Development of North on task force agenda

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The question of how non-renewable resources in the western Arctic can best be developed for the benefit of everyone is currently being examined by a task force of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE).

NRTEE is an independent agency of the federal government, responsible for researching and examining issues relating to sustainable development.

To help determine how best to achieve sustainable development of non-renewable resources in the North, the NRTEE initiated the Aboriginal Communities and Non-renewable Resource Development program. Responsibility for running the program falls to a task force, with membership comprised of representatives from stakeholders involved in or affected by ongoing economic development in the North.

The task force is co-chaired by Cindy Kenny-Gilday, a Dene from the Northwest Territories with a lifelong involvement in environmental issues, and Joseph O'Neill, who has been involved in the New Brunswick forest industry for more than 30 years.

The remaining task force members are a diverse group, including representation from local, territorial and federal government, as well as from industry, and environmental groups.

According to information provided by NRTEE, the goal of the Aboriginal Communities and Non-renewable Resource Development program is "to determine measures Aboriginal people, industry, government, environmental non-governmental organizations and academics must implement to ensure non-renewable resource development in Canada's North over the next 10 to15 years supports economically viable, self-sufficient Aboriginal communities without compromising the ecological integrity of the environment, or retention of social structures and culture."

The information outlines the objectives of the program: looking at the benefits and risks for Aboriginal communities relating to non-renewable resource development, examining the expectations of those Aboriginal communities regarding resource development, identifying any barriers that may keep Aboriginal communities from benefiting from resource development, and showing communities how to overcome the barriers and minimize their risks in order to build sustainable communities.

The task force concentrates on diamond mining and oil and gas development within both settled and unsettled land claims areas in the N.W.T., with emphasis on resource development in the Mackenzie Valley.

Task force co-chair Kenny-Gilday is serving her third term as a round table member. She has been involved in grassroots environmental activity for most of her life. Kenny-Gilday first brought the need to examine non-renewable resource development in the North to the attention of the NRTEE. Kenny-Gilday indicated that, with 24 members on the round table from right across the country, it is difficult for members to get their specific issues onto the table.

With a number of Native communities taking a stand regarding development of non-renewable resources - such as forestry and fishing - in their areas, the NRTEE saw that it was time to address the issue, Kenny-Gilday said. A small committee was put together to take a look at the issues emerging at the grassroots level across the country regarding development of non-renewable resources. The results, however, were overwhelming, with too many different issues being identified, so a decision was made to focus on one specific area, with that area to be the Aboriginal communities in the western Arctic.

The issues arising in the western Arctic, Kenny-Gilday explained, are issues that are fundamentally applicable across the country - issues that have not been sorted out; that have no public policy in place.

Kenny-Gilday summed up the job before the task force by quoting one of the participants in the consultation process, who told the task force, "I want my diamonds, but I want my caribou too. Let's do it the right way."

"The core question is what doing it right means," Kenny-Gilday sid.

The task force provides all stakeholders involved with a "neutral ground" to discuss the issues and has met with well over 150 groups, ranging from national groups, to those at the community level.

Kenny-Gilday said the process being used by the task force is "very, very much the Dene way of doing things - to reach a consensus through patience; to bring the people together, and talk it out, and finally, when the issues are identified collectively, you work on those."