Thank you so much for the article on the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Yellowknife in the Wednesday, June 3 issue of Yellowknifer. Thank you also for featuring me on the front page.

The response was great and we received many compliments on the new store and about the article you wrote. Following your article, we had our largest sales week ever and the donations received were tremendous.

Our sincere appreciation for the work you did to let the community know about the new Salvation Army Thrift Store. All of the proceeds from the Thrift Store stay in the North, so an increase in sales definitely helps the Salvation Army to assist the people of Yellowknife and the NWT.

Good job, Guy Quenneville, thank you!

The energy sector is all over the news these days: the electricity review, the hydro strategy and the greenhouse gas strategy, to name a few. They're all very important to the way we'll produce and price electricity for many years to come.

So, we've been working with stakeholders, local government and the GNWT to foster decisions that are sustainable over the long term.

We also think the GNWT is reshaping an NWT electricity industry that's on a pretty solid foundation.

"So what happened to our assets?" a letter to the editor asked last week ("Questioning NTPC's power management, Yellowknifer, June 19). Well, they've expanded and improved efficiency, and are continuing to work effectively to provide our owners, the people of the Northwest Territories, with a profitable and reliable service they've come to trust.

Since 2000, NTPC has paid $41.4 million in dividends to the GNWT. These dividends help to pay for the Territorial Power Support Program, which subsidizes consumers in small communities to the Yellowknife rate.

NTPC is the only entity that helps pay for this important program.

Also since 2000, another $55 million in long-term debt has been repaid and more than $100 million has been spent on new assets to ensure the provision of safe, reliable service. In addition, NTPC has increased its equity by $25 million since the division with Nunavut in 2001.

We've also earned national recognition for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 49 per cent and decreasing diesel consumption by 75 per cent. We've done this by expanding our hydro and natural gas generation, installing energy efficient streetlights in smaller communities, and investing in other alternative energy projects.

In 2005, NTPC was awarded the President's Bronze Medal Award for employee safety by the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) for achieving 1,000,000 hours without lost time due to injury.

Each year we distribute more than $100,000 to the communities we serve by way of donations and sponsorships. This support comes either by cash or in-kind donations, such as employee time or use of NTPC property or materials.

And at the end of the day, NTPC has managed to maintain a 99.97 per cent reliability rating, among the best in the Canadian utility industry, according to the CEA.

"So what happened to our assets over the past nine years?" We think a lot of very good things for our customers and our shareholders.

Equal Parenting supporters across Canada are relieved with the latest initiative from the federal government. Bill- C-422 has been tabled in the House of Commons. We are pleased as punch that our government has finally acknowledged the special joint committee and all political parties' recommendations of the "For the Sake of Children" child study of 1998.

We salute Saskatoon MP Maurice Vellacott for his tireless efforts promoting equality as seen by the average Canadian. We further salute Liberal backbenchers with their on-going support for Bill C-422.

This is an issue that has come to its time. We encourage Northern equal parenting supporters to contact the Western Arctic MP Denis Bevington with a call for Mr. Bevington to support the bill. We further encourage supporters to write the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, copy the prime minister and all party leaders to also support the bill.

The future of your children and your children's children are worth the effort.

I read your article "Tsetta new chief in Ndilo" in the June 17 issue of the Yellowknifer with keen interest because I was born on the Taltson River, NWT. In this article, Dogrib Chief Tsetta basically states that the land in the Yellowknife area belongs to "us" (?) the "Yellowknives" Dettah and Ndilo band. It is important to note that in 1991 the Dogrib tribe who resided at Dettah/Ndilo in Yellowknife took the name of another tribe - the "Yellowknives." The Dogribs and Yellowknives tribes are two distinctly different tribes who have a different language and land areas.

Prior to 1991, Chief Tsetta's Dogrib tribe was always known as the "Dogrib band" and they continue to speak the Dogrib language.

Treaty 8, 1900 adhesions for the Dogrib tribe, North Arm, Great Slave Lake, was signed by the Dogrib Chief Dried Geese. Oddly, the Dogrib band also signed another treaty in 1921.

Of utmost importance, is that Chief Snuff of the true Yellowknives tribe signed Treaty 8, 1900 adhesions for his Yellowknives band for the south shore of Great Slave Lake. In the early 1800s Chief Akaitcho of the Yellowknives (aka Copper, Redknife Indians) band became well-known due to saving the Franklin expedition.

Later the Yellowknives also were known as the "Taltson River" or (aka Rocher River) people. In 1900, Chief Snuff lived on the Taltson River at Snuff Channel near the town of Rocher River.

It is of interest that the historical treaties are never referred to, yet that is where all of the answers are as to the true ownership of lands.

For verification of this, please refer to the historical Treaty 8, 1900 adhesions. It specifically states that the Dogribs and the Yellowknives are two different tribes.

Also, for more information please refer to the Taltson River People's web page titled "Where are the True Yellowknives."

Well, I'm very happy to hear that summer students don't get $26 an hour to begin with, because administrative workers or clerks generally start at about $23 dollars per hour and it only takes five or so years to get to that $26 dollar an hour range. They work year-round for 37.5 hours a week.

Let's now put this in a comparison. Students can earn up to $26 per hour by working for three months a year for a few years in a row. Three years, equals nine months of work and they have now by-passed a full-time employee who has worked for five or six years?

These full-time people pay mortgages, rent, buy food, pay bills, and bring up children.

They certainly don't get pay increases like what is indicated by apparent summer students, or their parents, in the Wednesday issue of the Yellowknifer, June 17.

And no, the students do not do the same work the regular employees do; they do a portion of it only. Is there animosity toward the students? I doubt it. Maybe toward the people setting these rates, though.

Now, can you imagine how these full-time employees feel after finding out how much some summer students are making? How fair does this seem to you?

Range Street: a Yellowknife historical marker or a black mark on the city? I think the latter. I personally avoid it when I can - both in my car and on foot. The alcohol, verbal and physical abuses you witness while passing through the doors of Centre Square Mall or walking down the sidewalk are enough to make you want walk the entire other way around the mall. It's disgusting. At any time of day there are drunken brawls, loiterers, persons passed out in doorways, jaywalking through traffic and giving you the finger if you get in their way. I've even had my car hood punched in from a staggering man that I'd stopped to let pass right in the middle of the street.

And can you imagine taking your kids down there? No way. This street is really doing a disservice to Yellowknife with the bad impression it makes.