Tourism cash cow needs to be fed Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, June 9, 2017
The irony of the NWT having both record-breaking tourism numbers and a capital city visitors association that feels it has no choice but to poach from the private sector to stay afloat appears lost on the city and territorial government.
The number of visitors seeking the Northern lights in the NWT nearly doubled in 2015-16, according to the GNWT. Tourists spent a whopping $40 million on aurora viewing alone during that 12-month period.
This bonanza capped another bumper year for tourism overall, with an 11 per cent rise in the number of tourists and a 14 per cent rise in their spending over the previous year.
The blight at the center of this rosy picture of a healthy, growing industry is the 'closed' sign taped to the door of the Northern Frontier Visitor Centre when it was shut down May 15 after the building was deemed unsafe to occupy.
After the closure and layoff of staff, things actually got worse for the visitors centre last week when a letter from a group of gallery owners accused the not-for-profit association that runs the centre of taking their customers away.
Clearly frustrated, the letter-writers pointed to the conflict of interest in an association running a competitive visitors gift shop at the same time it is supposed to be promoting tourism and local member businesses, including stores catering to tourists.
Given merchandising sales account for nearly two-thirds of the visitor centre's $1.09 million in revenue, it's hard to deny that the association put itself in direct competition with the members it serves.
But it's also hard to deny that the GNWT and city got into this ridiculous boom-bust position by underfunding the visitors association in the first place. Funding from the GNWT last year amounted to $161,000; $86,723 came from the city. Is it really a surprise that board members chose retail when no other options were on the table?
In a perfect world, the government would be fully funding the association but Yellowknifer will settle for a fair-ish world where it simply gives the association what it needs to service the increasing demand.
Surely, properly funding the visitors association is in the territory's best interests. We are staring the success of the tourism industry in the face and government stands to let it fail if it doesn't act now.
Learning the art of compromise Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, June 9, 2017
Nobody wins when bureaucrats hold onto rules that make no sense.
And it seems like NWT Brewing has suffered the brunt of this attitude as of late. For example, pub owners Fletcher and Miranda Stevens are saddled with a $1,500 cap on giving any donations or sponsorships in the territory.
But out-of-province companies are not burdened by these rules, which is why Labatt is able to sponsor the First Air Rec Hockey Tournament and Big Rock Brewing is allowed to sponsor Folk on the Rocks.
This loophole renders the original intent of this law totally moot and holds NWT Brewing back from contributing to the community. How crazy is that?
Also, minors aren't allowed into the brew pub, which serves brunch, lunch and dinner, because it is a liquor primary establishment.
The Stevens would like their brew pub to be a family-friendly establishment, and why not? Certainly people want to bring their children there to eat - the establishment does turn families away.
Other jurisdictions, such as B.C. and Ontario, have relaxed their liquor laws to allow minors on these premises during specific times during the day. There is no reason this rule wouldn't work here, too.
The territorial government needs to take a serious second look at some of its more draconian rules and reassess why they are needed. Unless there are safety issues, government shouldn't be inhibiting business, residents and the community, it should be helping them prosper.
Paperwork could kill Inuvik's next big industryInuvik Drum - Thursday, June 8, 2017
Fueled by the tech industry in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, private satellite operations are booming.
No longer is space limited to governments and prohibitively expensive mega-projects.
As technology progresses, the ability for the private sector to engage in space operations is rising exponentially, and big players like Google are jumping in.
Inuvik is perfectly placed to compete in the global market of satellite ground stations thanks to its northern position.
Companies are banging on the door with millions of dollars in hand looking to set up their businesses in our part of the world.
But Inuvik could miss that boat almost entirely if the federal government doesn't change the way it handles licensing and regulation in the industry.
Six shiny new satellite dishes next to the Dempster Highway, between the airport and town, sit motionless, aiming at nothing.
The computer systems and cooling machines are cranking in nearby warehouses, but no data is being tracked or collected.
Operated by KSAT, Planet and Google, the stations are all offline until licensing approval can get past the federal government's desk.
Inuvik is attractively located, but it's not the only place in the world to set up satellite operations, and its competitors, such as Alaska, offer much faster approval processes and open arms to foreign industry players.
The problem is Canada has not updated its legislation to keep up with the times. It still treats the industry as if it's made up of only massive government projects, not the dynamic and much more accessible industry it is becoming.
Blame can be pointed in many directions, but the more important thing is for Inuvik and the territory to push for a legislative rewrite.
Red tape can be a killer, in more ways than are obvious at first.
Over-regulation blocking a business is the clear initial way red tape is stifling.
On top of that, having excessive hurdles to jump through raises the costs of compliance, meaning the product's prices will have to go up for the business to break even in the end.
Taxpayers, during this process, pay for all the overhead.
But perhaps the biggest result, and the hardest one to see, is the effect that bad reputation has on future investment.
If Canada becomes known as a place where projects get lost in regulatory purgatory and have no clear set path to fulfillment, investment will simply go elsewhere.
