Columns

Ottawa organizing big day for aborginals next week

The federal government plans to make a big splash next Wednesday when Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart announces Ottawa's response to the report of Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

JIM BEll
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Ottawa officials are organizing a special day of ceremonies and festivities next week to mark the announcement of the federal government's response to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

A DIAND official said this week that ­ barring last-minute schedule changes ­ Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart will make the announcement at around 12:00 noon, Jan. 7, in the reading room of the House of Commons centre block building in Ottawa.

The heads of Canada's four national aboriginal organizations ­ the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the Metis National Council and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples ­ will attend the event, along with all of the RCAP's former commissioners.

Chaired by Rene Dussault, a Quebec court judge, and George Erasmus, a former AFN grand chief, the commission released its 3,500 page report in November 1996.

The mammoth document took six years and $58 million to finish.

Stewart is neverthless expected to make a statement that "will address the entire RCAP report," the DIAND official said.

Stories leaked to the Globe and Mail and Southam newspapers in mid-December speculate that Stewart will announce a new aboriginal fund, part of which will be used for healing centres to treat survivors of abuse in federally-sponsored residential schools.

The healing centre money is expected to range between $100-$200 million, and will likely be managed by an aboriginal board.

Ottawa consulted with AFN officials about the fund earlier this year, but there's little sign that federal officials talked to anyone from Canada's other three aboriginal organizations.

There's still no official word on how much of that fund will available to Inuit.

Stewart is also expected to make a "statement of reconciliation" with aboriginal people.

B.C. Santas shower gifts on Baffin kids

Thanks to a group of generous benefactors in Victoria, B.C., a blizzard of toys blew through the Baffin region this Christmas.

LEEVEDE ATAGOYUK
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - After this Christmas, many Baffin children may now believe that Santa's real home is in Victoria, B.C.

A fundraising foundation based in Victoria called "Tunijjusiarut" donated 200 boxes of brand new toys to the children of the Baffin region.

Peter Clark of the Investors' Group, a well-known financial services company, is in charge of raising and managing the foundation's money.

He said a friend of his who used to work at the Baffin Regional Hospital started the project about eight years ago to provide gifts to needy kids in the Baffin region.

"I can simply tell kids in the region that there are other people who care," Clark said.

"Tunijjusiarut" means "giving a gift" in Inuktitut.

Zellers helps out too

"What I do is collect the money from people who donate to the foundation and buy the toys at Zellers, which gives a 50 per cent discount," Clark said.

He also said his own kids helped start the project by suggesting who to give gifts to. Clark said no one makes money from the project and that it's supported entirely by volunteers.

In mid-December, Clark came to Iqaluit to see the project for himself.

"I thought it was high time that I came up here and evaluate the project to see if it's useful and effective and to see if there are any other areas that we can look at to help the community and region," Clark said.

Doug Sage, the director of community services for the Baffin health board,

"The donations have grown to a point where for the last two or three years we've been getting toys to send to every community," said Doug Sage, the Baffin health board's director of community services.

The toys were shipped up free by Canadian Airlines. As well, Coman Arctic help to pick up the toys and delivered them to Iqaluit's public health building, where they were sorted and prepared for distribution throughout the region.

The toys were sorted by age and whether they're appropriate for boys and girls, and then divided up and sent to to every Baffin community.

Thin ice strands outpost camp residents

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - As of our press-time this week, two families from the Kujait and Aulatsiviarvik outpost camps near Iqaluit were still unable to make their way to Iqaluit to join Christmas festivities and pick up some badly-needed store-bought supplies.

Iqaluit hunter Goola Nakasuk told a packed house at Iqaluit's parish hall this week that he needs help to bring the familes back to the community, and that they're running out of supplies.

Because the ice on Frobisher Bay isn't think enough for them to travel on, the families haven't been able to make their customary Christmas visits to Iqaluit, Nakasuk said.

But he said the families may try to come into Iqaluit via the land.

