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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Responses were frustrated and angry at the Explorer Hotel on Wednesday after a four-person advisory panel asked a business audience for input on a new territorial economic strategy.

Gord Van Tighem, left, Rory Campbell, Joe Handley and Heather Bourassa make up the NWT Economic Opportunities Advisory Panel. The panel was at a NWT Opportunities conference as part of the Denendeh Investments Inc. annual general meeting. - Lyndsay Herman/NNSL photo

The NWT Economic Opportunities Advisory Panel, which is touring the territory asking for input on a new territorial economic strategy, made a presentation at the Denendeh Investments Inc. annual general meeting in order to get the input of important leaders and business people in attendance.

Joe Handley, the panel chair, told the audience this meeting was likely one of the most important in the tour due to the number of business and political leaders in the audience and the number of years of business experience amongst them.

However, aboriginal leaders who spoke showed more interest in taking their economic futures into their own hands or advocated the need to work as equals with the government, something many felt wasn't happening in this context.

"Don't talk to me about the economy as though we don't understand it," said Roy Fabien, chief of the Katlodeeche First Nation, after recounting the success of the Dene during the early fur trade years. "Our people understand the economy."

Fabien said what the Dene need are no more jobs but the capacity, both educational and emotional, to take advantage of jobs or business opportunities when they arise.

"Today my children cannot make a living," he said. "Our children cannot make a living because they do not have the capacity to be able to make a living whether it's in English or Dene. Through the residential schools you took away our Dene capacity and our Dene integrity to the point where our people are no longer aspiring."

Fred Koe, chief operating officer of the Gwich'in Tribal Council and a former MLA, asked the panel to "blow the dust off" past reports on the same subject and spend the money set aside for the strategy, approximately $240,000, on implementing past recommendations and study findings.

He also called to aboriginal people to work together under the concept of the Idle No More movement.

"We have to get off our butts, every one of us, individually," he said. "Make things happen.

"This Idle No More concept is exactly it."

Koe said he was representing his personal views and not representing any organization.

Dene Nation national chief Bill Erasmus also voiced his support for the movement and said First Nations would start exercising treaty rights with or without government approval.

The panel was frequently referred to by audience members as GNWT representatives despite the fact none of them are GNWT employees. Handley explained the purpose of the panel is to obtain a third-party perspective on the territory's economic strengths and needs.

According to former Dene Nation national chief Noeline Villebrun, the format of the strategy development was part of the problem.

"Now we see it again," said Villebrun. "The leaders are coming back and asking, 'What do you want us to do?' instead of going into the community and allowing the people to make that decision. They always feel like they know what's best for us and I don't feel that that should continue on because we know what is best for our people and communities."

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