Planting the seeds of Northern agricultureNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, May 30, 2016
Interesting placement of headlines in last week's News/North.
On Cece Hodgson-McCauley's column (page 9) the headline reads: "We don't need any greenhouses in NWT!" The headline on page 11 read: "Commercial greenhouses in the works."
Hodgson-McCauley was lamenting that various levels of bureaucracy and institutions are throwing money at community gardens.
In the good old days, people -- missionaries, RCMP, traders and regular folks -- cultivated their own Northern gardens without a grain of funding from anyone, she insists. They got their hands dirty, bent their back to the earth and relied on traditional storage technology in the shape of - as Hodgson-McCauley describes - a root cellar under the bedroom floor to keep the goodness for winter.
The main difference between 'the old days' and now is that people have a choice. They can labour spring, summer and fall to grow their own vegetables or they can go to the Co-op or Northern store and buy them.
With most people, when first given that choice, convenience wins out.
Enjoying the fruits of progress and modern transportation, the cultivating skills Hodgson-McCauley recalls have largely been lost.
Now there are little sprouts of garden culture coming up again as people make the decision to trade some sweat for good quality produce for their families.
Bringing vegetables from California, Mexico, points in between and beyond to tables in Fort Good Hope and Inuvik requires multiple forms of transportation over thousands of kilometres of road, sea and air, a feat only made possible by various preserving chemicals applied to the distant crops.
Even then, despite the grocers' best effort, the produce suffers and tastes less like the real thing, never mind diminished in vitamin benefits to human health.
With heightened consumer consciousness, people are altering their food choices and governments are listening.
In 2014, the federal government funded the Northern Farm Training institute for two years at $1 million a year.
The territorial government has contributed more than $200,000 over the past couple of years, all of this to help dozens of Northerners from 28 communities regain the skills needed to rejuvenate the culture of agriculture.
According to Opportunities North, soon coming out in June, the Institute employed five full-time and 15 part-time staff in 2015 and graduated 58 students, double the year before. And let's not forget the 80 animals on site - cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.
Community gardens have sprung up across the NWT, from Lutsel K'e to Gameti to oil rich Norman Wells which has proven itself to be good potato growing land.
Hodgson-McCauley is right that all the money in the world can't replace a hoe and a shovel in a determined pair of hands.
But the funding can pay to educate people about the benefits to their family of growing their own food, not to mention the planet, and the most efficient way to do it.
Better yet, any surplus could be sold to local stores if the consistency and quality is there, generating an income comparable to the heydays of trapping.
Living off the land is a long and proud tradition in the North. Time for a comeback.
Hospitality industry in the driver's seatNunavut/News North - Monday, May 30, 2016
Adding a destination marketing fee to the hotel room rate has the potential to make a real difference in attracting visitors and ensuring they have an experience worthy of telling their friends and relatives.
The funding method the city is considering could very well trigger some real think-outside-the-box initiatives. That's because the money won't go into general revenue but will instead be used to create a marketing plan developed in concert with the hoteliers and others in the hospitality industry.
We've seen situations in which organizations come to the table with their own money and discover various levels of government will match or increase their funding commitments.
An integral part of the plan must be communication -- by hotel staff to visitors so there is an understanding of where the money will go, and by hospitality industry players to tourism operators so that it is used for specific new initiatives that benefit the capital city and surrounding area outside of the tourism industry's overall marketing campaign. Work will continue to attract conferences, conventions and corporate retreats.
But who better to decide where more attention is needed than the private sector, those businesses who derive their livelihood from money spent by visitors either on vacation, coming to visit friends or relatives, business travellers who are interested in enhancing their experience or adventurers passing through on their way to smaller communities.
Currently, it is the people who get off an airplane at the Iqaluit airport who should be the target of any specific marketing campaign. That means hotel, restaurant and tourism business operators have to know their customers and sell them something that they want. This is not as easy as some would think.
People will pay money if there are options for interaction, especially if the end result is a unique and enjoyable experience. Weather, infrastructure and transportation are all challenges to success.
The skills required to interact with tourists don't come naturally for many people. Just like any other craft or trade, it requires training, knowledge and desire. What is needed is a warm welcome from a person familiar with Iqaluit's vibrant and diverse offerings, the territory's rich history, captivating scenery, strong traditions and inspiring culture and arts.
