Tiny houses a big winYellowknifer - Wednesday, September 23, 2015
The housing squeeze in Yellowknife requires creative solutions and Etienne Croteau has responded with his own -- tiny houses.
A tiny house neghbourhood offers an entry point to home ownership that is otherwise denied to people who cannot raise the $200,000 minimum to buy a home in Yellowknife - and by that we mean a condo or trailer in Northland Trailer Park.
No matter how one slices it, a greater supply of places to live can only serve to push the cost of housing down. Tiny houses, costing as little as $20,000 to build, appear like the ideal place to start. They offer owners a piece of property not tied to any particular location -- many have wheels which means moving is as simple as hitching it to a capable towing vehicle.
The problem is the city's zoning bylaw limits the development of tiny houses. One restriction prevents a tiny house owner from putting it on somebody else's property.
There has been some progress toward that from council and city administration recently. Zoning limits putting a minimum size on homes were removed in 2014 and the city is taking further steps now that one of the city's residents has come forward with his own tiny home.
When Croteau spoke before council proposing a pilot project for a one-year lease to put his tiny home on city land, Coun. Niels Konge took it one step further. He suggested the city go straight to planning a tiny house neighbourhood.
This shows the right kind of enthusiasm for imaginative solutions to the housing squeeze but there are more benefits as well.
Croteau said tiny homes leave a smaller carbon footprint and help owners build their savings. Having the homes built here grows local industry and adds further incentive to the idea. Croteau has already built his, and apprentice carpenter Zachary Hamlyn has also built his brother one to use as an alternative to renting in Whitehorse while he completes his studies in environmental science. Imagine what it would mean for the local economy if this were done on a larger scale?
All in all, a tiny house neighbourhood seems like an investment worth giving serious consideration. In giving Croteau a suitable place to put his home and researching the possibility of a tiny house neighbourhood, council is responding the way it should.
GNWT: the Games' only hopeYellowknifer - Wednesday, September 23, 2015
If Faster, Higher, Stronger is the motto that exemplifies elite athletic competition, Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda might encapsulate the experience of many host cities that have staged world-class sporting events.
Looking at past Olympics, one is hard-pressed to find municipal governments that do not look back on their city's Games with regret, from Montreal almost going bankrupt following the 1976 Summer Olympics to Vancouver's $1-billion debt incurred during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Debt and public criticism of one sort or another often trails fast on the heels of these competitions.
Smaller high-profile sports events, such as the Canada Winter Games, are just as risky an investment for smaller markets.
Like the Olympics, the Canada Winter Games puts a strain on host cities, requiring increased hospitality capacity, new sports infrastructure, considerable human resources and myriad other needs and costs.
Before the City of Yellowknife contemplates making a bid to host the 2023 Canada Winter Games, municipal representatives need to listen to as many residents as are willing to share an opinion on the matter.
In a major blow to city hopes to host the Games, the business community made itself clear earlier this month when the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce sent a letter urging the city to forgo the games following its own survey of 194 area business owners.
More than half the respondents rejected the idea of Yellowknife hosting the Games, which would be expected to cost around $35 million and require about 4,000 volunteers to pull off, not including expenses related to the scheduled reconstruction of Ruth Inch Memorial Pool slated for 2023 and an athlete's village, which the GNWT has hinted it will help the city to build.
With or without the confidence of the business community on this early leg, the GNWT will have to step up and offer guaranteed, written assurances it will help fund the Games if the city is to have any chance of selling them to residents.
City sub-committees looking into the feasibility of the Games are still assembling their perspectives and the race to host the Games is not yet lost. If the city listens to a diverse array of thousands of residents' voices and if the GNWT joins the team, victory could be brought within reach.
Just asking for a fair shakeEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Journalism 101 states numbers can say whatever you want them to -- with a little manipulation here and there.
Often a reader can be greatly misled or downright fooled by the information conveyed by a number. Just ask anyone who spent any amount of time as a spin doctor, press agent, advertising executive, or marketing and research worker for any company or organization.
There are good numbers, bad numbers and numbers that don't say much of anything.
Then there are numbers that tell a whole story all on their own.
