Signs of danger Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, January 15, 2016
Stranded tourists far off the beaten path may elicit guffaws from Northerners conditioned to life on ice but it shouldn't.
Any one of the recent incidents of visitors to our city trapped on ice could have ended tragically, especially the pair who managed to find themselves stuck 10 km south of Dettah after dark in -30 C weather.
It's easy to understand how such a thing can happen. It's natural to want to escape city light pollution to take in the northern lights. As winter progresses, more and more trails sprout up along winter roads. Some are made by truck and plow but to the untrained eye, a trail made by a snowmobile or Caterpillar may not look much different. In late winter, snowbanks make it more obvious where maintained winter road ends and snowmobile trails begin. In early winter or a low snowfall year it is less so.
For a tourist seeking a uniquely northern experience, having already driven their rented vehicle onto an ice road without trouble, why not take a side road as well and head out across an empty expanse underneath the northern lights? Someone cleared a trail for them to follow after all. A summer boat launch now covered in tracks may also be quite inviting.
The problem, of course, is that it is difficult to appreciate what it's like to be in trouble in the subarctic outdoors without some experience living in it. And it's even more dangerous if there is no signage to warn about the dangers.
Fortunately, the Northern Frontier Visitor's Centre is taking tourist safety seriously. It's hired a full-time translator to produce signage to advise visitors in their mother tongues.
Centre staff are posting those advisories where they will be seen by all who come through the centre's doors.
But what of those who do not stop by the visitor's centre before excitedly rushing out for a day or evening of adventure?
The city and the territory must team up to install adequate signage that deters the unknowning from random excursions off maintained roads.
It is certainly incumbent on visitors to err on the side of caution when it comes to venturing forth onto open ice on frigid winter days but it is municipal and territorial responsibility to make it obvious where caution ends and more risky adventure begins.
If those tourists on Yellowknife Bay on Christmas Eve had crashed through ice over hundreds of feet of water never to be seen again, Yellowknife's reputation as a premier aurora destination would quickly be asterisked with its own warning sign.
If the city is to be the first choice in international aurora tourism, municipal and territorial governments need to follow the visitor centre's lead and ensure effective signage is in place to prevent what could be a future tragic incident.
Fiscal responsibility key to successDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, January 14, 2016
Fort Simpson council recently passed its operations and maintenance budget as well as a five-year capital plan.
For securing a balanced budget, senior administrative officer Beth Jumbo deserves some praise. Balance was possible despite some expensive new projects and a shift in focus toward maintaining and repairing buildings that have arguably been neglected.
One of those buildings is the recreation centre.
It is past time for the village to focus on its current infrastructure. The fact the village is doing that, while still planning for new buildings -- the proposed fitness centre, in particular -- is laudable.
It is equally commendable that the village buckles down to find savings, scrutinizing upcoming lease agreements for its buildings -- as long as that scrutiny is tempered with reason.
At the Jan. 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, that discussion turned to the community groups who use the recreation centre on a regular basis -- namely, the Open Door Society, and whether they pay enough rent.
For years, the Open Door Society has rented a space upstairs in the recreation centre for a fee of $500 per month. For that fee, they offer programming that benefits any and every child who wants to partake.
As a non-profit organization, the society often operates on a fairly tight budget.
On Jan. 11, committee members recommended a rent increase to $750 per month. No final decisions are made during committee meetings.
The rationale behind this recommendation could be sound, if it weren't for the paltry extra money the increase would bring in.
For instance, committee members felt since the village needs money to maintain the facility, people need to pay for it -- and, in the words of one member, if people aren't paying, where will the money come from?
Raising rent for Open Doors would bring in an additional $3,000 per year for the village's budget.
That sum hardly seems worth the undue pressure it would put on the society. With a tight budget, the society may not have $3,000 to spare, whereas the village has other ways of making up that revenue -- from tax dollars, for instance.
