Police cams protect public Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 1, 2016
In a world where cameras are as common as the birds in the sky, disputing the merits of whether police should be filming their interactions with the public is like talking about using a pasta strainer to stop a windstorm.
So, when information and privacy commissioner Elaine Keenan Bengts expressed surprise that dashboard cameras are already in use in the city by the municipal enforcement division that itself was a surprise. Several well-publicized cases in recent years have showed why such devices are important.
One followed a woman's complaint in 2012 alleging a municipal enforcement officer had assaulted her while trying to stop her in her vehicle at that year's Santa Claus Parade. It was later learned that the dashboard cam and the officer's audio lapel mic had been turned off prior to the incident, which is too bad. Had they been turned on, the recordings may have helped shed light on what actually occurred.
There is an obvious benefit in ensuring law enforcement is recording their encounters with the public - and, for that matter, the public is recording their encounters with them. These recordings don't lie, change their story or present a narrative that makes one side look better than the other.
They protect the police from false accusations of abuse just as much as they protect the public from false charges.
While what they show is often open to interpretation that is not a bad thing when it comes to the justice system. What is seen or heard can be debated for their merits or lack thereof in open court.
In 2014, senior Gary Jaeb was charged with assaulting a peace officer after getting into a scuffle with a bylaw officer over a seat belt ticket. Both cellphone footage from witnesses and dashboard camera evidence was recorded.
From the cellphone footage it's unclear who is at fault. After all the evidence was taken into account, including a dashboard video, prosecutors felt there was "no reasonable prospect of a conviction on the assault charge" and stayed the charges, which appeared to be the right call given what the public had already seen.
What would have been the prospects for a stay of charges in the years before cellphone cameras and dashboard cams? No one can say for sure but one thing seems certain, the justice system treads a little more carefully when the incident has been recorded for all the world to see.
Keenan Bengts is right to point out that the city municipal enforcement division isn't covered under territorial privacy legislation.
But, while the public has a reasonable expectation that they will be free from unreasonable search and seizure as people go about their business they shouldn't expect to not be videoed or photographed while walking or driving down the street - especially if they are getting pulled over by police.
If this happens people should take comfort in knowing the truth of what's being recorded may ultimately set them free.
Diverse representation pushes diversity Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 1, 2016
The NWT minister responsible for the status of women is back in the NWT following an "amazing" experience at the United Nations, equipped with some encouragingly progressive remarks about gender and diversity.
Caroline Cochrane attended the UN's Commission on the Status of Women in New York last month and returns determined to help end gender stereotypes in the territory.
She says this can be accomplished by focusing on children.
"It's the youth that are actually going to save us and it's the youth that we need to focus our efforts on," she told Yellowknifer upon her return.
These are significant remarks coming from a territorial minister. She suggested moving away from the idea that only boys should play with trucks/only girls should play with Barbies. While this isn't necessarily common thinking, it should be. Many young people are born into rigid definitions of gender, and with that, certain expectations for how men and women should behave can become ingrained.
For example, men should be tough and women accommodating.
To have a minister stand up in an attempt to shatter such stereotypes is important.
There is power in politics but the fact remains, Cochrane and Yellowknife Centre Julie Green, who also attended the UN conference, are the only female MLAs in the territory.
Embracing diversity is easier with diverse representation and ideally this will improve in the future.
But for now, Cochrane is doing a good job in promoting equality.
Federal budget falls shortDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 31, 2016
Aside from an increase to the Northern Residents Deduction, the federal budget falls woefully short for taxpayers in the North.
Increasing the deduction to $22 from $16.50 per day to counter the cost of living was the budget's only boon. But while that will put much-needed money back into the pockets of Northern taxpayers, the government failed to address other funding areas the North needs even more - particularly housing.
Aside from declaring a $30-billion deficit, the Liberal government is only putting $12 million of an estimated $739 million devoted to housing toward the Northwest Territories.
Understandably, the federal budget needs to provide enough money for all of Canada. However, the federal government is tragically underestimating the need for housing stimulation in the Northwest Territories by devoting just 1.6 per cent of its housing allocation to the entire territory.
Perhaps before declaring the budget, the federal government should have noted there are an estimated 800 people territorywide on the waitlist for public housing, who are considered to be homeless.
