NWT tourism abounds as visitor's centre crumblesYellowknifer - Wednesday, May 11, 2016
It isn't a stretch to say the territory's economy is on shaky ground. The need to diversify and seek new sources of revenue has been highlighted time after time by mine closures and a dwindling resource extraction industry.
But where to branch out? What industry do Northerners look to to bring in new revenue from outside the territory? The most obvious sector to turn to is tourism. New money - and quite a bit of it - funnels into the city dressed in Canada Goose parkas, with cameras slung around necks. Visitors to the territory brought in $146.6 million in 2015. That's 36 per cent more revenue than what tourism produced five years ago. Unlike other areas of the NWT economy, this sector is on the rise.
How unfortunate then that the city's visitors centre is not.
The Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, one of the first buildings tourists see when coming into the city and a likely first stop on their travels, is literally crumbling due to unstable pilings at the back of the building.
Several levels of government, including the GNWT and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, invested more than $400,000 two years ago to repair and stabilize the building but the problem is getting worse. In fact the windows overlooking what used to be a scenic view of Frame Lake have been boarded up as a result of shattered panes.
The Northern Frontier Visitors Association is doing the best it can to keep tourists happy and interested in what the city has to offer. But this shouldn't be left in its hands alone after first efforts to fix the building failed.
The association and its centre are not the beneficiaries of a booming tourism industry - they're the vehicle. And it's a vehicle that requires maintenance in order to get the economy to more certain footing. Besides, having a visitors centre sinking into a swamp is just plain embarrassing.
The city and territorial government must address the catastrophic state of the building once and for all.
Permanent repairs may not be cheap but the long-term gains of having a high-quality gateway for visitors to the territorial capital is well worth it.
And the downside of leaving the building as is can't be overlooked.
Caution tape and exposed insulation doesn't exactly spell out a world-class tourism destination.
Fort McMurray's present could be our futureYellowknifer - Wednesday, May 11, 2016
The North knows all too well the devastation wildfires can wreak on communities.
Images published in Friday's Yellowknifer of the fires that decimated Fort McMurray remind many in the city of what may have been had the fires been a little closer and the winds a little hotter in 2014.
Weeks of smoke, ash raining down on city streets and flames leaping across Highway 3 made for a nervous summer in Yellowknife that year. Last summer was marginally better with forest fires returning to close a number of NWT roads once again and putting cabin country on the Ingraham Trail at serious risk.
Since 2014, the city has made some efforts to "fire-smart" Yellowknife -- that is, to thin out forest undergrowth and identify areas most vulnerable to forest fires. But one senses, knowing now how quickly things can get out of hand, that the city will not be able to meet the challenges of a catastrophic fire as occurred last week in Fort McMurray.
For starters, neither the city nor the GNWT have a plan - at least not a publicly available one - explaining how it would evacuate residents should Highway 3 - the only road route out of Yellowknife - be closed due to fire. Last year, city officials said should a fire threaten the city and road access be cut off the plan is to move people to reception centres, such as the Multiplex and area schools.
This, after near panic broke out the previous year following a national media outlet report saying the city intended to gather people together behind an earthen berm near city hall in case fire breached city limits.
Having witnessed the fire's terrifying march through Fort McMurray, Yellowknifers are not keen being trapped like rats should a forest fire overwhelm efforts to stop it from reaching the city.
Have government officials approached airlines about their capacity to airlift people out should fire threaten the city? What is the capacity of area shipping to ferry people to the other side of Great Slave Lake?
Living in a city surrounded by forest, these are not unreasonable questions to ask.
Room for improvement, but badge still shinesEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, May 11, 2016
I recently had an interesting conversation with an RCMP friend who spent considerable time in the North.
After the usual exchange of pleasantries and getting caught up with each other, he talked about how many officers he knew, himself included, who weren't overly enamoured with the new acceptance standards for joining the RCMP.
That came as no surprise to me, as I had seen similar posts on social media by other officers I knew from their time in the North.
Then I was asked what I sensed the mood of the communities to be toward their police in the Kivalliq.
That question didn't overly surprise me either, as there's been much to do recently about the drastic jump in misconduct cases within the RCMP.
Having a 158 per cent hike in misconduct investigations, and 56 officers who could face dismissal over serious-misconduct allegations is nothing to sneeze at.
And, while the number of allegations in 2015 were absurdly high, it still only represents 1.29 per cent of the total number of RCMP officers.
While I have not sensed any more ill feelings toward the police than what one would consider normal from a very small percentage of the population, some trends are disturbing.
It would be nice to see the day when there are no longer any accusations of unwanted sexual advances coming from female officers.