Instead of trying to claw back rent from a non-profit organization, perhaps a better solution would be to prioritize the recreation centre more in the operations and maintenance budget.
While it is important for the village to find savings and revenue streams, committee members should be asking themselves if it is feasible to see the recreation centre as a break-even facility.
And while raising rent may be a more palatable option than, say, introducing a user fee or charging more for tournaments, it still puts the strain on those who cannot pay.
Luckily, discussions are still ongoing and Jumbo will be in dialogue with the society about its rent.
It may be wise, also, for council members to invite the society to council during one of their meetings, to give them a better idea of the situation the society is in.
Looking back, standing tallInuvik Drum - Thursday, January 14, 2016
Putting together the feature for the 50th anniversary this week has thrown some things into sharp relief.
First off, some things have changed in a big way. The paper started when the oil field was still in play and the military maintained a base in the community, adding not only to the population, but the disposable income floating around town. Inuvik was the bustling centre of an exciting region with many eyes from both southern Canada and abroad trained on it.
Tom Butters saw the need for an alternate voice -- one that represented the people on the ground -- and made it happen, despite the uncertainty of the newspaper business, even when the economy was trending upwards. Dan Holman took over before he knew what he was getting into (his words, not mine) and kept it going until hard times truly began to hit, when the oil dried up and the military pulled out. To give it the best chance of survival, he sold the Drum to Northern News Services Ltd., the company that employs yours truly today.
More important are the things that haven't changed. Inuvik is still a fiercely independent community that stands on its own two feet in so many ways. The youth centre and two facilities serving people experiencing homelessness are not government-run, although they do depend largely on government money. People here help each other.
In an advertisement in the 1966 Sir Alexander Mackenzie School yearbook -- the year the paper was founded - Butters wrote simply "we are small people in a big land. So stand tall." I am a relative newcomer to the North and an actual newcomer to Inuvik and even I can see that sentiment still has merit. The Drum was founded on that principle, not as a place for higher-ups to speak down to the general population, and we hope to continue that tradition today.
In the same way it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to make a newspaper.
You have seen a revolving door of journalists from the south traipse through this office over the last two decades -- more in the last few years -- and that the paper still exists and people still agree to speak to the likes of me is testament to the strength of the community, as well as the importance of such a publication.
Over the next year, we will be printing select stories from the last 50 years of the Drum. We hope you enjoy them and the memories they stir up. But more than anything, we hope you reach out and make this newspaper your own moving forward.
Now more than ever, we need to stand tall.
Planting the seed for Yk UYellowknifer - Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Murmurings of a university in Yellowknife have been amplified as of late. During the election campaign, now-city councillor Julian Morse put it on the table. Now, Mayor Mark Heyck is carving into it by indicating to Yellowknifer it's a debate he'd like see happen.
It's a visionary issue, the idea of a university, but indeed it is a discussion worth having - so long as it's approached realistically.
At quick glance, Yellowknife seems well-situated for such an institution. It's a transient city with an average age of 32, compared to 40 for the rest of Canada; there's a whole demographic of young Canadians hungry for knowledge and adventure a university in Yellowknife could pluck from.
Being able to retain Northern youth who want to go off to university, and attract those who want to go somewhere cool for school would help bolster the economy and population.
Of course, the territorial government would have to climb on board in a big way - as a major funder - before the conversation around the council table could prove meaningful.
The return on investment seems to be there - A 2014 report from not-for-profit research organization Conference Board of Canada found every dollar spent on post-secondary education creates $1.36 for the Canadian economy. Universities "generate significant economic benefits to the communities and provinces where they are situated," stated Michael Bloom, an executive with the board, in the news release about the report.
Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, which provides credit at the University of Alberta for land-based learning in the North, is a step in that direction. Heyck can be credited for saying a possible expansion of this program should be part of the post-secondary discussion.
There are universities in every province but not a single one in the territories.
