SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Business leaders, government officials and Indigenous representatives showed off the territory last week while hosting the winter meeting of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER).

British Columbia MLA Dan Ashton stands in front of a display at the Explorer Hotel during the winter meeting for the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region on Nov. 17. Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay said he hoped the organization would one day hold its summer meeting in Yellowknife as well. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo

Almost 100 MLAs, state legislators, diplomats and business leaders gathered at the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife for three days of learning and networking.

"It's important we see the different areas we represent," said PNWER vice president and British Columbia MLA Dan Ashton. "And the Northwest Territories is an integral part of the economies of Canada and the Pacific Northwest."

The non-profit group consists of members from 10 states, provinces and territories in Canada and the United States.

"We may not share the same political views at all but all that is put aside at these PNWER meetings," said MLA Scott Fraser, a member of the B.C. NDP, said during his remarks at the Museum Cafe on Nov. 15. "We heard about the commonalities that are important to all of us and it's way more than the differences that separate us."

This is the first time Yellowknife and the NWT have hosted one of PNWER's meetings. The cross-border organization and the GNWT presented two events: a legislative leadership academy from Sunday to Monday and the economic leadership forum from Monday to Tuesday.

The economic leadership forum featured presentations on Aboriginal economic development, sustainable development, market access, Arctic transportation systems, energy development and mining. Speakers from the territory included NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation CEO Pawan Chugh, Denendeh Investments Incorporated CEO Darrell Beaulieu, NWT Housing Corporation director of infrastructure services Scott Reid, Dominion Diamond CEO Brendan Bell and GNWT energy projects manager David Mahon.

Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay said the winter meeting in Yellowknife was a real dream for both himself and Premier Bob McLeod.

"It was an honour to serve as the first president (of the organization) from the Northwest Territories," he said having been elected to the position in July 2014. Idaho State Sen. Curt McKenzie has since assumed the role.

Ramsay called the members of PNWER a family that welcomed the territory.

"At some point we want to get the summer meeting up to Yellowknife," he added with a smile on Nov. 17, citing the hundreds of new rooms being added to the city's capacity through the construction and planned expansion of the Nova Hotel, as well as the expansion planned for the Explorer.

Alaska state congressional representative Bob Herron, who is chair of PNWER's Arctic Caucus told Yellowknifer it was important for him to attend not just because the group's immediate past president is Ramsay but because the territory has similar challenges to Alaska related to resource development.

"Although the NWT has an unbelievable future with its diamond mines. It has a lot of resources that are stranded. (It's) tough to find investors and to get those resources to market," he said during a dinner held at the Museum Cafe.

Herron, who resides in the western Alaska town of Bethel which is populated by less than 7,000 people, said the two jurisdictions share many of the concerns regarding its smaller, Northern communities.

"How can they live, breathe, strive so that their residents can enjoy all the same things that other people in other states and provinces expect and enjoy as well," he said. "It's about our future and it's important these jurisdictions continue to work together so that the people, for eons, have a common link. Just because there's borders on the map doesn't mean that we can't work together to try and figure out those problems."

Herron said while Alaska's population was 735,000 people, there were still parallels in terms of its workforce.

In the region he resides in, the Yukon Kukokwim Delta, he told Yellowknifer there are 33 villages, a population of 17,775 people and almost 90 per cent of them are Alaska Native.

"I live in a community that's about 50/50," he said, adding he's spent his entire adult life there, and that his children and grandchildren are Alaska Native as well.

Herron said he understands the challenges that are going on in the Northwest Territories from both its economy and its workforce.

"Alaska has been a boom-bust territory since 1867," he said. "We do get a lot of people who come up from the lower 48."

In Alaska, Herron said the focus now in his territory is to grow its own educated population, rather than continue to see a flow of temporary residents who only stay for one to five years.

"How can you empower the people because those First Nations (residents) are going to stay there?" he said. "A lot of these people can never leave even if they wanted to."

Meeting called very successful

Ashton called the gathering very successful for its wealth of information among the delegates, increased awareness about the territory itself and the ability to network with peers.

"That opportunity doesn't present itself other than through an agency like PNWER," he said. "The issues that they face as elected officials, the names change but they're all the same."

The B.C. representative for Penticon pointed to the sheer number of people who travelled to Yellowknife for the meeting as one of the biggest benefits to the territory's economy.

"Look at the attention that's been brought to the Northwest Territories by the Pacific Northwest states, plus Alaska," he said. "And don't forget, we all go home and I know the media is going to be asking us a terrific amount of questions about the North."

Ashton also said a lot of issues the country is facing in the future are shared problems, such as the threat of invasive species entering water systems.

"The last thing in the world is we don't want anything to encumber those waters," he said.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.