This side of provincehood
Many changes coming to government departments through devolution
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
According to Michael Miltenberger, residents of the NWT will witness a once-in-a-lifetime event on April 1 as devolution comes into effect.
"This is the last major transfer of responsibility to us from the federal government that we're going to see this side of provincehood," said the long-time territorial cabinet minister.
Miltenberger noted that, for decades to come, the NWT will have all it needs to manage its own affairs as a full-fledged territory.
"We're going to have all the rights and responsibilities of all the other jurisdictions," he said. "The only territory now that hasn't negotiated devolution is Nunavut."
The GNWT will become responsible for laws that determine how public land, water and resources are used and managed.
Work now really begins on the implementation side, said Miltenberger.
"We've got to make it work. We've got to fine-tune the system, implement it fully and show people that it was the right thing to do."
Miltenberger said there is co-ordination between the three
departments most affected by devolution.
Those are the new Department of Lands, along with the existing Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), and Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) departments.
Miltenberger said the goal is to make sure they fulfil the various regulatory responsibilities and provide reassurance to Northerners of high-quality assessment and development review processes.
With devolution, 132 employees will move to the GNWT from the federal government. Ottawa also provided a one-time $26.5-million payment to cover transition costs.
The biggest change for the GNWT is the creation of the Department of Lands, which comes into existence on April 1.
"It certainly is an exciting time because you're getting to shape a vision that you've been looking at for a lot of years," said Mark Warren, the new department's deputy minister.
The department will be responsible for, among other things, land inventory, leasing and selling of land, land-use and survey applications, mapping, land-use sustainability guidelines and policies, planning, inspection and enforcement, and major project assessment.
Warren said that will include everything from a cottage lot to a mine.
When land claim areas and national parks are removed from the equation, the new department will be responsible for administering over 950,000 to 975,000-square kilometres.
Warren said the new department, which will have 144 employees, will be ready to begin work on April 1.
As a result of devolution, ENR will have legislative authority over water, except offshore, and will become responsible for cumulative impact monitoring and approval of water licences. In addition, it will have a new contaminated sites and remediation section.
Miltenberger, the minister responsible for ENR, said control of water is critical.
"Resource development is important, but control and legal authority over water is absolutely fundamental," he said.
"It's the resource that keeps us all here, keeps us all alive."
Miltenberger said everyone has worked hard to make sure things are ready for April 1.
In all, 59 positions will move to ENR from the federal government.
Under devolution, ITI will administer mineral exploration and development activities and regulate onshore petroleum activities in the NWT, except the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.
"So it's going to be big changes for us," said ITI Minister David Ramsay.
The statutory authority of the minister as regulator for oil and gas activities in onshore areas is a model used in the Yukon, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
"It's something that we felt had a lot of benefit for us because we wanted to grow capacity and regulate ourselves here in the Northwest Territories," Ramsay said.
"It didn't make a lot of sense for us to have regulation taking place from Calgary or some place else."
The regulatory role was previously filled by the National Energy Board.
ITI will get 42 new employees as a result of devolution.
Ramsay said his department will take an integrated approach to resource management with ENR and the Department of Lands.
"We can't afford to be doing things in isolation if we want to grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time," he said. "We all need to be working off the same script."
Not everyone in the NWT has yet agreed to devolution, particularly the Dehcho First Nations
(DFN), which, along the
Akaitcho, have refused to sign while land claims remain outstanding.
Devolution can't undermine negotiations in the Dehcho Process, said DFN Grand Chief Herb Norwegian. "They both have to be compatible in order for it to work properly."
Miltenberger is optimistic all aboriginal groups will eventually come on board.
"I'm pretty confident that within the first year, by this time next year, just about all aboriginal governments will be signed on," he said, adding most aboriginal governments have already done so.
Miltenberger noted, while some people may always oppose devolution, it is supported by the vast majority of Northerners.
- with files from Roxanna Thompson