The obvious roadblock to a university is the city's small population base of just over 19,000. But should it become, say, the University of the NWT, Nunavut and Yukon, the idea gets longer legs. There is a lot of interest in the North down south, especially as it relates to climate change, and the NWT and Nunavut cover most of the Arctic coastline.
The three territories could combine and share resources and Yellowknife could provide the city services that would need to surround such an institution to attract professionals.
There are universities in cities and towns of all sizes across the country. Athabasca University, which specializes in distance learning but has a physical presence, is based in Athabasca, Alta., population 2,990.
Lakehead University is in Thunder Bay, Ont., population 108,359. Thunder Bay is similar to Yellowknife in that it is in the rural wilderness and has developed well-regarded biology program as a product of its location. University of Northern British Columbia is in Prince George, B.C., also - one could argue - at the end of the road. It has a population of 71,273.
Vancouver Island University, based in Nanaimo, population 83,810, has regional campuses in the much-smaller adjacent municipalities of Duncan, Powell River and Parksville.
There are many models Yellowknife could look at when considering a local university. Although it's now but a vision, everything starts with a discussion; and the discussion will be most valuable if it begins in a broad, realistic place.
Logic gone up in smokeEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, January 13, 2016
I've been a smoker since my early teenage years. I am neither proud nor embarrassed by it. It is a lifestyle choice and I choose to smoke.
I have no idea what the future has in store for me healthwise, but I do know I haven't missed a full day's work in two decades and I still officiate 100 games of hockey a year at age 57.
There is, however, no denying the price of cigarettes has become ridiculous, thanks to taxes levied by various levels of government under the guise of smokers being the number-one drain on the Canadian health-care system.
That's poppycock, but it justifies the annual raking-in of billions of dollars in taxes that governments have become more addicted to than smokers to nicotine.
A couple of years ago, I cut my cigarette smoking from more than a pack to just eight per day.
It was the least I'd smoked since my early days in the Canadian Armed Forces in the mid-1970s.
I accomplished this using e-cigarettes I ordered online from the United States.
The next two times I ordered them, they were seized in the mail before reaching me.
I am now back smoking more than a pack a day of tobacco cigarettes.
In Canada, which has become the biggest nanny state in the world, e-cigarettes containing nicotine are illegal, despite the fact it's mostly the other chemical byproducts from smoking that do most of the damage to one's health.
So, I was stunned this past week to read Troy Media columnist Karen Selick rally in favour of e-cigarettes.
Stunned because most people act downright silly toward the product without a shred of scientific proof to support their stance against it.
In fact, scientific studies prove there is virtually no risk to non-smokers caused by the exhaled vapour.
If knowing e-cigarettes cause far less harm to smokers, pose absolutely no risk to non-smokers, and help people greatly reduce or quit tobacco entirely doesn't have you pondering the motives behind keeping them illegal, you've lost the ability to reason.
One of the main points Selick brings up on the subject strikes close to the bone with me.
For years I've wished I was financially able to have my day in court, because I also believe keeping e-cigarettes illegal is unconstitutional.
Being prevented from using a product that does far less harm to me than cigarettes is an infringement upon my Charter right to security of the person.
The Supreme Court decision that individuals have a right to harm reduction is what led to safe-injection sites for drug users.
I would like to think as a law-abiding citizen (cigarettes are a legal product) I have as much right to harm reduction as those dependent on illegal drugs such as heroin.
But in a politically-correct-gone-mad age when people advocate for kids to build a snow person, not many give a second thought to the legal rights of a tobacco user.
However, with e-cigarettes shown to greatly reduce tobacco use, it makes one wonder why a government would block a product that greatly reduces what it claims to be the number-one drain on health care in Canada, doesn't it?
Still think those tax dollars go towards the health-care cost caused by smokers?
Lessons to learn from Stuart Hodgson's legacyNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, January 11, 2016
In an Inuvik Drum article 15 years ago, Stuart Hodgson talked about the importance of bringing government to the people because, he said, you can't bring people to the government.
