Farming needn't be a tough row to hoeNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, October 24, 2016
The GNWT's mandate document, tabled last March, mentions the term agriculture six times.
Several of those mentions over 47 pages are contained in the same repeated phrase, "We will develop and implement an Agriculture Strategy to increase domestic food production, improve distribution networks for NWT-produced foods, and to increase producer and supplier opportunities."
Nice words. But what we've had are endless panel discussions, research papers, public consultations, Well you get the picture.
As long as the black gold was flowing, gas was being piped out and exploration was in full gear, agriculture was left to wilt on the vine. Then the oil dollar bottomed out, the industry rocked to its core. The NWT's economy was then saved by shiny baubles ripped from the rocks in massive diamond mines. That sparkling distraction left farming in the shadows again.
With 2017 on the horizon, the NWT's relatively bright picture has a few major clouds in the distance. The diamond industry, as it sits right now, does have a shelf life. Imperial Oil wants to sell its assets at Norman Wells, where it has been extracting fossil fuels for decades.
There is the real threat of a burdensome carbon tax coming fast toward the territory from Ottawa.
The wise thing for the GNWT to do now is to try chewing gum and walking at the same time. While it continues to coddle big industry, it has to finally give some real attention to agriculture. Not just lip service. Not a slowly developed and glacially rolled out strategy.
And money is needed to seed new and existing groups who are pioneers in modern Northern agriculture. There are many out there at this time, across the territory, working in small greenhouses and in found spaces utilizing the same urban farming practices as found in big cities down south.
In Hay River, the former site of the Northern Pork facility has been turned into the Northern Farm Training Institute. Since it is harvest time, the Northern Farm Training Institute - better known as NFTI - is giving thanks for a successful second year at its farm campus, basically its first in operation.
Kim Rapati, NFTI operations manager, told News/North its important for advocates of farming to crush the notion that farming can't be done across the NWT.
It just needs to be well-planned, taking advantage of the long sunny days in summer for crops and also extending the growing season by using greenhouses heated with sustainable energy such as biomass, solar or electricity.
Students at "Nifty" this year came from Hay River, the Tlicho, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence, Fort Smith, Yellowknife and even northern Manitoba.
As the GNWT continues to plod along with its agriculture strategy it is supporting growth in the sector through a variety of projects and funding initiatives. This includes an agriculture conference Oct. 25 to 27 in Yellowknife.
Industry, Tourism and Investment agriculture mentor Lone Sorensen tells News/North there has been an "overwhelming positive response" to the conference.
"We now have exceeded the 60 people we were expecting, nearing 80 registrants from all North Slave communities, as well as all Sahtu communities," Sorensen said.
While we applaud the support shown to the farming sector to date by the GNWT, a comprehensive strategy needs to be produced sooner than later to provide firm guidelines for people wanting to engage in this most respected and vital endeavor.
Junk here, potential prize down southNunavut/News North - Monday, October 24, 2016
Pretty much every dump in Nunavut is full of rusting vehicles, old appliances and computers, pop cans, and many other items that southern municipalities would otherwise redirect to specialized recycling facilities.
Nunavut's proposed end-of-life vehicle disposal fee is one step toward reducing the growing garbage piles in our territory. If approved, people shipping their vehicles here will pay $1,080 to cover the cost of barging them down south once their vehicles' driving days are done and supposedly, taken to a waste contractor for recycling.
The $1,080 fee is a lot of money to most people, which is why the government is proposing that vehicle owners should be allowed to pay in five annual instalments upon registering their purchase with the motor vehicles licensing office.
To be clear, there is ample evidence that the fee is woefully inadequate if the objective is to properly recycle vehicles once they have been sent down south to junkyard heaven.
Summerhill Impact, a non-profit group from Toronto that espouses environmentally-friendly energy programs, was forced to abandon its Tundra Take-back pilot project to remove cars from Nunavut after being unable to come up with enough money to do it. The group turned to crowdfunding in 2014, saying it needed $1,250 per vehicle for decontamination and $4,000 for recycling, but failed to draw enough interest to keep the project afloat.
Recycling issues aside, the proposed fee doesn't address the approximately 10,000 vehicles already on Nunavut roads or those filling the dumps.