Hearing those allegations gives one the same sick feeling in the stomach as when you hear of sexual wrongdoing by a member of the clergy or the coach of a minor sports team.
All such behaviour is unacceptable, but the odour is always more foul when it emanates from a person in a position of public trust.
Also a bit unsettling is the number of alpha-male-on-steroids types being attracted to policing these days.
Policing isn't for the faint of heart. It's a dangerous and often thankless profession.
But it's never a cliche to say those who wear a cop's badge never know if they'll be home again, when they leave for work in the morning.
Yet more and more, we see and read about police being overly-aggressive in the performance of their duties.
It's a scary combination, and it wasn't that long ago when an officer in Rankin Inlet told me he loved policing here because of how often you're involved in confrontational situations as compared to other jurisdictions.
Almost as disturbing are those who believe police misconduct would disappear if there were more aboriginal and other ethnic backgrounds on the job.
I put that statement right up there with the time I was told there are absolutely no gay Inuit. Enough said.
Any way you look at it, life wouldn't be much fun without police in this day and age.
We have little choice but to put our faith in the powers that be to effectively screen who gets to carry a gun to work every day, and are able to get the message across that police officers live under the same laws as the rest of us, especially when it comes to inappropriate sexual behaviour.
But, you just know, somewhere in our country this very minute, a police officer is watching himself draw in front of a large mirror.
Nobody's perfect, but the RCMP still run a pretty good track record in the big picture, even with room for improvement.
A dose of common senseNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, May 9, 2016
In his interview with News/North last week, new NWT Chamber of Commerce president Richard Morland hammers home a crucial point about the territory's economy.
Regarding an economic boom enjoyed by the resource sector that ran from approximately 2004 to 2007, he warns that some people may have mistaken the high mineral prices that bolstered mines in the territory as normalcy, when in fact it was an aberration.
These were glory days. China was rapidly growing - and rapidly importing goods - creating a seemingly insatiable demand for all sorts of metals and minerals. In the past five years or so though, the Chinese economy has slowed down, cooling the resource sector with it.
"I've never seen prices like that in the other 23 years of my career and may never see them again," said Morland about this era.
These are sobering words for any exploration company looking to extract minerals from the NWT, where high prices are a primary factor in developing mines in areas with no infrastructure. For that matter, these are sobering words for any NWT'er as well. This is why Morland so wisely pushes the idea that, rather than thinking about the resource sector as either the saviour or demise of the NWT economy, it should be seen as an anchor to help other sectors spawn and thrive.
Resource development will always be the dominant industry in the NWT, so using it to grow other sectors such as green energy, tourism, construction and small business will soften the blow when the economy slows down. It's always better to diversify. As Morland says himself, it's simply adapting to market conditions. The territorial government can't keep putting all of its eggs in the resource-sector basket if that basket can't handle the weight.
Turning away from the resource sector completely is also a foolish idea. In January, Alternatives North issued a report advising the oil-rich Sahtu to abandon the oil and gas sector in favour of fostering a traditional economy. The conclusions of this report missed a giant opportunity - that the resource sector can bolster the smaller sectors Alternatives North so desperately wants to see grow. The government could siphon some of its resource revenues towards funding for small business start-ups and green energy initiatives, for example.
The Northwest Territories could certainly benefit from an injection of new ideas on how to tackle a very old problem - how an isolated, boom-bust economy like this one can adapt to cyclical market downturns.
It will be interesting to see what Morland - who incidentally has built a career on turning under-performing businesses into successful ones -- is able to do within his one-year mandate as chamber head.
Hopefully at the very least, he will succeed in helping the territory's leaders in the political and business community see this problem in a new light.
Foreign cargo ships pose threat to Canada's borderNunavut/News North - Monday, May 9, 2016
Consider it a warning shot off Canada's bow.
News that the People's Republic of China, the world's most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, is eyeing the Northwest Passage as a shorter route for massive cargo ships should not go unnoticed.
China is the world's top exporter of containerized cargo and it has dedicated significant resources to developing a plan to take advantage of a longer open water season off the coast of Nunavut, a plan that would reduce that country's shipping costs by an estimated 30 per cent.
There is a reason China has observer status on the Arctic Council, along with other large exporting nations such as Korea, Japan, Singapore and India. Interest in Arctic waters is high. China has said that opening the Northwest Passage to marine shipping will change global maritime transportation and have a profound influence on international trade, the world economy and resource exploitation.
However, marine shipping is dangerous. There are already a number of reported incidents involving both liquid cargo and solid cargo vessels in the Arctic Ocean, in Hudson Bay and Davis Strait, according to 2015 documents from the Transportation Safety Board.