Unfortunately, by offering the Northwest Territories what effectively amounts to scraps, the federal government has ensured the territory's needs will once again fail to be met.
Other unmet needs include education. One point in the government's favour is $3.9 million over the next year to extend the Northern Adult Basic Education Program. However, compared to previous funding of that program, the dollar figure is not that impressive.
If the program's funding formula holds up, that means $1.4 million will come to the Northwest Territories, down from the $2 million it received annually for the past five years.
With the money the government has now committed, proponents of the program will need to figure out how to run it with less money.
Unfortunately, as that pot of money shrinks, so do the opportunities for residents of the Deh Cho, which has an estimated high school graduation rate of 47 per cent, according to a speech Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli gave in the legislative assembly on Feb. 18.
Of course, money does not grow on trees. It has to come from somewhere.
But one would think a government that feels comfortable running a $30-billion deficit with no plan to return to a balanced budget during their elected term could dig into their pockets a little further and offer up a few more pennies.
An extra few million is a drop in the bucket compared to other pots of money the government has established, but those drops could make a big difference for education and housing in the Northwest Territories.
At the end of the day, any funding is better than none at all. However, the government could have - and should have - done better by the people of the North.
Jail time is not enoughInuvik Drum - Thursday, March 31, 2016
An Inuvik man has been sentenced to one year in jail plus a five-year driving prohibition following convictions for his eighth and ninth drunk-driving offences. This is, by all accounts, a stiffer punishment than most face for the same crime.
The judge, who has more than 20 years of experience on the bench, said it is a miracle John Gully hasn't yet killed or hurt someone and that the list of convictions merits a heftier sentence than usual.
Obviously drunk driving is a serious offence. Not only are people who do it endangering themselves, they are essentially operating a one-tonne weapon against an unsuspecting populace.
While Gully was fortunate not to have injured anybody in his decades-long drunk driving crime spree, there are many horrifying stories that show how easy it is to become a grisly statistic. Earlier this week, an Ontario man, Marco Muzzo, was handed a 10-year prison sentence after killing three children and their grandfather in a drunk-driving accident last fall. It was his first criminal conviction.
Impaired driving is particularly problematic in the Northwest Territories, which, according to Statistics Canada, is far above other provinces and territories in terms of impaired driving rates with more than 1,400 police-reported incidents per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 262 incidents per 100,000 people.
Combine that with the rampant alcohol abuse and general disregard for the significance of the infraction in the North, and all of a sudden a one -year jail term doesn't seem all that severe.
Unfortunately, as Gully's case illustrates, the threat of going to jail clearly isn't working as a deterrent.
The judge said Gully has faced fines, jail time, and driving prohibitions before -- all apparently to no avail.
While there is an argument for treating alcohol addiction and drunk driving as separate issues -- people are addicted to drinking but no one is addicted to driving, after all -- common sense should prevail. Obviously the two are linked and when a person can't seem to stop drinking and still needs to go to work, or a buddy's house, or wherever, it becomes an easy step to get behind the wheel.
Judging from the number of impaired cases in one day of court, it's a step people take fairly often. So clearly, the system isn't currently working to deter anyone from committing or recommitting the crime.
I don't know the answer to this conundrum but an obvious suggestion would be mandatory counselling, perhaps in a setting that doesn't include incarceration. There are equally obvious problems with that as well, as there would be with every solution anyone could come up with.
One thing, however, remains obvious. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is not a solution.
Liberal's quick fix not enoughYellowknifer - Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Yes, the federal Liberals made good on the their pre-election promise to increase the Northern Resident's deduction.
A 33-per-cent bump sounds impressive, resulting in a $22 a day tax deduction.
This is a welcome help to the pocketbook of average Northerners but it only begins to address the much higher cost of living in the North.
As Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly points out, the deduction has not been indexed to match inflation. This means the deduction will be worth less every year as the cost of living rises remorselessly upward.
There are cost-of-living measurements readily available that suggest the cost of living in the North, especially for a family, outstrips the Northern Resident's deduction. According to the most recent Statistics Canada consumer price index report, the cost of food continues to rise in Yellowknife year after year.
