NWT - The man heading the negotiations to streamline the territory's regulatory regime said no land claims will be reopened in the process.

John Pollard is the chief federal negotiator who will lead consultations and negotiations with the GNWT and aboriginal leaders on how land and water boards will be structured. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo

NWT Deputy Premier Michael Miltenberger told News/North earlier this month "without a doubt," the land claim issue will come up.

But John Pollard, the chief federal negotiator leading consultations and negotiations with the GNWT and aboriginal leaders on how land and water boards will be structured, disagrees.

"I don't believe at the present time that we're interested in opening up any of the land claims," he said. "Anything that we're going to do, we're going to do by respecting the existing claims. I don't see there needs to be a fear of opening claims."

His mandate involves amending the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and might involve changes to the Northwest Territories Waters Act and the Territorial Lands Act. Pollard needs to be done by December.

"If there are immediate fixes that can be made, then I can recommend them to the minister at any time but I need to be done at the end of December," he said. "Although my time frame is going to be short - December - we're looking at putting together something that reaches right across the territory, looks out to the future and fits in with the territorial government when they take over the responsibility or through the devolution process."

Pollard is gathering information and has spoken with some of the aboriginal leaders. He said he'll move forward in a consensus fashion, dealing with all of the territory's regions to understand their position. He added he is set to meet the cabinet of the territorial government this week.

Once that is done, Pollard said he will start consulting with the territory's aboriginal leaders.

He added he doesn't bring anything to the table other than the perceived problems on how boards do business and applications are handled, not to mention the timelines. He said sitting down with regional panels and overall boards, he hopes they find inefficiencies.

"I expect them to be very defensive at the beginning," he said. "But what we're looking for is something that is for the whole of the Northwest Territories so that we're not a bunch or regions working together, we're a territory with regional interests represented."

One of the people Pollard will meet is Nellie Cournoyea, CEO and chair of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. She said Pollard is a "good choice" as chief negotiator.

"He's going to do the best he can. Who knows. It's a complex situation," she said.

Samuel Gargan, Grand Chief of the Dehcho First Nations, will decide what he wants to do only after he meets with the minister this week, said Pollard.

Gargan said creating a new regulatory board would have to involve reopening agreements already signed in some regions.

That would put the honour of the Crown in doubt because there would be no sense in negotiating final agreements if the federal government tinkers with them or tears them apart after they are signed, he said.

"That's the only way that you're going to touch those boards," he said. "You're not going to touch it unless they're willing to reopen."

Pollard, also a former GNWT finance minister and MLA for Hay River, said he's not absolutely sure he'll achieve what he set out to do but he'll certainly try.

"I am going to give it a good try and I think if there is enough trust and goodwill and if there is enough people out there that want to build this territory as opposed to having it, as I said before, an association of regions, then those people would step forward and we'll be able to reach an arrangement. I am not saying it's going to be easy, though," he said.

- With files from Paul Bickford