DEH CHO
The leader of the Dehcho First Nations has accused the GNWT of bullying as it seeks to settle land claims in the wake of devolution.

Former Jean Marie River First Nation's Chief Stan Sanguez raises questions about the Dehcho Process and the territorial government's response to it during the second day of the Dehcho First Nations' 2013 annual assembly in Fort Providence. At that meeting, delegates voted unanimously to push for no less than 80,000 square kilometres of land - roughly the size of New Brunswick. - NNSL file photo

Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said in an interview and a news release that the Dehcho is "tired of being bullied by the GNWT since devolution occurred."

This comes less than two months after Norwegian struck an optimistic tone about the state of negotiations in which he predicted the Dehcho Process being completed and brought before the summer assembly during a Deh Cho Drum interview.

The sticking point, he said, is the amount of land that Dehcho First Nations would receive through the land claim.

As the Dehcho Process negotiations continued earlier this year, Norwegian said the territorial government made an offer that was unacceptable.

He alleges that led to the GNWT negotiators walking away from the table during a session Jan. 15.

While Premier Bob McLeod wasn't available to answer questions about what happened at press time, he was asked about the issue in the legislative assembly last week by Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli.

"The state of negotiations in the Dehcho Process is alarming," Nadli said in the assembly on Feb. 4.

Nadli asked whether the GNWT had threatened to walk away from negotiations.

McLeod said that wasn't accurate.

"We have not threatened to walk away," McLeod said. "All we raise is the fact that despite all these best offers to the Dehcho First Nations, they're all rejected out of hand and so we should take that into consideration going forward."

Asked what Dehcho leaders would consider an acceptable amount of land, Norwegian declined to answer.

There's a figure in mind, but he said that information would be kept within negotiation sessions for now.

In a letter provided to the Drum, sent by the premier to Dehcho First Nations earlier this year, he outlined a proposal increasing the 2007 land offer from 33,488 square kilometres to 37,500 square kilometres.

McLeod described the offer as the full extent of the GNWT's flexibility.

"With this proposal, the GNWT is offering the best land and resource settlement terms in the history of the NWT, if not Canada," he wrote.

It's a line he would later use in the assembly under questioning by Nadli.

In a news release issued last week, Norwegian said a letter from the premier outlined an offer that "is not even comparable, equivalent or as fair as other land agreements in the North."

It wasn't clear at press time if the letter referred to is the one provided to the Drum by the GNWT.

The letter ends with the premier writing that if the offer is deemed unacceptable, "then I suggest we acknowledge that negotiations have failed to resolve our differences."

A reply was sought by Feb. 20, but there was no threat to walk away from negotiations altogether included.

A special DFN leadership meeting was called, bringing representatives of aboriginal governments to Fort Simpson last week to talk about the next steps. The tense - as Norwegian described the mood - meetings resulted in leaders agreeing to go to Yellowknife to press the issue.

"We're going to go to Yellowknife and take a hard line," Norwegian said in an interview.

"We're upped the ante and hoping our people across the country see what's going on," he said, adding he just wants to see the land claims issue resolved.

The two sides are expected to meet Thursday.