Boosting morale
Many native leaders share government’s belief development will eventually bring down the high cost of everyday goods — but when?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a group of military men and women that an increased military presence in the North was crucial to protecting Canadian sovereignty in the region.
CHURCHILL, Man. — It is vast, it is rugged and the North is full of economic potential.
After a week of traversing the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, along with a stop in northeastern Manitoba, Prime Minister Stephen Harper left behind a series of funding announcements to try to help the economy and protect the fragile ecosystem already being affected by global warming and melting polar ice caps.
But the day- to- day realities for Northerners are challenging. The cost of living is notoriously high. A quart of milk can cost $ 4 — a 24 pack of bottled water cost $ 50 in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. In Norman Wells, N. W. T., locals find it cheaper to bulk order from Edmonton and pay the freight than to buy local. Others in Norman Wells will drive some 36 hours to Edmonton to stock up on food and household goods.
There are health issues as well in the territories, with diabetes diagnoses three times the national average, and suicide rates 11 times above the national average.
As Nunavut’s premier told reporters, despite its potential and beauty, there is a harsh reality waxed over by a romantic view of the North.
In casual conversation with residents in the Northern communities Harper visited on his five- day trip, many expressed interest in seeing natural resource development, believing that mining, oil and natural gas extraction could provide badly needed jobs. But they are acutely aware the environment is paramount and want to avoid anything that could damage their traditional way of life.
Tapping those resources, as the federal government believes, could not only provide jobs and income, but also help address the high cost of living in the North, a lack of infrastructure in the region, and, in Nunavut and Whitehorse, a growing demand for housing.
Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak said in some cases, there are two or three families living under one roof. “Housing touches upon a whole lot of other things. Everything is connected. If someone has a roof over their heads, children, education, job prospects, all of these things are connected.”
“For me to say that, we also have huge opportunities,” she said, citing as examples the mining opportunities in the territory, the melting sea ice opening shipping lanes in Lancaster Sound and the Northwest Passage.
In Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, local officials said they believed the government’s investment of almost $ 200 million in a High Arctic research centre in the hamlet could provide economic spinoffs of almost the same amount for the local economy. The construction of the facility over the next six years should provide jobs to about 120 people in Cambridge Bay.
The premiers of the three territories hope that as Ottawa hands over more power to them, a process known as devolution, they will be able to earn more money for their coffers and pay for the growing needs in their part of the country. In the Yukon, Premier Darrell Pasloski said that a new royalty sharing agreement with the federal government would add $ 40 million annually to the territory’s revenues.
Harper argued the federal spending on helping mining companies find new deposits, pushing more oil and natural gas development in the region, and providing dollars for a new Arctic research station would trickle down to the people in the region in terms of economic opportunities.
Harper said often that he believed generating wealth in the North would erase some of the social woes in the region.
“We want to make sure that, as I say, we do whatever we can to improve opportunity here, but to make sure as well that we have a great opportunity tomorrow,” he said Thursday in Cambridge Bay. “Everything is so uphill in terms of development unless you can get core economic activity. ”
What isn’t clear, though, is how long it will take to bring down prices of everyday goods, or alleviate the housing crunch in the North. “That’s not conducive to healthy living and advancing education and job prospects.,” Aariak said.