And, of course, when a number sends a message a profit-driven entity doesn't want the general public to hear, the game of hiding said number is quickly afoot.
That's why things like forensic audits exist, to dig through the subterfuge and arrive at the truth.
Of course, a forensic audit is conducted to provide evidence in a court of law, usually going hand in hand with words like fraud or embezzlement.
Making a profit from one's business venture is hardly illegal most of the time.
However, the only way Nunavummiut will ever get a fair price on the vast majority of goods and services they purchase is when the day comes a government has the guts to set a number in stone.
And that number would represent the highest profit margin allowed while doing business in the North.
You can almost hear the screams of angst and the moaning over the thought of a socialist system being put into place, can't you?
Then again one can also ponder why the howls of big business are always heard, when the screams of those being pillaged fall on deaf ears.
The number representing the profit that's been made by our retailers since the introduction of Nutrition North speaks volumes as to why the ill-fated federal program has been a disaster to anyone who is actually used to eating on a daily basis.
Another number was published earlier this month that spilled a ton of salt on the wounds of anyone in the Kivalliq who would like to go to Winnipeg once or twice a year.
That number was one airline's published price of $279 for a flight from Winnipeg to London, England.
Compare that number to the cost of the average flight to Winnipeg from Rankin Inlet and you're left with really only two words -- come on!
Then again, one could argue that difference is no more stomach churning than the thought of a Northern retailer actually making money from having its goods delivered by an airline.
Of course I'm still waiting for a response from five years ago, when I handed the definition of price fixing to a visiting federal politician and asked why it doesn't seem to apply to Rankin Inlet.
Another concern that gets spread publicly insinuates that if a government did have the fortitude to set a fair profit ceiling (and fair is a long way from what we've been given by "our" Northern companies), our retailers would leave and no others would take their place.
The number that covers that statement is zero, as in the number of people who should actually believe it.
And, until the time arrives when fair profit is the norm in
the North, zero also speaks volumes to the number of Nunavummiut who are getting a fair shake when they reach for their wallets.
Inuvik man deserves Hepatitis C cureNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, September 21, 2015
So close, yet so far away.
Three decades after he was infected with Hepatitis C from a tainted blood transfusion at the Inuvik hospital, Rudy Cardinal was elated this spring to learn there is a cure for the chronic infection - and that he could get a prescription for it.
Six months later, he's considering his legal options after the Department of Health and Social Services said he is not sick enough for the government to foot the $150,000 bill.
The cure is called Harvoni. Four provinces - British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick - and one territory - the Yukon - cover prescriptions for it. It has a success rate of about 85 per cent. Cardinal believes it would once and for all get him off the daily regimen of pills he has to take in order to manage a list of chronic ailments, including hyperthyroidism and gallstones.
Tests show the virus left a relatively small amount of scarring on his liver, so doctors are telling him he can live with the disease. But considering the circumstances under which he was infected and the circumstances under which he was diagnosed, is it really the government's place to tell him he can live with Hepatitis C?
In 1983, Cardinal, who was suffering from bleeding ulcers, received four litres of blood from the hospital in Inuvik. From that day, he says he has suffered fatigue and has felt ill in every waking moment. He had to quit playing sports. He didn't know what was causing the problems until 2005, when a battery of tests revealed he was infected with Hepatitis C.
Seven years prior, the federal government had accepted responsibility for inadvertently infecting approximately 20,000 patients with Hepatitis C and HIV through tainted blood transfusions in the 1980s. Along with accepting responsibility and offering an apology, the government payed out a mass settlement. Eight years after the initial settlement, the government paid roughly $1 billion more to patients who were overlooked in the first payout. Cardinal was one of the recipients of the second settlement.
Of course, a settlement isn't going undo the damage of 32 years of living with Hepatitis C.
Providing access to a cure won't either. But it will come closer. While those on the bureaucratic side of things no doubt will be able to point to rules, regulations and legislation that allows the Department of Health and Social Services to refuse to cover a $150,000 Harvoni prescription, Cardinal himself has an argument that gets right down to the very core of the morally right thing to do:
"Come on guys," he told the health department through News/North two weeks ago.
"You got me sick 32 years ago. You have to make it right."
Come on, guys. Make it right.
