Federal campaigners ignore Yellowknife Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, September 25, 2015
In less than four weeks you'll be asked to cast your vote for the NWT's next federal representative in Ottawa.
So far, none of our aspiring candidates have stepped forward with a concrete notion of what their leadership will mean for Yellowknifers.
Yellowknife is the economic hub of the North, yet no candidate has made any specific statement about what he will do for the city.
Liberal hopeful Michael McLeod has suggested dredging the Hay River harbour and a road to Whati.
Conservative candidate Floyd Roland was there when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in Hay River an elected Conservative government would finish chip-sealing about 68 km of gravel road to Fort Smith.
These are both great ideas but what do they do for Yellowknife's growth, sustainability or affordability?
NDP candidate Dennis Bevington has at least promised to work on an increase to the Northern Tax Deduction although his party's leader, Thomas Mulcair, promises only that the deduction will keep "pace with the needs of Northern residents and with inflation" in a letter sent to Premier Bob McLeod.
The vagueness of that statement should disturb every Yellowknifer specifically for what it does not say. It does not say the deduction will increase.
Residents have given a lot. Take the Deh Cho Bridge. Yellowknifers are paying for that bridge every time they purchase something in the city thanks to toll costs built into their purchases.
They are essentially on the hook for every dollar that went into it, unless one believes toll costs are not being passed on to consumers here.
No doubt, the bridge is a great convenience. It's also a magnificent piece of national -- federal -- infrastructure bought and eventually to be paid for largely by Yellowknifers.
A thriving Yellowknife means a thriving NWT but nobody is saying anything about what they will do for Yellowknife and Yellowknifers specifically.
It's not a taboo subject. Out with it already.
With fewer than four weeks left in the federal campaign, now is not the time for party platitudes and spongy news releases crafted by some over-paid public relations hack sipping a latte in a downtown Ottawa Starbucks who probably thinks Yellowknife is in the Yukon anyway.
Yellowknifers need to know what each candidate has in mind for the city. If a candidate has nothing specific in mind, he is as out of touch with the reality up here as any party leader who refuses to visit this city to raise his party's profile during this election.
Elections draw many optionsDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, September 24, 2015
There are few things worse, in our modern Canadian political landscape than seeing candidates run unchallenged during elections.
It can be disheartening for residents and leaders alike.
Luckily, this year in the Deh Cho, such political disinterest is nowhere to be found.
Already, three individuals have announced they will be offering their candidacy for the territorial riding of Nahendeh, the nominations for which have not opened yet.
There are rumours of others considering putting their names in, as well.
As for municipal elections, this year's village election in Fort Simpson will see a total of 22 individuals running, three of those for mayor.
That means there is more than double the number of people running for council as there are positions to fill.
Additionally, 13 people will be vying for six positions on the district educational authority, a far cry from the seven nominees who entered in 2012.
The list will not, of course, be finalized until after press time, and candidates have 48 hours to pull out and voters 72 hours to challenge a candidate once the deadline passes.
However, it seems unlikely many will pull their names from the list, especially not after taking the steps required to get on the nominations list to begin with.
In less-engaged communities, some might question the wisdom of having so many candidates.
After all, 22 people are a lot to keep track of. Elsewhere, that many options can lead to indecision and even confusion.
But in a small village like Fort Simpson, many voters already know who the candidates are and what they represent.
Most, if not all, of the candidates are well-known to the community.
Election engagement is important because more candidates means more voters. More voters means a better democratic representation in government for the next few years.
And since municipal governments are the level closest to the people, it is even more important for them to attract a crowd. These are the people who will make the decisions affecting their everyday lives.
It will be interesting to see what level of voter turnout Fort Simpson has when election day rolls around on Oct. 19. One can only hope a majority of people turn out to make their voices heard.
In the meantime, the onus is on candidates - whose primary goal aside from winning should be to have an informed, engaged electorate - to keep the momentum up.
It seems unlikely they will have any trouble achieving that goal.
Lots of ways to help rescue dogsInuvik Drum - Thursday, September 24, 2015
Inuvik has a dog population problem if the bylaw department's reports to town council are anything to go by. It's nothing unique to the town. In fact, the problem in smaller communities is much worse.
There are organizations, namely Arctic Paws and the SPCA in Yellowknife, working to try to mitigate the effects of this dog problem. On the one hand, Arctic Paws is committed to offering spay and neuter clinics, and on the other, SPCA volunteers work hard to move dogs south to the capital and further to find them suitable homes.
Organizing these initiatives can seem daunting and there are amazing people who have stepped forward to do so, making it easy for the general population to leave them to it and refrain from reaching out a hand and volunteering, too. There are, however, a multitude of smaller acts that can make an enormous difference.
The most straightforward way to help is donating money to the organization of your choice.
However people feel about those who surrender their animals, the fact of the matter remains that it is the surrendered animal who needs help and that help costs money. Veterinarian appointments, shots, food, and shelter -- along with the cost of moving dogs around the territory by air and road -- costs money and small donations add up.
In terms of non-monetary ways of helping, assistance can take many forms. Most obviously, volunteering to foster dogs coming from other communities to Inuvik on their way to Yellowknife is a pretty large commitment, even if it's just for one night at a time.
But passing along the message that foster homes are needed, and even talking to neighbours who could make use of the SPCA, where appropriate, are amazingly useful ways to improve the lives of dogs in Inuvik.
It's not news that there is clash between the working sled-dog philosophy that has prevailed in the North since people inhabited the region and the largely Western notion that dogs are a part of the family and should inside homes full time. There is no clear advantage between the two approaches, depending on the breed.
Regardless, there is no excuse for treating any animal poorly or leaving them to fend for themselves.
There are people to whom owners can turn when in need of help and with more help from more people -- no matter how small the action -- that network can expand to save the lives of even more dogs.
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.
