Great Slave no pond to play in Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, July 14, 2017
The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are the only jurisdictions in Canada exempt from boater licensing requirements but that doesn't mean boaters are exempt from being safe.
While a three-hour cruise on Great Slave Lake may be quite enjoyable, a lack of precaution can turn joy into fear in a hurry. And getting marooned on the big lake is a far cry from Gilligan's Island.
Northern waters are cold, deep, full of rocks and prone to unpredictable weather. Survival may not be an option when boaters get themselves in trouble up here.
On June 29, nine people, including three children, were rescued by the RCMP and Yellowknife Coast Guard Auxiliary after their boat became stranded near Wool Bay, just outside Yellowknife Bay. Their 22-foot boat had hit a rock, disabling the motor.
It could have been much worse. Earlier this month, a boater died after going over the side of a boat on Long Lake, proving people don't have to be on Great Slave Lake to find trouble.
And while reefs and other hazards are plentiful on lakes around Yellowknife, navigational aids are few.
The lack of rules and markings is appealing in one sense. Northerners typically enjoy the outdoors unadulterated by the trappings of civilization but this also makes these lakes more dangerous to unwary boaters.
One of the reasons Pleasure Craft Operator Competency cards aren't required is because doing the training to get them is impractical in isolated communities - and that's not going to change, despite the fact that people in the North spend so much time on the water.
But if you can take the training, it's a good idea, regardless of whether you're required to or not. You can also license your boat through Service Canada; it's free and can be transferred to future owners. Having a boat number and information about the craft helps law enforcement and search and rescue identify your boat if things should go sideways on the water.
And it bears repeating to always wear a life jacket and skip the drinks while onboard. Transport Canada estimates that every year, about 200 people die in recreational boating accidents.
Assuming you can locate and put on your PFD in an emergency is asking a lot of your reflexes, especially in cold water, so Transport Canada recommends safety equipment be worn at all times onboard. It is also paramount that people carry with them a means to communicate before heading out from shore.
Cellphones are OK within range of Yellowknife but the best devices people should bring if they don't have radios are SPOT messengers and satellite phones.
Summer can be amazing in the NWT, and spending time on the water can make it even better -- but let's make sure everyone makes it to the autumn.
Using bad to create goodInuvik Drum - Thursday, July 13, 2017
At the community roundtable hosted by the Gwich'in Tribal Council on how to deal with crime and social problems in Inuvik, everyone had a different opinion on the best approach to address the issue.
Some advocated disciplining children more strictly, while others emphasized a compassionate approach. The question of whether or not to challenge drug dealers and bootleggers in court also caused some debate.
One thing could be agreed upon: there is no magic solution.
To an extent, crime and social problems will be present in any community. But Inuvik is likely above that reasonable baseline, which is ultimately spurring the discussions.
Throughout history and different cultures, there is a common denominator that indicates propensity for violence and these sort of ills: poverty.
Specific circumstances are different everywhere, but as a general rule of them, the wealthier nations experience higher standards of living across the board.
Tom Wright mentioned the importance for people to have hope, lest they turn to crime, drugs or even suicide.
In a prosperous economy where opportunities abound, people are much more hopeful. They see how they can improve their lives and pursue their dreams.
A poor economy offers relatively fewer opportunities, and people's outlook on the future becomes grim.
This is taking a general perspective and ignoring individual circumstances that can lead people down unfortunate paths.
With oil prospects drying up in this region, there are few major obvious sources of wealth available in the Beaufort Delta.
Nassim Taleb's book Antifragile provides a relatable concept about using difficult times to improve a system.
"Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness," writes Taleb. "The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better."
He uses a number of metaphors to explain this, including how forest fires breathe new life into the land, even after such initial devastation. Muscle is another example, as it grows from being placed under stress.
Those who survived residential school and became fantastic role models and leaders demonstrate antifragility. The North is filled with people who fed off challenges and used them to grow.
Instead of weathering the storm and hoping for brighter days, Inuvik can use these shocks to improve itself.
Meetings like the one the GTC hosted, groups like 100 People Who Care Inuvik and the ongoing shift in focus to industries such as satellites and tourism demonstrates a community spirit that refuses to turtle up, but address challenges and find new solutions head on.
The flexibility to gain from disorder is the greatest indicator of a community's will for long-term survival.
A national shameYellowknifer - Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Around the time the federal government's Canada 150 celebration reached its peak with fireworks, live music and a gigantic rubber duck, the House of Commons released a damning report on suicide rates in Indigenous communities.
The report found Indigenous people face suicide rates three times higher than the general public and among youth, that rate is a whopping six times higher. These numbers have remained shamefully persistent since the 1990s.
