Latest news with #DannyMcNeely
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
N.W.T. gov't rejects call to declare state of emergency in Norman Wells
The Government of the Northwest Territories says that rising costs in Norman Wells do not meet the territory's definition of an emergency, and that declaring a state of emergency in the Sahtu community wouldn't help residents much anyway. The territorial government was responding to a motion MLAs passed in February, calling for a territorial state of emergency to be declared for humanitarian reasons, and to communicate that to the federal government. Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely brought that motion forward, saying that rising food insecurity and heating costs, along with increasingly unreliable infrastructure for resupply, are making life and business in Norman Wells extremely difficult. Town councillors in Norman Wells had also declared a local state of emergency months earlier. In a written response to the motion last week, first reported by Cabin Radio, the government says that declaring a state of emergency is warranted when special regulations are required to protect people's safety, health or welfare, or to limit damage to property or the environment. It says that while critical, the situation facing Norman Wells residents doesn't meet the criteria for emergency. It also says that declaring a state of emergency wouldn't create access to additional federal or territorial funding. The rising costs in Norman Wells are related to a failed summer resupply in recent years due to low water levels. The territory said in its response that that is part of a "larger climatic trend," and that the government is responding with both immediate relief and long-term planning for future such events. In the short term, the territory points to its subsidy on fuel in Norman Wells, a $150,000 donation to the Norman Wells food bank and a $1.8-million emergency fund for businesses, Indigenous and community governments in the Sahtu and Beaufort Delta to offset transportation costs. The response also mentions the territory's efforts to ensure a successful winter resupply, including widening the winter road. It also mentions a $500,000 federal project that will bring wood stoves to the Sahtu to lower reliance on heating fuel. The territory said that it's continuing to advocate for federal funding to support N.W.T. communities, including continuing work on the Mackenzie Valley Highway to build a more resilient supply chain by connecting Wrigley to Norman Wells with an all-season road.
CBC
17-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
N.W.T. MLA wants to hire co-ordinator to oversee Sahtu food bank project
Some Sahtu, N.W.T., residents are open to Danny McNeely's plan to set up a food distribution hub in the region, but they wonder who is going to make it happen. McNeely says he's going to talk to the federal and territorial governments about creating a co-ordinator position to oversee it.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Sahtu residents open to MLA's food bank idea. But who will do the work?
Social Sharing Heather Bourassa says the food bank she helps run from the basement of the church in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., has the potential to do more for the community – if it were to have more support. She and her friend, Nadine Tatchinron, volunteer to make up food hampers as they're needed. They don't advertise what they do – and they respond to referrals and requests for help. "There's definitely a need for the groceries. For, like, homes with unemployment, or just because of the high cost of living. Definitely we have requests for food on a regular basis," she said. Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely said he wants to build off existing services – like the food bank in Fort Good Hope, but also the pantry in Norman Wells – as he pushes ahead with his idea for setting up a food hub in the region. That hub would store donated food for distribution on a regular basis to the other four Sahtu communities. Food Banks Canada is partnering with McNeely on the idea. Two representatives of the organization who travelled the Sahtu region with McNeely and Nutrition North Canada last week said one of their goals is to identify a champion in each community who will help them set it up. Nolan Wadsworth-Polkinghorne, a northern programs officer for Food Banks Canada, knows human capacity will be a challenge. "People in the North wear a lot of different hats all the time and it's, I think, something I've come to greatly admire about folks," he said. "What I hope to do is make myself available ... and supportive so that we can make things as easy as possible." McNeely, who also knows capacity might be a challenge, wants to get a co-ordinator to oversee the project. Food Banks Canada says it can fund part-time staff related to some of its grants, but it can't support full time staff. McNeely said he's talking to Nutrition North Canada about splitting the cost of the position between the territorial and federal governments. "We're going to explore and exhaust all options to have a staff member representing the Sahtu region," he said. Site for distribution hub not chosen yet There aren't a lot of details about what, exactly, a food distribution hub in the Sahtu would look like. Jason Stevens, the northern network manager for Food Banks Canada, said one of the next steps is to make sure each community is on board with the idea. Other steps include letting funders and stakeholders know about the project and ironing out where, exactly, the hub would be. Stevens said Norman Wells is one option being discussed, because of the ability to ship cargo by plane. Food Banks Canada has said it will supply the food to the hub, while Matt Bender, an outreach manager with Nutrition North Canada who also joined the tour last week, said his department could subsidize the cost of transporting donated food by $3 per kilogram. McNeely said he's been talking to Buffalo Airways about transporting food and to Sysco Canada about buying food in bulk. There's also a discrepancy about whether people will need to pay for the food items: Food Banks Canada said food will be free, while McNeely said some of the goods will be provided for free. "We have to do the calculations and take into account what contributions Nutrition North is going to offer towards airlines. At the end of the day, we would like to see as minimal amount of pricing of products at the community level." Stevens described visits to each Sahtu community last week as a listening exercise. He and Wadsworth-Polkinghorne also touted Food Banks Canada's grants – which are separate from the idea for the hub – during those visits. They said the grants are flexible and can be used for a broad range of food security projects, like shelving for food bank storage, to ammunition for hunting caribou and moose. 'Is this another burden?' Heather Bourassa in Fort Good Hope says the community meeting there with McNeely, Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North was really encouraging. Asked if she had the capacity to grow the food bank she's running now, she paused and thought about how to reply. "I do believe that there's a lot of potential for the food bank here to do more. We would have to be more organized and … we would need more volunteers," said Bourassa, who is already wearing many hats in the community including co-owning a business, being part of the local school board, chairing the Sahtu Land Use Planning Board and being a mom. Tiana Spilchak, of Norman Wells, also wonders who in her community will apply for Food Banks Canada's grants or help set up the food distribution hub. "Everyone's working to make ends meet … everyone's burnt out," she said. "It's hard to come together as a community when we're all worried about ourselves." Meanwhile, Joseph Kochon, the band manager for Behdzi Ahda First Nation in Colville Lake, wondered if what was being pitched would make more work for his community. "Is this another burden that's going to come to us here?" he asked. "If it's going to be an independent thing and somebody easily running the program and we don't really have a connection to it, then it's OK … by all means, we'll give it some thought."