The future looks bright with a recently completed hotel renovation, a new airport under construction and approvals pending for a deep water port.
Putting the pieces in place now will allow the tourism industry to perfect its pitch for many profitable years ahead.
Tap it if it's safe Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 27, 2016
If it it's safe, drink it. Those are the words of wisdom imparted by Coun. Niels Konge ahead of a debate on whether the city should scrap plans for the expensive replacement of its aging eight kilometre pipeline to the Yellowknife River or simply draw water from Yellowknife Bay where the city's new state-of-the-art water treatment plant is located.
Fears of arsenic contamination in the city's water supply have long been ingrained into the collective psyche of Yellowknifers who are all well-aware of Giant Mine's legacy and the 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide still buried beneath it.
As Baker Creek, which continues to show elevated arsenic levels, flows through the Giant Mine site and into Great Slave Lake, the idea of drawing water from the lake has always been a non-starter in any conversation even though arsenic levels in Yellowknife Bay itself are far below the maximum threshold for what is considered to be unsafe and a much cheaper arsenic filtration system would eliminate virtually any trace of the toxic compound.
The city should consider itself blessed to be having this debate when drinking water for cities such as Toronto and Chicago must be thoroughly scrubbed of pollutants, including sewage and industrial effluents, from the Great Lakes.
Konge recently suggested that if water from the bay is safe to drink then the city could save millions by sinking the replacement project and drawing water closer to home. Replacing the submarine line running along the bottom of Yellowknife Bay - scheduled for 2020 - to the river intake is expected to cost $20 million. Installing an arsenic filtration system at the water treatment plant would cost around $5 million.
As it stands, the city already draws water from Yellowknife Bay during periodic maintenance and when the water treatment plant was being commissioned last summer. Notwithstanding elevated arsenic levels that occurred in 2011 when a tailings pond overflowed into Baker Creek, testing in 2014 found arsenic levels at 1.9 parts per billion. Health Canada's arsenic threshold is much higher at 10 parts per billion.
If drawing water from Yellowknife Bay is to be considered, residents will need to be assured that future flooding at Baker Creek will not lead to elevated arsenic levels and a filtration system at the treatment plant would be up to task.
It should be noted that drawing water from the bay would require a new water licence, which would ultimately set an extremely high threshold for public and environmental safety.
If the city cannot meet this threshold it should stick to the current plan. However, blindly pursuing a $20 million pipeline replacement out of fear and burdening taxpayers with further debt, increasingly seems like an irrational proposition.
With a city debate scheduled for June 13, council should enter discussions with a thirst for facts and not shut off the taps to reason.
9-1-1 lawsuit a missed opportunity Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, May 27, 2016
The recent lawsuit victory by James Anderson and his son Samuel Anderson over Bell Mobility and its fees for non-existent 9-1-1 phone service in the North could have had a much happier ending for all.
After nine years of legal wrangling, the class action lawsuit has been finally settled in the Andersons' favour after Bell exhausted all legal avenues to have the case quashed.
Thousands of Northerners throughout the NWT, Nunavut and parts of the Yukon were charged a monthly 75 cent 9-1-1 fee even though Bell could not provide the service. These customers can now expect to collect a tiny portion of the $1,016,336.57 agreed upon in the settlement.
The Andersons won a moral victory in their fight to have Northerners reimbursed but alas, the NWT remains no closer to establishing an actual 9-1-1 service.
The Andersons' lawyer said they were open to a settlement that establishes 9-1-1 in the territory but Bell Mobility turned it down and only the company's lawyers could speak to why.
By refusing contrition and only accepting a grudging truce forced upon it by the courts, Bell missed a golden opportunity to rehabilitate a corporate image greatly damaged by its lengthy crusade to overturn the verdict of a righteous cause.
It could have offered to contribute the settlement money toward setting up 9-1-1, which the territorial government reported last year would cost only $616,000 to launch it.
Instead, Bell will issue what likely will amount to payments in the single digits to individual customers who may not even bother to cash the cheques. A waste all around.
Put wellness first for communitiesDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, May 26, 2016
Putting a focus on wellness in the Deh Cho could lead to incredibly positive results.
Healthy minds and bodies contribute to a healthy region, and the importance of mental health has increasingly been at the forefront of the conversation on healthcare access in the Northwest Territories.
