A lifelong resident of Ndilo spoke up last week about the lack of cell service in that community. He said that sometimes he had to drive nearly 2 km to Weaver and Devore in Old Town to call and make an appointment for his son, adding that there are times when the signal is so weak he is not able to call his next-door neighbour.
This is not just about cell phone service, it is about the way the needs of people living in smaller communities are addressed at all. And Ndilo is tight against the border of the capital city, so imagine the struggle of residents in more remote hamlets as they try to get basic needs met.
This isn't the first time this complaint about cell service has been raised, nor the first time it has been swept under the rug. Yet as a spokesperson said, some of those calls are to the emergency 911 operator who is only able to answer the call but cannot hear what is said. He added that while a squad car could be sent, sometimes itSA国际影视传媒檚 an ambulance thatSA国际影视传媒檚 needed. This increases the time for the right response team to arrive and in the worst of circumstances cost a life.
This sketchy service has been reported for years. Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon, whose riding includes Ndilo, brought the concern to the floor of the legislative assembly, but again, nothing has been heard.
Broken or non-existent cell service on NWT highways has also been a long-standing issue and on icy, often dangerous roads. This connection can be one of necessity, not convenience. We know travellers on long, often empty roads are sometimes stranded in temperatures dropping to the minus-30s and worse for hours. This is life-threatening.
These sometimes third-world conditions are also evidenced in food prices in Fort Simpson, for example. It's proof of a society that favours the needs of those in the capital city instead of providing them equally to all Northern residents. They were also our eyes over vast areas of Northern lands that the federal and territorial governments could not have done without them, yet we still fail to provide them with basic services that many of us consider integral to our everyday lives. We are not doing for them what they have already done and still do for us.
Now with a dangerous and naive president-elect moving into the White House, who really only wants to be a provincial premier, this demonstration of Canadian sovereignty is more important than ever. The health and well-being of Canada's North has not been as threatened by foreign powers such as China since Stephen Harper was prime minister. At least then we had the U.S. on our side. Now we might very well have nothing except for a tycoon who sees us as a piece of real estate.
If cell phone service is so important, it is because it not only serves as an essential service and protector, but is also crucial to tie Canadians and Canada together as one nation. Northerners, all of us, must serve as the eyes and ears of the North and our country. There are so few of us, yet each one of us must count equally because we are all in our own way trying to make our nation work. Someone wanting to connect from a smaller community or the highway is as important to those living in Yellowknife.
In fact, some of those in the smallest and most remote corners of this great territory might be the most important Northerners and Canadians of all.
The cell phone issue in Ndilo, like the cellphone service on the highways or the high cost of food in many Northern communities, are comments on worth. It's time legislators on all levels give those issues and people the attention they deserve.
-Nancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer who is interested in social justice.
