Ready or not ...Yellowknifer - Wednesday, July 26, 2017
The territorial government is about to set out on a busy few months. Ahead of the July 2018 date for marijuana legalization, the Department of Justice has posted a survey to collect public opinion on what legal marijuana should look like in the territory.
Questions include: Should the minimum age be older than 18? Should people be allowed to possess 30 grams or should that number be lowered? Where should it be sold? Should communities have the power to become smokeless, mirroring liquor legislation that allows for dry communities?
As of last week, a whopping 686 people had responded to the survey, showing there is a very high public interest in the issue. This is great but it's hard to imagine it being a surprise. Legal marijuana is going to change society in a number of ways - it's going to change the criminal justice system, the economy, health, policing and education.
People who plan to partake will want ease of access. Others worry about keeping it out of the hands of youth. On top of the immense public interest, creating new legislation with so many facets is going to be complicated - and the government is going to have to do this in a very small amount of time.
The survey is going to be online until Sept. 22. In the fall, the territorial government is going on a tour of nine communities to collect public input in person.
Then, government staff will metabolize all of this data into a report, which deputy justice minister Mark Aitken hopes will be translated into legislation by the first sitting of assembly next year -- Feb. 7. This gives the government a four-month window to translate government research and hundreds of voices worth of public input into a report and flip that report into legislation, not counting a two-week break for Donny Days in December. To this Yellowknifer says, good luck with that.
It's logical to think a little bit of proactive work in spring would have loosened this tight timeline a bit.
As it is now, the territorial government seems as though it is definitely behind the eight-ball. Hopefully those who make up the marijuana working group are ready to roll their sleeves up and get to work on legislation that will portend a major change in society.
One piece of a big puzzleYellowknifer - Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Last week, Health Minister Glen Abernethy told Yellowknifer if he had a magic wand, he would wave it to offer better care for mental-health and addictions problems in the territory.
When it comes to these problems, which lie at the root of the city's homelessness problem, we all agree. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a magic wand the government could wave to eradicate homelessness?
Unfortunately, there is no one solution to homelessness - there are many small solutions that need to work in concert over a long period of time.
Yellowknife got one of those small solutions last week with the opening of the city's sobering centre.
The accommodations are Spartan - visitors occupy a thin foam mattress in half a tent with a dividing screen. But visitors get a medical examination, a clean and safe place to sleep, a small, healthy breakfast and a ride to the Safe Harbour Day Shelter in the morning if they need.
For people who up until now had no options at the end of a night, this is a critical facet of immediate emergency care many of the city's vulnerable population need.
It's wonderful to see the sobering centre open. Every project the government follows through on as part of the all-encompassing homeless plan is a small step leading toward what will hopefully be a huge leap in quality of life for all of us but especially for the city's most vulnerable residents.
No stereotypes allowedEditorial Comment by April Hudson
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, July 26, 2017
As seven girls in Rankin Inlet worked to develop music videos this week, their true objective was deeper and much more important: creating a space where they could see themselves reflected back.
It is no secret that there is an appalling lack of indigenous faces in media. Advertising and other forms of media play an undeniable role in how people see themselves and others, yet the people represented often belong to a very narrow and specific group.
That is why it is so inspiring to see young indigenous people embracing their own forms of representation.
Over the course of two evenings, these girls were able to create a mirror of how they view themselves and their community.
They drew and took pictures of the things that are important to them as individuals and compiled these images into short videos of various lengths, punctuated with music.
The videos involved experiences you might not see represented elsewhere: candid photos of friends and family members laughing and dancing; the unfiltered and unedited beauty of Northern landscapes; in some cases, music written and performed by themselves, for themselves.
Who needs anything else?
The instructor for the music camp, Cassidy Glennie, told me the project was about challenging stereotypes in a media world populated primarily by people with pale skin.
This group accomplished that by aiming to show what life in the North is really like on a very personal level - no stereotypes allowed.
