Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Oct 20/00) - With growing speculation that a federal election will be called as early as Sunday, Deh Cho First Nation's self-government negotiations documents won't likely be reviewed by Cabinet any time soon.

Should an election be called for late November, federal negotiator Robin Aitken said all matters before Cabinet would come to a standstill. The Deh Cho Process would have to be dealt with by the next federal government.

"This wouldn't be rushed through," Aitken said.

DCFN Grand Chief Michael Nadli and DCFN chief negotiator Chris Reid are seeking a meeting with DIAND minister Robert Nault as soon as possible. Nadli and Reid said last week that the federal government could choose to fast-track approval of the DCFN's draft framework agreement and interim measures agreement if the political will existed.

"If they want a positive, stage-setting thing where they get some mileage out of public relations, and agree with most of the conditions and are prepared to sign it... they could be contemplating that idea," Nadli said.

Reid said he's not overly optimistic.

"My sense is that right now everybody in Ottawa is preoccupied with an election," he said. "But they might want to (fast-track) it. The fact is the federal government has not had a lot of good news in the last year on native issues."

Aitken said another conference call is scheduled for Friday to plan for another negotiations session to deal with the final two sticking points. Even if the two parties could come to a quick resolution of outstanding issues, there wouldn't be enough time for the documents to be passed in Cabinet, according to Aitken.

"You've still got to go through all the checks and balances. From our side that's all the different departments, the senior management within the federal government and then it goes to Cabinet," he said.

"The Deh Cho have told us they may have to have a special assembly, so this isn't all done in a couple of weeks."

During the Deh Cho Assembly in Kakisa in August, Reid had told delegates that reaching Phase Two of self-government negotiations before an election is critical because if the Canadian Alliance Party is elected the Deh Cho Process could otherwise be jeopardized.

Issues remain

Negotiators still have a lot of work to do, Aitken said. Two issues are still thwarting ratification of the agreements.

One is the DCFN's demand for total protection of withdrawn lands, including the restriction of seismic land-use permits on withdrawn lands. The other is the DCFN's insistence that impact benefits agreements be negotiated with First Nations when any major development takes place.

No progress has been made on the topics for the past two months. Reid admitted after another tele-conference with the federal negotiating team on Friday morning. The federal government contends that it can't agree to the impact benefits agreements clause on licences and permits until a final agreement is signed because it would require an amendment to current legislation, Reid explained.

He argued the federal government, without altering legislation, could refuse to lease Crown land to companies.

In a related issue, the DCFN has notified the federal government that an interim agreement on resource revenue sharing will be a condition of opening up the oil and gas industry in the Deh Cho, according to Reid.

"They say they need Cabinet approval to do that. That's been (federal negotiator) Robin Aitken's position," he said. "We understand that, so we've said, 'Go do it.' The faster we can get something negotiated, the faster we can get it opened up and get the region booming."