The Impact Of Local Journalism in Northwest Saskatchewan; Opening Doors & Creating Conversation

The Arctic Winter Games 2023 were hosted in Wood Buffalo/ Fort McMurray Alberta, after a postponement due to the pandemic. The congregation of circumpolar communities and nations, to engage in sport and cultural activities, is hosted every 2 years in various communities and is governed within the international Arctic Council. The local journalist and two young volunteers attended the opening ceremonies and some of these world class events. The journey was made possible by a seasonal winter road connecting northern Saskatchewan to Alberta with the crossing of the Christina River by La Loche/ Garson Lake.

The story was shared with community and education leaders that these games are for all northern communities that are north of the 55th parallel (circumpolar), which includes all of our treaty eight and ten territory. The common perception has been that these ‘arctic games’ were for north of 60th parallel communities only. Community members have now realized that northern Saskatchewan qualifies to attend and compete in these prestigious games. We created an interest that may inspire our recreational, educational and cultural leaders to organize a team northern Saskatchewan. The need to involve ‘industry’ partners to sponsor and support such valuable experiences for our youth and communities, is exemplified by the ‘world-class’ games hosted at Wood Buffalo/Ft. McMurray in Treaty 8 Territory.

The next Arctic Winter Games will hosted in Alaska in 2024 as the regular schedule of 2 years planning falls back into place. The Team Northern Alberta and Team Nunavik/Northern Quebec are an inspiration for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario who all qualify to seek participation and build international relations in the circumpolar community.

The local journalist was invited to a community information meeting on proposed logging plans in the immediate region. In making contact with Rosaire Alcrow, the Vice President of N-12 Conservation Zone, he shared the traditional land-users and community concerns about the lack of benefits and negative impacts from the logging activities. The forest/logging industry is centered in Meadow Lake, Big River and Prince Albert. These urban centers are all south of the ‘northern administration district’. The recent policy decisions to reduce ‘buffer zones’ to 10 meters from 100 meters along properties , roads and waterways is very unsightly when the wind blows the unprotected trees over, detrimental to wildlife habitat and traditional medicines. Another policy change that affects all ‘northerners’ is the degradation of roads caused by increased loads on logging trucks and trailers, where industry is allowed to pull ‘puptrailers’ that are bouncing on our sub standard road surfaces.

These issues have been limited to industry led dialogue at community meetings, but have not been reported in media or the communities at large. We have been acknowleged by citizens who share the concerns of resource development in the northern administration district and the lack of ability to address them properly.

Community and regional planning in this region of treaty ten territory is a major concern and priority when it is compounded by the fact that on-reserve planning is the responsibility of the First Nations that are governed by the Federal Government and the off-reserve municipalities fall under Provincial jurisdiction. Then, we have the emerging ‘Metis Governance’ question where a number of our communities are identified as Metis Villages and Settlements. Planning for community and regional development must go hand in hand with resource and infrastructure development, which includes all treaty partners and all our relations.