Where's dignity and respect?Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, July 25, 2016
The GNWT Income Assistance Handbook states that as a client, you have a right to "be treated with dignity and respect."
So why then were some clients of the GNWT's Income Security Division in Tuktoyaktuk left in dire straits after their benefits were chopped?
"It's been very tough and the bills are piling up also," Clara Bates told News/North, in a July 18 story headlined "Elders starving in Tuk."
"It's the first time I've really seen people cry or say that they're starving. They feel like giving up."
That's truly awful. Times are tough in the North, which is suffering the ripple effect both the oil slump and rising costs of living.
While News/North recently reported the employment rate in the NWT has increased by more than three per cent since June of last year, if you dig deeper into the statistics, you see that a large part of that increase was in part-time jobs.
However the unemployment rate has increased 17.6 per cent year to year, according to the NWT Bureau of Statistics.
So boiled down, a few more people found work, likely a part-time job in the service industry but a lot more are unemployed.
 | Start ordering in more red tape | 
|
So enter Income Assistance.
And start ordering in more red tape.
The Income Assistance Program was set up to provide financial assistance to help Northerners meet basic needs.
But you'd better make sure you follow the department's rules to the letter. Or you're cut off. Just like that.
Clara Bates told News/North she was just one of a group of Tuktoyaktuk residents who had their income assistance payments cut off this spring.
"It's been really tough," she was quoted as saying in that July 18 edition.
"I've talked to a lot of people. I'm talking to them on a regular basis, just trying to keep their morale up and try to let them know that I am trying to do something about this."
On May 11, the GNWT issued a letter stating that Bates' support payments would be discontinued.
The letter stated that she had "not disclosed adequate information about your income and circumstances."
Bates said she was told that her income tax information hadn't been received.
"I told them that I did all my paperwork," she said.
"We did our stuff on time. The mail was pretty slow this spring."
In the meantime, Bates said she was without income support since she her last cheque in April.
Robert Anikina, Bates' brother, also had his income assistance discontinued after being told that he hadn't provided adequate information. He said that at the time, he had difficulty getting to the Income Assistance office due to a broken ankle and no telephone in his home.
Anikina said he explained his circumstances to a local GNWT client services officer, but still received a letter stating his income support was being discontinued.
Why has this editorial emphasized the Monday, July 18 edition of News/North?
Well the same day that paper came out with the front page headline. "Elders starving in Tuk," Bates and her brother's payments were reinstated without explanation.
While that might have been a coincidence - the problem solved the same day as the story ran - we're grateful the GNWT reinstated the payments.
We understand rules prevent fraud and abuse of the system. But people can't be left to starve and stew about a cruel bureaucracy.
The stated priority of government is to protect its citizens - and indeed treat us all in any situation with "dignity and respect." This wasn't done in Tuktoyaktuk.
No rush for devolution dealNunavut/News North - Monday, July 25, 2016
Both Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Cathy Towtongie are pleased the federal Liberal government appointed a new chief federal negotiator on the devolution file.
They see the eventual completion of negotiations on the transfer of responsibility for Crown lands and resources to the territorial government from the federal government as a good thing, perhaps imagining the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Essentially, a portion of resource revenue from mining companies like Agnico Eagle Mines in the Kivalliq region and the Baffinland iron ore mine at Mary River would go directly to the GN instead of Ottawa.
The formula is not supposed to change the level of transfer payments to Iqaluit from Ottawa, a vital revenue stream that represents more than 90 per cent of the money going into GN coffers.
Nunavut is the last of the three territories to go through the devolution process.
Yukon was the first on April 1, 2003.
On April 1, 2014, the Northwest Territories government became responsible for managing public land, water and resources.
The financial benefit resulted in new jobs and the GNWT keeping 50 per cent of royalties from resource development on Crown lands. Further, it agreed to sharing up to 25 per cent of its portion of resource revenue with the aboriginal governments.
We submit that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is not as sparkly as first thought for the NWT, especially considering the bureaucratic mechanisms required, such as the GNWT's formation of a Department of Lands and the bottoming out of the global resource industry.
