S ELF-GOVERNMENT Where do we go from here?

Self-government negotiations between the government of Canada, GNWT, the Inuvialuit and Gwich’in have been going on for the past ten years. In February this year, the Gwich’in announced their decision to back out from the Agreement in Principle, raising the question: where do we go from here?

We ask Vince Teddy, Inuvialuit selfgovernment negotiator to update us on the situation. Vince has been working for self-government since 1996. He is one of the three negotiators working for the Inuvialuit, and was recently in Ulukhaktok and Inuvik with Donna Kisoun for part of their negotiating team’s tour throughout the ISR. Their objective is to gather information and workshop with the leadership and communities to arrive at a new mandate for negotiations without the Gwich’in partnership. Before seeking the new mandate, the negotiators went to all the communities to ask if the Inuvialuit leadership still wanted to work towards a self-government agreement. The answer was yes, and it was gathered that a phased approach towards selfgovernment was what the leadership wanted.

The phased approach “ is a combination of what the IRC is doing today within the present system,” said Vince. “Through the Beaufort Delta Agenda, Social Economic detached funding and what we call Section 16, the evaluation that was done a few years ago called to build capacity within the present system and negotiate towards a final agreement with focus on eventually building a Inuvialuit government.”

There were issues raised at these meetings, kinks that need to be worked out for self-government to be effective, such as the implementation of education for the Inuvialuit in communities of mixed ethnicity. Solutions suggested include being respectful of GNWT standards such as teacher certification and meeting cross GNWT objectives. The goal is to have the right to make decisions so that Inuvialuit culture and language can be incorporated.

“In 1992, we presented the agreement in principal (AIP) to the IRC and GTC; the IRC told negotiators to go to the communities, specifically the community corporations for feedback. The IRC and Inuvialuit communities approved the AIP as the basis for further negotiation.”

“The Gwich’in consulted their leadership concurrently and found a major issue: The government of Canada wanted the dissolution of the Indian bands. The Gwich’in required more time to further investigate the situation, this was the primary reason for stalling of the negotiation process.”

“The Gwich’in seem to see themselves as having minority status in a regional public government. In the agreement the regional government holds a lot of responsibility for jurisdiction and for structure.”

“It is a complex process, whether to get Inuvialuit or the government to agree on the final self-government agreement terms. Over the past 11 years, a lot of workshops and meetings have given the Inuvialuit leadership understanding of what selfgovernment is all about. Land claims implementation is in its 21st year now, it’s been a huge learning curve. The Inuvialuit leadership has gained a lot of knowledge about how the government operates and the rules and regulations that government abides by.”

“We are looking for recognition and affirmation as a government, to be given a broad range of powers as a government. To be able to pass laws, to be able to develop policies and programs, to be able to resource our own policies and deliver our own programs.”

Vince sees the need for more people to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, administrators, educators, and politicians, so the Inuvialuit can build capacity to deliver their own education, health, income support and social services.

“It’s about freedom. To me, that’s what it’s all about. We have always existed before culturally and traditionally, before written law. With the recognition and affirmation as a government, the Inuvialuit will be complete."

"For the next 5 years, 3 negotiators will be working on self-government negotiation with the help of very good legal, financial and taxation consul.”

Vince finds encouragement in the self-governments established so far in Canada: Nisga’a Nation, Dogrib(Deh Cho) Nation, Yukon First Nations, and recently the Labrador Inuit. He is more patient than he was in his younger days as a land claims negotiator for Tuktoyaktuk, when he only participated for a short time. “I was young and had my own ideals of what land claims should be and now I am more realistic instead of idealistic.”