistakes over and over and over again.
Our so-called modern ways are not very helpful. We want to get things done. We don't take the time to look back and learn from the past. Speed forward, at whatever cost.
The story of Tongola and his solution to the trans-border issues between Dene and Inuit was: go to the elders. Rather than an all-consuming, never-ending fight in the courts, which is so much the modern way, elders insisted that Dene and Inuit had shared in the past. Were they not capable, then, of sharing in the present and in the future?
Tongola is respected and honoured for the esteem that he held for the elders.
Perhaps not every elder will solve a trans-boundary issue, but certainly every elder holds knowledge that can help make the future more sustainable.
It's a construct of the modern Qallunaat world to forget about the aging population, the "seniors," to set them aside as having passed their time to contribute to their communities and society. That is not a practice to embrace.
During my interview with Tagak Curley, he said the first thing he always did when he travelled was to go to the elders.
"I think it was my grandfather who told us to respect our elders. We took him seriously," said Curley.
On that note, the Inuit Heritage Trust has put out a call. If you know of an elder, and surely you know many, that bridges the past and the future, the old ways and the new ways, that shares Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit freely and with care with their community and the younger generation, put their name forward. The deadline is Oct. 1.