The source of this travesty is self-evident. The residential school system ripped children from their families, language and culture, leaving many people abused, uneducated and adrift from their roots and alienated from Canadian culture. When these people went on to have children, many were still struggling with this trauma, which caused higher incidences of substance abuse and mental-health issues, leaving them under-equipped to raise healthy families. When people talk about inter-generational trauma, this is what they are talking about. This phenomenon is at the heart of higher suicide rates among Indigenous people.
Leading up to Canada Day, many people rightfully criticized how tone deaf it is for the federal government to blithely drop a half-billion dollars celebrating a national story while ignoring the more shameful parts of the nation's history that left so many Indigenous people struggling in this quagmire.
Yellowknifer urges territorial and federal leaders to spend some time with this report and follow its recommendations. Yellowknives Dene First Nation Chief Ernest Betsina offers great advice to those who hold the purse strings - he urges leaders to give resources directly to Indigenous communities, where people closest to the problem are. Those at the grassroots level do the hard work and know what is needed to create a robust suicide prevention strategy.
Canada 150 is certainly something to celebrate but it comes with a fraught history from which there are many lessons to be learned. Now that the party is over, it's time to get to work.
Yellowknife's doors are wide openYellowknifer - Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Part of what makes Yellowknife great is its people.
For a remote community hovering around 20,000 residents, the city boasts great diversity which creates an open-minded, cosmopolitan atmosphere.
This is why the territorial government's new immigration strategy is such a great initiative - it builds on what is already one of the positives of living here while helping to solve a labour shortage problem and stagnant population that has plagued the city for years.
The program works like this: in cases where employers are unable to find qualified workers to fill job vacancies, these employers will be able to apply to bring foreign nationals to fill those roles.
The government approved 79 applicants in 2016 and the government hopes to increase this number by 25 per cent per year until 2019. This includes a five-per-cent per year increase in francophone applications.
The territorial government should also heed Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart's advice to focus on family reunification as part of the program. People will find it much more feasible to make the big journey to Canada if they know there is a chance their family might be able to come too.
Families provide support, and can only further increase the local employer pool, so this is a win-win situation.
When it comes to immigration to Yellowknife, the more the merrier.
Last word on Sgt. Pepper Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Well, valued readers, as you're reading this, hopefully I'm relaxing on the East Coast and enjoying time with a special gal, my mom.
I will be back in Rankin near the end of August, and look forward to another year at the helm of Kivalliq News.
I'd like to thank all the folks who contacted me about a couple of columns I penned on the remastering of the Beatles wonderful and game-changing album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
I thoroughly enjoyed each discussion on the "Fab Four," and was blown away by how many folks were into the Beatles across the Kivalliq (thanks for the most-awesome quote, Mr. Billard) and how much they knew about the boys.
I'd have to write a special edition of Kivalliq News to touch upon every point and question raised to me on Pepper, but there were a few important enough to touch upon the masterpiece one last time.
The biggest point I did not touch on - if you want a long and complete explanation check out Robby Berman's most excellent "Sgt. Pepper's wasn't broken. So they fixed it." -- was why parts of Pepper are so much clearer now and, no, they did not simply raise the volume.
During the Beatles glory days (musically speaking), the music from Rubber Soul, through Revolver and into Pepper, was getting more and more complex.
This created all sorts of problems in the studio, with the biggest being the addition of track over track. This led to one "bounce" (copying a mix of a four-track machine onto another four-track machine) after another, with the sound quality, especially of the drums and basic instruments, getting increasingly thin.
With today's digital wizardry in the studio, it was possible for Giles Martin to synchronize the original recordings and remove all the bouncing effects, and that's why the remixed Pepper sounds deeper, warmer and a whole lot more fun.
As I've mentioned previously, one must always remember the equipment the Beatles were using back in the day, and that they concentrated all their efforts on mono recordings and paid very little attention to the stereo versions of their work.
So, in effect, you cannot look (let alone judge) the Beatles work through the eyes of 2017, and it drives me crazy how many do and then criticize their music.
And, many of those same people can't, for the life of them, understand how classic rock acts that have been around 40 years or more continue to sell so many albums, especially when it concerns new releases.
Yes, every generation has its own sound but the great classic rock bands were from an era when musicians actually had to play their instruments, and play them well.
There were no ways to disguise the music in their day, and they certainly didn't have records out on which the "songs" were stitched together piece by piece from the best performances over 40 takes, usually involving the band's vocalists.
Until Rubber Soul, the Beatles pretty much recorded all of their work live off of the floor. An incredible accomplishment when you appreciate, song by song, the quality of their work.
And many of the classic giants that came up with them were basically doing the same thing until Pepper and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds came along.
It's the little things you have to learn how to enjoy.
See you in August!
Problem solving time for Jr. KNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, July 10, 2017
Junior Kindergarten is a worthy educational tool that has been a long time coming for communities across the NWT.