In fact, there is much for Nunavut to learn from the process undertaken in the Northwest Territories and the results of devolution since 2014. And there is a great deal of time for our negotiations to be concluded.
Overall, devolution means little to ordinary citizens. Its importance as a priority for government is severely diminished when one considers the others issues we face.
We submit that adequate and ongoing funding for suicide prevention is more important. Addressing food insecurity is an issue of high priority. Education, training, health all top the list ahead of devolution.
Then there is the issue of jobs. Will there be enough beneficiaries under Article 23 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement to fill territorial government jobs inherited through devolution?
Devolution will happen in time but there should be no rush for it to be completed. Too many pieces of the puzzle need to fall in place for it to happen successfully.
Cabinet alone should not execute plan Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, July 22, 2016
Saving the Robertson headframe from impending destruction would make for one hell of a story, casting the key players in a heroic light.
Unless it turned out to be a terrible idea that saddled the population of the Northwest Territories, including thousands of people who can't see the tower from where they live and don't care whether it stands or falls, with liabilities and debt for generations to come.
As laudable as saving the headframe may be, it's a complex, potentially costly issue, not one that can be cooked up secretly in the backrooms of the legislative assembly.
It is great to see local business CloudWorks take the initiative and approach the government with ideas on saving the structure. There is considerable passion surrounding one of our few remaining mining icons but little in the way of a sound business plan.
It's precisely because any deal to save the headframe will involve tricky negotiations that discussions must not start off shrouded in secrecy.
The two private businesses involved (that we know of), Newmont Mining and CloudWorks, are of course under no obligation to discuss their plans at this time.
But, according to the tenets of consensus government, our elected representatives should not be learning of the goings-on of cabinet from the media.
Nor is catching regular members off-guard the best way to set the stage for a broadly-supported solution to saving the Robertson headframe, if one is to be found at all.
CloudWorks managing director Rob Warburton said he couldn't talk specifics regarding the proposal. He is waiting "until the government decides what it's doing."
As are the rest of us.
Christmas in July highlights year-round needs Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, July 22, 2016
The Christmas holiday season is months away but those in need in the city received a gift from a group of volunteers giving something more than a shiny new toy.
Renee Sanderson and others handed out care packages to the homeless in front of Northern United place that included shoes, used clothes, snacks, toiletries, backpacks, tea and sugar.
The July 16 drive started four years ago by Sanderson, has its roots in her upbringing, who said her father encouraged her and her siblings to do a good deed every day.
It's not just her and her volunteers behind the drive, people donated money to purchase items.
Businesses also gave to the cause, including Arctic Chalet Bed and Breakfast owner Lona Hegeman, who donated tea and sugar packs, with a promise to give more if needed.
The donations have caught the attention of Post Shreddies Search for Goodness, who announced Sanderson was nominated for their $10,000 prize, which could go a long way to help her long-term plan to provide more throughout the year.
Even though the attention is on Sanderson and her volunteers, this project is a good reminder there are many people out there in need.
Even a small care package can give a much-needed boost, or at least help take care of basic needs which exist all year round.
Just plain wrongDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, July 21, 2016
The world is a chaotic place filled with love, good, violence and evil, with ambiguity thrown in the mix.
While still young, just 21 years old, even I can see the world is made of grey.
Was that person really cruel to pump shoulders with you on the way to work or was he just distracted and having a bad day?
Was that person wrong to steal bread or was he trying to feed his family?
In most cases, I would say some things are too big to judge.
It's not for me to pass judgement about somebody's goodness or evilness. I'm sure I'm guilty of a few things myself.
However, after hearing about the break in at the volunteer fire department, I was transported back to my Grade 10 high school English class and remembered a long forgotten quote from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
It's a quote about why kids shouldn't shoot mockingbirds and is where the book got its name.
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy," the quote goes.
Now, I don't want to be overly dramatic and I realize quoting a book about racial relations in the 1930s United States might be a bit too far but I still think there is a lesson we can take from it.
To hurt someone, or in this case an organization, which tries to better the community and save lives is a pretty gutless thing to do and I think it makes it easier to sort out what's right and wrong by comparison.
