Healthy snack day promotes importance of oral health
Students at East Three Elementary School were treated with apples and cheese as they celebrated Healthy Snack Day on April 18, which is one of the many initiatives that the school promotes during National Oral Health Month. Adama Stevens, the regional dental therapist, went from classroom to classroom and delivered the snacks to the students,...
Premier McLeod announces new associate deputy minister of infrastructure
Today the Premier Bob McLeod has announced the appointment of Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar to the position of associate deputy minister of Infrastructure, according to a news release. Kalgutkar will assume his new role on May 13 of this year. In his new position Kalgutkar will be leading the development of major infrastructure projects such as Taltson Hydro...
Wyss foundation commits $750k to protect Edéhzhíe lands
The Wyss Foundation, founded by Swiss entrepreneur Hansjörg Wyss, has announced it will commit $750,000 over three years to help protect the Edéhzhíe National Wildlife Area. The 3.5 million acre plot of land is protected by the Dehcho First Nation and the funding will go towards creating an Indigenous guardians program to manage the lands. This grant will...
Feds invest $2.7M into nine NWT projects
The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) is investing $2.7 million into nine economic development projects in the Northwest Territories. The benefiting projects range from tourism, film, and Indigenous cultural tourism to support for entrepreneurs, businesses and francophone markets. MP Michael McLeod announced funding for the following projects in Yellowknife today. Tourism research and marketing...
Vendors are critical to the community
Andy and Rania Crowther took Bon Cafe with them as they left for Calgary earlier this week. Not only is their departure a huge blow to the Arctic Market, but it’s a great loss for the community. Bon Cafe was more than just a coffee shop. It added variety and flare to the Arctic Market...
Remote family lodge to be operational this summer
Much like the six-foot saplings and fireweed growing back into the area where old growth trees used to be, longtime family getaway Namushka Lodge is slowly coming back to life at Harding Lake. The family business, owned by the Chorostkowskis for 30-plus years, is located southeast of Yellowknife. It had become inoperable after suffering damage...
Inuvik music school offers helping hand to neighbouring communities
Students at Angik School in Paulatuk can find soon themselves sitting in a music classroom learning how to play an instrument, thanks to the help of Inuvik’s Western Arctic School of Music (WASM). In addition to crafting the curriculum for Angik School’s new music program, WASM founder Glen Brake said he’ll also help to provide...
What Hay River really needs is a brand
On April 8, town council passed a motion to spend $100,000 – that would be $20,000 from the town and a hoped-for $80,000 from Ottawa – on developing a tourism marketing strategy. Our initial reaction was surprise and bewilderment. Another tourism study? You’ve got to be kidding? However, as we learned more about the proposal,...
Cost of dump fire continues to climb in Hay River
The cost of the now-extinguished fire at the landfill site continues to rise for the Town of Hay River. At the April 8 meeting of council, Judy Goucher, the town’s senior administrative officer, reported that the cost had climbed to over $600,000. “As of April 4, that number is now $608,000 of which approximately $200,000...
Satellite receivers in Inuvik finally being used
After receiving a long-awaited full operating license for their ground station site in Inuvik, Planet Labs is ready to put their satellite receivers to use at last. The San Francisco-based Earth imaging company was granted a full operating license from Global Affairs Canada on March 29, almost three years after submitting its initial application. “From...
Hay River council backs $100,000 project for tourism marketing strategy
The Town of Hay River is hoping to develop and implement a tourism marketing strategy this year. Council passed a motion on April 8 to approve a one-year, $100,000 project to create the strategy and execute its key components. The approval is conditional on the town securing a minimum of 80 per cent of the...
Special Olympics seeks volunteers in Hay River
Special Olympics NWT is seeking volunteers to start programming in Hay River for the first time. This follows a successful Try-It Day on Dec. 8, when four local athletes showed up. “It was fantastic. We were so happy with it,” said Lynn Elkin, executive director of Special Olympics NWT in Yellowknife. Along with the four...
Hay River break-up on the way
The annual watch of the Hay River has begun in advance of spring break-up, which this year might be earlier than usual. Ross Potter, the director of protective services with the Town of Hay River, took his first trip of the season up the river on April 10 to check out the ice conditions. Potter...
Organizer disappointed with response to GoFundMe to help people displaced by fire
Mark Lundbek, the creator of a GoFundMe page on the Internet to raise money for people displaced by the Mackenzie Place highrise fire, is disappointed by the response from the community. Lundbek said some people are not donating to the GoFundMe effort because of a “stigma” surrounding the highrise. “A lot of people feel that,...
Basketball program a slam dunk for Inuvik youth
A nation-wide basketball program for Canadian youth that made its way to Inuvik for the first time earlier this year continues to attract a high volume of young ballers to the court every weekend. Canada’s exclusive “Jr. NBA” basketball program is designed to introduce youth between the ages of five to 12 to the game...