Ottawa silent on transitional funding

IQALUIT - Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart still has nothing to say about whether or not Ottawa will provide more money to pay extra transitional costs of dividing the Northwest Territories and creating Nunavut.

Last October, GNWT officials unveiled a detailed division transition plan, claiming the one-time costs of dividing the NWT could be $135.7 million more than Ottawa had first estimated.

But in a carefully-worded press release Dec. 22, neither Stewart nor NWT Premier Don Morin had anything to say about the transitional funding issue.

That's despite a series of recent meetings during which GNWT officials have been lobbying Ottawa for more money to pay transition costs.

Instead, the two governments have announced that they've reached what they call "common understandings" on three issues.

Those "common understandings" are:

• The federal response to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples will include a "northern perspective."
• In its self-government negotiations with western aboriginal groups, Ottawa will recognize that the new western territory will have an "effective central government" after division.
• Devolution activities will be influenced by the western constitutional process.

The press release claims that these common understandings "signal the commitment of the GNWT and DIAND to work in partnership as the future direction of the NWT unfolds."

El Nino and Nunavut: colder weather

Believe it or not: A weather expert at Environment Canada says El Nino will make Nunavut's weather colder.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Nunavut residents won't benefit from warmer temperatures caused by this year's El Nino, Environment Canada says.

In fact, if weather conditions from previous El Nino years are any indication, northerners are in for one of the coldest winters in recent times.

Amir Shabbar, a climatologist with Environment Canada who has been studying the weather phenomenon for two decades, said Asrctic temperatures typically drop below normal during El Nino years.

"I've looked at the northeast Arctic and the high Arctic," Shabbar said, "and I find that those regions are consistently below normal in El Nino winters."

Shabbar predicts that average winter temperatures in the Baffin region, for example, could be 1.5 degrees lower this year.

El Nino is the term used to describe the combination of unusual wind flows and sea currents that raise Pacific Ocean temperatures off the the west coast of South Amercia every few years.

This cyclical disruption of the ocean-atmospheric system in the tropics has important consequences for weather around the globe, including Canada.

Experts foresee warmer-than-usual winters from British Columbia through Ontario and southern and central Quebec. In other parts of the world, the phenomenon has been blamed for droughts, monsoons, sweltering heat and severe crop failures.

But not all El Nino winters are created equally.

Shabbar predicts that the shift in wind-flow patterns that is bringing milder winters to most regions of southern Canada, will continue to keep northerners locked in a deep-freeze.

"I'm afraid it is just the opposite of what it is in the South," Shabbar said.

Here's what is believed to be happening.

In normal, non-El Nino winters, a global air current known as the Jet Stream flows across the Pacific Ocean toward western North America, reaching Vancouver Island first, then continuing across the Prairies, the Great Lakes and into the Maritimes.

The Jet Stream's lower latitude permits arctic air to move south periodically, sharing the cold temperatures with southern Canadians.

In El Nino years, however, the jet stream shifts much further north, reaching the Yukon first, and sweeping across the Northwest Territories, Hudson Bay and Northern Quebec.

"This jet stream does not allow this cold air to come down as frequently as it would in a normal situation," Shabbar said. "So the cold air remains in the North and consequently the temperatures are below normal."

The most dramatic El Nino winter in recent memory occurred in 1982-83, when temperatures in the northeastern Arctic plummeted to minus-40 degrees for prolonged periods.

Average mean temperatures for the south Baffin region range from minus-21.8 degrees to minus-25.9 degrees between December and February.

The term El Nino is a Spanish phrase meaning "Christ Child," coined by fishermen along the coast of Ecuador and Peru to describe the warm current that typically appeared around Christmas time.

In normal non-El Nino years the trade winds blow toward the west across the tropical Pacific Ocean, piling up warm surface water in the west Pacific. This brings cold sea water from deeper levels closer to the surface near the coast of equatorial South Amercia.

During El Nino years, the trade winds in the Pacific Ocean relax. This leads to significantly warmer water temperatures, which in turn, change global wind patterns.

