Time zone debate a waste of energy

If nothing else, the events of the past several weeks ought to demonstrate that Nunavut’s body politic is bleeding from several places at the same time, and that much careful thought and determined action is needed to staunch those wounds.

The health boards are hemorrhaging money. Many Nunavut residents have no hope of ever finding affordable housing. A recent homicide and other acts of violence in Nunavut’s capital reveal that the territory’s social pathologies are escalating. The new civil service is still a work in progress.

Nunavut, therefore, does not need a futile debate over a trivial non-issue, such as the creation of a single time zone across the territory’s three regions.

Yes, it’s possible that Premier Paul Okalik and his cabinet could have found a less irritating way of announcing the time zone decision to the people of Nunavut.

The Baffin and Iqaluit Chambers of Commerce, for example, have grown accustomed to being “consulted” regularly by the previous territorial government. They feel snubbed and slighted, no doubt, at having been ignored.

Besides the business community, the Nunavut government also could have talked to many other people. They could have allowed for a longer period of public debate. They could have delayed the decision until the fall session of the legislative assembly. They could have delayed the implementation of the decision until next spring or some other time They could have provided more public information.

In hindsight, there are many things that the Nunavut government could have done differently on the time zone issue— but they didn’t. So what? Nunavut has real problems that affect the lives of real people, far more deeply than the question of how to set your watch from one day to the next.

The creation of a unified time zone within Nunavut is an attempt to symbolize the unity of Nunavut’s three regions. It’s also an attempt to make it easier for people in any region to telephone Nunavut government officials in any other region within regular office hours. Given that the Nunavut government’s administration will be spread eventually over eleven communities, the creation of a single time zone in Nunavut looks like a reasonable idea.

Residents of Iqaluit and other Baffin region communities shouldn’t forget the annoyance of having to deal with Yellowknife bureaucrats who were often so ignorant of Nunavut that they didn’t even know that the Baffin was two hours ahead of Yellowknife. Why not eliminate such petty annoyances in Nunavut?

The idea of a single time zone enjoys strong support in the Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions. From their perspective, the Baffin region, home of Nunavut’s capital, must sometimes appear to loom over them like a privileged, strong, but slightly childish older sibling.

But in the coming months and years, time zones will be the least of the Baffin region’s problems. Residents should save their energies for the real problems. JB