CBC
14-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Ammo, greenhouses, food pantries: What Sahtu residents in N.W.T. say will help them put food on the table
Beatrice Kosh needs a bag of flour to make bannock. The 65-year-old Tulı́t'a, N.W.T., resident is waiting on a pension check to come at the end of the month and until then, she doesn't have the money to buy that flour for herself. "My neighbour … she's an elder next door too, she gave me a bowl of flour. So me and my common law [partner], we made bannock yesterday." But, said Kosh, she can't always ask her neighbour for help. "I only got about 20 cents to my name. But it's OK, I'll figure out something." Kosh was one of about 20 people who came out for a community meeting in Tulı́t'a last Thursday with Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely, and representatives from Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North. McNeely and both organizations visited the five Sahtu communities to talk about food security, and McNeely's idea to set up a food bank in each place. He sees those efforts as a way to help his constituents manage how expensive it is to live in the Sahtu, a problem made worse by barge cancellations in 2023 and 2024. Speaking to CBC News on Thursday, Kosh said a food bank in Tulı́t'a would help a lot of people, including herself, become more food secure. Helen Squirrel, another resident who attended the meeting last week, agreed. She said money being touted by Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North for tools to get out on the land to harvest traditional food, like fuel, ammunition and snowmobiles, would help too. "We can't just rely on store-bought groceries and that. We need to eat our traditional food because that's what keeps us going, keeps us strong," she said. Aron Ellton, who has lived in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., his whole life, hunts caribou and moose. He said getting communities equipment to get out on the land will "open up a lot of other doors with the traditional foods." He'd like to see funding being used to teach people how to make dry fish. There's already a food pantry run by volunteers at the Our Lady of Good Hope Roman Catholic church. Ellton says growing that food bank could make a big difference because "there's a lot of people struggling here in town." In Délı̨nę, meanwhile, many people at a community meeting there talked about the need for healthy produce. Caroline Yukon, for example, said that people have diabetes because of poor diets of processed food. "When we get produce and vegetables in, it's bought right away or some of [it] is already bad," she said. When that happens, it means waiting on the next freight flight to bring in more fresh food. A solution she'd like to explore is setting up a community greenhouse. It's been tried before, she said, but it wasn't maintained by the volunteers who started it up. She thinks it's an idea worth revisiting. The touring delegation didn't sit down with members of the public in Colville Lake, but there was a meeting there with community leaders who expressed some reservations about what Food Banks Canada and McNeely were pitching. Joseph Kochon, the band manager for Behdzi Ahda First Nation, told the group that 90 per cent of his community's diet was traditional food. "The emphasis [is] on independence," said David Codzi who, along with Kochon, has many leadership roles in the community. "We don't want to pay for other people to do stuff for other people, you know like go hunting … we make sure that we provide things so that they can do all the things for themselves." Codzi said having more than one flight into the community each week would help, and also bringing in material goods for people to get out on the land and to hunt. "Those cost lots," he said. "Tents, stoves, fuel, ammunition, all that sort of thing has to come from somewhere. So when you think about [how] to keep that going, that's security for us." Shauna Spilchak of Norman Wells, meanwhile, said her town gets meat from outfitters after they take clients out hunting, and she said a community kitchen where that meat could be processed would be an asset to her community. "Somewhere to properly wrap, cut it, clean it, and then we could dole it out to the communities and ourselves better," she said. The Town of Norman Wells has operated a food pantry for four years. Its co-ordinator, Jaime Kearsey, said she currently organizes monthly food hampers for 28 families. Spilchak's daughter, Tiana, works with young families and said she wanted to see more high-fibre options in those hampers – like lentils and blueberries. They're expensive and sometimes of poor quality in the grocery store, she said. Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North Canada told residents in various communities that funding from their respective grants and programs could be used for many of the things residents expressed interest in, including traditional harvesting activities, greenhouses, and shelving for existing food pantries. The purpose of last week's trip was not only for both organizations to meet with people in the region and learn about their needs, but also to get a feel for whether there was support for McNeely's idea of establishing a food distribution hub in the region and organizing deliveries of donated food to each community.
