Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to talk about the issue of devolution and the importance of this issue here in the Northwest Territories. In our communities we are not hearing enough on it. For example, once devolution, whenever it gets completed to a final deal, will it be a vote throughout the Northwest Territories to say yes, people in the North want this deal to go through, or will it be like in the last government where seven Cabinet Ministers said this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to sign it with the majority of the Aboriginal governments not participating or wanting our government to sign on to negotiate towards a final agreement?
Devolution is one way to bring the Northwest Territories to a legitimate government. Right now we’re an orphan of the federal government. We have to ask them to borrow money to get us most of the resources. Devolution is a way that we take some of these resources and use it to operate ourselves.
However, the key component to a devolution deal is to involve the real landowners: the Aboriginal governments. The legitimate government that was negotiated through the land claim agreements that was negotiated in the ‘20s through the treaties, had those treaties been kept up by the federal government would have been in a better shape by our relationship. The elders tell us when those treaties were negotiated, many promises were broken. As to the existing land claim agreements now, we can start to see the cracks being open in our agreements with the land and water boards.
I want to ask the government, Premier, how we are going to solidify, produce a solid partnership with Aboriginal governments through this devolution file. I will have questions for the Premier later on.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wanted to make a statement on devolution. I’m deeply concerned about the current state of talks on devolution of control over lands and resources to the Northwest Territories from the federal government. As you know, no Dene governments or land claim organizations are involved in the process, and now the Gwich’in Tribal Council has taken this government and the federal government to court over what they say is a lack of consultation.
I know that our Aboriginal governments also believe that our current Devolution Agreement-in-Principle will be not much revenue or royalties for First Nations. There are also legitimate questions about how revenue sharing and control over the land would work and what role First Nations would have.
The Premier has stated that negotiations will continue anyway. We have not discussed this course of action yet in this House. It may be possible to go ahead, but it is a recipe for conflict between this government and many of the people that it is supposed to represent. This is not the Dene way of doing things. We try to reach consensus and keep working at it until we can decide what needs to be done. I’m sure I don’t need to remind the Premier that this Assembly is supposed to be a consensus government.
The Gwich’in lawsuit is a sign that this government has a lot of work to do. It should put our government on notice that there could be more serious consequences for going ahead on its own. Even now fighting over devolution could hamper our government’s effectiveness in working with regional governments. It could trigger a larger debate about constitutional development.
Progress is much more likely to be made if we settle our differences in the North and present a united front to the federal government. This is the direction I would like this government to take. I would also like an opportunity to discuss this issue in the House. The people of the Northwest Territories should know what we are doing about it. I will ask some questions later in the House.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
