So what's the alternative?Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, September 25, 2017
The second session of the 18th Legislative Assembly reconvened Sept. 19 in the capital and will run until Oct. 4. But this isn't just another short work shift for our elected officials.
On Oct. 5, Premier Bob McLeod and his ministers will make speeches in the House defending their records.
This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of our consensus form of government - the mid-term review. It's a chance for the regular MLAs to air their grievances - sure, something akin to the Festivus ritual on Seinfeld - and then have a secret vote that could lead to the ousting of any under-performing, or simply unfavoured cabinet minister -- including the NWT's first minister, Premier McLeod.
Following what surely can be some fine feather puffery during the ministerial monologues, the regular MLAs will then be allowed to ask questions. Many, many questions. Some 10 days of them.
There is then the vote by secret ballot. While the results are non-binding, it would most surely mean ouster from cabinet.
Sounds great - kick the bums out, right? But perhaps we should be careful of what we wish for.
It must be admitted that consensus government is not the best democratic model to govern anything higher than the municipality level. It doesn't really provide the opportunity to form strong policies or to govern in a direct, open and clear manner.
It also allows weak ministers to slide under the radar, protected by their departments, only seen in the capital during session and even with some rarely seen in their home constituencies.
So what ministers are under the microscope?
Education, Culture and Employment Minister Alfred Moses. Both the Junior Kindergarten and Aurora College files were bobbled, bungled and botched.
Justice Minister Louis Sebert, minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, and also minister for public engagement and transparency. His role is far more opaque than transparent and crime statistics remain abysmal. And the power corporation file continues to sap his energy.
Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy, also responsible for the Public Utilities Board. Not much good to say on the health file, except there is a shiny new hospital being built in Yellowknife that we're told is on budget. Abernethy needs to back up his words with actions.
Some ministers that have caught News/North's eye for performing well, or at least not walking into too many walls: Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs Caroline Cochrane, who is also tasked with status of women and homelessness; Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod; and Premier Bob McLeod, who while at times looks more like a committee chair than a premier, does run the place with a steady hand.
So is it time for a change? Should the existing cabinet be given a mandate to move forward? While there are certainly some very skilled and outspoken regular MLAs, others are not.
And those whose names you regularly see and hear in the media are dragging some special interest and political affiliation baggage with them that might not be a good fit in cabinet.
So before you strive for change, please consider the alternatives.
Decolonization will be long, expensive processNunavut/News North - Monday, September 25, 2017
This month, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. presented a commissioned report detailing the lost wages from the territorial and federal governments' failure to implement Article 23 of the Nunavut Agreement, which calls for government staffing ratios to match that of the population.
Nunavut is 84 per cent Inuit but Inuit make up only 50 per cent of Government of Nunavut employees. The federal government sits at only 41 per cent.
The new report updates one from 2003, which noted that Inuit employment had fallen from 1999 levels of 45 per cent down to 42 per cent in 2002.
That year, the Nunavut government and NTI agreed to a target ratio of 85 per cent Inuit employment for public service employees in Nunavut. A doubling of the 2002 ratio was ambitious.
A review of the Nunavut government's own Inuit employment statistics, available for anyone to read on its website, shows the Inuit employment ratio surged to 50 per cent within a few years but has been stalled at that 50 per cent level for the past decade.
It's no wonder NTI sued the federal and territorial governments for $1 billion, eventually settling for $255 million. But perhaps NTI's new president (new since the settlement, anyway) is gearing up to fight for the rest, as $255 million won't go very far to train Inuit to take government jobs.
Premier Peter Taptuna touts the Nunavut government's success in doubling the number of Inuit working in the public service, but they have also hired a non-Inuit employee every time they've hired an Inuk. The size of government has certainly grown but not the percentage of Inuit employees.
Nunavummiut are fed up. It should be no surprise that MLAs, reflecting the mood, rejected the government's last-ditch effort to make amendments to the Education Act and the Inuit Language Protection Act that would have relaxed timelines for language instruction in Inuktitut. The government is not hiring enough teachers who can teach Inuktitut to meet its own standards within the promised timeline, and Nunavummiut have heard enough excuses.
It will take a tremendous effort, and a substantial investment to achieve true parity, if that can ever happen. Where will these teachers come from? How do you train non-Inuit teachers to teach in Inuktitut if they stay a year, two, or three?
Housing, Environment, and Community and Government Services are all sitting well below 50 per cent Inuit employment. Education and Health, surprisingly, are actually fairly average by the government's standards.
The government is top-heavy with non-Inuit, who take up the upper management and professional roles. It's no wonder the government is investing in programs to train Inuit managers and professionals.
This top-down approach to government is a Western model that needs to be considered in any decolonization efforts.
In order to achieve parity, a Nunavut government must fully immerse itself in Inuit culture and traditions. This will remain a sticking point if education levels and cultural confidence don't grow.
Which leads us back to NTI. The government either doesn't have the money, the capacity, or the interest to get serious about training Inuit for the future of Nunavut's bureaucracy. It's time for NTI to push even harder, and aim for that $1 billion mark again.
It's going to take that amount - or more - to do this right, before Inuit language and culture disappear.