Difficult to find solution to suicideNunavut/News North - Monday, September 21, 2015
Evidence regarding the high rate of suicide in Nunavut was finally front and centre last week when the long-awaited discretionary inquest into suicide ordered by the Office of the Coroner got underway.
The schedule, starting with selection of a six-person jury on Sept. 14, calls for testimony from family members, RCMP, expert witnesses, the Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board, Nunavut Housing Corporation, the Nunavut departments of Corrections, Justice, Culture and Heritage, Education, Family Services, Isaksimagit Inuusirmi Katujjiqatigiit (Embrace Life Council), Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Help Line, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), and the Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Qikiqtani Inuit associations.
The number of people expected to speak is enormous, over at least 10 days, before jury findings and recommendations are released, which is scheduled for Sept. 25.
Three family members travelled to the capital city to speak about the grim details, their memories surrounding the incident and the emotional impact death has forced upon their close community.
The family members who agreed to give testimony at the inquest stand in a cold, intimidating courtroom in front of rows of lawyers, the presiding coroner and the jury. They are asked most questions by people they have never met. They must wonder what those assembled, sitting in an antiseptic environment, know about their culture.
The people in the communities directly impacted by the deaths, and the Inuit elders who support them, do not have a relationship with the people from the government departments who are charged with implementing a suicide prevention strategy.
The people who are not able to attend the proceedings are the deceased.
Instead, there is talk about the isolated communities where many of those who have taken their own lives come from. They usually lived in overcrowded, substandard housing, where food is expensive, money is scarce and everyone knows everyone. There is a warmth of familiarity among extended families, friends, neighbours and trusted community members. It is to those people they would go for help, if they wish.
Then there are the outsiders -- the nurses, school teachers, hamlet administrators and the RCMP, people who are not familiar. Those are the last people they would go to for help, whether a suicide prevention strategy is in place or not.
It is these circumstances that must hit home with members of the jury, so that they can relate to the reality of life experienced by young people in the hamlets who find themselves in distress.
The jury has an enormous task, to craft meaningful recommendations in order to address the disturbing trend which precipitated the inquest. Hundreds of young people have died since the territory was created in 1999, 45 people in 2013 alone.
The challenge is finding out how to reach the people most at risk where they live, with people they trust, those who understand their culture.
Election organizers should organize Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, September 18, 2015
With municipal and federal elections falling on the same day comes an opportunity, and we would say a democratic duty, for election officials to make life as easy as possible for voters while potentially raising voter turnout at the same time. But it won't happen unless federal elections officials act.
With a month to go until the Oct. 19 voting day, Elections Canada has yet to identify where in the city citizens will be heading to vote. City officials reserved spaces for the municipal election months ago.
It would undoubtedly be a travesty if the votes were held in separate facilities. It should be clear to everyone that the convenience offered by a one-stop poll could only draw more people to vote.
It is certainly clear to Mayor Mark Heyck.
"We have enough challenges with voter turnout in this country and it would be beneficial to those democratic ideals if people could have the easiest route to casting their ballot in all the different elections," he said.
It's not as though people are clamouring to the polls. Last round, a minority of eligible voters elected the mayor and council, meaning elected officials are operating without the support of most potential voters.
At the last federal election turnout in the NWT was 55 per cent. That's below the national average of 61 per cent and six per cent more than the turnout for the last municipal election. Would having the federal and municipal elections on the same day increase voter turnout? It might if people could vote in them at the same place.
But a failure to co-ordinate has the potential to do the opposite and drive voter turnout down even further.
The onus is on Elections Canada to reach out to municipal elections officials to find a way to co-ordinate with the city. Democracy is counting on it.
Protect sculpture with paint, cameras Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, September 18, 2015
It was very heartening to learn of citizen response to the needless and stupid vandalism of the late Francois Thibault's "United in Celebration" sculpture anchoring the Somba K'e Civic Plaza.
Kudos to those who spent their Sunday morning hours erasing the ugly scrawl of some talentless hack who thought it was a good idea to deface a popular piece of public art.
With $45,000 set aside in the city budget to paint the sculpture -- which has stood without its final coat of paint since it was installed in 2009 -- there seems to be a budget available to address how we discourage this kind of empty-headed behaviour in the future.