The shipping lanes also cross from international waters into Canadian waters, where Canada, as a sovereign nation, should govern and regulate traffic. In response to questions from Nunavut News/North to Global Affairs Canada, a spokesperson stated, "All waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including the various waterways known as the Northwest Passage, are internal waters of Canada, which it has the right to regulate as it would land territory. No right of transit passage or of innocent passage exists in the various waterways known as the Northwest Passage. Canada welcomes navigation that complies with Canada's rules and regulations."
The federal government is working on the Northern Marine Transportation Corridors Initiative, which held meetings in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Ottawa, Montreal and St. John's, N.L., last month. But that initiative will not result in specific regulations. Instead it is meant to inform the government's deployment of existing assets and provision of services.
Therein lies the problem. Canada has no military capabilities in Arctic Ocean waters and has limited icebreaker capabilities. The Canadian Coast Guard's icebreakers, built between 1979 and 1987, are not armed with weapons. If faced with the threat of foreign invasion of Canadian waters, Canada would have to scramble jet fighters or call on the United States for help.
New icebreakers and patrol ships are being built but are years away from delivery. Russia has several icebreakers, including a few world-class nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Canada must wake up and prepare to defend its Northern border. It's a question of environmental conservation, protection of sovereignty, regulation of commercial traffic and a demonstration of military capability.
To do nothing would encourage invaders.
Fortune Minerals no failed bridge builder Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 6, 2016
The saga of David Ramsay and Fortune Minerals simply does not compare to that of former premier Joe Handley and bankrupt bridge builder ATCON Construction.
Within nine months of leaving office in 2007, Handley infamously took a position with the New Brunswick-based company, which was still busily employed building the NWT's largest-ever man-made structure, the Deh Cho Bridge.
In the twilight of his last term in office, Handley finalized a deal on behalf of the territorial government that awarded the then $155-million contract to ATCON. The bridge would finish two years behind schedule and cost $202 million to build - all of it on the backs of NWT taxpayers -- after ATCON was unable to complete the project and the public-private partnership company tasked with overseeing construction, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, failed. ATCON declared bankruptcy in 2010.
Conflict of interest rules in place at the time would have prevented a cabinet minister from taking a job with a company that had direct dealings with the minister's department while he or she was in office.
In Handley's case, all was OK -- with a wink and a nudge -- because ATCON's contract was not with the GNWT but with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.
Ramsay's recent appointment to the Fortune Minerals board of directors has raised eyebrows in some quarters. But conflict of interest rules were revised following the Handley affair, and by all accounts Ramsay played by those rules.
Fortune Minerals has never received financial backing, nor even the promise of it, from the GNWT, and neither has the company ever entered into any kind of contractual arrangement with the government.
As minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Ramsay's job was to elevate the territory's profile as an investment-friendly region in the eyes of the world.
Over the term of Ramsay's appointment, Fortune Minerals was largely involved in achieving environmental regulatory landmarks for its NICO mine project while working within a difficult capital market.
Ramsay's involvement here would have been negligible, as he had no authority regarding regulatory processes.
Ramsay worked to boost the North as a place to invest. That job came to an abrupt end when he was unseated in Kam Lake. He has to get on with his life.
Taking a board position, and whatever stipend that may involve, with a company he had little-to-no dealings with is not something the public should begrudge him. There are simply not that many jobs a former cabinet minister can land in the territory that doesn't have some kind of connection to government.
The appointment was cleared by the conflict of interest commissioner. It would be unfair to expect former politicians to do more than the rules demand of them when it comes to a career restart following an electoral defeat.
Lack of 911 will be the GNWT's shame Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 6, 2016
Last week's fire at Fitzgerald Carpeting, tragic though it was, at least provides us with some instruction.
Something far more shameful and horrifying will have to occur before the territorial government deems 9-1-1 emergency phone service a priority.
The perpetual back-burner issue came to the forefront once again after it was learned the person trying to alert the fire department about the Fitzgerald blaze had to drive to the fire hall after dialing 9-1-1 in vain, not realizing that calling in an emergency in the Northwest Territories requires dialing a local prefix followed by a four-digit number, 1-1-1-1 for police, 2-2-2-2 for ambulance or fire. This follows many years of close calls where, faced with an emergency, people were simply unable to recall the seven-digit number.
The GNWT has previously brushed aside the urgency of 9-1-1 by pointing to disparities in services between Yellowknife and the communities but it's difficult to fathom how anybody in the territory could begrudge the city if 9-1-1 were to launch here first. Yellowknife is the capital. It's where the bulk of the population resides and where the RCMP are headquartered and home to the territory's largest hospital. It's just common sense that 9-1-1 begins here.
It's a relatively moot point anyway because the GNWT admits 9-1-1 is achievable in virtually every corner of the territory in as little as a year.