At the very least, the fee should get new vehicles out of the territory once they have reached the end of their useful lives.
The $200 vehicle disposal fee currently being charged by the City of Iqaluit does nothing to accomplish that. In fact, it is really just a tax charged for the pleasure of being allowed to bring one's old vehicle to the dump and let it moulder there in perpetuity.
Alas, even that small sum appears to be too much of a barrier for some people, who would rather let their vehicles become eyesores in their yards than out of sight, out of mind at the landfill.
There are bylaws in place meant to avoid such unsightliness - in Iqaluit, at least - but they are rarely enforced.
The government says the $1,080 fee will be handed to the communities after it has been collected, leaving them in charge of disposing vehicles. The onus then will be on hamlet councils to preserve the proceeds of the fee for the purpose of disposing vehicles, as tempting as it may be to use the money for more pressing needs. Otherwise, it will amount to little more than a tax grab without solving the problem of rusting vehicles polluting the land.
If properly applied, the fee should stem the tide. It may not be enough to cover the cost of fully recycling vehicles but if it gets them on to a barge, it will be a far greater improvement over the current situation.
Better to have Nunavut vehicles in a junkyard outside Montreal, close to recycling facilities and an infinitely higher demand for spare parts, than sitting on the tundra here where there is absolutely no chance they can be put to good use.
French school growth not a threat for NWT Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, October 21, 2016
There is no doubt Ecole Allain St-Cyr should be equipped with a modern gymnasium appropriate to its size.
It would be sour grapes for the territorial government to build a sub-standard facility for the French school board after having been ordered to construct one by the NWT Court of Appeal in 2015.
First rate facilities at Ecole Allain St-Cyr could only help expand enrolment at the school.
Not only is it incumbent on the GNWT to do good by the French school board after being ordered by the courts to do so, it is also in the territory's best interest to invest in the French school board and enable it to grow.
In a territory where the government struggles to attract new residents, the government should not overlook the opportunity to strengthen Yellowknife's francophone community and promote it as the strong selling point that it is.
There is a further, cost-free, step the GNWT could take to boost French education. It could -- and should -- lift what French school board superintendent Yvonne Careen pointed out last week is a major hurdle that prevents growth.
The territorial government, despite a partial victory in the court of appeal that allowed it to retain control over admissions criteria for French schools, has eased restrictions in recent months. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment now allows immigrant non-rights holders to attend, whether they speak French or neither official language, and children with francophone roots whose parents have lost the ability to speak French.
But there is a catch. These categories of students can only attend if the school is at less than 85 per cent capacity. Ecole Allain St. Cyr, which has a capacity of 160 students, is almost there.
Outside of Quebec, most jurisdictions are far less intrusive. Ontario, for example, leaves decisions on who should be admitted to French schools in the province to the school boards. A similar approach should be taken in the Northwest Territories.
The education department may worry that relaxing the rules may create more demand while draining enrolment at non-French schools. But increased enrolment doesn't necessarily mean the GNWT has to build new schools. It may just have to make some of the existing ones more French. The French school board resisted in 2013 when the GNWT floated the idea of handing over a school belonging to Yellowknife Education District No. 1 but economic realities may force a compromise should the issue arise again.
In any event, competition is never a bad thing, especially if it means making the NWT's education system more attractive to parents who want to raise their children in French. In a jurisdiction struggling to maintain all-important population numbers that dictate the size of its federal grant from Ottawa, it doesn't matter what language they speak.
Having already eased restrictions last summer, Education Minister Alfred Moses appears to have a less hostile view of French education than his predecessors or the bureaucracy that works for him. He would serve the territory well by taking it even further.
Essential for councillors to listen to constituentsDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 20, 2016
The amount of feedback village councillors received on a proposed agriculture bylaw during a public hearing on Oct. 17 was, to say the least, unusual to see.
Many of council's important decisions, although undertaken during public meetings, may fly under the radar or never get a chance to be questioned at all by community members.
Often, council meetings come and go with no one else in the room aside from the councillors and village staff themselves, and the newspaper.
Even public hearings do not usually attract the kind of crowd this one did.