I mean, as Pat Rowe said in the article, if the volunteer fire department had been called in for an ambulance call that morning somebody could have gotten seriously injured or worse.
Too be fair, perhaps there is more to this story. Maybe I'm too quick to judge.
I doubt it.
This seems, in my opinion, to be an act of senseless destruction.
Nowhere in our discussion did Pat Rowe say money was taken or something like that. His golf cart was smashed, not stolen and sold for parts.
I think the people of Fort Simpson should look hard at what happened that night, decided whether they have the whole story and then throw the book at whoever committed this senseless destruction.
Impressed with politician's visitInuvik Drum - Thursday, July 21, 2016
Visiting politicians are always something of a mixed blessing.
While there is typically an element of celebrity and people are often a little star struck, there is also an undeniable disappointment when they fail to fix all the things and respond intelligently, effectively, and immediately to all the problems.
Those closest to the centre -- the ones in the roundtables and meet-and-greets -- often feel like their concerns have been heard, only to be frustrated later on when solutions are not forthcoming. Even worse, they miss the announcement that may or may not address their problems a year or two later.
There is also the matter of making important announcements in communities in which those announcements will have little to no impact.
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was in Inuvik this week, in part to announce the addition of 37 communities to the Nutrition North program.
While this can certainly be partially explained by former Inuvialuit Regional Corporation CEO Nellie Cournoyea's role as interim Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board chair, the fact is that the communities affected in the NWT are Gameti, Lutsel K'e, Wekweeti, and Whati. While we have no doubt that Inuvik residents care about their fellow citizens, this announcement changes pretty much nothing in their actual lives. The announcement would perhaps better have been made in Yellowknife, loath though I am to grant the capital any bit of spotlight.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper pulled a similar stunt in two consecutive years of his grand Northern tours when he announced a Fort Smith project in Hay River in 2013 and money for a Hay River organization in Fort Smith the following year.
These are hardly scathing indictments, but they do point to a certain lack of understanding about all Northern communities not actually being the same place.
But still, for all the cynicism and general wariness of government officials, Bennett impressed us, not so much by what she said in formal moments, but in how she acted when confronted with normal people.
After once having bomb-sniffing dogs check my bag twice in the span of 20 minutes while covering the former prime minister, the fact that she spoke to any regular humans at all was already raising the bar.
She took the time to go around the arena where the Great Northern Arts Festival workshops were taking place July 17 and spoke to just about everyone, pausing and posing for selfies with participants here and there.
She was attentive, considerate, and friendly, and it clearly struck a chord in the people she met. It was genuine -- something many politicians lack.
The cost of fighting city hallYellowknifer - Wednesday, July 20, 2016
City administration wants to tack a $100 fee in order to appeal developments, claiming it has been dealing with instances of "frivolous appeals."
What are these frivolous appeals? Without going into specifics, administration wrote in a staff report to Municipal Services Committee last Monday that there have been "a few examples where a development permit has been appealed by dozens of people; however, each appeal application was a carbon copy of the previous or next application."
In an e-mailed response to a question from Yellowknifer, communications and economic development officer Stephanie Vandeputte stated the city can't comment on individual appeals.
Just going off of the available information administration used to make a case for a fee, the argument doesn't seem like it holds a lot of weight. What exactly is frivolous, for example, for a group to prepare a template appeal so community members with concerns about a development can have their voices heard?
Does this speak to the appeal's frivolousness, or to the fact those who oppose a certain development are organized?
Those who would be interested in filing an appeal are presumably people who already pay property taxes and other municipal fees, making them invested in the community. Why should a property owner have to pay to make an appeal if the city is proposing a development that would affect their lives or the value of their property?
A $100 fee would ostensibly, according to administration, show the applicant is committed to the appeal process, but going through the trouble to fill out a form and hand it in also showed commitment.
Without a strong justification for this fee - for example, if administration is just so horribly backlogged by appeals that it can't process them in a timely manner, delaying the issuance of development permits - Yellowknifer can't see why it should be put in place.
What council should ask is does the fee serve administration, or the people of Yellowknife?
