DFN leaders call for more land rights
Grand Chief says GNWT only offering 'little jellybeans'
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, May 7, 2015
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Dehcho First Nations leaders are standing strong in their commitment to their side in land and money negotiations with the territorial government.
Dahti Tsetso, front left, resource management coordinator with the Dehcho First Nations, leads a group discussion during the leadership meeting. She heard unanimous opposition to fracking in the Deh Cho. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo
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That was the resounding message and theme of last week's leadership meeting in Fort Simpson, which saw First Nations leaders from across the region gather to discuss issues such as the Dehcho Process, fracking and transboundary agreements.
DFN Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said the GNWT appeared "edgy" in the latest negotiation meetings in Yellowknife last month.
He said negotiations are about 85 per cent complete, but the land issue is the big block.
The GNWT is offering 37,500 square kilometres of land, while the DFN says it is entitled to 50,000 square kilometres.
"If we can get around or resolve (the land issue), then we think it will be clear sailing," said Norwegian.
He said he was pleased to find Deh Cho communities on side with the DFN.
"We live in this Deh Cho house," said Norwegian. "We're all together. We need to continue to stay together if we're going to make this happen."
The government and third-party interests have been encroaching on Deh Cho land over the last number of years, he said.
"It's coming to the point now where we need to actually have a homeland for ourselves."
He wants the territorial government to meet DFN at least halfway in land negotiations.
Part of the disagreement is that the DFN wants complete subsurface rights, but he said the GNWT is offering only "little jellybeans" of subsurface rights to the DFN, in the form of 17.75 per cent royalties.
"The reason it's important that we retain surface and subsurface for our people is in the long run, we're a corridor community, and in the event we have some mega-project that happens, say, down in the valley somewhere, this corridor will become a stampede roadway with all this activity coming through," said Norwegian.
"It's important we retain some protection for ourselves and we continue to flourish. In 50 years time, you never know what's going to happen."
DFN's legal team has previously stated it believes the GNWT owes DFN a share of the resource money that First Nations who signed onto devolution are receiving.
"We're trying to resolve this in the best way possible," said Norwegian.
In a written response to questions the Deh Cho Drum posed the GNWT, media spokesperson Shaun Dean wrote that the government isn't "holding any resource revenues back" from the First Nation.
"Should the DFN sign on to devolution, the DFN would be entitled to a share of resource revenues from public land in the NWT," he stated in an e-mail.