The discussion that ensued was poignant, passionate and for the most part entirely reasonable.
It also gave the village a chance to re-assure voters their voices were, indeed, being heard and their concerns would be taken into consideration instead of falling by the wayside.
One of the most important comments that came forward from the public hearing was from Sen. Nick Sibbeston, who implored councillors to consider the very unique situation of the North, the people the bylaw would affect and whether or not it was truly necessary to restrict people at their homes.
The senator provided an important reminder that over-regulation can be as bad as under-regulation.
Food sustainability was a second important point brought forward.
The idea that a few chickens can offset some of the high food prices in the North may not be an intuitive one - and that's why it was important to have this discussion.
The bylaw may be going to third reading but it isn't passed yet.
Councillors have shown they are willing to listen and bring the community into decisions that impact what they can do on their own land.
Anyone who couldn't make the meeting, or who did not have the opportunity to share all their views, can still write letters, contact individual councillors and even apply to sit down with council and deliver a presentation on how the proposed bylaw would impact them.
That's the beauty of a democracy.
Mayor Darlene Sibbeston said it best: councillors do not always get it right. For many of the councillors, this is their first time in public office, and even a year in they are indeed still learning.
By acknowledging that they are not perfect, and indicating a willingness to listen, this council has at least shown they're not willing to run roughshod over residents.
The true test, of course, will come when they decide whether to pass the bylaw, scrap it or send it back to a committee.
Councillors have shown residents they are willing to listen. Now they must show them that they were listening with open minds and do indeed have the best wishes of the community at heart.
Charity and economy go hand in handInuvik Drum - Thursday, October 20, 2016
Reading through these pages in recent weeks, one finds there are two clear themes in Inuvik: extreme levels of generosity and high levels of need.
The food bank put out the word it was struggling and Northmart talent winners donated to it.
A dormant theatre group put up a five-figure wad of cash it had in the bank for school drama equipment.
Playground equipment was costly, so Inuvik companies fronted the bill and the labour to install it.
Both the warming centre and homeless shelter praise the goodwill of the community, but always need more.
It's fitting that a group of people have banded together to begin 100 People Who Care Inuvik, an organization that aims to provide funding to charitable causes. That seems like the Inuvik thing to do.
I doubt they will have difficulty finding worthy recipients of that funding, and even the organizations not chosen at the group's quarterly meetings will have their profile raised and needs aired.
But another theme that has emerged is the impact Inuvik's current economy is having on some of these charitable groups, despite the community's recession-proof generosity.
It is a good reminder of the importance of having a strong economic foundation. Without that wealth, we are less able to give.
So the town is right to pursue long-term, sustainable industries, such as expanding its emphasis on tourism.
Inuvik's community spirit is fantastic, but it too needs to be fed and supported. You can have all the spirit in the world, but at least materially, if you have nothing yourself you have nothing to give.
Pursuing a stronger economy is pursuing greater ability to give and support. Profit is not the antithesis of charity, but its foundation.
As much as these charitable organizations need our support, so does the town's economy.
More than just a bedYellowknifer - Wednesday, October 19, 2016
There truly is nothing better at the end of a long day than having one's own space to decompress and a warm bed to rest in.
This is why $600,000 to fund 15 new private units at the Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army's Bailey House transitional home for men is such a godsend.
While bricks and mortar are not going to alleviate homelessness by themselves, beds in private rooms will offer vulnerable people another step in the path to self-sufficiency.
At the start of this path are the emergency beds at the Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army. While these beds don't offer privacy - they are literally just a place to sleep - the Salvation Army does offer programming such as life-skills courses and anger management and literacy programs in conjunction with these beds. The Centre for Northern Families offers daycare and healthy baby and toddler programming.
The new private rooms offer people with a bit more self-sufficiency with not only a bed to sleep in but some privacy at the end of the day. It doesn't take a big of a stretch to imagine how much of a difference a private room could make in somebody's life.
Hopefully those who use these rooms will also take advantage of the programming.
This could lead to even more self-sufficiency, perhaps by graduating to Housing First, the new Yellowknife initiative that gives homeless people an apartment of their own in conjunction with access to health and social programming.