The unfortunate part of this, of course, is that all of the girls who took part in the camp knew of stereotypes that exist, many of them negative. That alone shows how prevalent - and often damaging - such preconceived notions can be.
Thankfully, the opposite of stereotypes is individuals. That's what the videos showed, fearlessly and on-key (although occasionally a little off-key): individuality in spades.
Despite some shyness, these girls shared their videos - parts of which may have been deeply personal and closely held visions of themselves - with each other, their parents and with me. Each one was perfect in its own way.
Embracing individuality can be difficult at any age, let alone when you are young. It requires a level of confidence that may be hard to muster for many people. But it's inevitably a good thing, in the end, as it can help to raise self-esteem.
We should all take the time to celebrate the things that make us unique. But we need to start celebrating the things that make other people unique as well. The differences that set us apart can also bring us together.
It would be nice to be able to wave a wand and have all people everywhere represented in media. While I'm wishing, it would also be nice if that magic wand could make all negative stereotypes disappear.
In the meantime, we need more girls like these seven to throw away the stereotypes they see and hear, and instead take photos, draw and dance to the beat of their own drum.
Drinking ourselves to deathNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, July 24, 2017
While the fight against fentanyl and opiods - along with the impending legalization of marijuana - have been grabbing all the headlines lately, the old standby booze has just made a comeback in the news cycle.
A new study states hospitalizations caused by heavy drinking were higher in the NWT than the rest of Canada in 2015 and 2016. To have an alcohol addiction that sends someone to hospital is very serious and very sad.
Both for the person involved, their families and friends, and society as a whole. Not to mention the burden placed on the health-care system.
Since booze is legal and widely available in many communities in the territory - and bootlegged into some that have restrictions or outright bans - it must be considered the most abundant gateway drug around.
As you can read in today's News/North, ("Hospitalization caused by heavy drinking highest in the territory"), the Canadian Institute for Health released the report, called Alcohol Harm in Canada, last month. It states there were 475 related hospitalizations in the territory in 2015 and 2016.
By population, this translates to 1,315 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents - more than five times the national average.
Why this is the case? What can be done to help people who are literally drinking themselves into the hospital and likely toward an early death?
This is not social drinking. This is not even weekend binge drinking. This is daily self-torture with beer, liquor and wine.
Well, it isn't always as simple as just taking away the booze. While dry communities do well by insulating themselves from the problem, the wolves are literally at the door for any residents who leave either to travel or for (non-booze related) medical trips into Yellowknife.
It's about a lot more than just putting the plug in the jug. It's about giving people hope.
Many of these chronic drinkers start at a very early age. Either because alcoholism is rampant in their families, or they fall in with the wrong crowd at school.
If young people hope - you know, a reason to get up in the morning and be productive and have interesting things to do during the day - they will really will have no reason to seek escape into another dimension by abusing booze.
Many families are still struggling with the effects of colonization and the residential-school system.
More effective opportunities and alternatives must be developed and funded. Counselling, on-the-land programs, education and employment opportunities (yes, more government jobs).
And something the GNWT has shown resistance to establish - a NWT residential treatment centre, with trained local staff who can relate to the clients.
Another interesting idea that has emerged over the past year is the National Indigenous Guardians Network, which would provide jobs for people to be out on the land. The GNWT appears to be in favour of working with the feds to start such a program.
News/North just hopes it won't take too long to become a reality.
While that won't be a magic bullet to solve the addictions issues facing the NWT, it could be a good start.
A job working on the land could be a life-changing alternative for many, who might otherwise have sought solace in the bottom of a bottle.
Gun safety efforts are not enoughNunavut/News North - Monday, July 24, 2017
Summer is a great time to relax but it's not a time to relax our gun safety standards. A rash of incidents involving reckless use of firearms -which saw people injured in several Nunavut communities -shows the importance of being vigilant about gun safety.
Accidents happen. Police say it was an accident that a five-year-old Whale Cove child fired a hunting rifle left out after a hunting trip last month, an incident that left three with injuries. It was also an accident when a 14-year-old shot a 11-year-old in the stomach in Arviat.
