Where angels fear to tread

Predictions are a mug’s game, and everybody knows it. None of us have the capacity to predict what will happen next week, let alone next year.

But at the turning of the year, the temptation to do so is overwhelming.

Here, then, are our modest attempts to predict the future:

Nunavut, Canada, and the Arctic

* By the end of 2004, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami will be well on its way to a merger with Pauktuuit and the National Inuit Youth Council.
* Get set for much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as the Nunavut Power Corp. and the Utility Rates Review Council go to work on a new electrical power rate system for Nunavut, to replace a rate structure that hasn’t changed since 1998.
* Team Nunavut will do well at this year’s Arctic Winter Games, to be held in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Feb. 28 to March 6.
* The Bathurst road-port project will get a federal environmental assessment, much to the displeasure of most Nunavut organizations.
* Prime Minister Paul Martin will easily win the federal election that’s likely to be held this May or June, but he will come out of the campaign diminished.
* Nunavut’s next government will eventually get around to presenting a new language law to the legislative assembly – but it won’t be another Bill 101.
* The Feb. 16 general election in Nunavut will produce some new faces, but the next legislative assembly will be similar to the last one – a large group of inexperienced MLAs dominated by a smaller, but more powerful group of experienced members.
* The love affair between Nunavut and Prime Minister Paul Martin’s new government won’t last much beyond the Martin government’s first federal budget.
* Nunavut will get a new education act, but not before the end of 2004 – it will take at least three years to get there.
* The made-for-TV movie shot in Iqaluit last year, Sleep Murder, will bomb.
* Attempts to remove sexual orientation from Nunavut’s human rights law will fail.
* The Supreme Court of Canada will uphold the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, and Parliament will follow suit.

Nunavik

* Nunavik residents will grow weary of the dispute between the Kativik Regional School Board and the Makivik Corp. over Nunavik’s new-government negotiations. They’ll demand that both parties find an out-of-court solution to their problems.
* Quebec’s labour unrest, prompted by Premier Jean Charest’s plans to cut taxes and reduce the size of the civil service, will spill over into Nunavik.
* The Kativik Regional Government, the Sûreté du Québec, and federal officials will work out a badly needed search and rescue protocol for Nunavik, to improve communications, and to set out who does what and when.

Iqaluit

* Halfway through the year, somebody will ask the City of Iqaluit about why they haven’t put up the city’s new street signs – and no one will know the answer.
* The city’s troubled street-paving project will turn out to be Iqaluit’s next municipal boondoggle.
* Iqaluit’s recycling program will shrink, but no one will notice.

The world of sports

* The Toronto Maple Leafs will finish first overall in the standings, then go on to win the Stanley Cup.
* The New York Yankees will bounce back from this year’s loss to the Florida Marlins and win the World Series.
* Jordin Tootoo will not win the NHL’s rookie of the year award – but his performance with the Nashville Predators during the 2003-o4 season will make him the most memorable NHL rookie in years. JB