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Pull the plug on the PUB
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, November 2, 2016

No matter who you believe in the war of words between Northland Utilities on one side, Energy Minister Louis Sebert and Northwest Territories Power Corporation on the other, most people would agree the Public Utilities Board is an incomprehensible beast.

In theory, the PUB's role is to make sure Northerners do not pay more for their power than they should. NTPC and Northland Utilities submit mountains of detailed paper on power costs, telling the PUB why they need to charge what they charge. The PUB then makes a decision to either accept or reject the applications.

Calculating costs and revenue is something all businesses undertake as a budgeting process and the differences between the two shows up as either profit or loss.

Sounds useful and straightforward. Yet when a regular person not involved in the PUB applications looks at the figures, it is anything but straightforward.

In fact, everyone, from the minister to the CEOs of both NTPC and Northland admits you have to understand the calculations behind the figures to know what the figures mean.

And to understand those calculations, you have to have a very high degree of experience in the power industry, specifically the regulatory end to be able to speak with any competence.

That means you need very expensive consultants and lawyers who can only be found down south to explain the figures to the PUB who hires the same kinds of people to scrutinize the same figures.

That why these applications cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2009, Yellowknifer uncovered six-figure fees for lawyers hired to act as interveners in rate applications from power corp. and Northland (see fact file above).

Of course, lawyers and officials both spending and getting all this money insist they are saving taxpayers millions by their due diligence. This is where reality has left the room. These costs are added to our power bills and the whole process undermines public confidence.

In fact, the rate applications are fictional with projections and calculations based on past bad weather, varying water levels, maintenance problems and presumably human error, not to mention the price of oil on global markets.

These same factors will affect the rates set and if the rates don't cover costs, then "riders" adjusting rates to fit the real figures are put on with more experts involved.

It's important to remember, NTPC is owned by the GNWT. The PUB chairman and board is appointed by the GNWT and the GNWT can issue directives to the PUB telling it what to do.

And if the rates get out of control due to unforeseen circumstances, such as low water, the GNWT pumps cash in to the tune of $50 million to make sure rates don't get too high.

So why do Northerners need the PUB? We don't. The GNWT regulates the rates anyway.

While a PUB may be of value in a province with hundreds of thousands of customers if not millions, with the NWT's tiny customer base, it does nothing for Northerners beyond wasting money and confusing everyone.

As a body created to be accountable, it is through its complexity both unaccountable and uncountable.

The GNWT eliminated the NTPC board because cabinet is the real board. Pull the plug on the PUB for exactly the same reason: The GNWT regulates rates, not the PUB.


Still lots of attitude, little effectiveness
Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Once again the shadow of disrespect reared its ugly head during a public Nutrition North Canada meeting in Nunavut.

While this time the outraged community may have been Pond Inlet, every Kivalliq community has its own story when it comes to the attitudes put on display by those administering the program.

In fact it's downright mind-boggling how often those in charge of the worst federal program still active in Nunavut can come off with so much attitude.

It still sends shivers of anger down my spine to remember that March night in 2011 in Rankin Inlet when Nellie Kusugak admonished then parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Northern Affairs Greg Rickford and program talking head Leo B. Doyle for rambling on in English without giving translator Henry Kudluk a chance to interpret properly.

Then again, Kusugak also gave me one of the best silent, only-between-my-ears laughs I'd enjoyed in years when she had her chance to address Rickford directly.

She spoke politely and elegantly in Inuktitut for the first five minutes as Kudluk sat silent, suppressing his own smile of point taken.

Fast forward to Sept. 28, 2016, and the feds are still throwing money at the program, stubbornly digging their heels in against the tsunami of negative public opinion that has dogged it since its ill-conceived inception.

In an effort to garner some good will, the feds send program reps out to consult with communities before introducing their long awaited reforms to Nutrition North.

Can you say window dressing, boys and girls?

You would think a meeting dressed up as part of a consultation process would be prime time for members of the program's so-called advisory board to get a handle on what people who live here think it needs to become just the tiniest bit effective.

But, nope, not one board member appeared in Pond Inlet. No one. Zilch. Nadda.

Nunavummiut continue to lend their voices to the chorus still being sung by all Northern folks affected by Nutrition North (except those with shares in the airlines and our major retailers, of course) that it remains a major step backwards compared to the old food mail program.