Meat, fish and poultry saw an 8.4 per cent increase compared to 1.6 per cent nationally. Overall, food prices are up 6.2 per cent since this time last year, the second year in a row that brought increased Northern food costs.
Add to this the inflated cost of fuel for both transportation and heating, as well as the high cost of real estate or rentals in the North, and the deduction looks more like a token acknowledgment of the cost of living up here instead of an wholehearted attempt to encourage Northern residency.
Rookie MP Michael McLeod entered last fall's election promising more than his party was willing to deliver but at least has shown himself capable of getting results. He and the other Northern MPs swept into office during last year's Liberal wave should forcefully make the case that tax deduction increases are only really fair to the North when they are indexed to inflation to ensure the deduction maintains its value over time.
On the infrastructure front, the big ticket item in this year's budget is the $120 billion earmarked for spending over the next 10 years on capital projects nationwide.
Exactly what this will mean for the Northwest Territories is not clear yet but hopefully it will include spending on a much-needed all-season extension to the Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto winter road, one of Canada's so-called "roads to resources."
It would be a boost to mineral exploration in the North to have an all-season road running from Yellowknife to the mineral rich zone that currently hosts all of the NWT's operating mines.
If Yellowknifers want to continue to enjoy the benefit of active diamond mining and mineral exploration a mere few hundred kilometres northwest of the city, they should support funding for this crucial transportation link.
It is ironic that O'Reilly, who prior to becoming an MLA, built his career and earned his living on the back of active mineral exploration and mining - albeit as an environmental monitor of mining -- would insist roads to resources should be ignored and lofty goals, such as a university in Yellowknife, should be championed instead.
No doubt a university would be an attractive addition to the city but we suggest its foundation would be on firmer ground if government ensured the NWT's number one economy driver had a reliable road link to the resources corridor in the Barrens.
Still bones to pick with federal budgetEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 30, 2016
The Liberal govenment's recent federal budget does have some good news for Nunavummiut, but the glossy dollar figures being bandied about for the ill-fated and highly-flawed Nutrition North program don't amount to a hill of beans to those of us who purchase most of our groceries locally.
The best news in the budget for most Nunavummiut is the increase in the Northern residents tax deduction.
The maximum daily residency deduction is rising to $22 from its previous $16.50, which is a significant, if long overdue, improvement.
And while $76.7 million over two years should result in about 140 new "affordable housing" units, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the territory's true housing needs.
In fact, as sexy as that $76.7 million may appear on the surface, $38.35 million per year is a long way short of the $105 million a year over five years the Government of Nunavut wants the feds to buy into.
It's a start but make no mistake, it's baby steps.
And that brings us to the headline grabbing, spotlight stealing amounts of money being dumped into the Nutrition North cesspool during the next five years or so.
The base amount of $64.5 million is no increase at all to the program, and the vast majority of the extra $13.8 per year (ongoing) will be going to remote communities everywhere but here.
But, hey. Fair is fair, right? We mustn't be greedy with the sweet deal we've been enjoying since this program came into affect.
The only hope we have, at this point, of Nutrition North ever paying any significant dividends to who it's supposedly in place to help (read: consumers, not retailers), is the mandatory providing of a retailer's profit-margin information to independent auditors to make sure the fox doesn't have the henhouse totally locked down.
But that's still just one kernel on a very large ear of corn.
The Nutrition North program will never be fixed by throwing money at it.
It was fatally flawed from the moment it was dreamt up by a Conservative government overreacting to a few speed bumps with Canada Post over the old Food Mail program, and then acting on a lot of input from a bunch of former Bay boys, directly and indirectly, with shiny new titles.
It has done nothing but produce record profits for retailers, ever-escalating prices for consumers on all but a small number of items, and the Lord only knows how many tonnes of rotting fruit and vegetables in Nunavut landfills.
It also resulted in the all-too-surreal scenario of Company A turning a profit while paying Company B to transport plane loads of its goods to various locations.
If the Liberals are not willing to wipe the slate clean with Nutrition North and say, "Oops, sorry about that," and tear it down completely, then it must stop focusing on ways to make the retailers more accountable in passing along the subsidies and focus on ways to put the subsidies in the hands of the consumers.
