The Jens Haven Memorial School Huskies are travelling to the 3A regionals for the weekend.
15 Huskies along with the Nain gym teacher, Jack Warren will be heading to Happy Valley- Goose Bay (HV-GB) today, until November 19, 2023.
Schools of HV-GB, Sheshatshiu and Labrador City will also be competing at the Mealy Mountains Collegiate School.
The winners will go to Glover town in Newfoundland for the 3A provincials in December.
The current Nain airport falls short of meeting the transportation needs for the local Nunatsiavut community.
The current airstrip alignment causes frequent delays or cancellations for nearly half of all regular flights hampering essential services and goods delivery. Sea level changes due to climate change have led to flooding the airstrip, which could cause damage and impact its load-nearing capacity.
To secure current and future generations’ access to goods and services, constructing a new airport is essential.
The Nain Airport project, led by the Nunatsiavut Government (NG) aims to build a new airport to replace the existing one, stressed by climate change. This project comprises three main components:
(1) The Airport: Includes the terminal, equipment maintenance hangar, cargo terminal (frozen cooled, regular), apron, groundside parking, and related facilities. The airport will also serve as the emergency response centre for Nain.
(2) The runway: a new airstrip approximately 1’830m in length and 40m in width
(3) The access road: a new road approximately 12 km in length joining the airport to Nain.
The core objective is to enhance transportation, health, and wellness needs in the Nain community by increasing reliability, maintaining round-the-clock operation, and enabling larger aircraft landings. This can improve connections with Inuit regions and Canada.
The NG is currently in phase three, conducting feasibility studies related to project development. Site 3 has been identified as the likely site for the Proposed New Nain Airport. The access road is the primary constraint at proposed site 3.
Phase four of the project is to secure financing for the construction. Financing will begin between 2024-2026. Between 2026-2027, is the tentative date for the NG to go over the detailed design, specifications, and construction of the new airport. For phase six, the NG will go over the certification of the facilities and commissioning of the airport.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NNAFSProjectFeedback@aecom.com or Colin Gilbride at colin. gilbride@nunatsiavut.com
Paula Michelin is a legal information and support worker in Labrador.
She will hold a free legal clinic in Nain this week in Nain.
From November 21 to November 22, 2023 at the Nain DHSD building.
She and the lawyer give legal advice to people who have to go to court.
Today, Susan Walsh, Seniors’ Advocate for Newfoundland and Labrador, released a report titled What Golden Years? The report is a first step in attempting to address the cost-of-living challenges identified by seniors through an extensive consultation process that heard from approximately 1,400 seniors.
Thirty-two per cent (32%) of seniors throughout Newfoundland and Labrador reported that they did not have enough income to meet their financial needs and were unable to afford food, rent, medications and required medical services. This is contributing to poorer health outcomes and reduced quality of life.
The What Golden Years? report contains twelve (12) recommendations to the Departments of Finance, Health and Community Services, Children Seniors’ and Social Development, and Labrador Affairs, which begin to address some of the cost-of-living concerns expressed by seniors. Key recommendations include:
Indexing the NL Seniors’ Benefit; Reviewing both the maximum family net income threshold to receive the full NL Seniors’ Benefit and the phase out rate; Exempting seniors in receipt of GIS from having to pay for their required home supports; Exempting households with a family net income of less than $29,402 from having to pay for their required home supports;
Implementing the Food First NL recommendation for a shared food delivery service to ensure food can be delivery to seniors if necessary; Increasing the amount of money per kilometer people traveling for medical appointments are eligible to receive through the Medical Transportation Assistance Program (MTAP); and providing all people age 65 years and older free access to the high-dose influenza vaccine.
The Office of the Seniors’ Advocate NL will monitor the implementation of the recommendations and report on progress annually in the Status Report on Recommendations, Walsh says: “Our research has shown that seniors in receipt of the full federal and provincial financial benefits cannot afford the necessities of life. The recommendations contained in this report are a starting point to begin to provide some financial relief to seniors living in low income, while ensuring they can access the supports and services they require to age well in their homes and communities. I look forward to the details of the provincial government Poverty Reduction Program for seniors, to further support seniors in Newfoundland and Labrador who are struggling with the high cost of living.”
Nunatsiavut Ground Transport in Happy Valley Goose Bay will not be on call from 4-8pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
When arriving late to Happy Valley Goose Bay, clients can call the Medical Transportation on call number at 896-1801 to be provided with a taxi voucher for transport to hotel/private accommodations.
