Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 02/99) - Yellowknives Dene chiefs presented their community's vision of future development to a national economic force -- the Conference Board of Canada.

The conference board held a Community Economic Development Forum at the Explorer Hotel May 27-28. Attending were delegates from across Canada representing major banks, industry, utility companies and government.

Besides hearing presentations on Northern development from Diavik, the NWT Chamber of Commerce, NWT Power Corp, and the GNWT, delegates met with community leaders from Dettah and Ndilo.

"We do know (the conference board) influences policy making in the Canadian economy, which is why we took the opportunity to explain who we are and what economic impact our community has," said Ndilo Yellowknives Dene Chief Fred Sangris.

"We told the committee how we've come a long way from nomadic times. Years ago, we started the Deton'cho Development Corporation with $15,000, two chiefs and one employee. Right now, we're generating a little more than $3 million annually and we're signing more than 90 paycheques for our community members."

During the tour, Sangris enlightened the delegates on Northern issues affecting the Dene people and how those issues affect the big picture. Much of that discussion centred on land claims.

"The federal government wants to be active and do things for the North but they don't have the green light from us to do things on the land," Sangris said.

The Conference Board of Canada is a non-profit research organization with 600 members, most of which are major corporations. Federal and provincial governments are also represented on the board.

Assistant deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Graeme Dargo, is an executive member of the Conference Board of Canada. He said having the forum here was an excellent way to raise awareness about Northern economic opportunities.

"Further down the road, there will be research publications published across the world that will have information about Yellowknife in it," Dargo said.

"That lets us get access to research and information that others have done and promotes this movement across Canada that is focusing on community development initiatives."

Dargo said from the Smokehouse Cafe and the Deton'Cho Corporation to the Yellowknives Dene First Nations Housing Division, Dettah and Ndilo are communities that will set a national example on economic and social development.

"They're developing infrastructure that is locally built, owned and controlled that provides benefits directly to their community residents, Dargo said.

"They were great examples and our delegates left there with a solid idea about the potential for community development in the North."

Conference Board of Canada senior research associate Stelios Loizides said the visit gave its members a clear idea of how the North relates economically to the rest of Canada.

"Our members selected Yellowknife for the forum because there is a lot of activity going on in that part of the world in the community economic development area," Loizides said.

"From our point of view, we thought Ndilo and Dettah were perhaps the most successful communities we've seen because of the leadership provided by the chiefs and Deton'cho Corporation president, Darrell Beaulieu. We learned from them and we tried to share in whatever way we could the experiences of other communities across Canada."