Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on the ground on the faith of my people. For the last three weeks my mind and heart have been gone from time to time as to the fate of how we will be shaping our land and our relationships with aboriginal governments. We are beginning to see what it may look like. There’s an interesting saying in the Chinese culture that goes something like this: May you live in interesting times. Certainly we’re in those times with the draft devolution agreement-in-principle. Advice I’m getting from my elders and the leaders in the Sahtu give me strength to carry on with my voice on this draft document before us.
I want to go back to three years ago at the beginning of this Assembly. The Premier, earlier on, said devolution is on the backburner. I recall we pretty much all agreed with that sentiment. However, later on we asked that devolution be put back on the table with all the aboriginal governments as equal owners of this land and as governments. We had important things to do and one thing was how we would work with each other and break away from dependency on the federal government and become unique partners in the Constitution of Canada. We want to dance to our own drum, be it Dene, Metis, Inuvialuit or as Northerners.
Three weeks ago, out of the blue, we found out a draft AIP had been reached between the GNWT and the feds on devolution; only between the two governments and not the aboriginal governments. Would you want all governments to sign this document? Besides, aren’t our communities negotiating their styles of governments? The draft AIP did not come before this House or the people of the Northwest Territories whom we work for. Months earlier we said we need to discuss
devolution openly with the public. This is the basis of democracy.
Mr. Speaker, the feds are trying to download costs. That’s what I firmly believe is happening here in the Northwest Territories. Nothing more, nothing less. We’ve all received copies of letters from the vast majority of aboriginal leaders saying they’re not on side. These leaders represent 29 communities in the Northwest Territories. That is a significant number that are telling us we’re not in the place for the things that are proceeding. This thing is like a runaway freight train.
We need a meaningful consultation process. We need to understand why the feds want this to happen. They’re not doing this because they’re nice guys. We need to know their agenda. We need to know what our agenda is. What is the agenda of the Northwest Territories? Is it money? Is it control? Is it fear? Is the world ending tomorrow?
Last week in the House the Premier said there was no impact from devolution on land claims and self-government agreements.