Braden climbs into driver's seat
Leader of the elected makes first step toward premier's chair
Bruce Valpy
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
George Braden won in the Yellowknife North riding in the 1979 territorial election, beating out, among others, Ted Mehler, Margaret Cook and Bob Olexin.
George Braden, the NWT's first government leader, right, struggled with "intransigent" federal bureaucrats and politicians. He is seen here with NWT Supreme Court judge C.F. Tallis. - NNSL archive file photo |
The 29-year-old Braden had campaigned on achieving provincial status in the long term. At a Rotary Club candidates forum he promised to fight to gain immediate responsible government in the NWT in the short term.
"We can no longer depend upon the federal government to resolve what are essential Northern issues," Braden told the crowd.
This was in the days before government leaders and premiers. The elected territorial councillors were still operating under the authority of the office of the NWT Commissioner who chaired the executive committee. At the 1980 spring session of the legislative assembly held in Baker Lake, Braden was voted in as Leader of the Elected Members. Commissioner John Parker was looking over Braden's shoulder but it was a huge step forward to public government.
The feds were not impressed. Braden remembers meeting in an Ottawa office of Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Munro and Marc Lalonde, minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. Financial Management Board chair Tom Butters and Georges Erasmus, president of the Dene Nation, were there too. The topic of discussion was the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline, then at the centre of the firestorm known as the Berger Pipeline inquiry.
"We weren't opposed to the pipeline," Braden said. "We had developed a position to get a delay. We wanted to get a commitment on jobs, training, the business community to get contracts. We were worried the unions would come in and say, 'The hell with you guys.'"
How did the two federal ministers react? "The answer was just no," said Braden. "That's a good example of where we were not pleased with the federal government."
In the early 1980s, devolution was not the buzzword it is today. Braden and his elected colleagues were too busy trying to get their hands on the levers of power. Standing in their way were "intransigent" federal politicians and bureaucrats who felt Northerners were not capable of "looking after the rocks and oil" even though they had no qualms about handing over responsibility for "people problems."
The prevailing attitude was: "Why would we (Ottawa) give jurisdiction to 40,000 people over Canada's oil and gas reserves?" Braden said, adding that federal ministers and bureaucrats alike viewed the NWT as a "deep freeze" for storing Canada's riches.
In 1983, Braden was given another title, one that from a bureaucratic perspective carried significance but from a political point of view was hardly worth a memory. Deputy commissioner Bob Pilot stopped being deputy commissioner and Braden was given his title of Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee. "Don't really remember that," Braden said.
But he does remember his role as spokesperson, announcing government programs and policies as the assembly didn't want appointed people making policy statements.
As for getting revenue-potential powers transferred from Ottawa, Braden said it was made very clear "nothing was going to happen without aboriginal involvement. There was going to be no transfer."
He credits present and past premiers - Bob McLeod, Floyd Roland, Joe Handley - and others for getting the devolution deal done. He 's proud that: "It's one of the first jurisdictions in Canada where you have a policy to share resource revenues with aboriginal people."