And still, years and millions upon millions of dollars later, the only thing they continue to get in unlimited supply is attitude.

The only entity that takes the advisory board's advice less seriously than Nunavummiut is the federal government, itself.

A point alluded to by Tununiq MLA Joe Enook shortly after the ridiculous, and downright insulting, meeting was held in Pond Inlet.

If it wasn't for the fact the Nutrition North program has cost all of us who call the North home a lot of money, the ongoing Keystone Kops approach to bureaucracy would be at least mildly entertaining.

But there's simply nothing funny about the minimal benefits the program has provided (average food basket price be damned) since being launched.

Nor is there anything funny about still having to swallow the attitudes of those who administer the program.

People are fed up with both, which, coincidentally, is the only thing Nutrition North has been able to fill people with during its run.


Mid-term review a paper tiger
Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, October 31, 2016

Regular MLAs in the current 18th Legislative Assembly have voted to have a mid-term review one year from now. That event will includes confidence votes on cabinet ministers by secret ballot.

So next fall, the premier and ministers will make speeches in the House defending their records; explaining what they have done to pursue initiatives laid out in the government's mandate.

Then all MLAs, regular members and cabinet, will vote - in secret, we remind you - on whether they have confidence in a given minister.

But the vote is non-binding. If a minister's performance is found to be lacklustre - by how large a majority we also won't be told - he or she will not automatically be expelled from cabinet. That would take another vote, one on a motion of non-confidence.

So what are we to expect from the mid-term review exercise?

"It's about making sure we are steering the ship in the right direction," says chair of the rules and procedures committee, Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly. "We have the opportunity any day the House is sitting to remove a minister in public. That's not what this mid-term review process is about. It's about making sure we are steering the ship in the right direction. At the end of the day we all have to work together. To have a public vote of confidence ... is not a good way to preserve working relationships."

In other words, while some regular MLAs are frustrated, they don't want to publicly rock the boat in case their attempt to oust a minister fails and they are blackballed when looking for favours or funding for their constituencies.

After the vote, the chair of the review committee will simply state whether the minister has the confidence of the members or not, O'Reilly said.

Then one of three things can happen - because the vote is non-binding - the first option for a minister who has lost the confidence of the House, is to do nothing at all. Or the minister might decide to take the hint, resign his or her portfolio and return to the ranks of regular MLAs.

So even if a minister has lost the confidence of an indeterminate number of unnamed members of the legislature, he or she can simply, stubbornly retain the well-compensated position following the mid-term review and start a power play behind the scenes. Since the vote was secret, all the minister needs to do is ensure a simple majority of all elected members would provide support in case a subsequent motion of non-confidence is made.

This is yet another example of how the NWT's consensus government differs greatly - and not favourably - from the traditional party system seen in the provinces and Yukon Territory.

This is a protect-what-you've-got environment that fosters cabinet secrecy and frustration among the regular MLAs.

So it's no surprise that all 11 regular members voted in favour of the mid-term review, while the seven cabinet ministers, and the premier, abstained.

Government House Leader Glen Abernethy - the only cabinet minister who spoke about the mid-term review report on the day of the vote - said cabinet isn't afraid of being judged.

"We believe that we are already making progress and will have made even more progress by next fall," he said. "We are confident that we could stand on our record collectively as well as individually."

Clearly there are under-performers in cabinet. And there are some bright prospects in the ranks of regular MLAs.

Would a cabinet minister resign if given a bad grade by his or her colleagues? It has been a very rare occurrence. Would a cabinet minister improve his or her performance if given a wake-up call one year from now in a mid-term review? That will remain to be seen.


Home grown police watchdog
Nunavut/News North - Monday, October 31, 2016

Paul Okalik, MLA for Iqaluit-Sinaa and former Justice minister, is right to question the Ottawa Police Service's ability to fairly investigate incidents involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nunavut.

It's a common practice across Canada to hire an outside force to conduct such investigations. The RCMP can't be expected to investigate its own members, so Ottawa police are called whenever a Nunavut RCMP officer is accused of wrongdoing.

Okalik expressed his concern after a sergeant with the Ottawa police, Chris Hrnchiar, posted comments on Facebook in response to an Ottawa Citizen story about the late Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook after her body was found in the city's Rideau River.