According to a special Environment Canada bulletin, this year's El Nino show signs of being the strongest since sea-surface temperatures began in the earlier half of the century.

Shabbar predicted that the El Nino would have little impact on snowfall in the North.

The year in review

1997: Another year closer to Nunavut

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - With it's tragedies, triumphs and upheavals, the year 1997 brought Nunavut residents one year closer to the dream of Nunavut.

January

• Blizzard conditions frustrate efforts to provide crisis counseling after the New Year's Day murder of 32-year-old Judah Natanine in Clyde River. Natanine's body is left alone in the house where he was killed for three days, until weather permits RCMP officers from Iqaluit to fly into the community.
• Thomasie Hainnu, 27, is charged with first degree murder. The New Year's blizzard lashed the south and central Baffin regions with terrific force.
• Sources say Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak is a close to being appointed to the post of interim commissioner for Nunavut.
• The GNWT makes public its response to the Nunavut Implementation Commission's Footprints 2 report, noting that it's generally pleased with the NIC's model for a new Nunavut government.
• Rankin Inlet's hopes of becoming the fuel resupply hub for the Keewatin region are shot down after the Keewatin Resupply Committee, headed by Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien. O'Brien's committee estimates the plan drive up the cost of fuel in all Keewatin communities except for Rankin Inlet.
• The union representing teachers in the Northwest Territories threatens to take legal action against the territorial government to force GNWT negotiators back to the bargaining table. The teachers are upset with proposed wage rollbacks for public sector employees.
• Finance Minister john Todd delivers what he describes as the toughest budget in the history of the Northwest Territories, announcing plans to cut public spending by $100 million, lay off hundreds of employees and generate a surplus of $8.9 million by year's end.

February

• Commercial shippers offer to put their vessels at the Coast Guard's disposal to held the cash-strapped federal agency carry out its ice-breaking duties. The idea is put forward in response to a Coast Guard plan to retire one of its own icebreakers as a cost-cutting measure.
• Librarians and library supporters in Baffin and Keewatin petition the GNWT to abandon plans to cut funding to regional libraries. Education, Culture and Employment Minister Charles Dent defends the cutbacks as a necessary budgetary measures, and promises that community libraries will be outfitted with computers to improve access to online catalogues of publications.
• A 25-year-old Baker Lake man freezes to death in a blinding snowstorm after losing his way near a mining camp he was hired to look after. Joshua Aminaaq's companion during the ordeal, which took place 100 kilometers west of the hamlet, survived.
• Anglican clergy scold the territorial government for its obsession with deficit reduction, blaming cuts to social assistance, health care and education for the general feeling of insecurity and despair in the North that is hindering development.

March

• A conference on the future of work in Nunavut is broadcast live across northern Canada's TVNC network, with participation by residents from all communities. Many wished to remind their fellow Nunavummiut not to forget that jobs are badly needed in small communities, too.
• The Atagoyuk School in Pangnirtung is destroyed by fire, taking with it hundreds of photographs of elders, graduates and graduation ceremonies of the past that had lined the school's walls. Two hundred students in Grades 6-12 are affected by the blaze. Temporary classrooms are set up at the elementary school and at Nunavut Arctic College's adult learning center.
• Arlooktoo Takoonarak, 29, arrives in Iqaluit weary and cold after leaving his broken snowmobile and walking for 13 hours back to town alone. The hunter got stuck in slush 42 kilometers from Iqaluit along the Sylvia Grinnell trail, and decided - to his later regret - to leave his machine and kamotik, which was loaded with supplies. He was treated for frostbite and dehydration at the Baffin Regional Hospital, and released.
• Beloved CBC broadcaster Jonah Kelly retires after 31 years of service in the North. His farewell party in Iqaluit attracts well wishers from across Canada, including Prime Minister Jean ChrŽtien, who commends Kelly for his contribution to Canadian culture.