Hay River’s Gavin Broadhead to begin full-time speed skating training in Calgary
Gavin Broadhead, a former resident of Hay River and one-time Junior A hockey player, is focusing on a new sport to see where it will take him. “I’m moving to Calgary in June to start training full time for speed skating,” he said in an April 12 telephone interview with The Hub. Broadhead will train...
DESTINATIONS: Spare the rod, make the choice, because your government won’t
If all I am taught is hate, what then do I teach? Instruction by the rod, striking punishment whether warranted or not, leaves its mark and the snap of an arbitrary motivation. Violence, as I learned from my biological father did not teach me his wish: To obey. Instead, it systematically made compulsive anger and...
Report on handguns released
After hearing from Canadians across the country, Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, released his summary report April 12. The report: Reducing Violent Crime: A Dialogue on Handguns and Assault-Style Firearms contained feedback from 135,000 online responses and approximately 1,200 email, mail and fax responses. The feedback will be used to...
Nominations wanted for Arctic Inspiration Prize
Nominations are now open for the 2019 Arctic Inspiration Prize. This year, $3 million is up for grabs. A $1 million prize will be awarded to an exceptional team and up to four teams will be awarded up to $500,000 each. Seven teams with members under the age of 30 will be awarded up to...
Sleep at night and work during the day
Editor’s note: Columnist Catherine Lafferty is writing a series on the Dene laws. This week’s installment is on the fourth of the nine laws, which is: “Sleep at Night and Work During the Day” This Dene law of sleep at night and work during the day was particularly difficult for me to write about because...
Don’t let the old man in
Recently Toby Keith wrote the song “Don’t Let the Old Man In” after Clint Eastwood told him he was starting to work on the movie The Mule on his 88th birthday. Eschia! Amazed at Eastwood’s energy at 88, Keith asked how he does it. Eastwood said, “I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t...
Salt River First Nation and GNWT meet
Salt River First Nations (SRFN) chief Frieda Martselos along with council members Melvin Fortier, Ray Tourangeau, Chris Hunter and council members-elect Warren Gagnon and Warren Sikyea met with Premier Bob McLeod, Minister or Education, Culture and Employment Caroline Cochrane, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Infrastructure Wally Schumann last Monday to discuss issues that will impact...
Band managers can now join local government administrators board
Band managers can now join the Local Government Administrators of the NWT (LGANT). At their AGM last fall, LGANT members voted to broaden the membership definition to include them. One seat on the LGANT board of directors is now reserved for a band manager. The changes became effective on April 1 of this year. Membership...
Report of armed man triggered school lockdowns: Behchoko RCMP
RCMP are assuring Behchoko residents there is no immediate threat after Mounties responded to a report of a man carrying a firearm in the community yesterday, prompting schools to be locked down. Just before 4 p.m. on Monday, RCMP were alerted to a sighting of a man walking in the community with a firearm. NWT...
Behchoko death ruled a homicide, no suspects charged: RCMP
A “suspicious” death in Behchoko earlier this week has now been ruled a homicide. Mounties announced the shift in the ongoing investigation Friday afternoon, after making a public plea for witnesses of suspicious activity on the morning of April 8, when the man was found unresponsive in the community. The man, who has been identified...
Public hearings on three bills
The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment is holding a series of public hearings next week on three bills – Bill 38: Protected Areas Act, Bill 39: Environmental Rights Act and Bill 44: Forest Act. The hearings will start in Fort Smith on April 23 at 7 p.m. in the Salt River First Nation...
Bison Bus to tour NWT
The NWT Literacy Council’s Bison Bus is planning to hit the road this summer, bringing books, games and other activities to kids in communities on the highway system. “The Bison Bus is a literacy centre on wheels,” says Charlotte Upton, family and community literacy co-ordinator for the council. “For the past few years, we’ve been...
Ground shifting on Banks Island
There was a 60-fold increase in landslides caused by thawing permafrost on Banks Island between 1984 and 2015, according to a research article published on April 2. The amount of active thaw slumping—the technical term for these landslides—right now is only about 0.1 percent of the total island. While the island can likely accommodate greater...
Popular Inuvik cafe owners leave town
The owners of a local fan favourite café packed up and left town earlier this week, leaving a hole in Inuvik’s Arctic Market scene that will be tough to fill. Andy and Rania Crowther, the couple behind Bon Café, set up shop at the Arctic Market three years ago, after the couple decided to combine...
Earning credits on the land
Students in the NWT will soon be able to earn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) high school credits while gaining on-the-land skills. Actua, a non-profit that’s been around for 25 years, has a mandate to reach out to youth living in remote communities and introduce them to STEM, as well as girls, who are...