Is there room in that budget to install surveillance equipment? Knowing you'll be caught on video as you prove to the world your absolute lack of talent might be enough to discourage more fools in the future. There are certainly plenty of security cameras on the other side of the plaza inside city hall.
Unfortunately, it is easy enough to cloak one's identity with a hood and scarf, so perhaps there is also room in the budget to paint the sculpture with graffiti-resistant paint that allows easy washing with soap, water and brush.
Vandalism is something we need to anticipate. When it comes to the cherished pieces of the city's cultural and artistic life, let's put the money into it we need to mitigate a vandal's effect, even if we ultimately can't prevent the miscreant behaviour in the first place.
New act can't fix broken systemDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, September 17, 2015
The standing committee on social programs has concluded consultations and is well on its way to revising the new Mental Health Act, or Bill 55.
The Act will be brought forward in the coming months and will likely be passed in 2016.
Committee consultations took a panel of six members from Yellowknife to Inuvik, Norman Wells, Tulita, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Kakisa and Fort Providence - all good-sized communities with more than 500 people, except for Kakisa, whose population sits at around 40 or 50.
Many smaller communities in the North have struggles where health services are concerned, including mental health. Of all the communities the committee visited, Kakisa stood out as the smallest by far.
While in Kakisa, the committee learned that the community's once-per-month visit from a Fort Providence nurse stopped months ago due to staff shortages.
Meanwhile, a room in the community hall rented by Dehcho Health and Social Services sits empty.
It is commendable of the committee to focus on closing the gaps in the new Mental Health Act. However, the challenges faced by the territory's smallest communities are not exemplified in mid-sized communities such as Fort Providence, Inuvik and so on who have access to services.
This is not to denigrate the very real issues in mid-sized communities that must be addressed. Mental health is a matter for concern across the North and it is as important to help large communities as it is small.
There are no regional offices in Kakisa. There is little in the way of business and next to no services. Since nurse visits have stopped, community members have been forced to travel to Fort Providence or to the hospital in Hay River to get the help they need.
That can be hard enough with physical ailments. When the problem is mental, it often seems easier to suffer in silence than to seek help an hour or more away.
In fact, one well-established principle of mental health care is the necessity of having resources available when and where needed. Preventative measures and immediate help are necessary if the government hopes to combat mental health problems.
But tiny communities of less than 100 people often get forgotten in the government's push to address needs in larger places.
Kakisa and other small, isolated communities, such as Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte, must not slip between the cracks.
Any solutions the government imposes must serve the small communities.
Plan on casting an election ballotInuvik Drum - Thursday, September 17, 2015
With election season truly underway, it's time for residents to look at what they can do to make where they live a better place.
Really, when you get right down to it, voting is the least a person can do.
In a perfect world, more people would run for office, and even more would then continue to be involved as time goes on. Anything from actually attending town council meetings to writing the MLAs and federal representatives regularly can make a difference, or at the least keep people informed about events and issues involving elected officials. Those, however, take more commitment than the average citizen is willing to make.
Voting -- taking a few moments to cast a ballot -- is also something more citizens are apparently unwilling to do.
This is a saddening trend. The last municipal election as well as a few aboriginal government elections have drawn only about one-third of all possible voters. This seriously undermines the mandate of each of those bodies and makes it difficult for them to truly represent what is in the best interests of their constituents and members.
Perhaps if everyone is happy with how they are represented at all levels, that might be some excuse, but clearly they're not. People love to complain about current governments, no matter who is the leader, but are curiously unwilling to make their voices heard when it comes time to pick a new one.
Maybe some people are just too busy to get to a polling station and while I would argue that priorities are things that can be shifted for a single day, that may be a legitimate excuse.
Others, however, may find that they don't want to vote for anyone on the ballot. The best remedy for that is to have more people run. Another remedy is for the dissatisfied voter to seek public office. Another more feasible option is to turn in a blank ballot. While protest votes are not currently counted at a federal level, they do appear in the results of elections closer to home and are a clear indicator that change is needed.
The coming months will see a lot of action on the election front, so much that people may tire of it all. That said, there really is no excuse for not taking the most basic democratic action and casting a ballot.