This is a balance all governments must manage. It's a given that some amount of oversight is prudent. But too much, or too clunky of a process, and soon enough you won't have anything left to oversee.
With hope, Canada can open the door to the North for foreign businesses. This land, and sky, is rich in opportunity.
It would be a tremendous shame if paperwork in Ottawa closes Inuvik to the world.
Bad faith move indeedYellowknifer - Wednesday, June 7, 2017
It makes sense Louis Sebert is the transparency minister because everyone can see right through his announcement to sole-source the contract for the men's domestic violence program A New Day.
Late last year, the counselling program was set to expire while waiting for the justice department to compile a report to measure its success. There was a public outcry and Sebert, who is also the justice minister, extended the program's mandate until June 30 of this year.
The justice department released its report, concluding A New Day was seeing success after a rocky start. Despite this, the department drafted a new request for proposals (RFP) that drastically pared it down: it went from full-time to hourly, as needed; abandoned one-on-one counselling sessions; and stated applicants to provide counselling need not have experience.
Another backlash ensued. Nobody bid on the project. Instead, a group of 14 community advocates submitted a letter to the justice department to question the changes.
Then at the eleventh hour, Sebert announced: "We are dealing with an NGO that has expressed interest."
That NGO ended up being John Howard Society, and strangely enough its executive director, former MLA Robert Hawkins, had a different take on what happened.
"We were approached by the GNWT," he told Yellowknifer.
In other words, the Department of Justice magically transformed a one-year request for proposals to run a mutated program nobody wanted to touch "with a 10-foot pole," according to Lydia Bardak, the community advocate Hawkins replaced after she was fired from the John Howard Society, into a four-year, sole-source contract.
Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green called this a bad faith move, and she is right.
This entire time, what has the obstacle been to prevent the justice department from re-issuing the A New Day RFP in its original form - the one with a proven track record success? How can Sebert believe A New Day will continue to provide good programming without the ingredients that made it successful in the first place?
On what planet does Sebert believe the public can't see right through what he's doing?
It's about time MLAs and community advocates acknowledge the truth -- Sebert has no interest in a successful A New Day -- and say loudly and clearly this is not an attitude NWT residents want in their leadership.
Cold days ahead; world closes in?Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, June 7, 2017
It can be quite difficult to objectively analyze, challenge, or disagree with the words or practices of someone you have a healthy respect for, consider a friend or, perhaps, both.
That difficulty grows exponentially when you live in a small town or modestly-populated region where people are aware of many relationships that exist, whether they're cloaked in animosity, fuelled by dislike, or kept strong by a mutual interest or genuine respect for one's intellect or life's direction.
Like it or not, the majority of people in today's society accept most forms of conflict as genuine intent, sentiment or emotion.
Conversely, any open show of positive reinforcement, support, or praise for someone viewed as a friend or close acquaintance, is often viewed with doubt as to its sincerity, with suspicion of an agenda being put into play, or as praise made hollow through its expectancy.
The effect this has is to make it far easier (and safer) to be adversarial in public - or through any type of writing, video or audio production meant for public consumption - than risk being accused of simply pumping the tires of someone most people in your orbit know you like, support, respect or admire.
The final irony of the situation is that if you do lend public support and are judged as tire pumping, which is most likely going to be the case, you end up doing considerable damage to the person you were trying to bring positive attention to, as they automatically become guilty by association.
The rules of interaction have changed drastically in the past 15 years. Whether you choose to accept it or not, we've allowed ourselves to be cowered by the use of labels as weaponry by those most judgmental and easily offended among us.
We sat back and allowed the most vocal, most oversensitive, most vindictive, least compromising, least patriotic and least faithful to turn the modern era of the free world into the ultimate mytopia in a devilishly short period of time -and there's no going back now.
Thankfully, we live in a part of the world where we can soldier on trying to focus more on our similarities than our differences.
But, for the outside world; oh, we watch, we read, we listen and we declare ourselves aware and enlightened. Then we voice our opinions, sometimes vehemently and often overbearingly, but, the truth of the matter is, we've had a fairly comfortable ride for a long, long time and our space is shrinking and the world is closing in.
The world is turning colder in spirit and intention by the day, despite what it may, or may not, be doing climate wise.
We can choose to rail against it by reminding ourselves of what it took; how we came to have such a wonderful country to call our own, or, we can continue to pick ourselves apart by drawing more and more attention to the differences between us, and by continuing to try and force our opinions and beliefs upon each other.
However, there can be no denying, getting others to do a little less talking and a lot more walking can be damn hard to do (sigh). Yet we soldier on.
Turning falling oil prices into lemonadeNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, June 5, 2017
It's been tough going for Inuvik after falling oil prices forced the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline onto the backburner.
The pipeline is supposed to be the town's black golden goose but with oil and gas exploration dwindling to nearly nothing and the pipeline pushed back to a future when higher oil prices would hopefully make a $16-billion dollar-plus pipeline feasible, the town of 3,400 is treading water for now.