In the absence of repeated abuse of the appeal process, it doesn't appear to serve the people.
Housing corp. going down right roadYellowknifer - Wednesday, July 20, 2016
There is finally a made in the North solution to the housing shortage.
The NWT Housing Corporation announced it awarded 39 contracts to build modular homes right in the NWT, with one of them being with Energy Wall and Building Products in Kam Lake that will stay in the city. The other 38 are going to Hay River, which will be distributed across the territory. This is a huge step forward for the territory in its efforts to solve the chronic housing shortage and supporting local businesses and the economy at the same time.
This also gives residents more choice over what kind of home they would want, explained Caroline Cochrane, the minister responsible for NWT Housing. Now people can choose between traditional stick-built homes, or modular ones.
The added bonus is the one home being built in the city is an original design developed by Manuel Jorge, who co-owns Energy Wall with his wife Marta Jorge. He described the homes as flex housing, which he hopes to develop into affordable, 700-square foot houses running around $100,000 not adding the land. The target market for these homes are single people, young families and retirees.
With so many young families and single people moving to the city for work, this will go a long way to help reverse the shrinking population by giving people a chance to own property rather than rent apartments or rooms in other people's homes.
The best part is this is a more efficient means for the GNWT to source housing options from inside its borders rather than ship prefab homes from down south.
Enjoying culture and communityEditorial Comment by Cody Punter
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Rankin Inlet may not be know as the hottest place in Canada but you sure could have fooled anyone who showed up for the Nunavut Day celebrations on July 9.
With no clouds in the sky and the sun beating down on crowds all day long temperatures were getting up around 30 C. Even by southern standards it was a scorcher. But that didn't stop people from coming in droves to celebrate Nunavut's 17th birthday, with organizers saying it was the largest turnout they'd ever seen.
Of course the rich culture and traditions of the Inuit are much older than Canada's newest territory and it was great to see so many people sporting traditional clothing to honour those roots.
The traditional clothing competition showed a beautiful array of colour, beadwork and design, and having Ottawa's Twin Flames judge the competition made for a touching moment, especially when the children's awards were being handed out.
Even those that weren't competing were getting involved with no shortage of kamiks and Nunavut toques on display.
It was also great to see so much local talent out to perform. Unfortunately I was watching the tea-boiling competition when Ashley Aupaluktuq-Burton and Christine Tootoo were wowing the crowd with their throatsinging.
When I apologized to Ashley for missing their set later that day, she said she was just glad to hear that people were watching the elders.
Mary Kapuk was especially impressive to watch as she stoked the fire beneath her large kettle, stopping every one in a while to blow on it gently to make the flames rise.
Although it was a competition, everyone sat around afterward sipping tea in the sun away from hustle and bustle of the crowds.
The music may not have been everyone's cup of tea but there were lots of people enthralled by the Twin Flames, who played for close to two hours under the unrelenting sun.
It seemed like many of the elders were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the lead singer, who is originally from Nunavik, was fluent in Inuktitut. Although he needed some help with the Kivalliq dialect, people were humming along the words and clapping their hands during the songs.
And of course who could forget Don Burnstick. The Winnipeg-based comedian was highly anticipated before he took the stage and boy did he ever deliver.
Nothing was off-limits as he rattled off joke after joke about everything from Justin Trudeau to the difference between a white person and an Inuit person passing gas.
Although some jokes were a little on the racy side considering there were children around, Burnstick has never said a swear word while performing and he held to that promise for Nunavut Day.
The loudest response from the crowd, after his shoutout to Jordin Tootoo, came when he dropped a fairly long joke explaining the 11 ways an Inuit woman laughs.
The crowd was in stitches and some in tears. But amidst all the laugher Burnstick also tried to bring forth a serious message. Pointing to some of the tragedies that First Nations across Canada are experiencing he concluded his set by saying there is a need to teach young people to value their life and their culture.
"It's these types of events that strengthen the identity of these young people," he said, referring to Nunavut Day.
Based on the way the community came together to celebrate on Nunavut Day it seems like Rankin is on the right track.
