A New Day
with Sandi Coleman

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission is in Inuvik today holding hearings on telephone competition. The CRTC had ruled last year that Northwestel must make its infrastructure available to competitors, especially cellphone companies. But it says the northern phone company can only recoup up to 10 per cent of its costs through charges to those companies.

Northwestel is objecting to that level, so the CRTC has come north to hear what people think. Samer Bishay is president and CEO with Iristel and Ice Wireless...

The other group involved in the hearings is the northern phone company, Northwestel.

The US Customs and Border Protection people have changed the rules for Canadians operating pleasure boats along the Alaska Panhandle. For example, boaters now have to check in a with customs each time they enter a new port ... even if they have not left US waters. There are also questions about Canadians registering boats under the US flag. It's got Canadian boaters upset, and rethinking their plans to travel along the Lynn Canal. But business owners in the state are also worried about the impact it could have.

As Radio Canada's Claudiane Samson found out, it's got people like Roger Griffin, a boater and businessman, talking about something different than normal....

Yukon College is unveiling it's new three year strategic plan today. The document covers everything from expanded research capacity to a comprehensive land use plan.

To find out more we were joined by Yukon College President Karen Barnes....

Call it a bump in the road ... a stretch of Hamilton Boulevard in Whitehorse that's continued to sag since the road was built several years ago.  Anyone who travels the route knows exactly where it's located. It's a zone where slowing down is essential if you value your shocks and under-carriage of your vehicle. This week the Yukon government is taking another shot a repairing the area.

Kirn Dhillon is a senior program manager with Community Services...

Graduation ceremonies have now wrapped up around the territory With congratulations going out to all those students!..But what will being a Grad of 2013 will be remembered for ? We thought that would be an interesting question to put to some of this year's Valedictorians.

Joining us in studio, are Trevor Bray from FH Collins, Rowan Brown from Porter Creek secondary...

It's been almost a decade since we first had Geoff Bateson on the program. He came here to talk about an innovative literacy and numeracy program born out of hard social and economic times in Birmingham, England.

Factories were closing. Mining was on the skids. It was also apparent that unless literacy skills were improved, the situation could only get worse. Geoff Bateson decided to do something about it through the Birmingham Core Skills Initiative.

Dr. Bateson is back in the Yukon ...

Last week we brought you the story of bootlegging in Ross River. The community has not had a bar or in fact any place to buy alcohol at all for the past year. But it's not a 'dry' community by design: the previous bar was torn down by the owners. In the meantime, local bootleggers have stepped into the breach. Residents are angry about that, but don't know how to combat the problem.

Jeff Ford has some ideas. He is director of the SCAN unit, at Yukon justice....

This week marks the 10th annversay of the Yukon Act, the landmark federal law that is the Yukon's constitution. Its passage transfered many federal programs to the territorial government making us much more province-like. The day itself came after years of discuss and negotiations. And the evolution has continued since then. Tomorrow there's a free public reception and panel discussion to help celebrate the anniversary.

Kirk Cameron is one of the participants. He's tracked the changes to the Yukon Act and other political developments for decades....

Late last week the Federal government tabled a bill that would require consideration of a range of factors before allowing safe injection sites to be set up. The views of police and local government officials would be needed before granting exemptions to drug laws, for one. But those who work with addicts say the proposed rules are just a further roadblock to saving lives.

Patricia Bacon is the executive director of Blood Ties Four directions here in Whitehorse. She is also on the board of director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition...