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April 2017 - NWT Year and Review

Flights to Norman Wells permanently cancelled

First Air announced that it was cancelling flights between Norman Wells and Yellowknife starting

Members of the Lafferty family from Fort Good Hope hugged outside the Yellowknife courthouse on April 20 minutes after the man convicted of killing Charlotte Lafferty in 2014 was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. John McFadden/NNSL photo

May 17. At the time, Sahtu MLA Daniel McNeely said the cancellation was no surprise. In January, Imperial Oil announced it was shutting down production at the Norman Wells oil field, where 60 people were employed. At the time, officials said employees wouldn't be affected by layoffs – at least in the near future. Then the town faced another blow in March when a fire tore through the Manitoulin Transportation warehouse. The business employed as many as 10 people.

McNeely said the cancellation of First Air flights to Norman Wells means residents would have less choice when choosing airlines. Canadian North would still operate passenger flights between Norman Wells and Yellowknife, according to a flight schedule on the airline's website in March.

Buffalo Airways delivers cargo between Yellowknife and Norman Wells, but doesn't offer passenger flights.

Arrest made in Billy Cholo homicide case

Police arrested a person April 6 in connection with the homicide of Billy Cholo in Fort Simpson.

Cholo, 45, was found dead in a gazebo near the community's health centre on Jan. 9, 2014 after a search in the community.

Cholo's death was deemed a homicide after an autopsy of his body. The arrest was the first public update about the case by police since NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston raised concerns in 2016 at the Dene National Assembly that RCMP had not followed up on a tip. Sibbeston said he knew the name of a man who had threatened to kill Cholo shortly before his death.

Cholo had gone missing in December and police stated it was believed he was last seen around Christmastime 2013. RCMP later issued a statement saying the individual arrested on April 6 was later released without being charged.

GNWT withdraws case against Nahanni Butte Dene Band

A hearing regarding the Nahanni Butte Dene Band’s construction on a logging road was adjourned April 7.

The territorial government's Department of Lands was seeking a court order to halt the Nahanni Butte Dene Band from clearing an old logging road without a land use permit. The government claimed that by clearing trees and brush from the road, the band was trespassing on territorial land. The department claimed Nahanni Butte was trying to speed up development of Prairie Creek Zinc Mine by getting around an environmental assessment process required for construction of a road to the mine.

Nonetheless, the GNWT withdrew the case after the band retained a lawyer, saying it would like to try and resolve the issue outside of court.

News/North wins big at Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Awards

Judges in the 2017 Better Newspapers Competition named News/North the Best Overall paper in its circulation class, and also gave best overall individual awards to its editor and a veteran reporter.

Editor James O'Connor was named Columnist of the Year and placed third overall in the Editorial Writing Excellence category. Veteran News/North reporter Kassina Ryder placed first for Best Feature Story and third-place for Best Tourism Story. News/North was also deemed to have the Best Overall Editorial Page in its circulation size.

The competition is run by the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association, which has 80 member publications.

Behchoko gets new seniors’ home

The Jimmy Erasmus Seniors Home officially opened in Behchoko on April 12. The building, which houses 18 elders, holds eight more elders than its predecessor and stands at 1,935 square-metresin size.

It included spaces for programming, social gatherings and a community hall, as well as having wider hallways and accessibility ramps for elders who have mobility challenges.

There are also gardens, space for traditional and cultural gatherings and natural lighting.

Construction began in April 2012 with a budget of $14.2 million. The structure was built by Tlicho Construction with funds from the GNWT. The Tlicho government paid for training so Tlicho members could work at the facility.

Killer gets life in prison

Charlotte Lafferty’s killer was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years on April 20. The offender was a month shy of his 18th birthday when he sexually assaulted and beat to death the 23-year-old mother of three outside a senior's complex in Fort Good Hope on March 22, 2014.

A Yellowknife jury found the man guilty in February 2016 after six hours of deliberation following a two-week trial. The man was also added to Canada's sex offender registry for the rest of his life and banned from possessing a firearm for 10 years after his release from custody. After court adjourned, Lafferty's mother and the mother of her killer hugged and sobbed just outside the courtroom as family members and friends from both sides cried and watched them embrace.

In May, a publication ban was lifted and Lafferty’s killer was identified as Keenan McNeely.

Critics condemn Education Act changes

Proposed changes to the Education Act in Bill 16 – a decrease of up to 100 hours per year in instructional time and introduction of junior kindergarten next school year – were roundly criticized in front of five MLAs on the legislative assembly's Standing Committee on Social Development on April 12.

Members of the public also voiced their concerns. Jane Groenewegen, who has five grandchildren in the education system, was particularly scathing in her criticism of the proposals. She said the junior kindergarten plan gave no thought to the fact communities such as Hay River and Yellowknife have programs like Aboriginal Head Start and the Hay River Playschool. The standing committee was also seeking feedback on Bill 18, an act to amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act, but no one at the hearing mentioned that bill. The standing committee also held hearings in Yellowknife and Inuvik.

Inuvik-Tuk ice road closes

The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk ice road officially closed on April 13. A ceremony commemorating the event took place at Kitti Hall in Tuktoyaktuk and included a feast, Inuvialuit drum dancing, snow sculptures and polar dipping. The ice road was replaced by the permanent, all-season Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, which cost an estimated $299 million. As the ice road’s final days approached, Inuvik saw a "closing boom" from tourists wanting to take the last opportunity to travel the road.

Inuvik’s mayor, Jim McDonald, said he had been travelling on the ice road for at least 50 years. He said he remembered a time when people had to be a lot more cautious, but since his first years on the road, it had been widened and better maintained. McDonald said he hoped to make a few more trips on the road before the spring season closed it forever.

Winter road booze bust

RCMP confiscated $10,000 in illegal booze during check stops on the winter road to Whati and Gameti in the late evening on April 7 and into the early morning hours of April 8. Police seized 150 mickey bottles of liquor, five 1.75l bottles, one 750ml bottle, one-200ml bottle and

292 cans of beer. Police did not say how many vehicles they actually stopped. The Mounties stated a mickey is going for $80 these days on the streets of Whati. The estimated street value of the alcohol they seized is well over $10,000. Whati and Gameti are two of about a half dozen completely dry communities in the NWT.

Gwich'in land claim celebrates 25 years

The Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement turned 25 in April, an event that was commemorated with a celebration at the Midnight Sun Complex in Inuvik on April 22.

The event brought dignitaries, people involved in the original land claim agreement and modern leaders together. The land claim gave the Gwich'in title to 22,329 square-km of surface land and 6,158 square- km of subsurface lands in the Gwich'in Settlement Area of the NWT and 1,554 square-km of surface land in Yukon. It also gave the Gwich'in wildlife harvesting rights and rights of first refusal for commercial wildlife activities, the establishment of institutions of public government to manage wildlife and regulate land, water, and the environment. It also guaranteed Gwich'in representation on institutions of public government.