N.W.T. close to gaining powers of a province
Tories, territory nearing agreement
The federal government is on the cusp of ceding control over land, water and resource revenues to the Northwest Territories, a move that would render the territory a de facto province.
N.W.T. Premier Bob McLeod and his cabinet met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other government officials Wednesday to hammer out the details of an agreement.
The agreement, which McLeod told CTV on Wednesday is “very close” to completion, will transfer responsibility for managing public land, water and resources to the territory from the federal government.
That means tens of millions of dollars in royalties and other resource revenues that now go to the federal government will stay in territorial coffers. Those revenues are projected to increase as the territory’s mining sector expands, with its GDP expected to double by 2020.
The transfer of province like responsibilities from the federal government to the territories is referred to as “devolution.”
“Concluding an agreement with N.W.T. will be an important and positive step in the evolution of northern governance and will deliver economic benefits to the territory,” said Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan. He declined to give specifics of the negotiations.
The pending devolution agreement comes after more than 11 years of negotiations, which included a January 2011 agreement in principle between the territory and the federal government.
The agreement in principle called for $26 million from the federal government in one-time transition costs, as well as annual funding for the delivery of land, water and resource management programs ($65 million in the first year). It also called for a net fiscal benefit consistent with the equalization program for provinces. In 2012, that amount would have been $65 million.
The division of powers between federal and provincial governments is spelled out in the Constitution, but that’s not the case for the territories. The N.W.T. government has gradually assumed control from the federal government in areas such as education, health, social services and forestry.
Yukon’s devolution agreement was signed in 2003 and it is now one the country’s more robust economies. Nunavut has also started devolution talks.
“We’ve had mining in place for decades and decades. So we’re used to development; we’re used to dealing with those types of issues,” said NDP Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington. “I think quite clearly, as with the Yukon, we’re ready to take on those responsibilities.”
Four of the territory’s seven aboriginal governments have signed onto the agreement in principle.
The sides will aim to implement the agreement by 2014.