The comments suggested she had either committed suicide, or had gotten drunk and fallen in the river.

It took weeks for Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau to use the word "racist" to describe the comments, instead calling them "inappropriate" or "containing racial undertones," according to Ottawa news outlets.

Pootoogook lived, for most of the past nine years, on Ottawa's streets, and news accounts of her life in Ottawa describe it as rough. But Pootoogook's life had value. Her death deserved respect.

She was an artist whose work was acclaimed for ushering in a new level of artistic respect for the Cape Dorset print shop, where her renowned grandmother Pitseolak Ashoona and mother Napachie Pootoogook created their impressive bodies of work.

These are the people we pay to ensure Nunavummiut are being treated fairly by our RCMP. These are the people who get to decide whether an officer crossed the line when firing a weapon at a suspect or when using force to restrain a prisoner in RCMP cells.

At this point, the well is poisoned.

It doesn't take much Internet searching to find a history of racism among police forces across Canada. Who can people trust to do this work?

One option might be Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, a civilian body designed to act as watchdog when such complaints are made against Ontario Provincial Police. But a 2007 ombudsman report found a clear pro-police bias, with investigations seen through "blue-coloured glasses." A Toronto Star report found there were only 16 convictions resulting from 3,400 investigations and only three officers went to jail.

So what option can Okalik get people to support? A truly Northern one.

Nunavut may not have enough people for its own special investigations unit, as Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have. Ontario's SIU consists of 85 staffers. For the number of incidents in Nunavut and the number of people who live here, it would be impossible to sustain such a force.

But perhaps it's time for a unit that is pan-territorial and self-contained in the territories. A small force, a team of civilians with legal experience, hired for their impartiality, yes, but also to reflect the cultures that make up the North.

The territories have Inuit police. They need Inuit watchdogs. And we bet the First Nations in the Western Arctic will want the same for themselves.

Even if it takes 20 years, it's an idea worth investigating.


Battle of facts get GNWT and Northland nowhere
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, October 28, 2016

Could Northland Utilities and parent company ATCO join forces with the territorial government to bring down power rates for everyone in the Northwest Territories?

Given how the GNWT stubbornly refuses to sit down with Northland or ATCO to discuss such a solution, NWT ratepayers may never find out.

That power for smaller communities is being subsidized has been a hot topic in the legislative assembly recently but it should come as no surprise.

As with many public goods in the North, there are few if any viable economic models for their existence in small isolated communities.

The cost of providing power to a remote community cannot reasonably be expected to be covered by a relative handful of households.

Instead, the GNWT subsidizes the real cost of power in the communities by subsidizing the first 1,000 kilowatt hours per month during the winter to the Yellowknife rate - currently 23.7 cents per kilowatt hour - and the first 600 kilowatt hours in summer when the days are longer.

It needs to be pointed out that this is by no means a one-way street. Yellowknife and other North Slave power consumers received a nearly $50-million subsidy over the last two years to cover the cost of more expensive diesel-generated electricity after low water levels impeded hydro production on the Snare River.

Subsidized power is the simple reality of Northern living and if seen in proper focus, is a testament to the North's co-operative way of living. It is the Northern way.

What is disturbing is the GNWT's continued unwillingness to sit down with Northland and parent company ATCO to discuss the cost of power delivery in the North.

In ATCO the GNWT has access to the experience of a $19-billion corporation with approximately 8,000 employees involved in all aspects of the energy sector.

But the GNWT's refusal to hear what Northland and ATCO have to say is well-established. In May, 2015, the GNWT commissioned a report on restructuring the territory's electrical industry. Northland offered to provide input based on its roughly 60 years of experience in the North but cabinet brusquely declined the offer.

More recently, at different times over the past year Northland Utilities, Denendeh Investments, and ATCO have invited the GNWT to sit down and figure out a way forward on power delivery and power rates in the North. The GNWT has refused all overtures to co-operation.

Instead, the government seems hell-bent on finding its own way forward.

The GNWT should work with the private sector - Northland Utilities and ATCO -- and its considerable experience to bring power rates down in Yellowknife and across the North.