The hope is that people who use Housing First will get the means to become completely self-sufficient. This marks the end of the path.
It's pretty easy to see how health services and varying levels of domestic independence can help pull people from abject homelessness to Housing First and beyond.
The more our municipal, territorial and federal governments invest in quality programming to go along with this wonderful new infrastructure, the better chance society has of making that path easier to navigate.
So hopefully the next bundle of funding Yellowknife gets to fight homelessness will go toward robust programs and services to go right alongside these nice new beds.
Small business keeps the wheels turningYellowknifer - Wednesday, October 19, 2016
It's not easy running a business in Yellowknife but it sure makes life easier for everybody else.
For all the temptation to turn to online shopping or stocking up when travelling down south, most Yellowknifers would admit it would be impossible to get by if the only options they had required them to look south.
And it's not just shopping needs that must be considered but the multitude of other services Yellowknifers rely on: plumbing, dry-cleaning, computer technicians, bicycle repair and on and on.
This may be a government and mining support town but to support all of that are numerous smaller businesses. They literally keep the slats greased and the wheels turning.
Small businesses are an integral part of the civic web that provide taxes to build our schools, money for local charities, sponsorships for sports events at our arenas and employment for hundreds of residents.
Many people who run businesses in Yellowknife have deep roots, firmly planted despite all the challenges of operating in a Northern city - the high cost of transportation and fuel, staff turnover, and of course, competition with online services and southern retailers.
The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce boasts 345 members, most of which are small businesses. What better way to celebrate Small Business Week by giving them
our business.
Big voices, silent moneyEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 19, 2016
It has always been a struggle for me to understand the mindset behind the use of celebrities to further agendas.
Depending on what side of the coin you're on for any given issue, it just seems logical you're going to hiss at the celebrity going against your beliefs, or gush over the one supporting your opinion.
And it never ceases to amaze me how people can't separate the person and their art from their political views.
I am a huge Beatles and Paul McCartney fan.
So, when it comes to bashing the use of sealskin and not getting the difference between subsistence and commercial hunting, there are times I wish he wouldn't say anything at all on the matter.
But that doesn't turn me against the incredible six-decades worth of music the man is responsible for.
A bigger problem -- when it comes to the use of a celebrity, leader or peoples representative to add credibility to a stance on an issue -- is all too often we don't see what happens behind the scenes until way after the fact, if at all.
Our own Canadian music icon, Neil Percival Young, is one of the most respected people in the industry.
And, much like his fellow countryman Bruce Cockburn, Percival has never been afraid of voicing his opinion on topical issues.
From the song (Southern Man) that prompted Lynyrd Skynyrd to pen Sweet Home Alabama in response, to the political scorching that is Keep on Rockin' in the Free World, to his battle against the oilsands, Young always makes an impact when he decides to rage against the machine.
But even Neil Young can play a little dirty pool when it comes to pushing his own agenda.
And, as so often is the case, when there's money quietly (some would say sneakily) changing hands in the background, the whole issue is suddenly enveloped by a foul odour.
Young was part of that game about two years ago when, in a tirade against the oilsands during a Toronto appearance, he was joined on stage by Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
Of course, having Adam -- a genuine First Nations chief who actually lives next to the oilsands -- next to Young pushed the authenticity/credibility factor off the charts for the event.
What wasn't known, however -- until the American left wing lobby group the Tides Foundation sent its 138-page filing to the U.S.A.'s Internal Revenue Service -- was the Tides Foundation had deposited $55,000 into the account of 8500450 Alberta Ltd.
That company was owned by another company, Acden Group Ltd., of which Adam and a few other band notables were directors and shareholders.
A deeper look into the matter soon uncovered the Tides Foundation had paid out well over $1 million to Canadian anti-oilsands activists in 25 payments over one year.
So, was Chief Adam on that stage with Young because of his opposition to the oilsands, or did he have 55,000 other reasons to be there?
Food for thought, with a number of issues gaining in importance and prominence here in the North.
Everyone has an opinion, whether informed or not, but some resonate a lot louder with people than others.
The thing is, in these modern times, sometimes you still have to pull back the curtain to see the wizard.
