NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Richard Nerysoo, chosen as the NWT's third government leader in 1983, strongly supported transforming the territory into a full-fledged province.

Richard Nerysoo, right, the NWT's third government leader, was a strong advocate for the Northern territories attaining provincial status. He is seen here with NWT Supreme Court judge C.F. Tallis.- NNSL archive file photo

While sitting as speaker of the assembly in 1989, he penned an essay for the Canadian Parliamentary Review opposing constitutional changes in the proposed Meech Lake Constitutional Accord that would "allow any and every province to prevent the Northwest Territories and Yukon from becoming provinces. The amendment will also give all provinces a role in the theoretical extension of existing provinces into the territories."

Nerysoo also challenged the notion that the territories could never be allowed to attain provincial status based on the premise that equalization and transfer payments to provinces cannot make allowances for a "special deal" for the NWT.

"This overlooks the fact that equalization is a concept developed after the existing provinces joined confederation, and that most provinces, particularly Newfoundland, received special treatment to enable them to participate fully and equally," he wrote.

Written before division when the North's population was 75,000, many of the challenges to program delivery and the high cost of living that Nerysoo identified still exist.

"It is more reasonable to address these in their proper context of fiscal or financial problems rather than to use them as excuses to impede political and constitutional development, and to allow them to act as an impenetrable barrier to provincehood," Nerysoo wrote.

Nerysoo pointed to the devolution of responsibilities such as forestry, health, the northern scientific resource centre, land titles, the power corporation and road construction. He argued that these and pending transfers for criminal prosecutions, inland fisheries, airports, and oil and gas management further legitimized the claim to provincehood.

Aboriginal land claims supported further constitutional control in the North, Nerysoo wrote.

"The aboriginal claims process plays a significant role in territorial constitutional development ... These agreements will provide greater control by aboriginal groups over their lands and futures.

"They will have an important economic and political impact on the territories arising from compensation monies to be paid and the provisions for the establishment of institutions of public government under the claims.

"In addition, it is anticipated that the increased certainty about which lands are available for development and the basis upon which development may occur, will result in increased development in the territories," he wrote. In his opinion, southern support for provincial status for the territories would likely be low and when "we knock on the door, as we most assuredly will, to say we are ready, will it be opened? "Perhaps the proper question is not "Provincehood: When?", but "Provincehood: Who Decides?"

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