If you have any questions or concerns you can contact NIHB Manager Abby Webb
With the Department Health & Social Development at 709-896-9750 ext. 224.
This week, in conjunction with VALE, the Labrador Aboriginal Training Partnership are having open houses in the communities of Hopedale and Nain.
The Executive Director, Keith Jacque will be travelling to Hopedale today, November 14, for the open house today.
Residents of Hopedale can head to the Nanuk centre, from 2 to 4pm, and again from 6 to 8pm.
Leah Blake is the Nunatsiavut Career Counsellor for Nain.
Blake says Keith Jacque, along with Georgia Abel will travel to Nain for the next open house tomorrow, November 15.
The open in Nain will be held at the Pulapvik center from 2-4pm and again from 6-8pm.
With these information sessions, you’ll get to meet the staff, learn about their services, enjoy some refreshments and have a chance to win a prize.
As you all know, it was a holiday yesterday, November 13, 2023 in observance of Remembrance Day.
The OKâlaKatiget Society will not be airing our IlinniaKatigennik show today due to the holiday yesterday.
But we will be holding an Inuktitut contest today during our 3pm show.
This contest is open to all listeners, all ages, Seniors, Men, Woman and Children.
Once the contest is completed, we will announce one winner for a pair of handmade Inuit Snowshoe earrings made by one of our employees Emerald Hay-Jenkins.
These beautiful handmade earrings are Brown and White in color.
To take part in our Inuktitut contest you must call our office here at OKâlaKatiget to have your name entered.
Here are the phone numbers you can call in for the contest: for listeners out of town you can call our toll-free number at 1-855-922-2955 and for Nain listeners you can call our office at 922-2955 or 922-2896.
This contest will be broadcasted in Inuktitut, but we will announce a word in English for our listeners to take part in our contest and you must say the word in Inuktitut.
Listeners can also hear our contest on our Web radio, on our OK website at www.oksocietyradio.com.
If the winner is out of town, you must provide your mailing address, but if the winner is from Nain, you can come by to our office to claim your prize.
Next week we will be back to our regular IlinniaKatigennik show on Tuesday November 21, 2023.
The OKâlaKatiget Society staff would like to thank our listeners in participating in our Inuktitut contest, stay tuned on todays 3pm show to find out more about this contest.
The annual Inuktitut Terminology Workshop will be taking place in Nain this week.
We spoke with Shirley Jararuse the Language Program Coordinator with the Nunatsiavut Government.
Jararuse says they will be holding the Inuktitut Terminology workshop at the Jeremias Sillitt Community Center.
There are elders from the North Coast and the Canadian Constituency and a few people from ITK joining them in the Fall 2023 Inuktitut Terminology workshop.
click here to hear the interview we had with Shirley Jararuse about the Inuktitut Terminology workshop.
The Jens Haven Memorial School held their annual Remembrance Day Assembly this morning at the K-12 school.
Canadians recognize Remembrance Day, originally called Armistice Day, every 11 November at 11 a.m.
It marks the end of hostilities during the First World War and an opportunity to recall all those who have served in the nation’s defence.
We had our Radio Producer go down to the JHMS school to record the ceremony.
The ceremony began this morning at 11am.
Click here to hear the audio from the Remembrance Day assembly.
The pause on the carbon tax for home heating oil is now in effect.
The decision to stop the collection of the tax on home heating oil for three years has been a hot topic of discussion in the House of Commons, as well as with the premiers of Canada’s provinces and territories.
Those debates have led to the Conservatives putting forward a motion to abolish the price plan altogether, but it was shot down by the governing Liberals.
Residents in this province will no longer see the tax reflected on their oil bill until 2026.
The tax, which was added in July, was about 17 cents per litre.
Political Scientist Weighs-In on Pause.
A political scientist says the federal government’s three-year pause on application of the carbon tax on home heating oil is a direct result of declining support since the contentious measure was implemented.
Dr. Alex Marland, who is with Acadia University’s Department of Politics, worked for years in Newfoundland and Labrador observing the local political scene.
He says there’s little doubt that the announcement made by the federal Liberals is directly related to poor polling in the region.
Marland says the carbon tax came at a very hard time for ordinary Canadians who are struggling with the rising cost of living. Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre is capitalizing on that with a simple slogan “Axe the Tax.”
“I think they’ve hit a good message in that respect,” says Marland. He says there’s a sense out there that people are not so much enamored with Pierre Poilievre as Prime Minister, as they are looking for an alternative to Justin Trudeau.
Marland says if the economic situation were to improve, carbon tax may no longer be as great a political issue.