It's been done rather effectively in other countries, so surely we can figure it out here.
The Liberal government's first federal budget is definitely a step up from just crumbs going to Nunavut, but, as far as Nutrition North goes, there's still more than a few bones to pick!
Housing money meant for housing peopleNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, March 28, 2016
Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson asked a very good question in the legislative assembly on March 3.
In an exchange with Caroline Cochrane, the minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, he wondered why the corporation imports modular homes from Alberta rather than building them up here.
He argued that using modular homes does nothing to stimulate the NWT economy. He figures that if the NWT Housing Corporation were to commission housing from builders within the territory, then the housing corp could kill two birds with one stone - house people and foster a whole new economic sector.
Indeed this is a very good question that happens to have a very good answer. The one glaring problem with Thompson's premise is construction in the NWT is much harder than it may seem. Lumber and other building materials need to be imported and the NWT doesn't necessarily have a workforce of skilled labourers big enough to take on multiple housing projects across multiple NWT communities.
In fact, an example that illustrates how difficult it can be for contractors to make a living constructing housing in the NWT happens to be playing out in Inuvik right now. Millenium Construction, the contractor hired to build the Sydney Apartments project in the community, has abandoned the partially-finished structure in the face of multiple lawsuits. The Western Arctic Business Development Corporation has taken the company to court over $12,000 in unpaid loans and the Canada Revenue Agency has ordered the company's assets seized and sold to recoup unpaid taxes to the tune of $1.4 million. Meanwhile, the NWT Housing Corporation is left picking up the pieces. The Sydney Apartment complex was scheduled to be finished this spring. Instead, the housing corp is preparing to post a new contract for the building's completion next month, with the hopes it will be finished by autumn.
Obviously, not every housing project commissioned within the territory is doomed to the fate of Sydney Apartments but the situation makes the reason the housing corporation opts for 30 per cent cheaper Alberta-built homes easier to understand.
This argument doesn't mean Thompson's challenge lacks merit. Perhaps the territorial government could be doing more to encourage NWT residents who go into the trades to bring their skills back home. But building a competent workforce is a long-term initiative, while housing is something many residents across the territory desperately need now.
Building a house and building a workforce are two separate problems and in order to get it right, they need their own solutions.
Another way for business to support whole communityNunavut/News North - Monday, March 28, 2016
Almost everyone has met a person who is special in a certain way.
That person might have a learning disability, suffer from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, live with a physical disability, have varying
degrees of mental illnesses or require special attention in certain areas.
There are no hard numbers on how many people in Nunavut live with a disability, although it is estimated to be up to 33 per cent of
the population.
That's where the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society comes in.
Staff from the society are not only touring Nunavut's larger communities to identify people with disabilities, see if they are employed and identify their goals but the society also wants to hear from potential employers, business owners who might be able to hire people with disabilities not as an act of charity but because they contribute to a company's success.
The society is developing a territory-wide program to match disabled people with potential employers, essentially seeking suitable positions to place people who otherwise wouldn't be part of the work force.
That's the premise behind the Inclusion Cafe in Iqaluit, which was developed to create work experience, training and employment for
people with disabilities in the capital city.
There has been some reluctance in the business community to hire people with a disability. The question of liability looms large for some business owners, who have invested literally millions of dollars in premises and equipment. Many business owners don't know how they can modify their work flow to accommodate a person with a disability.
However, in a project funded jointly by the governments of Canada and Nunavut through a threeyear labour market agreement, funding is available to provide on-the-job support, from job coaches to specialized equipment and technology that may be needed in the workplace.
To make the project work, potential employers are being asked to fill out a survey which asks them to be frank about their attitudes
towards the disabled, what kind of support is required and whether there is a place for disabled people within the business.
Time after time we've heard stories about disabled people who have overcome the challenges they face to excel in a specific area.
The disabled individual benefits immensely from the experience, gaining self esteem, a sense of belonging and proves to be a benefit
to the community at large.
But this project does more than that. It seeks to generate a true benefit for the employer. And it has funding available to modify the workplace to make that happen.
We see the opportunity for a win-win-win situation. The business
benefits, the individual makes gains and the community at large becomes home to another contributing member of society.