One of the constraints to addressing mental health issues is finding solutions for smaller communities, where resources are more scarce and mental health care professionals are not easily accessed.
In picturesque Nahanni Butte, band leaders are now taking a serious look at the prospect of building a wellness camp where youth and people from all over the region can come to spend time near the mountains, secluded in nature.
This camp will be brought forward by youth, to youth, during the upcoming Dehcho Assembly in June, where it may be discussed in more detail.
Not only would it put a focus on mental and spiritual well-being, it could also be open to people from Trout Lake, Fort Liard and other communities and bands in the Deh Cho.
The details of this camp, including scope and location, are still being hashed out. In particular, the band needs funding if it hopes to succeed.
The issue of health care -- physical and mental -- in small communities is no secret. The smaller and more remote the community, the greater impact isolation can have on the well-being of youth in particular, although anyone can be affected.
Potential funding partners such as Canadian Zinc, the territorial and federal governments should be leaping at the chance to be brought on board. They should be throwing funding at the feet of the band and promising to do whatever they can to make these camps a reality.
At this point, it is only common sense that such a camp could have untold benefits for Nahanni Butte as well as the people of the North.
The true benefits of wellness camps -- particularly in getting people back on the land -- have been established in overwhelming anecdotal evidence. There is a reason why school-aged children are often brought into the bush for culture camps, and are encouraged to learn from their elders and take part in traditional activities.
Many people view going out on the land as not just a way of connecting with their culture but as a way to re-establish their spiritual balance.
The impacts of that can be life-saving.
More fun under the endless sunInuvik Drum - Thursday, May 26, 2016
Something happens in the summer for community newspapers. Things slow down, lots of people leave on holidays, and politics grinds to a halt. One of the things that keeps newspapers like the Drum filled each week are children's sports.
While Inuvik has a lot of programs and activities and resources available during the summer, including a stellar day-camp and Green Shack program, there is nothing in the way of organized sports.
This seems to be somewhat of a gaping hole in what is otherwise a seriously packed athletic calendar.
There are undoubtedly a number of factors that make this the case. When people leave on month-long vacations in the summer, they usually take their children with them, making it difficult to field a team, let alone two that could ostensibly play each other.
Those same people are likely the ones who would do a lot of the coaching for this hypothetical organized league, as well as undertake planning and attending meetings.
The summertime inaccessibility of the delta makes welcoming visiting teams for tournaments harder than usual, and the lack of facilities in town -- most notably a soccer field -- hamper attempts at sports development.
That being said, there are indeed people who remain in town. Most importantly, there are children who remain in town for the summer months, most of whom could seriously benefit from organized sports when school and the structure it provides is not an option.
The thing is, having something, say a soccer league, might be a draw for people to stick around.
All school-year long, people talk about the importance of sports for keeping people active, for building community spirit, and maintaining culture. There are a number of extremely popular leagues for adults, including a slo-pitch association that sends a team to territorials regularly.
So clearly, people see the value of organized sports. It's just not translating into something a large number of children can take part in.
It's easy to say that there should be a soccer league, or equivalent, in town, and something else to make it happen. In a community already plagued with volunteer fatigue, asking people -- generally parents -- to step up and take on more is not likely to work. There is also an issue with getting children to commit to showing up, and then following through on attendance when there is no requirement for them to attend.
That being said, most places have summer sports and there is no question there is excellent weather during the summer in Inuvik.
If it can be done, the community would certainly benefit from making the most of the endless hours of daylight.
Old Town parking essential Yellowknifer - Wednesday, May 25, 2016
City council is making a mistake in its rush to overturn the Old Town parking plan developed by its own city staff to deal with the runaway success of the Woodyard Brewhouse and Eatery.
The idea centred on creating 13 angled parking spots across the street from the brew pub and eliminating street-side parking along Franklin Avenue to the boat launch at the intersection with Wylie Road.
The proposal was initially approved unanimously by council as a summer paving project, even though councillors apparently weren't aware of the details. When work notices went up around Old Town, residents complained and council jumped.
A public municipal services committee meeting was held that ultimately led to the elimination of the angled parking plan with an emphasis on directing traffic to the city-owned lot on the corner of Franklin and School Draw Avenue, which patrons and shoppers will now share with vehicles attached to boat trailers.
Approximately 20 parking spots will now be lost along Franklin to be replaced by multi-use pathways.
