Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 23/00) - The territorial government has focused almost as much of its attention on the south as on the North over the last six months.

And while Premier Stephen Kakfwi and Economic Development Minister Joe Handley have been promoting the North as a wise investment to the federal government and business, they've been busy working to decide how to ensure the North receives maximum benefits.

"We've got the message through that we're open for business and we want Northern businesses, aboriginal businesses to be significant partners in any new initiatives," said Kakfwi last week.

At stake is an estimated $90 billion in resource royalties and taxes from a pipeline, oil and gas and other development over the next 30 years. Key to making it happen is to find a way to share the wealth.

"The way it exists right now is the Government of Canada gets the lion's share, some goes to the territorial government and none at all goes to First Nations," said Dene Nation national chief Bill Erasmus.

"That imbalance has to be rectified and if that's what this initiative is about I support it."

Frustration with the current arrangement was evident earlier this month, when Akaitcho Treaty 8 leaders called on BHP to negotiate a new impact benefits agreement for three new kimberlite pipes it hopes to develop at its Ekati diamond mine.

Those who spoke repeatedly referred to the inequity of getting only $1 million a year from a mine that produced more than $1 million in diamonds each day from land claimed by Akaitcho Treaty 8.

Without sharing resource revenues, the incentive for development in the North sinks to almost zero.

That's about the same level of support Kakfwi can expect from members of the legislative assembly unless the government and aboriginal leaders can come up with a way, agreeable to the federal government, to share up the resources.

Agreement necessary

"It always comes back to that," said Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger.

"Every cubic foot of gas that they take out that we don't get a piece of is gone forever," he said.

"If we don't get a resource-sharing agreement, as far as I'm concerned you can leave the oil in the ground and leave the diamonds in the ground -- they're not going to rot."

With a pipeline proposal expected before the end of the year, the pressure is mounting to come up with an agreement.

Kakfwi says progress is being made, that the aboriginal summit last week agreed to work with the government to develop a model to guide revenue sharing.

"How much revenue actually flows, what is a reasonable proposal to make, is it going to tied to programs and services, is there going to be a base for every government to have the dignity to represent themselves -- those kinds of things we have to think about," Kakfwi said.

Another challenge, the premier said, is figuring out how revenues would be shared between regions like the oil and gas-rich Deh Cho and the resource-poor South Slave.

Conducted mainly behind closed doors, the negotiation must also calculate how much will go to the party that will become increasingly resource-poor as land claims progress -- the territorial government.