Indeed, it would have been challenging to bring the voices of the 26,000 people who made up Northwest Territories during the 1960s thousands of kilometres southeast to the territory's former government headquarters in Ottawa. So he brought the Northwest Territories government up to the NWT.
In 1967 he stepped off a government plane and memorably said, "At last, we are home."
This ended up being the former commissioner's legacy. He died Dec. 19 in his home at the age of 91.
Sixteen years ago, Hodsgon sat down for a post-retirement Q and A with the late Terry Halifax, who edited the Inuvik Drum at the time. The wisdom of his attitude toward leadership and governance still rings true today.
He was a practical person. He said his team didn't wait for proper offices to be built because if they did, he felt they never would have been able to begin their work.
He travelled extensively throughout the Northwest Territories, visiting every single community in order to meet with people and explain the government he and then-senator Arthur Laing were bringing in.
He also accompanied Thomas Berger during his famous inquiry to investigate whether the people of the Mackenzie Valley would benefit from the oil and gas pipeline that was proposed at the time. During these meetings, he stayed away from dreaded bureaucratese speak when talking to people. He worked with what he had and had a sense of humour about it.
"A lot of confusion was around whether it was an oil pipeline or a gas pipeline," he mused to the Drum.
"At that time in the North, having a can of gas meant something to pour into your Ski-Doo or a kicker. One day somebody asked me at a meeting of 400 people, what gas was. And I had a heck of a time of what to say, so finally it dawned on me and I said, 'Do you know what a fart is? Well that's gas.' And they said, 'Well that won't burn."'
Stuart Hodgson had a spirit that set him up to be a successful Northern leader: he didn't wait for things to come to him, he did what he needed to do with what he had. He understood that good governance includes stepping down from the governmental pedestal and talking to the people in their own terms.
We lost Hodgson last month but there are still valuable lessons on leadership and governance to be taken from the legacy he left in the NWT.
Take the steps to find reconciliationNunavut/News North - Monday, January 11, 2016
An observation this past week suggests the largest proportion of the population of Canada who attended residential schools, per capita, were Inuit from Nunavut.
The impact of children being taken from their home communities to live far, far away for years was immense. Many didn't return. An estimated 6,000 indigenous children died in residential schools from the time the schools opened in the 19th century until the last one closed in 1996. It has been called an attempt by Canada to commit "cultural genocide" against indigenous peoples, including Inuit.
The impact is still felt today, not just for survivors of residential school but for their families, including parents and children of survivors.
Finally, there is action being taken. The Liberal government has pledged to act on the 94 recommendations made in the landmark report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released in June. Of utmost importance is implementation of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
We see the release of the report and acceptance of its findings and recommendations as the "truth" portion of the commission's work.
But what about the "reconciliation?" What does that look like?
One path toward reconciliation is the addition to the school curriculum of history lessons about the legacy of residential schools. That is vital to increase the understanding by young Canadians of this dark part of their country's history. Hopefully, students all across this land will share that knowledge with their families, including their parents and grandparents, who never learned about how indigenous people were treated historically.
Another path toward reconciliation exists at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, which opened in November at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. One of the most important responsibilities given to the commission was to forever preserve the truths of Canada's Indian Residential Schools, as they were called.
In order to move forward, people need to understand exactly what it is that former students of the residential schools and all Canadians need to leave behind.
The national centre, designed to be accessible to all people for all time, contains millions of documents from government and churches and nearly 7,000 video statements of survivors and intergenerational survivors.
Opening the archives presents an opportunity for adults of today's generation from all ethnic backgrounds to learn about the residential school experience, the bad and the good. Undertaking an examination and talking to others about it is one more step toward reconciliation.
Survivors told the commission they need to leave behind the shame and hurt caused by the assault on their languages, cultures, spirituality, traditions, families and communities.
Remembering what happened will allow the many who have been impacted to move forward, one step at a time.