For some families it will be an extension of day-care programs already offered. Hence the concern from some of those providers, including those involved with the Aboriginal Head Start program. Since Junior Kindergarten is optional, it can be argued all of the early childhood care providers should be able to find some form of accommodation
Of course, there will be an adjustment period.
In fact, News/North continues to hear from, and report on various people and groups who are identifying areas where the introduction of territory-wide junior kindergarten is posing problems. For some it's akin to fitting a square peg into a round hole.
News/North suggests these people get out the carpenter's tools and start shaping that square peg as the next school year is coming fast.
In recent time News/North has reported concerns that some schools in the South Slave region may not be ready for junior kindergarten students next year unless bathroom and classroom renovations are undertaken this summer ("Last-minute renos for Jr. K causing concern," July 3).
It sounds as if there could be some real problems in terms of accommodating the junior kinders, as GNWT's bureaucratic wheels aren't moving any faster than their usually speed of dead slow. Those renovations were apparently caught up in red tape and are intended to be made - at one point.
Territory-wide junior kindergarten is a major government initiative - a sea-change for the education department - that had rough start since expansion of Jr. K was halted in 2014.
So there has been a fair amount of time for the GNWT to get things right for this re-launch.
But it just seems that Jr. K is being rushed. Such as how are the tykes going to travel to Jr. K? In some communities, it won't be a problem. And in some families, since the children are already attending some form of day-care, it also shouldn't pose a worry.
The South Slave Divisional Education Council has determined it will not bus junior kindergarten students to Harry Camsell School ("Safety a main reason Jr. K students off buses," News/North July 3).
Concern about safety of three and four-year olds (yes, there could be some three-year olds, depending when their birth dates are) on buses and at bus drop-offs, particularly in the winter, was pointed to as a primary concern.
Overall, if some facilities aren't quite ready come the first day of school, then other accommodations will have to be made. Ones that don't involve having the kids staying at home with their families.
Junior kindergarten is a necessity in a region that sees a shocking number of students dropping out of school and very low rates of students going on to post-secondary education. We have high rates of drug abuse and our justice system is extremely busy dealing with young people who have fallen off the rails.
The issues are varied and also change from community to community but the GNWT has correctly determined that many children need to get involved with a structured system early on in life.
So we ask that all people involved with setting up Jr kindergarten programs do their best to get the program started, as it will offer uniform early education for children across the territory.
The next generations of young people in the NWT need to have all the tools needed to survive and thrive. Their success will be the key to a stronger, happier and healthier society for everyone.
Energy corp must think beyond dieselNunavut/News North - Monday, July 10, 2017
The Iqaluit hydroelectric project is dead in the water - and that's very unfortunate.
The project is on hold because funds were not available to continue. Bruno Pereira, president of the Quilliq Energy Corporation, said it didn't seem "appropriate" to invest further in the project, which has an estimated total cost of $356 million.
Part of his argument is that the power company is spending "significant money" on rebuilding aged power plants across the territory relying solely on diesel. According to the Climate Change Secretariat at the GN's Department of Environment, QEC is responsible for maintaining 26 stand-alone diesel plants in 25 communities, including two in Iqaluit. There is no back-up grid, and most of those facilities are starting to look their age. Power plants have an expected lifespan of just 40 years but Grise Fiord's plant is 54 years old, while Cape Dorset's is a spry 53, Cambridge Bay's is 50, Kugluktuk's doesn't look a day over 49. Nine other plants were built in the 1970s and are due for a facelift.
The Secretariat reports that in 2012-2013 Nunavut imported 180 million liters of fuel, including 44 million liters of diesel used for electricity generation and 63 million litres for heating. That's a huge number, with an even bigger impact-- climate change is very real, and the North, as the canary in the climate change coal mine, is literally melting under the heat. Over a decade ago, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change started predicting the Arctic could be ice-free by 2100 but now, it seems almost every year those dates are clawed back. Some scientists clock the start of year-round shipping through the Northwest passage as early as 2040.
The time for sustainable energy was yesterday.
Strides are being made -- QEC installed 11 solar panels in Iqaluit connected to the power grid; the project will be monitored to assess the potential for people to connect their own solar panels to the grid. Similarly, a SolarWall project at Alaittuq High School in Rankin Inlet has been going since 2002. A 2016 report determined that Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Arviat and Sanikiluaq had the best conditions for a wind power project in Nunavut.
And while costs are initially high for these types of projects - getting new infrastructure in place doesn't come cheap - long term, the cost will be much lower. While it's important to keep the lights on today, the territory and the federal government needs to be investing in alternative solutions - whether large or small scale - to start changing how electricity is generated in Nunavut. If not, we'll be talking about this exact issue in another 40 years.
