My Sister Applies For the Best Job On Earth

Go to Youtube and rate her video 5 stars.

Trip to Yellowknife

Here is the illicit fruit of my smuggling venture from Yellowknife. It could have been pure disaster at the airports. Fortunately, the scanners were not used for my flight from Yellowknife.














This is a shot of the very southwestern tip of Baffin Island from the airplane coming home to Iqaluit. The ice is just starting to break-up north of the Hudson Bay...but only just.















Here the view of the NWT legislature - the lil' legislature in the woods.















Bright lights, big city - The view of downtown Yellowknife from the Explorer Hotel at 8:30am















This is the "Sculpture of the North", an awesome piece of art made from a slab of marble that is 2 billion years old. Nice.















The northern outback is only a few steps from the NWT legislature....

Yellowknife/Iqaluit 2009

I'm in Yellowknife this week for some professional development courses, necessary for my CA designation. Not a bad way to spend a week, and it's a good chance for me to explore the town a bit.

What I've noticed is that while Iqaluit is a government town, Yellowknife is definitely a mining town (with government taking a back seat). Rio Tinto/Diavik and other outfits spot the downtown core of the city, with jewellers, and other mining spin-off companies all in the same general vicinity.

I have also noticed the lack of inuit people here. Iqaluit has over 50% inuit people, so their general absence makes an impression.

While there is some art to be found, it is mostly the work of one artist that pops up. While in Iqaluit, carvers will approach you anywhere to sell their gear, Yellowknife does not seem to have the same community of carvers.. I feel privileged to be staged in Iqaluit, despite the fact that there are no liquor stores like Yellowknife, there is no real variety in terms of shopping (sorry Northmart) and a lack of a business centre.

I won't say one place is better than the other, but I am definitely luckier to be in Iqaluit, despite its problems. Iqaluit is a beautiful area on the very edge of the Canadian tundra, and it is still making its way in terms of defining its path into the future. Yellowknife has a long story, and predates the advent of Iqaluit by centuries, while Iqaluit is still sorting its way through history.

Northern Prohibition = Black Market Opportunity

(Legalize it)
Every denomination
Every color
Every religion
(Legalize it)
--Cypress Hill

Alcohol, as you may know, is not legally purchased for personal use in Nunavut, except through the once-a-year shipments from Rankin Inlet, via water shipment. Otherwise, your only options are a)the black market, or b)having beers at the bars.

Now, I suppose this may cut down on the social ills of alcohol, although it doesn't stop some of the citizens of Iqaluit from getting completely plastered during daylight hours and walking down the middle of the street blowing motorists kisses (yes, I actually saw this last week).

As we know, and myself especially coming from Vancouver, the prohibition of a popular substance leads to a black market sparking a parallel power source (ie: gangs, mafia) which leads to the law of unintended consequences. The attempt to stamp out social ills (alcohol abuse) leads to more social ills (alcohol abuse and gangs).

Which leads us to the news:

Man charged after liquor bust at Iqaluit airport

A 25-year-old man from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, has been arrested after RCMP seized 69 bottles of alcohol at the Iqaluit airport over the weekend.

Jamesie Ishulutaq has been charged with the illegal possession of liquor and keeping liquor for sale.

He is scheduled to appear in court in Iqaluit on May 4, said a Tuesday RCMP news release.

Iqaluit RCMP said they executed a search warrant at the airport on Saturday, seizing 59 12-ounce bottles and 10 60-ounce bottles of liquor.

The street value of the alcohol is estimated at about $13,000, police say.

Yeah, the police estimate of $200/bottle is about as ridiculous as it gets, methinks, but whatever. The higher the estimate, the more impressive the bust.

Anyways, there is no reason to suspect that Jamesie is a gang member or anything, but the potential for gangs to form is there. Iqaluit is a growing town, and will become a serious power centre in a few short years, if capital planning and expenditures stay on track. This means that in the medium term, there will be a push for more alcohol, meaning a more lucrative and thus more competitive (ie: dangerous) black market opportunity for entrepreneurial black marketeers.

Arctic Outing

Me and Jen hit the back country for a short jaunt:

Images of Iqaluit

Just a few snaps from the town of Iqaluit...I'm still trying to figure out how to capture the Northern Lights on film.

The Beat Goes On: The Forces Are Picking Up the Tab

The DND counts up the costs of maintaining a presence at the top of the world:

Flying flag in the Arctic could cost Forces $843 million a year: documents

OTTAWA — Flying the flag in the Arctic could cost the Canadian military as much as $843 million annually, says a series of internal Defence Department cost estimates.

The bill for operation and maintenance would be on top of the estimated $4.5-billion capital outlay for new light icebreakers, a deepwater port and a support base, say the documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information laws.
[...]
The Tories had initially proposed construction of three armed, heavy icebreakers to patrol the waters left open by receding ice packs. Experts predict the channels could be open to unimpeded summer navigation by 2015.

The ambitious $1.6-billion plan was abandoned in 2007 in favour of a $3.1-billion proposal to build as many as eight smaller icebreakers capable of operating off all three coasts. Although the current plan is more expensive, officials have defended it as better-suited for the navy.

The federal government has also proposed constructing a deepwater port and base in Nanisivik, Nunavut, and a winter warfare school of excellence.

The Defence Department cost estimates do not include what Ottawa would potentially spend on development and other non-military initiatives in the North.

The head of the army, Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, conceded there will likely be a hefty pricetag, but the cost of doing nothing would be more damaging.

"Think of it as a return on investment," he said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. "It's sovereign Canadian territory; so it's part of our land.

"Who knows what untold mineral wealth might lay beneath those lands? Who knows what possible impact of folk using our North might be?"

It's true. The arctic has unlimited potential, so whether we use it for ecological reserves, development of northern cities, or resource development, or any other use, the money spent now is a down payment on keeping our claim on the north current.