Deh Cho - The Dehcho First Nations supports enlarging the Nahanni National Park Reserve to cover 31,630 square kilometers.

On June 25 the delegates at the annual assembly in Kakisa passed a resolution giving their approval to an expanded boundary. The park currently covers approximately 4,667 square kilometers.

Chief Keyna Norwegian of the Liidlii Kue First Nation, left, Jean Marie River First Nation delegates Ernest Hardisty, Angus Sanguez, elder Laura Sanguez and Margaret Ireland use their voting cards to signal approval of a resolution to accept an expanded boundary for the Nahanni National Park Reserve. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

The resolution followed a presentation by Jonas Antoine of the Nahanni Expansion Working Group, and park superintendent Chuck Blyth.

The expanded park will protect almost 90 per cent of the Deh Cho portion of the greater Nahanni ecosystem and still leave approximately 25 per cent of the areas with high mineral potential open for development, according to Antoine.

"It will be the greatest thing that ever happened in the entire world," Antoine said of the park expansion.

In agreeing to this boundary the DFN is concurrently putting it forward as their stance to the federal government, said Blyth.

The government will then make their recommendation. The boundary and the way the park will be managed will be negotiated as part of the Dehcho Process, he said.

The Dehcho First Nations access and benefits negotiating team is looking for input from communities.

On July 15 the team will be holding a meeting in Fort Simpson to discuss a harvesters and monitoring agreement. Input is needed on how to divide the money that could come from an agreement," said Chief Keyna Norwegian, the co-chair of the team.

"Please communities send someone to these meetings," she said to the delegates.

The Dehcho needs to work on an agreement now so all the policies and terms are finalized before construction on the Mackenzie Gas Project begins, she said.

"We can't wait for the eleventh hour."

Antoine stays on

Jerry Antoine will stay on as grand chief for another year.

On June 25 delegates passed a resolution to extend Antoine's interim position until the next assembly.

Before the resolution was brought to the table and passed, delegates spent the better part of two days discussing their options.

Discussions covered whether Antoine could be reappointed and what form the eventual election would take. Delegates debated options for a regional election and the current practice of an election voted on by delegates at the assembly.

Some delegates questioned if a regional election would go against tradition.

"With this election are we going to do it the white man's way or the Dene way," asked Roy Fabien, a delegate from the Hay River Reserve.

A vote by secret ballot was called asking delegates if they supported a regional election. The resolution was defeated with 41 voting against and only 19 in favour.

An assembly election will be held next year.

In September the communities of Fort Simpson, Wrigley, Jean Marie River and Fort Providence will be asked to choose a boundary option for a protected area at the Horn Plateau.

Now nine years in the making, the establishment of a protected area is finally at the point where a boundary decision is needed, said Stan Sanguez, the chairman of the Edehzhie Working Group.

The communities will be given three boundary options for the area that's designed to protect the bodies of water at and around the Horn Plateau.

Outlined to delegates on June 26, options include a full land withdrawal of 25,230 square kilometers.

Two other options take into account the mineral and natural gas potential that was identified in the area.

The minimum area to be protected is 10,565 square kilometers, according to Paul Latour, a biologist with Canada Wildlife Service.