Downtown part of national fabric
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, October 28, 2016

Every community has its hidden history, the kind only friends and family share among themselves. Funny or weird stories about people they knew, local legends and little-known moments in a community's history.

Rarely do these stories get recorded in books or newspapers as many people feel they are not important. However, one national project is aiming to get those stories on record before they fade into the ether of time.

Tale of a Town has been travelling the country over the past three years gathering stories on community downtowns. It has been collecting stories about this city's centre since late September, which were offered in a multimedia presentation at Centre Square Mall on Oct. 14 and 15. The idea, said its proponent Charles Ketchabaw, came from watching big box stores move into his downtown Toronto neighbourhood and pushing the smaller stores out. This project is to celebrate the living memories of downtowns everywhere.

Like many downtown cores, Yellowknife's has changed as the city grew and developed. It too has not been immune to change as big business moved in and the city expanded outwards. Projects such as this one help keep memories alive of downtown and the people who helped build it. Local and national historians are also provided valuable information they may not have had without them.


Communities no priority for GNWT
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 27, 2016

In the wake of job losses in Wrigley, thanks to Pehdzeh Ki Contractors Ltd. being passed over for a highway maintenance contract, the GNWT was lukewarm, if not outright chilly, in it's response.

On Oct. 18, Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson went to bat for the small community in the legislative assembly, where he asked Transportation Minister Wally Schumann to commit to meeting with leaders from Wrigley to address their concerns on this and other transportation-related matters.

Five times, Thompson asked. And five times, Schumann refused, saying he would only commit to a phone call - despite insistence from unidentified members of the assembly, according to Hansard documents, that Schumann commit to a face-to-face meeting.

Nothing could send a louder, clearer message to the small communities in the Deh Cho that their struggles and concerns don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

All the cabinet rhetoric about understanding the challenges faced by rural areas of the Northwest Territories has, at this point, been rendered moot by the manner of Schumann's refusal.

And Thompson's fear that the needs of smaller communities in the territory aren't being properly represented in cabinet has been confirmed.

Job losses in small communities are no quibbling matter. Five to seven jobs lost in Wrigley means, in effect, up to five per cent of its population may have been put out of work. If that happened anywhere else - even Fort Simpson, for example - the outcry would be long and loud.

Without doubt, the job of a minister is a busy one. If Schumann is so busy he cannot travel to the Deh Cho, perhaps Wrigley's leaders could consider meeting with him in Yellowknife.

This isn't just about the highway maintenance contract. One priority the assembly is mandated to push for is funding for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, which could have a transformative effect on Wrigley.

Wrigley is not a one-topic community where transportation is concerned. As Thompson told Schumann, transportation is in fact the biggest issue he heard about during his stop in Wrigley.

The GNWT needs to move quickly to rectify this situation if it wants to be seen as sincere about the wellbeing of communities like Wrigley.

Otherwise, the government is providing proof that it is all talk and no action on issues that matter most to its constituents.


Education is a lifelong pursuit
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, October 27, 2016

People will always learn best when they are genuinely interested in a subject and driving their own educational experience.

That's why I'm glad to hear the approach of the Inuvik Youth Centre, which seeks to not just kill time after school, but to engage youth in activities they both enjoy and can learn from. The two don't have to be opposed.

A basic bike repair workshop seems perfect considering many Northerners' love of bike riding, something I've noticed in Fort Simpson, Iqaluit and here in Inuvik.

Those handy-person skills are in demand today, and being able to take on basic bike repairs and to be able to work with basic hand tools will put anyone ahead in life.

Similarly, the baking group teaches vital cooking skills. We know food security is a top issue in the North, and few things go as far toward addressing food security as knowing how to prepare food for yourself.

I didn't learn those skills until my mid-20s. Because of that, my diet was poor as was my ability to budget. Eating out, or getting take-out, is far more expensive than cooking for oneself.

I've never retained what I learned in school unless I was interested in the subject. People learn differently, but I relate to those who learn by doing and following their own lead.

It's good to have varying methods of education in town.

It's good to have the book-smarts classes, the leadership classes and the youth centre's hands-on activities.

Education is simply a part of life, not something you do in blocks. The more we can occupy youths' time with things they are interested in and let them educate themselves, the better.

With any luck, they won't take until they're 25 years old to become brave enough to turn on the oven.

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