Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Jun 08/01) - The Deh Cho First Nations negotiating team is now making the transition into phase 2 of self-government negotiations.
With the Interim Measures Agreement and Draft Framework Agreement signed last month, DCFN and federal government negotiators are set to meet in Trout Lake later this month.
Negotiations sessions are expected to take place monthly, mostly in Deh Cho communities, over the next five years until an agreement in principle is reached. The meetings should remain open to the public, says DCFN chief negotiator Chris Reid. A final agreement could be ratified in seven years.
The DCFN will be establishing a land-use planning committee over the next few weeks. First Nations, many of which have already updated their own territorial maps, can protect environmentally sensitive and sacred areas through a land withdrawals process with the federal government, as negotiated through the IMA. Development zones are to be established outside the protected areas throughout the Deh Cho.
Part of the next year will also be spent on formulating a Interim Resource Development Agreement, which will ensure First Nations receive a share of royalties from mining, oil and gas development, and pipelines, such as a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
In the meantime, Reid said individual First Nations are free to begin preparatory work for economic development projects, including seismic activity to locate oil and gas deposits. But he suggested that exploratory drilling and production is still uninvited at this point.
"I think there's consensus that major development should not happen until all of these pieces of the puzzle are in place," he said.
"Funding a struggle"
To this point, the DCFN has been receiving negotiations funding from a few relatively new federal government programs.
"Funding is an ongoing struggle ... so far it's been tight but adequate," Reid said. "I don't think the Deh Cho would consider loan funding without a mandate from an assembly."
One of the drawbacks to the shortage of funding is a lack of communication, he suggested. He said more communications officers and a regional radio station would be ideal ways to better inform the public of negotiations developments, but the DCFN can't afford those initiatives right now.
There will, however, be periodic community meetings to keep the public up to date on issues, he said.
Cash settlement
The DCFN expects to receive financial compensation from the federal government in the form of a cash settlement, along with any final self-government agreement, Reid noted.
The Deh Cho First Nations, he said, feel entitled to a portion of resource revenues and royalties collected by the federal government from this region over the past century. That federal money could be used to promote further economic development in the region, he said.
At the same time, the DCFN will need a cash component to fund programs and services in the same fashion as the GNWT and provincial governments. The greater the control that the Deh Cho has over resource royalties, the less they will be dependent on the federal government, he said.