April

• Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin announces that he will not run for re-election, prompting speculation about who his successor will be.
• Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak is named interim commissioner of Nunavut, and promptly resigns his seat in the House of Commons.
• Nunavik beneficiaries give Zebedee Nungak the mandate to lead the Makivik Corporation into the next millennium. Nungak vows to use his three-year term as president to continue talks with the federal and Quebec governments on issues like self-government and offshore claims for Nunavik.
• Moosa and Pitsiula Akavak lead their children on a 180 kilometer walk from Kimmirut to Iqaluit in the name of family unity. The Akavak's hope to demonstrate the importance of strong families in healthy communities.
• Two executive members of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association face expulsion after they turn up drunk for a charter flight from Iqaluit to Sanikiluaq and are refused permission to board the plane.

May

• A six-foot high sculpted inukshuk, commissioned for Canada's Governor General Romeo Leblanc, is loaded on a military Hercules aircraft in Cape Dorset and flown south. Sculptor Kananginak Pootoogook worked on the inukshuk with his son Johnny, using 20 different pieces of Dorset stone.
• A formal federal civil servant living in northern Quebec is charged with sexually abusing children between the ages of eight and ten years old. Barry Gunn, 67, is charged with four counts of sexual assault on young girls, following an investigation by the SžretŽ du QuŽbec in Inukjuak.
• Under orders from the CRTC, Canada's telecommunications regulator, Northwestel prepares to submit a plan that would finally bring competition to long-distance telephone services in the NWT and Yukon. Since 1992, people in southern Canada have enjoyed cheaper rates, thanks to the introduction of competition from long-distance carriers. The phone company says competition would force it to raise basic-service rates to offset the loss of revenue in the long-distance market.
• Nunavut voters turn down a plan to create two-member one-woman, one-man constituencies in Nunavut's first legislature.
• Scientists studying glacial ice on Baffin Island report they can find no evidence of global warming in the eastern Arctic - at least not over the last 30 or 40 years. Dr. Roy Koerner's three-year study of the Penny Ice Cap in the Auyuittuq Mountains consisted of removing core ice samples, drilling hundreds of meters from surface to bedrock, and analysing them for evidence of historical climatic change.

June

• A long-awaited government study of contaminants in the Arctic food chain confirms the presence of small amounts of PCBs, heavy metals and pesticides in human food.
• Three young girls from Arctic Bay are treated for severe burns to their hands and faces after igniting a propane tank accidentally. The girls, aged 9 to 11, were sniffing the propane from a barbecue tank when one of them began playing with a cigarette lighter.
• Jane Stewart is sworn in as Canada's new minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
• A territorial government survey shows that the shortage of housing in the North has reached critical proportions. The GNWT survey estimates that at least 25 per cent of all NWT residents are without adequate shelter, and that there's a need for at least 4,000 new housing units.
• Interim commissioner Jack Anawak receives his letter of instructions from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, along with $10 million to run his office until division of the NWT in 1999.
• A publicly run dental therapy program in the Keewatin region is slashed by the Keewatin Regional Health Board to make room for a deal with a private company called Kiguti Dental Services. Despite cries of protest from the community, the health board proceeds with the move.
• Territorial government officials deny any knowledge of a police investigation into allegations of criminal activity within the GNWT after news of the probe is leaked to media. The RCMP's commercial crimes in Edmonton confirms that they're carrying out an investigation, but won't say who is being investigated or what crimes they're investigating.
• In a stunt that earns them national media attention for a few fleeting days, a handful of attention seekers in Iqaluit declare Joseph Morneau's home to be an independent country, naming it Arctica. The illusion of originality dissipates after the pranksters choose July 4 as their Independence Day.

