Yukoner Paul Nicklen piles up photo awards

Yukoner Paul Nicklen piles up photo awards
Yukon photographer Paul Nicklen has had a lot to celebrate this month — even without Christmas.
Full Story:
http://links.cbc.ca/a/l.x?T=jncickhjpedeaolaehldghfhda&M=32

[excerpts]

The Christmas 2010 issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine named Nicklen one of the world's 40 most influential nature photographers; he is featured in the cover story in the January 2011 issue of Photo Life magazine; and earlier this month, Up Here named him Northerner of the Year.

Earlier this year, Nicklen won first prize for nature photography in the World Press Awards, and he had two images selected for inclusion in the International League of Conservation Photographers' 40 Best Nature Photographs of All Time auction.

[...]

Nicklen grew up on Baffin Island in Nunavut, studied marine biology at the University of Victoria for four years and then worked as a wildlife biologist in the Northwest Territories for four years.

He now lives just outside of Whitehorse, but he travels the world, taking photos and writing for National Geographic.

He's passionate about the wildlife he photographs and feels his images are a way of helping to preserve what he loves.

"Recently, we influenced Parliament to vote against oil tankers in the Great Bear Rainforest on the B.C. coast because a team of photojournalists … went in there this summer," he said. "We've been working on a lot of different campaigns."

2011 #Yukon #NWT & #Nunavut Automobile Deduction Limits & Expense Benefit Rates for Business

Ottawa, December 29, 2010
2010-134

Government Announces 2011 Automobile Deduction Limits and Expense Benefit Rates for Business

The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today announced that the automobile expense deduction limits and the prescribed rates for the automobile operating expense benefit will remain unchanged for 2011. The Government reviews these rates and limits annually. Specifically:

• The ceiling on the capital cost of passenger vehicles for capital cost allowance (CCA) purposes will remain at $30,000 (plus applicable federal and provincial sales taxes) for purchases after 2010. This ceiling restricts the cost of a vehicle on which CCA may be claimed for business purposes.
• The maximum allowable interest deduction for amounts borrowed to purchase an automobile will remain at $300 per month for loans related to vehicles acquired after 2010.
• The limit on deductible leasing costs will remain at $800 per month (plus applicable federal and provincial sales taxes) for leases entered into after 2010. This limit is one of two restrictions on the deduction of automobile lease payments. A separate restriction prorates deductible lease costs where the value of the vehicle exceeds the capital cost ceiling.
• The limit on the deduction of tax-exempt allowances paid by employers to employees using their personal vehicle for business purposes for 2011 will remain at 52 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres driven and 46 cents for each additional kilometre. For Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the tax-exempt allowance will remain at 56 cents for the first 5,000 kilometres driven and 50 cents for each additional kilometre.
• The general prescribed rate used to determine the taxable benefit relating to the personal portion of automobile operating expenses paid by employers for 2011 will remain at 24 cents per kilometre. For taxpayers employed principally in selling or leasing automobiles, the prescribed rate will remain at 21 cents per kilometre. The additional benefit of having an employer-provided vehicle available for personal use (i.e., the automobile standby charge) is calculated separately and is also included in the employee's income.

____________________________________
For further information, media may contact:

Annette Robertson
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Finance
613-996-7861

Jack Aubry
Media Relations
Department of Finance
613-996-8080

Deh Cho Bridge builder Atcon "a corporate shell" had been "...losing money year after year after year" and owed roughly $250 million

Editor's note: The Times & Transcript has selected the Top News Stories of 2010. The following story is a part of that series, which will culminate with the year's Top 10 News Stories in the New Year's Day edition

[excerpt]

http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/transcript/article/1365400

"... But by January 2010 Atcon had been removed from the $165-million Deh Cho Bridge project in NWT which it had invested so much time and effort into - the Atcon thread began to unravel and many in New Brunswick who had dealt with the company knew what was likely coming.

And by March it was in a Miramichi courtroom struggling for survival, with the company's long list of creditors taking Tozer's empire to court over millions of dollars owed.

The saga of Atcon's finances quickly became an embarrassment, with a debt list released showing the company owed not only massive sums to large firms, but also owed as little as a few dollars here and there to Miramichi taxi companies and restaurants for tabs not paid up.

In total, Atcon owed roughly $250 million to several secured and unsecured creditors, including $50 million to the provincial government and $49 million to ScotiaBank.

Arguing on behalf of ScotiaBank, Atcon's primary lender, attorney Josh McElman painted a grim portrait of the company, saying that it was in no position to continue on.

"They're not doing construction work because (Atcon) Construction has no work, it's a corporate shell," McElman said.

"These companies have been losing money year after year after year."

[...]

The decision by the Graham [New Brunswick] government to hand over $50 million to a company with ties to the former premier's family - Graham's father was a board member on an Atcon subsidiary - ultimately played a role in the demise of the Liberal government in September.