In a matter of days the brew pub and other area businesses went from having confused parking to no street-side parking at all.
The Woodyard has helped reinvigorate Old Town and given more reasons to venture that way. It is undoubtedly a boon to shops and artisans in the neighbourhood who rely on tourism traffic by anchoring these tourists to the location with good food and drink while they shop.
Yes, the pub's popularity has caused some parking concerns but the solution is not to remove street-side parking and tell customers to park two blocks away.
The city will harm Old Town businesses with this plan -- especially during the cold and difficult winter months -- essentially punishing the pub for its success.
The city had the right idea with its plan to improve street-side parking at the brew pub, something which would have benefited both the pub and all businesses in the area.
Where the city fell down was in trying to execute the plan with little effective public consultation.
The city gave the appearance of proceeding aloof to the wishes or concerns of local businesses and residents, while our elected council looked as if it were asleep at the wheel, only aware of the details of significant changes they had authorized after residents complained about those very proposed changes.
A roadwork project with such a substantial impact to Old Town is not something that should have proceeded as far as it did without a full and thorough airing of the city's plans.
A public that does not feel part of the process is bound to react negatively to major changes announced as a kind of fait accompli.
On the other hand, residents should expect people are going to want to visit Old Town and they need places to park. There is busload after busload arriving every day. For the most part, they stick to Franklin and McDonald Drive and leave the side streets to the residents.
Improved street-side parking was a good idea but burying it in the budget as if it were nothing more than laying a new strip of asphalt is not the way to introduce neighbourhood-altering plans.
This all could have been avoided had the city gone to council first with a detailed plan and council was paying attention to what they were approving.
Council should admit it made a mistake in both initially approving the plan and its knee-jerk reaction to the complaints. Third time is the charm is the old saying. Council should revisit its parking decision - again.
Trudeau accident wasn't violence against womenEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, May 25, 2016
A column written by Toronto-based Gabrielle Gallant, which criticizes the reaction by some to the so-called "elbowgate" incident in the House of Commons last week, should be mandatory reading for everyone dumb enough to think Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed a gender-based act of violence.
And to those who went so far as to compare what happened with our prime minister to the actions of an ex-CBC radio personality, please!
Reading some of these claims and comparisons this past week reaffirmed my evergrowing belief that the world has, indeed, gone mad.
Mr. Trudeau was simply trying to help the Conservative Whip reach his seat, and had no idea NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brousseau was behind him when his elbow accidentally made contact with her.
Video of the fiasco in the House of Commons is rampant on the Internet and completely backs up, as Gallant writes in her column, that our prime minister's elbowing of Brousseau was undeniably unintentional.
Maybe, just maybe, the words coming from an intelligent, articulate and successful woman will help sway these people to realize while Prime Minister Trudeau's behaviour in getting himself involved in the incident to begin with was unacceptable, he in no way, shape or form meant to make contact with the female MP, but I doubt it.
As well written and insightful as Gallant's column is, those penning pieces that claim Trudeau's actions were intentional and an example of gender based violence, including the NDP party itself, are working agendas and are not interested in anything as trivial as facts, or truth for that matter.
NDP MP Brigitte Sancoucy's remarks comparing the Trudeau incident to "abusive husbands" whose wives had taken shelter at a centre for battered women transcends the ridiculous to being downright outrageous.
Gallant is bang on when she writes, "To compare this incident to violence against women is a slap in the face to any woman who has actually been assaulted."
It also perfectly illustrates how men are easy targets these days for any female with the desire to spew such venomous drivel.
And, most importantly, it casts a dark cloud over those people, male and female, who work tirelessly to help curb male aggression toward the fairer sex (If I can even use that term these days. Who knows?).
I can only imagine what women who have suffered real violence must think and feel while reading such hyperbole.
It must hurt very, very deeply to have the horror they experienced, and the trauma they're still trying to come to grips with, trivialized in such a way, especially coming from educated women who should know better.
With domestic violence being such a pressing issue in many parts of Nunavut, I shudder to think of the damage such statements are capable of creating among those men (and I use the term lightly) who are quick with their hands but slow with their ability to control their emotions and distinguish, in a meaningful way, the difference between right and wrong.
To give them fodder for diminishing the reality of their actions is nothing short of reprehensible.
I share Gallant's disgust!!