July

• First Air completes purchase of NWT Air from its parent company, Air Canada, in a deal that expands the airline's northern empire of the skies. Business people worry about the concentration of ownership in the northern travel industry, while one of the unions representing NWT Air employees predicts a merger of the two airlines will result in job losses.
• The Qikiqtani Inuit Association drafts strict guidelines governing the purchase of computers, furniture and a range of goods and services, to favor Inuit suppliers. Preferential treatment for Inuit companies will mean giving Inuit who bid on contracts for goods and services with the QIA a 10 per cent price advantage over non-Inuit competitors.
• The Inuit Circumpolar Conference celebrates its 20th anniversary by holding a party in Barrow, Alaska, where it all started back in 1977. The international Inuit organization is celebrated as a model for indigenous peoples around the world.
• Iqaluit municipal councilors give their blessing to a construction project at the Iqaluit's "four-corners" intersection. The Nunavut Construction Corporation is given permission to build three new office buildings here to house the new Nunavut government.
• Parks Canada announces a plan to reorganize its service in Nunavut that will add about 20 new jobs in Auyuittuq Park, Ellesmere Island and in the North Baffin. When the organization is complete, Parks Canada says it will hire a chief park warden for Auyuittuq, near Pangnirtung, in addition to several patrolmen.
• Five hundred mourners pay their last respects to elder Abraham Okpik, who died at age 68 in Iqaluit following a lengthy illness. Okpik had served as a territorial councilor and was a champion of disabled peoples' rights. He also headed up Operation Surname between 1968 and 1970, giving European-style surnames to a generation of Inuit in northern Canada.
• Poor weather conditions cause U.S. adventurer Will Steger to call off a scheduled solo walk from the North Pole to Ward Hunt Island in Canada's high Arctic.
• A five-month-old baby boy is struck and killed by a runaway tire in Iqaluit.
• The commission set up to recommend electoral districts for the new territory of Nunavut reveals that it would like to see a 17-member legislature, rather than the 20-22- member government favored by signatories to the Nunavut Political Accord.

August

• Debt-ridden Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. abruptly severs the Internet company it launched in 1996 after Bell Canada disconnects phone service for non-payment of bills.
• Roman Andruziak, a young doctor with no experience in the operating room, uses an ordinary battery-powered drill to perform emergency surgery on a Puvirnituq man's head, saving his life. Luc Larouche was struck in the head by a rock and was bleeding internally when Dr. Andruziak intervened to relieve the pressure inside the man's cranium.
• A trio of hikers from Toronto arrive safely in Iqaluit following a face-to-face encounter with a polar bear in Auyuittuq Park near Pangnirtung. Peter Joel, a computer operations manager, managed to scare the bear off with a canister of pepper spray.
• Arctic Co-op Ltd. gets a toehold in Iqaluit by taking over the local cable TV business, Eastern Arctic TV. The cable service purchase is largely regarded as a step toward reviving the co-operative movement's presence in the local retail sector.
• Twenty women and children flee the women's shelter in Iqaluit, when a drunken knife-wielding man takes his estranged wife hostage. A six hour standoff with police negotiators ensues, ending quietly and peacefully after pizza is delivered to the couple inside.
• Authorities in Hall Beach suspend alcohol permits after brawling drunkards terrorize the hamlet for several hours one weekend. Two RCMP officers caught in the mayhem respond to 11 complaints of assault, domestic violence and attempted suicide within the space of 24 hours. Three men are airlifted to Montreal to undergo surgery for injuries they sustain as a result of the binge.

September

• The Supreme Court of Canada dismisses a request by the Government of the Northwest Territories to appeal a lower court decision in its long-standing pay equity dispute with the Union of Northern Workers. The decision is expected to cost the government tens of millions of dollars in retroactive pay to female employees.
• Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard visits the village of Kangiqsualujjuaq for talks with several Nunavik organizations. Nunavik leaders appeal to the premier to re-open self-government negotiations.
• Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. files an application with the Federal Court of Canada to challenge the 1997 turbot quotas allocated to Davis Strait fishers by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
• NTI says the fisheries ministry ignored the Inuit land claim agreement when in allocating those quotas.
• The Baffin Regional Health Board turns down Qikiqtaaluk Corporation's offer to build and lease back a replacement hospital in Iqaluit. Board members reject the $25 million offer on grounds that dealing with the Inuit birthright corporation could put the board on the slippery slope toward privatization of health care in the region.
• Okalik Eegesiak is elected to a three-year term at the helm of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, vowing to continue chipping away at the organization's debt. Eegesiak beat incumbent president Mary Sillett, who assumed the presidency following Rosemarie Kuptana's sudden resignation in 1995.

