Goulet announces resignation from politics

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Even when he announced his intentions to leave politics, Keith Goulet couldn't help but be a trailblazer.

Saskatchewan's first Aboriginal cabinet minister became, by his own volition, Saskatchewan's first Aboriginal former cabinet minister in mid-October.

Goulet announced that he was not going to run in the next provincial election, expected within two years. Goulet said he's returning to his first love, teaching and education. To do that, he's going back to school in order to get his doctorate.

"I have enjoyed my time serving in politics," said Goulet in an interview. "But I wanted to go back to get my doctorate, and there was no way I could do that and stay active in the cabinet.

"I'm 55 years old and trying to get my doctorate at the age of 60 would be more of a challenge."

First elected to the Saskatchewan legislature in 1986, Goulet was re-elected by the voters of his Cumberland constituency four consecutive times, the last time in 1999.

Saskatchewan's first Metis cabinet member, and the first to have been born on a trapline, held several portfolios in the government after the NDP took power in 1991. Those positions included provincial secretary, minister responsible for the Saskatchewan government insurance Crown corporation, associate minister of Education, Training and Employment, and minister of Northern Affairs. At the time of his announcement, Goulet was one of the longest-serving MLAs in the 58-seat Saskatchewan legislature.

Goulet said his involvement in politics was an extension of his work in education.

"I've believed in making positive changes in the lives of the people with whom I've come into contact," he said. "That's what interested me in education, and for me politics was an extension of that process."

Goulet has been in the centre of some of Saskatchewan's largest political battles, and has done a lot of work to increase the voice of northern Saskatchewan within government.

In 1986, Goulet became one of the first elected government members in Canada to vote against the Meech Lake constitutional accord, in protest of its ignoring of First Nations and Metis Indigenous and treaty rights. Those were issues he sought to overcome during the Charlottetown Accord talks, where he served as Premier Roy Romanow's right-hand man.

As well, Goulet said, the Saskatchewan government has made sure northerners had their opportunities in economic development.

"Saskatchewan now as a very good record in mining development for notherners' employment. Companies are required to have 50 per cent of its workforce to come from the north. And of those, 80 per cent are Aboriginal people. There's now as many as 1,000 Aboriginal people who work in the mining industry. In Canada we're seen as one of the leaders."

As well, forestry companies now must agree to lease agreements with First Nations and Metis people for northern logging operations. This requires them to also follow northern employment and purchasing guidelines, he said.

The Saskatchewan government has also done its share for northerners and Aboriginal people in the past decade, Goulet said. The province spent about $20 million from 1991 to 1995 installing water and sewer systems to several northern Saskatchewan communities. A second such program, which saw $25 million spent over three years, ended this summer and has provided the basic sanitation systems for the last remaining northern communities without water and sewer service.

"This is a major achievement for the health and well being of people in the north, especially for young children and the Elders," Goulet added.

He was also part of a delegation of provincial, northern and Aboriginal leaders who went to Europe in 1995 to attempt to block European community efforts to ban furs taken from animals caught with the use of leg-hold traps.

Projects such as these show how government can be a force to improve people's lives, he said. And he's encouraging more Aboriginal people to become involved in askatchewan politics.

"When I go back home, and I speak to the youth and tell them that I was born on a trap line, and look at the things that have been accomplished with me as part of the government, they feel that maybe, if they want, they can do that too," he said.

Goulet already holds a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Master of Education Degree from the University of Regina.

He's a past executive director of the Gabriel Dumont Institute, and has worked as an elementary school teacher and regional community college principal. He's also helped develop the Northern Teacher Education program, and has worked as a Cree language consultant for Saskatchewan's Department of Education.