Premier appears before Senate Arctic committee
NWT
Northwest Territories Premier Robert McLeod will appear via video today before the Senate's special committee on the Arctic.
Sonia Noreau, a public relations officer at the Senate, said the committee is currently looking at significant and rapid changes in Canada's North, and the impacts on the region's Indigenous peoples. Joining McLeod at the video conference will be Paul Aarulaaq Quassaa, the premier of Nunavut, and Virginia Mearns, the associate deputy minister of Executive and Intergovernmental
Affairs with the government of Nunavut. The meeting will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and can be viewed live at the Senate of Canada's website.
– Sidney Cohen
De Beers posts banner year
Somba K'e/Yellowknife
De Beers Canada says Gahcho Kue's first year in production exceeded its production forecasts, finishing 2017 with a total output of 5.9 million carats. The company says it was a "record year" both for production and financial performance, the latter of which was due mostly to an uptick in U.S. consumer interest in diamonds. Compared to 2016, the company's overall diamond production increased to 33.5 million carats from 27.3 million carats, mostly from Gahcho Kue.
– Tim Edwards
Sahtu Secretariat seek federal meet on Indigenous rights plan
Sahtu
Any proposed federal Indigenous rights plan must reflect and protect the provisions of existing land claim and self-government agreements, Ethel Blondin-Andrew, chairperson of Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated stated in a news release.
The federal government announced that it will develop a new legal framework under Section 35 of the Constitution Act for interpreting Indigenous rights.
"We support the approach proposed by the Prime Minister to work collaboratively with the Indigenous peoples in Canada to protect our rights and titles," Blondin-Andrew stated in a news release Feb. 15.
Presently there are six Sahtu Dene and Métis land corporations in Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake, Tulita, and Norman Wells are in ongoing self-government negotiations with Canada and the GNWT. The Deline Got'in Self-Government Agreement was brought into legal effect by Deline First Nation, Deline Land Corporation, Canada and the GNWT in 2016.
– Avery Zingel
Guilty plea entered in workplace injury
Hay River
Arctic Environmental Services Ltd. of Alberta pleaded guilty in Yellowknife Territorial Court on Feb. 6 to a NWT Safety Act charge involving a workplace injury in Hay River.
The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission filed six charges last year in relation to a July 26, 2016, incident in which a worker was injured operating a scissor-lift while demolishing the Don Stewart Recreation Centre.
The count involved failing to provide information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to protect the health and safety of workers. Arctic Environmental Services and its president Robert Valleau face six charges, while main contractor Clark Builders faces one charge. Arctic Environmental Services will be sentenced in Hay River Territorial Court on May 8.
– Paul Bickford
Cando Rail Services looking for workers in Hay River
Hay River
Cando Rail Services plans to hire five or six people to provide services to Imperial Oil, which brings fuel to Hay River via CN.
The company will be moving railcars for offloading.
"In this case, we're only going to be moving back and forth between the CN yard and Imperial Oil," said Mark Jackson, Cando Rail Services' Edmonton-based assistant general manager for B.C. and Alberta. "CN will still come up to the yard. They'll still drop the cars off there. We'll simply collect the cars and service Imperial Oil with the product that CN provides us."
Those moves will be made with a Trackmobile.
"It is a piece of rail equipment that has both the ability to drive on the road and drive on the tracks," said Jackson, adding it can hook onto railcars and move them.
Cando Rail Services is looking to start operations by the beginning of April.
There is no CN crew base in Hay River, meaning railcars are moved at the yard by workers from High Level, Alta.
Jackson and two human resources people from Cando Rail Services will be in Hay River for a career fair on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 at Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre.
Jackson said the company is into all sorts of rail-related operations, including track work, transloading services, industrial sites and railcar storage facilities.
"It's really diversified," he said. "It's an interesting company. It is an employee-owned company. It's not a publicly-traded company."
– Paul Bickford
Phones down at Sahtu Housing Corp. office
Lli Goline/Norman Wells
The phones are down at the Sahtu District Office of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, and they may not be up and running again until March 5.
The office says they are not able to receive any incoming calls, and that anyone needing to get in touch should call district director Sarah Baker at 867-620-0471.
– Sidney Cohen