Plastic not so fantastic Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, September 22, 2017
Fast food has come a long way since the golden age of grease and Styrofoam-clad burgers, fries and fried chicken of the previous century.
Murray Jones, the owner of Murray's Curbside Treats N' Eats, has been using compostable and recyclable cardboard containers to package his food for the past two years. Last week, he told Yellowknifer he plans to ask the city to make eco-friendly containers a requirement for all food truck licences next year.
This might seem like preachy overreach by one crusading entrepreneur, but many people would agree that Yellowknife has a serious littering problem, especially downtown where the food trucks do their business. And if a substitute for Styrofoam - which, unlike paper, lasts forever -- can be found, one that spares space at the city's aging landfill, then why not?
Past environment campaigns in the territory, such as the push to use recyclable shopping bags over plastic bags, and recyclable beverage containers have proved immensely popular and have gone a long way to prevent trash from accumulating on our streets and in our green spaces.
The Yellowknife Farmers Market already adopted similar practices, with a focus on compostable packaging while enticing market goers to bring their own plates and containers. Jones is right to be amazed by what the market was able to keep out of the city landfill with minimal fuss and bother - about 1,000 kilograms of waste was diverted to the compost facility in 2017.
Take-out vendors are trying to run low-margin businesses in a highly competitive field where speed, convenience and costs can make or break them. Fast-food customers want their meals cheap, ready in an instant, and delivered in a package that allows them to carry them away and eat later.
Jones' successful food truck suggests switching from Styrofoam is not going to make or break or business or keep customers away. He says eco-friendly packaging only adds around 15 cents to each meal he sells.
Given Styrofoam takes around 200 years to break down in the landfill, this seems like a bargain to city taxpayers paying for more space to bury more garbage.
Government needs to log on Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, September 22, 2017
Dear Department of Health and Social Services: the Internet is not, actually, a fad. One Yellowknife MLA drove that point home recently.
Julie Green called on the territorial government to engage youth via social media, after the GNWT released a draft of a Child and Youth Mental Wellness Plan in August.
Deputy minister Debbie DeLancey agreed, saying "Posters just don't cut it."
She added her department already has a relationship with Kids Help Hone, and Northwestel and Bell Mobility have offered funding for youth mental health initiatives more than a year ago. DeLancey said staff are currently in discussions with Bell.
The action plan came out of a retreat facilitated by FOXY (Fostering Open eXpression Among Youth) and SMASH (Strength, Masculinities and Sexual Health) this summer, that brought 130 young people together. They gave feedback on how they think the government should be tackling mental health.
The question is, did the GNWT listen?
Mental health services are crucial to young people but as Green pointed out, the report has a "fail-whale" sized hole when it comes to digital technology. While social media may be something the Department of Health and Social Services has looked at, it's past time to include the platforms young people spend their lives on in a five-year action plan. It could literally save their lives.
More UAV pilots need ground school trainingEditorial Comment by Kirsten Fenn
Inuvik Drum - Friday, September 22, 2017
When I was a kid, I remember taking a couple of mechanical airplanes out to the field by my parents' house in rural Ontario and zipping them through the blue skies.
My little brother, my dad and I were out with family friends and were racing them haphazardly, without a care in the world.
There was something exhilarating about sitting in the pilot's seat – or, at least, behind the remote.
Where we lived, we were far from any airport and many people. There was no one around in those fields but us, the grass and some trees.
Yet, somehow, I doubt we would be able to fly those toy planes feeling as carefree today.
Since then, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have skyrocketed in popularity and, with that, regulations for flying drones have been racing to catch up.
Everyone and their mother seems to have a drone these days and they're becoming more affordable for the average citizen.
Now Transport Canada has started to crack its whip, announcing stricter rules in March for people looking to fly drones recreationally.
Those who fly them for commercial or research purposes are also required to have certification, according to Transport Canada.
From Sept. 12 to 14, Aurora College hosted its first ground school course in Inuvik for people looking to strengthen their understanding of how to fly drones safely in an airspace shared with other aircraft.
Organizers suggested the course may not be the last, and that's good news.
When the federal government announced its new rules for recreational drones in March, a news release stated that "the number of incidents involving recreational drones has more than tripled since 2014," and that their use has increased safety risks.
Students in the Inuvik course were interested in using their drones for a variety of different reasons – from commercial photography and videography to racing them for fun – but they all wanted to ensure they were operating legally and safely.
Especially in a town like Inuvik, with an active airspace situated close to the community, it's important people follow the rules.
Not only will more ground school courses make our skies safe for everyone by educating people about safe flying practices, it could open the door for local business opportunities.
At least one person in the course said they've received requests for drone photography and video work around town.
By completing the ground school, they said, they're one step closer to having the knowledge and certification they need to eventually sell their work.
Here's hoping there will be more ground school training to come in the North.
Downtown problem needs downtown solution
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The long search for the sobering centre's permanent home is over.
The facility will be housed in the former Canarctic Graphics building adjacent to the Northern Lites Motel downtown. The building is - full disclosure - owned by Northern News Services. As well, the Safe Harbour Day Centre will also move under the sobering centre roof.