October

• An Anglican minister from northern Quebec is sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to four sex-abuse charges involving young girls. Comments from a fellow minister that appear in Nunatsiaq News and which appear to portray Rev. Iyetsiak Simigak's behavior as culturally acceptable among Inuit, trigger cries of indignation from readers.
• NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng orders an internal review of changes proposed by regional health boards in the Keewatin and Baffin regions.
• A GNWT report predicts that the federal government will have to cough up an additional $135 million to cover the cost of dividing the Northwest Territories into two separate jurisdictions. The report's authors warn that unless Ottawa can commit to the extra funding, "the orderly creation of two new governments could be in jeopardy."
• MLAs pepper Finance Minister John Todd with questions about the workings of the NWT's first Aurora Fund, which pulled in $35 million for job-creating business loans in 1997. Critics complain that few people know how much has been loaned or which companies have borrowed money from the fund.

November

• Dennis Patterson is named chair of the Baffin Regional Health Board.
• Citing a "failing by the ordinary members" of the NWT legislative assembly, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. announces that it intends to set up a "shadow cabinet" of its own to mount an effective, vocal opposition in Yellowknife. The Inuit birthright organization says it will budget $100,000 for such government monitoring in the new year.
• Under pressure from hamlets and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., GNWT Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo postpones a controversial plan to build an elaborate fuel pipeline connecting four Keewatin communities. At meetings in Rankin Inlet, Arviat and Baker Lake, Arlooktoo hears that residents don't want such a system until after division.
• Linguist, author and longtime northerner Duncan Pryde dies of cancer at age 60. Pryde remains the only person from northern Canada to have ever graced the cover of Time Magazine. He is fondly eulogized by friend and fellow author Kenn Harper in Nunatsiaq News.

December

• Ham Qaunaq, a 62-year-old Igloolik elder, is sentenced to 12 years in jail after he pleads guilty to a string of assault and sexual abuse related charges stretching back to the late 1950s. Saying that Qaunaq was a complete failure at being a father and husband, NWT Supreme Court Justice called his Qaunaq's actions "derelict and depraved."
• NWT Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo announces that the GNWT will delay implementation of its Keewatin resupply proposal until after the Nunavut government is created in 1999. A few days later, Premier Don Morin gives the Public Works portfolio to Jim Antoine, and the Justice portfolio to Arlooktoo.
• Finance Minister John Todd's 29-year-old son Ian dies in a house fire in the small town of Lancaster, Ontario, just east of Cornwall.
• NWT MLAs hold a one-day session December 2 to pass a resolution on national unity.
• Nunavut leaders announce they'll hold a two-day meeting in Iqaluit Jan. 13-14 - but the public won't be welcome. Saying that leaders want to have some frank "heart-to-heart" discussions, NWT Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo says leaders want to meet behind closed doors. "If every single word is being recorded, I know it's difficult for some to say what's really on their minds," Arlooktoo explains.
• Ardicom Digital Communications announces that it's high-speed data communications network has passed all of its tests and that they're open for business.
• Paul Kaludjak of Rankin Inlet easily wins re-election as president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association. In the Baffin, Johnny Mike, a longtime Pangnirtung resident who now lives in Iqaluit, becomes the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's new secretary-treasurer.

My Little Corner of Canada

My predictions for 1998

JOHN AMAGOALIK

People will get tired of talking about El Nino.

The Government of Canada, the Government of Newfoundland, and the Labrador Inuit Association will sign an agreement-in-principle for a land treaty.

