THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Premier Floyd Roland says now is the time for the NWT to decide to move forward towards a devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement with Ottawa.

Premier Floyd Roland, left, chats with Fort Smith resident Clayton Burke on Dec. 2, just after the premier concluded a presentation on devolution and revenue sharing before Fort Smith town council. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"I would say that, as the North, we should be prepared to make the next decision, to take the next steps, that would allow the future governments to really get into final negotiations and come up with a final package," said Roland, who was addressing Fort Smith town council on Dec. 2.

The council had invited him to speak about devolution and revenue sharing.

Recently, a draft of an agreement-in-principle was developed by GNWT and federal negotiators.

"We find ourselves now closing out the calendar year with a decision that needs to be made as to how we proceed," Roland told the Fort Smith council and about a half-dozen town residents who came out to hear him speak.

"The timeline for a final set of negotiations at minimum is two years, and that is probably optimistic," he said. "Maybe three years, but it's hard to say and nail down a date."

The premier was accompanied by Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger, who is also the minister of Finance.

Miltenberger told council the NWT loses over $50 million per year without a revenue sharing agreement with the federal government, plus he noted devolution would mean more federal jobs in the North.

"We've been in sort of the federal dry dock here for a long time," Miltenberger said by way of analogy. "We want to get out of the harbour and into the Northern waters where we can sail our own ship and chart our own direction. This is our chance. Without it, we're going to stay in a state of arrested political development where we will always be looking to Ottawa to find out what they're going to do to us next."

The politicians' messages got a mixed reception.

"Moving ahead with devolution is exciting," said Coun. Chris Westwell.

"It seems even more than necessary to change the formula somehow," the councillor added. "If we want to move ahead, we obviously need the revenue."

However, community resident Marie Darkes expressed a healthy amount of skepticism about the devolution process.

"You can't even build a bridge," she told the premier in reference to the troubled project to construct the Deh Cho Bridge over the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence.

"Why is Ottawa going to want to trust us with any more powers when we have so many issues, and the bridge is one of them," Darkes said.

While noting the bridge is getting built, Roland said, "It didn't go through a very good process. Decisions were made late in the life of a government to proceed on a project. In fact, I've committed to members of our assembly that this government will not put the next government in a similar situation."

Some people appeared indifferent to devolution and revenue sharing, and questioned the premier about other topics, such as the possibility of creating a university in the North.

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