Yellowknife (July 23/03) - Premier Stephen Kakfwi broadly released a draft framework agreement on devolution Monday that has been widely available at First Nations assemblies this summer.

Stephen Kakfwi - NNSL Photo

The 11-page document lays out an agenda and gives April 2006 as the target date for an agreement on transferring control of resources from Ottawa to the territorial and aboriginal governments.

The draft agreement has been in the hands of territorial MLAs since June and was distributed through the Aboriginal Summit, but has not been shared with the general public until now.

Kakfwi said the document "contains nothing substantive that requires public consultation" and defended the decision to keep it under wraps until now.

"It's not our business to release documents that have been drafted for consideration by the parties," Kakfwi said Monday.

"If the Aboriginal Summit wants to release it on the first day, that's their business. We have a different approach."

Kakfwi said it is "in the spirit of consensus that we don't distribute documents that don't have the approval of the parties involved."

He compared it to draft legislation and position papers that go to MLAs before they are shared with the public.

"There is a process," he said.

The premier said that as negotiators resolve substantive issues on devolution, the public will be told - unless one of the parties objects.

"We like to keep everything public, but sometimes we have wide-ranging exploratory talks and I don't think the public needs to be involved in that," he said.

"Once we become focused and start dealing with substantive issues and there is a draft agreement, we show it to people."

Kakfwi said the draft agreement is before aboriginal leaders for ratification by early September.

Bob Simpson, negotiator on devolution for the Aboriginal Summit, said he told his federal and territorial counterparts that the document would be widely shared during the assemblies.

"They had no objection to that," Simpson said.

Kakfwi said Aboriginal Summit has equal ownership of the document, "so they can make that call and it's for us to decide as well."

It was "a mater of courtesy" to show the draft agreement to territorial MLAs for their review before releasing it to the public.

"We're not going to give it to the media at the same time as everybody," he said.