What did you miss this week?
Here’s our catch-up edition featuring some of the best stories from Yellowknife and Hay River.
Wildfires: Get ready for another bad summer across the NWT
Janice Ziemann, forest officer for the North Slave region, says the territory is trapped in a drought which only exceptional levels of rain and snowfall can end.
“We’re set in a long-term drought,” Ziemann told Moose FM. “Last summer we got very little rain and we had a really quick spring last year, so we had a lot of snow evaporate into the air – it didn’t get into the ground, so the ground was a lot drier.
“If we don’t get a lot more snow, and we have another cold spring where the snow evaporates and there’s not a whole lot of precipitation, then we’re likely going to have another bad season.”
Waste paper and chicken poop: ‘It’s my dream to work on this’
Kim Rapati has a plan to turn a town with no paper recycling facilities – but plenty of chicken manure – into a centre of composting excellence.
Rapati, who manages the Hay River office of Ecology North, is teaming up with Choice North Farms, the company behind the Polar Egg brand.
“If there’s a way we can compost the chicken manure and the paper together, to make a really valuable, good agricultural product, then we can kind-of shoot two birds with one stone.”
Yellowknife’s Mary Caroline releases debut album
The 32-year-old will play a series of shows across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to promote the new album, plus an appearance at the Folk Alliance International Showcase in Kansas City on February 8.
Caroline divides her time between Toronto and the Northwest Territories, and says her cabin outside Yellowknife inspired much of Life On Earth.
“I think it’s a pretty big influence, especially the time I spend out at my cabin. It’s probably almost a little too solitary out there,” Caroline joked in an interview with the New York-based Joy of Violent Movement blog.
Top NWT principal transforms school… with alarm clocks
Lea Lamoureux has led Dettah’s Kaw Tay Whee School for seven years. In that time, enrolment has more than doubled to 37 students.
Now, she has been chosen by national not-for-profit The Learning Partnership as one of 40 “outstanding principals” across the country in 2015.
“Most of my career has been teaching in community schools in the North, and I think they are special places,” she tells Moose FM.
Former Ice Pilots NWT star turns to NHL ’94 in new show
Mikey McBryan has been busy travelling throughout western Canada and the United States as part of an upcoming documentary called Pixelated Heroes, which centres around EA Sports’ NHL ’94 for Sega Genesis.
McBryan admits life hasn’t quite been the same since Ice Pilots NWT aired its last episode on December 17.
“It’s different,” McBryan said. “The last six years of my life were dedicated to Buffalo Airways and the production of Ice Pilots NWT so it’s a real change.”
National roundtable no longer coming to Yellowknife
A national roundtable on murdered and missing indigenous women is no longer coming to Yellowknife, according to the Premier of the NWT.
In October last year, Bob McLeod announced a roundtable on the issue would be held in the city in February.
However, McLeod now tells Moose FM that logistics mean the roundtable is set for Ottawa, instead.
More calls for improved Stanton security after another incident
There are more calls for strengthened security measures at Yellowknife’s Stanton Territorial Hospital after another violent incident involving a patient.
An individual had to be physically restrained on Friday night, two months after staff were forced to hide when another patient began throwing equipment and issuing threats.
“A patient was quite violent and it took a lot of people to restrain that person,” Sheila Laity, a nurse who represents Stanton’s unionized workers, told the CBC, which reports several staff required medical attention following the incident.
Northern business owners urged to have a plan for the worst
A Yellowknife restaurant is urging northern business owners to plan for the worst after disaster struck.
Trek Restaurant, inside the Days Inn Hotel, was ruined in late November when water pipes burst, flooding its rooms.
Owner Janet Dean Procure initially hoped to be back in business within two weeks. Now, two months on, she is frustrated by the lack of progress.
And finally…
We now know the identity of the Yellowknife man who won $250,000 on the lottery this month.