The Atcon handout was viewed by many political observers as one of the main areas of discontent among voters in the last election, right behind the failed deal to sell portions of NB Power to Hydro Quebec. ..."

Yellowkife's First Holiday Art Retailer Tour (HART)

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Colin Dempsey <colinATtheartofconsultingDOTca>
Date: 8 December 2010 09:40
Subject: Holiday Art Retailer Tour (HART)
To: Colin Dempsey <colinATtheartofconsultingDOTca>

Good Morning,

I would like to invite you all to participate in the 1st Annual Holiday Art Retailer Tour (HART) beginning this Saturday. 

Of course, our downtown has a vibrant and ecclectic mix of art, but how often do we take the time to connect with the artists and businesses that make up our city's cultural identity?  Yellowknife is known for the quality and variety of our locally produced art and crafts, so let's get out to appreciate what so many travel great distances to experience.  Local art is the heart of downtown Yellowknife and this is a great opportunity to support our community's artists and art based businesses. 

Got any last minute gifts to buy?  Is that one person who has everything still on your shopping list?  Done shopping for everyone else, but still haven't picked up anything for yourself?  This is your last chance to finish up all your gift purchasing and to do it while supporting the community we all love and earning a chance to win great prizes.

Attached you will find a poster with all the details regarding this great new event.  Also, you will find the HART Passport, which is your ticket to join in on the fun.  All you have to do is bring your passport to each of the listed locations to collect stamps.  Completed cards can be dropped off at The Gallery on 47th Street (formerly the Dawn Oman Studio) for your chance to win a basket of gift cards and prizes provided by HART participants.  Let's all get out and show our local artists and art retailers that Yellowknife has HART!

Any questions should be directed to myself at colinATtheartofconsultingDOTca or at 867-445-2017.  Please feel free to distribute this poster and passport to anyone who enjoys local art or a fun day of shopping around town.

Thank you,

Colin Dempsey
Dempsey Consulting & Business Services
"The Art of Consulting."

Hart Poster

Hart Passport

Inuvik NWT's Great Northern Arts Festival applications open

Applications are now being accepted for the 23rd Annual Great Northern Arts Festival located in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

The Great Northern Arts festival's vision is to promote emerging, established, or masters artists from the circumpolar North within the following artistic mediums; sculpture, metalsmiting, traditional arts, painting, printmaking, and textiles. This year the festival will emphasize Jewelry, which can be interpreted in any medium or art form.

This 10-day festival is a unique experience of living and working in a truly inspirational setting, linking artists from across Canada's North.

Applications can be downloaded at www.gnaf.org/artists.html

For more Information contact:

Artistic Director Jennifer Bowen

Email: delta_skywise@me.com

work: 867-668-5231

cell: 867-335-1014

The Professional Foreigner: Asen Balikci and Visual Ethnography - PREVIEW

Dec 02, 2010 18:53 ET

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq Announces Support for Crime Prevention in the Northwest Territories

Program offers at-risk children and youth life skills to make smart choices

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 2, 2010) - Today, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Member of Parliament for Nunavut, Regional Minister for the North and Minister of Health, on behalf of the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, announced funding for projects aimed at helping at-risk children and youth in several communities in the Northwest Territories avoid criminal activities. The Government is delivering more than $7.8 million in support of three crime prevention projects called A Community within a Community: A Culture-Based Leadership and Resiliency Program, Youth Drop-In Centre and the Family Group Conferencing Model of Intervention.

"Today's announcement is welcome news for families in the Northwest Territories. This Government is committed to preventing crime and building safer communities," said Minister Aglukkaq. "The support we are announcing today demonstrates our ongoing efforts at reducing crime, and will provide at-risk children and youth in these communities with the tools they need to make smart choices."

"Crime prevention is a focal point of our efforts to strengthen community health in the Northwest Territories," says Northwest Territories Minister of Justice Jackson Lafferty. "Today's funding announcement supports our work and commitment to grass roots prevention programs that serve to improve the long term well-being of our population."

Through the National Crime Prevention Strategy's (NCPS) Northern and Aboriginal Crime Prevention Fund and the Crime Prevention Action Fund, the Government of Canada is providing funding to three projects in the Northwest Territories. These projects will promote youth development through community involvement, provide positive mentorship and help prevent their involvement in substance use and criminal activity.

The NCPS is administered by the National Crime Prevention Centre within Public Safety Canada. The strategy provides funding support to selected projects that help prevent crime and increase knowledge about effective crime prevention measures. The NCPS's priorities are: 

• addressing early risk factors among vulnerable children, youth, and young adults;

• preventing recidivism among high-risk offenders;

• fostering crime prevention in Aboriginal and Northern communities; and

• preventing youth gang and drug-related crime.

For more information, please visit the website www.publicsafety.gc.ca

For more information, please contact

Public Safety Canada
Media Relations
613-991-0657