Kakfwi's devolution plan 'undermined'
Former premier could've gotten deal done in second term if not for rivalry of finance minister
Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Perhaps more than any other premier in the history of the NWT, Stephen Kakfwi's reign stands as the ultimate paradox.
Former premier Stephen Kakfwi says plans for a second term were aborted after Finance Minister Joe Handley let it be known he wanted his job. - NNSL archive file photo |
Elected Dene Nation president in 1983, he opposed the very idea of Dene participation in the territorial government. He thought it would interfere in the struggle for self-government. Changing tack in 1987, he went on to serve 16 years in the legislative assembly - most of them in cabinet, the final four as premier.
Kakfwi lists progress toward devolution over land and resources as one of his primary achievements. He was so close, he said, and might have achieved it if only he had another term.
As premier, he was ideally suited to negotiate devolution and resource revenues with the federal government. His activism in Dene politics, including four years as president of the Dene Nation, cloaked him in credibility with aboriginal governments.
He was also well-travelled in national politics and had a willing partner in Paul Martin, who was in a giving mood as he waited in the fall of 2003 for Jean Chretien to step down so he could become prime minister.
"The plan was to run a second term and finish the deal," Kakfwi recalls.
"(Former prime minister Paul Martin) wanted to finish the deal with me, but I didn't run."
Politics has a funny way of sabotaging best-laid plans. Trouble was brewing after it became clear that Kakfwi wasn't the only one eying the premier's chair.
When Kakfwi was minister of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Joe Handley was his deputy minister. Then Handley got into politics and became Kakfwi's finance minister. Handley also wanted to be premier.
Kakfwi said Handley contemplated breaking cabinet solidarity and voting against him in a confidence vote in 2002.
"It's hard to work when you got somebody who's your finance minister continually undermining you," he said.
"I mean, he actually sat on the committee that was reviewing my activities. He was all set to vote to remove me. It was the chiefs here, Peter Liske and Rick Edjericon, the Akaitcho chiefs, who marched into his office and got him to change his vote."
Kakfwi had secured a draft framework on devolution his last summer on the job, which listed April 2006
as the target date for completion. But the task would have to fall onto the shoulders of his rival.
After serving four terms in the legislative assembly, Kakfwi announced his decision to not run again on Oct. 1, 2003 - seven weeks before the territorial election.
Looking back on the self-government project that began with young Dene leaders like himself in the 1970s, Kakfwi doubts devolution will unite the territory anytime soon. The opportunity for unity among aboriginal groups was lost after the Gwich'in walked out on Dene-Metis comprehensive claim negotiations in 1990.
Today the connection between aboriginal governments and MLAs sitting in the legislative assembly is weak, said Kakfwi. The territorial government, meanwhile, is too broke to stand up to Ottawa.
"It's tough going trying to keep the chiefs onside, trying to get a good financial deal, trying to establish a good work relationship," said Kakfwi.
"The feds, they put the devolution arrangements in the same bill as the bill that's going to wipe away the regional boards and establish a super one. The GNWT said, 'we don't support it,' and they were very upset about it.
"But on the other hand, they couldn't say anything."
Editor's note: A call was made to Joe Handley and a message left for him to respond to Stephen Kakfwi's comments but he did not return the call before press time.
