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Metis Alliance suing federal government Group says it is being left out of devolution discussions: presidentSimon Whitehouse Northern News Services Published Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Enge says the group has been aggressively trying to get Premier Bob McLeod and former federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, John Duncan, to consult with his group on the devolution process. "The response has been negative and recently the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada informed us that since the North Slave Metis Alliance doesn't meet the definition of an aboriginal organization in the devolution agreement, there will be no place at the table for the alliance," he said. He pointed out that there has been questions about whether the group has Section 35 aboriginal rights. But he added that the alliance has provided both governments with documents to show it holds the rights. The North Slave Metis Alliance has already taken the GNWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources to court for denying its members the right to a limited harvesting of the Bathurst caribou herd. A decision in that matter has yet to be made. To Enge, it doesn't make sense that his group isn't consulted, given its historic ties to the devolution process, let alone its traditional and genealogical ties to the land. "The North Slave Metis Alliance was part of the devolution process starting in 1997 all the way up to 2006, at which time the aboriginal summit - the vehicle for negotiating devolution - disbanded," said Enge. "From 2006 to the present, the North Slave Metis Alliance has never been approached by either the GNWT or the government of Canada to be a part of the reinvigorated devolution negotiations." Enge says the governments are ignoring the voices of about 1,000 people locally.
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