The French will have to prove that they are not buddy-buddy with war criminals in Bosnia.

The debate over the Newfoundland seal hunt will have comical dimensions.

The chair of the Baffin Health Board will have to move to the Baffin.

The Keewatin Health Board will get a new chair.

The Nunavut Teachers' Association wili begin to act more independently.

Zebedee Nungak and Lucien Bouchard will meet and have very frank discussions.

There will be more pressure on Jean Charest to jump to the Quebec Liberal Party and replace Daniel (Gomer Pyle) Johnson.

Lucien Bouchard will not call a referendum. Jean Chretien will continue to baffle his opponents and remain popular.

Jane Stewart will represent a new attitude towards aboriginal peoples.

Ethel Blondin will get a promotion.

First Air will raise air fares and freight rates.

No one in the west will be able to think of a better name than Bob.

And the predictions which I take much more seriously than the above are as follows:

The final four fighting for the Stanley Cup will be the Detroit Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche, New Jersey Devils, and the Philadelphia Flyers.

The final will be between the Flyers and the Avalanche. The Avalanche will win the Cup in six games. Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy will make the difference. The dark horse could be the Dallas Stars.

Editorial

Our predictions for 1998

At the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one, the ink-stained wretches who scribble for Nunatsiaq News sit down to gaze at the future.

Here are our uninformed prognostications for 1998. When we're proven wrong - which is inevitable for most of them - don't hesitate to let us know.

Most of Nunavut's deputy ministers will be hired by June - and most will be hired from outside of Nunavut.

Natsiq Kango will not be re-elected to her seat as secretary-treasure of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., but James Etoolook will be easily re-elected as NTI's first vice-president.

The Keewatin Regional Health Board will begin to lose control of health care in the Keewatin, as Ottawa begins negotiations aimed at transferring control of aboriginal health care to the Kivalliq Inuit Association. One of the first battles will be fought over who owns and controls the new hospital in Rankin Inlet.

At least one NWT cabinet minister will be forced to resign.

Delegates at Nunavut's language conference in March will take part in an intense debate over language standardization and whether or not to use Roman orthography instead of syllabics.

Keewatin Central MLA John Todd will announce that he won't run in Rankin Inlet in the first election for Nunavut's legislative assembly, expected to be held early in 1999. Instead, he'll contest a seat in what's left of the NWT legislative assembly - probably a Yellowknife seat, and probably in Yellowknife-Frame Lake, now held by Yellowknife's weakest MLA, Charles Dent.

The headquarters of the Nunavut Planning Commission will finally move to Nunavut, whether their staff like it or not.

First Air will announce another rate freight increase, then apologize profusely. First Air will then announce not one, but two air fare increases - again, they will apologize profusely.

A new community hall in Apex will become a popular gathering place.

Peter Ernerk and Bryan Pearson will write at least one letter to the editor of Nunatsiaq News.

The Evaz Group's shareholders will begin to move investments out of the Keewatin. As they approach their golden years, some will spend more and more time at the company's private island in the Caribbean.

The Town of Iqaluit will either have to introduce a property tax increase or cut programs in 1998.

The Aurora Fund will turn out to be the least of the GNWT's problems in 1998.

Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak will keep his job - but only as a figurehead.

CBC Radio will reward northerners for their years of patience by making the small investment in equipment necessary to finally offer us CBC FM (sorry, that's Radio 2) programming.

The Colorado Avalanche will win the Stanley Cup.

The New York Yankees will win the World Series, and the Florida Marlins won't even make the playoffs.

Lastly, Team Canada will win the Olympic gold medal for hockey by defeating the U.S. in a thrilling final game that will probably go into overtime.

These materials are Copyright (C) 1998 Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit), and may be freely distributed throughout the Internet, or other electronic computer networks or bulletin boards, as long as this notice remains intact and the articles are reproduced in their entirety. These materials may not be reprinted for commercial publication in print or other media without the permission of the publisher.