Predictably, and perhaps understandably, feedback from neighbouring businesses is resoundingly wary. Many believe the centre will make the area a hotbed of loitering, littering and public intoxication. These concerns certainly aren't unreasonable and it's fair to say any proposed location would be met with the same not-in-my-backyard reaction. Yellowknifer understands this, and feels for those who aren't excited about this development.
In fact, by all accounts, the Department of Health and Social Services struggled to find a suitable space and willing landlord in a central location for almost a year. Government officials looked at a whopping 22 potential sites before settling on one.
But here's the thing - Yellowknife's homeless problem is unquestionably a downtown problem. The people who use the day shelter and sobering centre hang out downtown for the most part, so making sure services available to them downtown is key. It just wouldn't make any sense to put a shelter out in Kam Lake, Old Airport Road or near the airport, where nobody can get to it.
Now that the space has been selected and the wheels are moving to get approvals and needed renovations finished as soon as possible, Yellowknifer is interested to see how things will go. The GNWT is responsible for security, and of course that includes making sure the new facility isn't a lightning rod for neighbourhood issues.
A future step is identifying a space where homeless citizens trying to overcome addictions and alcoholism can seek shelter without having to share it with people who are not. The current shelter and sobering centre are not equipped for that.
In the meantime, hopefully the best case scenario comes to fruition - that the new day shelter and sobering centre provide good services to those who need it, and help to reduce the city's homelessness problem overall, along with all of the other great initiatives that have been rolled out in the past year.
Downtown revitalization deja vu
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The road to revitalize downtown has been a long one. Multiple iterations of city council have wrestled with the problem over multiple years with just as many false starts.
Last Monday, council directed administration to develop a three-year action plan, which looks like more of the same from this vantage point. To understand why, let's rewind a bit. In 2011, the city decided a "Range Street" revamp was in order, so it bought a bunch of property along the infamous road and tore down the buildings sitting on them in the hopes of developing eco-housing.
This never happened. Two years later, the city waded back into real estate by purchasing the 50/50 lot at the corner of Franklin Avenue and 50 Street, in the hopes of building a state-of-the-art park plaza. This plaza idea was soundly panned by Yellowknife residents and council but the purchase was approved.
The city's new three-year action plan will include plans for these properties, along with other initiatives such as sidewalk patios, anti-littering campaigns and small-business incentives. These are all wonderful ideas but why not focus on the $1,000,000 question first - what to do with all the land the city purchased?
Yellowknifer hopes to one day see a vibrant Dene cultural centre downtown and the 50/50 lot would be the perfect place for it. As for the other lots -- until the city finds a buyer, this area will remain a gaping hole in the city's core.
Directing administration to come up with a three-year plan to revitalize downtown may have been one of Coun. Adrian Bell's proudest moments, but the day council decides on a realistic plan for the superfluous property it owns - that's when Yellowknifer will applaud the city.
Many tears until victory
Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, September 20, 2017
There has been some talk surfacing the past little while questioning whether suicide prevention walks and various live-and-love-life events actually do any good.
The folks who look at them skeptically see no need to raise awareness about suicide in Nunavut, because we're all too aware of it already, and better to spend your time and effort doing tangible things to help others.
On the surface, the view has merit, and it's always a great thing to see people doing something to help others in their community. But the notion that the walks, gatherings and special events do no real good is just plain wrong.
Awareness opens doors of communication, and bringing the issue out into the light places the beast at its most vulnerable.
Although its origins are as an African proverb, it has often been quoted in many cultures, that it takes a community to raise a child.
The proverb is alluding to partnerships within the community with neighbours, police officers, clergy members, teachers, sports coaches, cadet and Girl Guide leaders, and so on.
On a clean slate, the partnerships focus on keeping youths moving in a positive, productive direction, hopefully away from the dark temptations that cross all our paths, especially in today's world.
The same focus has to exist here for there to ever be any hope of slaying the monster that suicide is. And, no matter how big or how small, every awareness walk or celebrate life event strengthens, in some small way, the community's resolve to fight back.
When yet another person takes his or her life in our region, all but the most hardhearted among us collectively sag, fear the monster, and curse the futility of the battle we find ourselves in.
But we've really only been truthfully fighting this battle out in the open for the past decade, and it was destined to be a hell of a fight because of how ingrained the monster had become in our communities.
Nobody likes to hear it, but suicide had become almost an accepted way of life by the time people screamed enough and began to take the fight out into the light.
It's much easier for the combined force of a community to be effective with a clean slate, with almost everyone pulling in the same direction.
But when a monster has dug in deep, it takes away from a collective's singular focus and forces it to expend energy on harm already done.
In a number of our communities, the battle is a promise of many tears being shed before ever being won, as some will slip through our fingers as our attention wades in numerous directions. That is often how the cycle survives.
But we are making progress, and I believe we will one day win this battle, at least for the majority who spend their lives on the edge.
Every single cheer we can muster for enjoying life, every inch of light we drag the monster into by raising awareness and talking openly, and every single person we show that we care, we inch one step closer.
I'll walk for that any day.
