Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 23/02) - Negotiating groups will convene this week for the for the first round of devolution talks that will eventually leave the territory with more province-like powers.

David Peterson, chief negotiator for the federal government, flew North yesterday and will meet with territorial negotiators Hal Gerein and Bob Simpson in Inuvik this week.

"We're going to be talking to an awful lot of people, visiting with a lot of my colleagues and peers and a number of the chiefs," said Peterson. "And then just listening."

Devolution talks will lead to a transfer of some powers from Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to the GNWT, including the ability to assess resource royalties, control of Crown land and greater authority over the environment.

Simpson, the lead negotiator for aboriginal interests, said he is looking forward to a "meet-and-greet" with Peterson.

The different groups will hash out a basic schedule for negotiations and develop a basic structure for technical committees which will focus on certain aspects of the devolution process.

"We might brief him on our understanding of the concepts of sharing jurisdictions and sharing revenues, but we probably won't get into substantive negotiations," said Simpson.

Devolution talks are expected to take about three years. DIAND Minister Robert Nault said he envisions about 18 months of negotiations before a framework agreement is drafted, then another 18 months for an agreement in principle.

NWT Premier Stephen Kakfwi has said he wants a devolution agreement in place before a pipeline speeds Northern resources to the South. Recent pipeline discussions have mentioned 2007 as a date for completing pipeline construction.

The different negotiating groups have spent the last few months in devolution briefings.

Peterson has been in discussions with DIAND about the federal government's goals and objectives, while Simpson and other aboriginal negotiators have spoken with people like the lawyers for the Council for Yukon Indians.

"We think that the federal government will want to model very closely along the Yukon agreement," said Simpson.

The Yukon completed its devolution talks in October, 2001. The Yukon Act, passed by the federal parliament in March, comes into force next April.

But Simpson says a "cut and paste" approach with the Yukon agreement won't work for the NWT, especially since aboriginal groups here would not be satisfied with resource-sharing clauses included in the Yukon act.

"We are talking about some very different concepts here," he said.

Neither Nault nor Peterson would comment on what the federal government will propose in talks over the next few years.

"I don't have an agenda except to get things moving," said Peterson.