A personal jet for Minister RamsayYellowknifer - Wednesday, August 12, 2015
If Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay's attendance at weddings is so important that the taxpayer should be footing the bill, maybe we should get this guy a jet.
That way, business people across the globe can boast about more official Government of the Northwest Territories representation at their private family events.
If Ramsay attends enough weddings, wedding anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, church confirmations, brises, baptisms, graduations, high school band performances and family reunions, we'll secure enough contacts in the industrial world to pull us out of our recession.
From this perspective, Minister Ramsay's trip to a five-star luxury resort in Montebello, Que. for mining executive's wedding wasn't a frivolous waste of money - it was an investment in our economic future.
Not only did NWT residents have the privilege of paying for Ramsay's opportunity to meet with "key figures," he insists his attendance saved money. He had two free nights between meetings. To his way of thinking, driving an Audi A4 for a two-night's stay at the Fairmont le Chateau Montebello was cheaper than flying back to Yellowknife.
Considering ministers fly business class, a lot of things would be cheaper than the $2,000 minimum it would cost to cart Ramsay back to Yellowknife for two nights.
Minister Ramsay, take a cue from Premier Bob McLeod who was also at the wedding. He did it right. He saved himself a lot of embarrassment by paying for the side trip out of his own pocket.
You should show your constituency you have some integrity and pay back the money you spent. It's ridiculous to think NWT residents should pay for your attendance at a friend's wedding. Almost as ridiculous as the thought of buying you a jet.
Invest in solving power problemYellowknifer - Wednesday, August 12, 2015
No one likes a hefty power bill, but a subsidy, like the $20-million bailout the GNWT issued last fall, only kicks the can down the road.
This is something the territorial government has acknowledged. "Continued subsidies are unsustainable and the GNWT has made it a priority to identify ways in which it can encourage conservation, invest in renewable and alternative forms of energy and work at bringing down the cost of generating and distributing power," said Michael Miltenberger, the minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp.
Trumpeting conservation is an attractive way to address the problem. It doesn't require innovation and pushes all the politically responsible buttons. While using less power helps the planet, it also raises the cost of each kilowatt hour for consumers on the Northern system.
The same number of poles are required to power the electrical grid whether it's a single kilowatt hour or thousands so the power corp. would still be out the same cost of staff maintaining that infrastructure and would have to raise the price of power in the long term.
We do not suggest there is a ready solution to our power problem. But spending $20 million on researching alternative technology and commonsense efficiencies is a much better use of taxpayers dollars and offers at least a potential for a solution to unaffordable power, unlike subsidies.
The dream that was and the dream that isEditorial Comment by Michele LeTourneau
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Six weeks have come and gone. Hard to believe. Thanks to everyone for your hospitality while I covered for Darrell Greer. I very much enjoyed the time I spent here, in Rankin, learning about the Kivalliq region. You can catch me, back to my usual, over at Nunavut News/North.
Perhaps you will forgive me as I wax philosophical and compose a sort of ode to Nunavut for my final editorial.
I don't think people, like me, born and raised outside Nunavut, can fully appreciate what this territory is, nor can people who come up from the south and locate in one community.
I first touched down in Rankin almost 20 years ago. I then moved to Yellowknife from Winnipeg. During my time in Yellowknife I caught glimpses of various bits of Nunavut. As arts editor for Northern News Services I travelled a bit, visited Rankin again, and Cambridge Bay. Another job that would occupy me for 10 years took me to Kugluktuk many times, and I worked with a few elders from that community quite intensively for a couple of years.
Just over a year ago I moved to Iqaluit.
Throwing community names together like that, even though they span the three regions, doesn't begin to catch the scope of the territory, nor does it touch on the extraordinary accomplishment that was the creation of Nunavut.
Two recent deaths really brought it home to me.
During my two-hour sit-down with Tagak Curley, when we discussed Tongola Sandy and his devotion to Inuit shortly after Sandy died, I began to realize the meaning of some of what I'd heard through the years about the land claims and Nunavut. Examples: unprecedented land claims agreement. It's the only one of its kind. It will never happen again anywhere in the world.
Wow, right? Big words. But those big words don't do it justice, either.
What Tagak talked about was the work - what came before the final agreement and what came after. The work. The energy. The commitment. The determination. The courage. The daring. The dream.
In his words: "Those were busy times, when we were negotiating the land claims for so long. When I started the Inuit movement it was so heavy, so heavy. Very heavy. The burden that you carry to try and regain the self-confidence, the self-determination of the people in their birthright land. These were tremendously heavy times and leadership was scarce."
Then, one week later, Bobby Kadlun died. And I found myself learning about yet another leader who gave so much of himself for the creation of this territory - yet I had never come across his name.
It's like his friend and colleague Terry Fenge says, "I think relatively few people are aware now, 25 years later, of his giant contribution to the Nunavut agreement."
More importantly, Fenge had this to say about the cost to Kadlun: "It's my personal view, but I think the stress and strain of representing his people got to him. I think there is a really important lesson here for many people such as me, who are white advisers, that we didn't at the time realize the sort of pressure that a number of the Inuit negotiators and leaders were under as they represented and negotiated on behalf of their people in adversarial negotiations with the Crown."
And Kadlun, from what I understand, was deeply affected about losing Contwoyto Lake - heartland - in the negotiation .... And I know how important that area was from listening to the Kugluktuk elders I worked with.
Yet, so very much of the Inuit homeland/heartland did become Nunavut.
Although the territory lost good men, these remain: the energy. The commitment. The determination. The courage. The daring. The dream.
Those are Tongola and Bobby's legacies.
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.