One of the casualties was the Inuvik Petroleum Show, an annual gathering of oil and gas industry leaders as well as government and supporting businesses. The town pulled the plug after 2014 as the oil and gas industry in the region faltered.
Inuvik could have turtled right then and there, slashed all of its engagement activities and hoped to at least save a church and a gas station or two, while not turning completely into a ghost town. Creative minds, however, have resisted the urge to cry defeat.
Entering its second year as Arctic Energy and Emerging Technologies Conference and Tradeshow, the town has re-branded the event with a broader focus on energy issues in general and the solutions industry and government are coming up with to address them.
More than 200 people registered for the inaugural event last year and organizers are confident this year's energy show June 13 to 14 will be even more successful. They are banking on the lower Canadian dollar and completion of the Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk highway to draw more interest, not only in the energy show but in bringing more conferences to the town.
The energy show is also presciently timed as plans to introduce a price on carbon by the Liberal government in Ottawa begin rolling out next year. Adjusting to this new reality in the North makes the show all the more relevant.
In these efforts, we salute Inuvik for thinking outside the box and a future entirely dependent on a rise in oil and gas prices.
Red tape gripes don't fly very highNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, June 5, 2017
We appreciate the Canadian Federation of Independent Business coming up every year to spank our government for choking small business with too much red tape.
Business tourism is good for our economy and having CFIB staff fly up, stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants contributes to that. That's about all they contribute, however.
Again, the CFIB gave the NWT a failing grade for managing red tape. Let's look at the high priority issues their survey of Northern business uncovered; red tape associated with: Canadian Pension Plan, employment insurance, property tax, health inspections, business registration, permits and licences, etc.
As cumbersome as these requirements are, we challenge the CFIB to point out any Canadian jurisdictions that don't have exactly this kind of red tape businesses must contend with.
What would be more helpful would be for CFIB to provide examples as to how other jurisdictions do it better because there is no doubt some do.
Can you renew your business licence online in the south? We should be able to do that in the North, multi-year. That would save both the government and businesses time and money.
Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Wally Schumann disputes CFIB's failing grade. Schumann is in a good position to know. He built a successful business in Hay River - Poison Graphics - and has walked the walk in dealing with this same red tape.
If he truly believes CFIB's survey results are not "a fair assessment of what we (GNWT) actually do to help small business," he's in a perfect position to paint a different picture.
Beyond looking for efficiencies when dealing with the necessary paperwork of government, and we know they are there, he can take greater pains to inform businesses of what's available for making their lives easier, especially those businesses in the smaller communities and regional centers.
Perhaps next year, Schumann and his government will be able to brag about climbing up the ranks of CFIB survey results of managing red tape.
Kill the bill, save the cultureNunavut/News North - Monday, June 5, 2017
Education Minister Paul Quassa - a well-respected leader and negotiator of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement - appears intent on throwing his reputation out the window for all the wrong reasons.
His fight to push through Bill 37, which will cancel any targets to have Nunavut's high school students speaking Inuktitut upon graduation, is opposed in the legislative assembly and in many other quarters.
As of press time, it appeared to be dead legislation walking, as bills need two sittings of the legislature and three readings to pass. The funeral can't come soon enough.
It's hard to understand how the Department of Education let it come this far.
It's even harder to understand why Quassa is staking his career on this bill. As the clock runs down on this legislative assembly, Quassa must be considering his future after the October election.
Even if his constituents support him, it's doubtful that his current stance on Bill 37 will lead him to the premiership - he was up against Premier Peter Taptuna for the job in 2013 - or even to a ministerial appointment under any premier other than perhaps Taptuna, should his premiership survive the election.
We say that because Taptuna is complicit in this debacle, and the worldview of both leaders - who are showing their disdain for language and culture preservation in their support of this bill - may come back to haunt them when voters cast their ballots in October.
Quassa is pushing the passage of the Bill 37, he says, to protect the government from a lawsuit by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. He says his history shows he is committed to the preservation of Inuktitut but if that's the case, why is he pushing this solely to avoid a lawsuit?
It's a pretty stinky argument. Surely he meant to say, "It's the right plan for our children."
As it is, Bill 37 is just as likely to trigger a lawsuit from NTI, as breaking Inuktitut language commitments to Nunavut's children is already cause for inflamed spirits. This government has had four years to present a serious plan to make Inuktitut the first language of Nunavut's schoolchildren but waited until practically the last minute to present a very flawed bill to the legislative assembly.
Minister Quassa, there's only one path you can take to save yourself.
Withdraw the bill and disavow the idea.
Step back into your negotiator shoes. Bring NTI, MLAs, and educators to the table. Discuss a path forward together. Do it in the open. Invite Nunavummiut and journalists to monitor the proceedings. Broadcast it live across Nunavut.
If there is a viable plan, it will come out.
If not, at least the territory can say its leaders tried to work out a solution together, in the open, instead of besieged behind closed doors.
