Stacie Smith, owner of Flowers North, has announced her candidacy for Yellowknife city council.In a post to her personal Facebook page, Smith wrote she will vie for a seat when nominations open on Aug. 31.
“I am a born and raised Yellowknifer. I am a business owner and I am First Nations. I work predominantly in the downtown core of Yellowknife. The social issues that present themselves on a daily basis need to be addressed instead of glazed over,” she wrote.
“It takes a village to raise a child but it also takes a community and the sense of community to sustain them,” wrote Smith.
Taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit the majority and be “customized for our unique Northern way of life,” she wrote.
Yellowknife is no southern metropolis, said Smith, and southern models are not entirely functional in the North, she said.
Indigenous peoples are not currently represented on city council, Smith asserted.
“In a city that is largely Indigenous there should and need to be Indigenous faces on our city council. I am not afraid to speak my mind and be the voice for others,” she said.
– Avery Zingel
GNWT developing 10-year arts strategy
The GNWT is developing a 10-year arts strategy aimed at boosting the territory's cultural sector.
A recent request for proposals stated a NWT Arts Strategy will express the territorial government's role in supporting the arts, and will be implemented jointly by the departments of Education,
Culture and Employment, and Industry, Tourism and Investment.
The government has set aside $50,000 for the strategy, and set a deadline of Jan. 30, 2019 for the document.
The RFP states the strategy should express the government's “values, vision, goals and priorities” for supporting the arts over the next decade, but does not specify what the GNWT's overarching vision is for the future of the arts in the Northwest Territories.
The existing arts strategy has not been updated in 14 years.
– Sidney Cohen