They may be considered accidents but they're still hard to accept.
It's even harder to accept when firearms are shot off in a community with no regard for public safety. Or when those whose state of mind renders their use of a weapon unsafe for themselves or others. We hear too often of armed standoffs, and of suicides by cop.
It seems the only way to stop the reckless use of firearms - under the current RCMP plan- is to lock up the guns, and the Nunavut government has given the money to get a lock on every gun in the territory. Storing in communal gun lockers might help, too, as Justice Paul Bychok suggests.
But it's clear the RCMP is failing to achieve its goals.
Gun locks are effective but only for the people who choose to use them. Gun lockers are effective but only for those who keep their guns there.
As of May, the RCMP had visited 10 Nunavut communities to distribute gun locks. This is the fulfilment of a program launched in 2012. Why has it taken five years to visit 10 communities?
It's hard to take the plan seriously if the RCMP itself isn't making a more concerted effort. The RCMP must realize the poor optics. The territory's chief firearms officer's views on gun safety efforts are not easy to ascertain, unfortunately, because the RCMP told this newspaper she wouldn't grant an interview.
We'd like to renew our call for increased efforts to recruit Inuit, which would increase the level of trust between police and residents. A return of the special constables program would be a step in the right direction.
But perhaps it's time to go a step further, and call for the creation of a territorial police force.
This year Nunavut celebrates 18 years as a territory. Isn't it time to consider an alternative to the police force many consider a colonial imposition?
The territory is already footing the bill for policing, so the members of this new force should be Nunavut residents, not a revolving door of southerners who have no choice but to leave to their next assignment.
A Nunavut police force won't solve every problem butit's time to consider the benefits of a home-grown police force designed to protect its own people.
Power squeeze Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, July 21, 2017
Nothing feels right about the NWT Power Corporation's latest proposed rate hike of 4.8 per cent. If approved, it will be the power corp.'s third power rate increase in two years, pouring more fuel into an already skyrocketing cost driver that will see power bills rise by 41.2 per cent between 2012 and 2018.
Ontario energy consumers are complaining about how its government's green energy plan is driving up their power rates. But at least Ontario has a plan. In the Northwest Territories, there appears little to offer other than a dubious hope that residents will look past their soaring power bills and still want to live here.
The power corp. broached the rate increase during a four-day public hearing by the NWT Public Utilities Board last week. While generally poorly attended by the public, resident Jennifer Pagonis and a few other battlers - business owners with shrinking margins and homeowners struggling to pay the bills -- came out to fight. They made the case that the territorial government's inability to stabilize power rates is creating a vicious cycle where residents flee the territory, causing population decline and reduced per capita funding from Ottawa, which creates the need for even higher power rates to make up the shortfall.
It's the people who have invested the most in the territory who will suffer the greatest, said Pagonis, noting that she was born and raised in the Northwest Territories and that moving is not an option.
"This is my home, I have nowhere else to go," she said.
Pagonis calls the rate hikes "greed, complete greed," but the power corp. isn't some Fortune 500 company headquartered in a faraway country. The power corp. is the GNWT. Its board of directors is made up of deputy ministers, who replaced the minister-appointed board last year to save a million dollars in honorariums and travel costs. Those deputy ministers answer to cabinet who answer to MLAs in the legislative assembly. Conversely, the Public Utilities Board is also made up of ministerial appointees, including its chair Gord Van Tighem. It's supposed to operate at arms length but nonetheless is not immune to ministerial directives on power rates.
What's missing in the power corp.'s endless demands for more money from ratepayers is a visionary plan that would quell its need for higher power rates. What is it doing to reduce its reliance on diesel? What are its plans for hydro expansion and other energy sources, such as wind, solar or geothermal?
The GNWT appears hellbent on driving Northland Utilities out of the territory - a subsidiary of multi-billion dollar ATCO, which has expressed interest in helping the NWT develop its energy potential - but Premier Bob McLeod won't meet with company brass.