Now apparently the argument is that it is too expensive. The $616,100 start-up cost and $266,200 a year operations expenses are too much a cost burden to bear in tough economic times, we are told. This coming from a government that is willing to spend $350 million to replace a hospital nobody was complaining about and spend hundreds of millions on roads with no immediate economic benefit, as in the highway to Tuktoyatuk and the proposed road to Whati.
People have been calling for 9-1-1 for years but the GNWT refuses to listen. After a major business in Yellowknife burned to the ground following a delayed response last week we now know it will not act until lives are lost, and it is to the GNWT's discredit and shame that that is the price it is willing to pay.
Busy time of yearDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, May 5, 2016
As the ice breaks on the Mackenzie and Liard rivers, the people of the Deh Cho - particularly those locked in their communities during breakup - can once again look forward to what the summer has to offer.
From sports to festivals and assemblies, this summer is shaping up to be one for the history books.
In Fort Liard, skyrocketing temperatures have already struck with a high of at least 31 C this past week.
In Fort Simpson, the streets are bare and the dust is already starting to kick up.
Community groups are starting to hold their annual general meetings and local governments are gearing up for summer construction.
For many of those groups, the real struggle is how to schedule their events around the many summer assemblies and festivals ongoing in the region.
Another vibrant summer has hit. So far, it looks like things will kick off in Fort Providence, which is throwing its third annual Spring Fling on May 21 - although you may be late getting there if you're driving, since the community is also looking to resurface its main road this summer.
That fair is known for drawing multitudes to the hamlet as artists, clothing vendors and others vie to sell off their winter work.
Meanwhile in Fort Liard, the summer fair season opens this weekend with a May 7 bazaar.
The month of July will be packed full, opening with the Open Sky Creative Society's renowned summer festival on July 2 and 3, and capping off with the Dene National Assembly which is coming to Fort Simpson for the first time since 2001.
Scattered throughout the summer are other anticipated gatherings: Liidlii Kue First Nation's annual gathering will happen as usual in Fort Simpson, while Dehcho First Nations anticipates having its annual assembly in Wrigley this year.
No matter where you go in the Deh Cho, there is bound to be a fair, festival or event kicking off almost every week.
That is part of the region's draw as community members embrace a vibrant love of summer.
The soccer season is also mounting, kicking off this past weekend with a much-anticipated tournament in Grande Prairie, Alta.
Soccer is the big one, as usual, in Fort Liard, as the school's team of excellent players get ready to seize more medals.
Youth and adults alike in Fort Providence, Fort Liard and Fort Simpson can look forward to their community pools opening soon as they put the winter sports gear away and get out the swim trunks.
In Fort Simpson, many are eagerly anticipating the opening of the Seven Spruce Golf Course as the turf begins to green and the ground starts to dry up from the spring melt.
In Fort Simpson, breakup happened the evening of May 2. The summer is just beginning.
The importance of informationInuvik Drum - Thursday, May 5, 2016
I spend more time than I would like to admit calling Statistics Canada and complaining to them about the dearth of information they have on the North.
As a reporter, this is a pretty typical part of the job. Whenever we try to tackle a wider story, we look for numbers that illustrate the severity or extent of whatever it is. Things like employment trends, reports on homelessness, even some health stories are largely dependent on accurate, up-to-date and accessible information gathered by governments and made public.
Unfortunately, the entry for Northern jurisdictions -- right under the full and complete entries for the provinces -- is often a note saying the data can't be divulged. This just means that not enough people answered to make the data anonymous which is a key tenet crucial to StatsCan's existence.
This is partially because there just aren't that many people here, compared to provinces in the south. It is also partly because getting people to take time from their day to answer questions about themselves and their families -- as I can personally attest -- is a hit-or-miss prospect at best, and an exercise in getting doors slammed in your face at worst.
There are good reasons to be wary of a process like the census. Historically, census-takers have been found fabricating answers based on their own opinions of the people they are supposed to be interviewing.
Language barriers are obviously a challenge and simple mistakes and oversights are reasonably common.
At the heart of it, being tallied and counted by a government is a profoundly uncomfortable thing for marginalized people.
When your immediate family can tell stories about being rounded up and forced into institutions meant to erase their identity, anyone asking you to raise your hand to be recorded by an agency of the Government of Canada can justifiably cause the hairs to rise on the back of your neck.
But these are arguably different times and the census is another way of making your voice heard.
Far more important than this reporter's frustration with what is currently available, there is strength in numbers and telling the federal government who we are and how we live -- no matter what our background and situation -- is a useful exercise in democracy. Not to mention that is used to determine per-capita funding to the territory from Ottawa.
Take the timer to fill out the long-form census, it helps everyone.