What are MLAs doing to hold the premier and cabinet accountable on the energy file?
This should be at the very top of the list of concerns raised during this fall's leadership review. It will certainly be on top of the minds of voters when they head to the polls in 2019 - the final year of the latest power rate hike proposal.
Jackfish Lake needs warning signs Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, July 21, 2017
City councillor Shauna Morgan is right to be concerned about the state of Jackfish Lake - an appealing body of water at the northern perimeter of the city save for the alarming presence of blue-green algae that has turned the water an unsightly reddish-brown the last few years.
Morgan raised the issue during a municipal services meeting earlier this year where the subject matter was a capital area plan, which encompasses Jackfish Lake.
There was some uproar earlier this year when it was learned the territorial government hadn't tested water quality in Kam Lake in nearly 30 years despite a report from 1989 showing arsenic levels at more than five times the Canadian guideline level for safe drinking water.
But Jackfish Lake, which the GNWT reports has arsenic levels about five times the recommended drinking water level, is much more accessible to the public, tourists in particular, who are bound to be less aware of arsenic issues around Yellowknife than residents are. Fred Henne Territorial Park, downtown, the legislative assembly and museum are just a short walk down the road from Jackfish Lake. The area is crisscrossed with hiking trails.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is conducting a water sampling program of Jackfish this summer. Hopefully, this will provide the public with some information about the health and water quality of the lake.
Blue-green algae problems aside, it is an attractive area enjoyed by residents and tourists alike so developing more tourism and recreation-related infrastructure, such as boardwalks and lookouts, is a good idea.
In the meantime, there should be clear signage warning visitors there to not swim, drink the water, or eat the fish.
Keeping arts alive could pay off for struggling community
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, July 20, 2017
Antoine Mountain judges a community's health by its art.
The concept can sound airy to those more focused on hard sciences, economics and industry.
What does a painting or poem matter next to a multi-million-dollar rock quarry operation or satellite industry?
Art can be a proxy word for self-expression. In that light, the connection to community health becomes more clear.
Nothing is more defining of the human experience than self-expression. Without that, we're not all that different from animals, ants or any self-replicating organisms.
The concept is embedded in history as peoples across cultures battled for their own freedom to express themselves, in political, economic and personal terms.
A community with no self-expression is either under some kind of authoritarian control or devoid of emotion for another reason. The freer the society, the more humans can be humans.
With funding drying up, the Great Northern Arts Festival nearly didn't happen this year. The festival that is going on is scaled down from years past, as the largely empty hockey arena for workshops exemplifies.
But ask anyone attending, artist or visitor, and they're glad it's happening.
Discussion of social ills and crime in Inuvik has been a hot topic lately, with the Gwich'in Tribal Council recently hosting a community meeting to address the subject.
Vandalizing grave sites, drinking to blackout night after night and disengaging with society in similar ways are evidence of people who are lost and directionless.
Teenage years seem to be a point of divergence among people in the Beaufort Delta, judging by students' success numbers in high school. Some discover their passions, stay in school and find their path in life, while others become disengaged with the prescribed path and find their expression in darker places and forms.
Without a doubt, the greatest predictor for future behaviour is a child's upbringing and development.
Anything the North can do to develop positive passion in young people will help steer them clear of these more destructive paths. Though we can rage at the people who act out in this way and vandalize the community, we all wish they could heal and become contributing members of society, as everyone has worth and something to give.
Arts are one very accessible way young people can find their passion and voice. It's not barred off in the way long-term career and other educational choices are.
Sports go along with that. School athletics have the remarkable ability to switch a light on in students who otherwise look disengaged with the institution.
Both GNAF and the North American Indigenous Games, currently running in Toronto, provide outlets for self-expression and opportunities for people to find what makes them happy.
With money tight in the region these days, these kind of pursuits seem like easy places to cut.
But beyond the simple aesthetics of a nice drawing or good feeling from a day on the ball field, providing these sort of outlets and opportunities reinforce positive values and passion that will pay off for the community in the long term.
