Thank you.
I would like to lend support to and reiterate a lot of the points that Ms. Blondin-Andrew and Grand Chief Erasmus have stated. I wish I could put forth my points as passionately as they did.
First of all, I would like to say that I am the president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council. I was elected in 2012. I would also like to point out that from 1990 to 1992 I was the chief negotiator for the Gwich'in claim, which resulted in the Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, the starting point for the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, which gave us in the Gwich'in settlement area the Gwich'in Land and Water Board, the Gwich'in Land Use Planning Board, the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board, and territorially the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board.
I served two terms as the vice-president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council in the mid to late 1990s, and played a role in the implementation of the Gwich'in agreement. In the last decade I've been working as the executive director for the Gwich'in Land and Water Board. Therefore, I have a good understanding of not only the Gwich'in agreement but also the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.
The Gwich'in live in a very resource-poor area. We have no development in our area. We have no known resources. We look to the south and we see oil and gas development in the Sahtu. We see diamond mining in the Tlicho. We look to the north and we see the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway. We see oil and gas in the Inuvialuit settlement region. If we look to the southwest there's gas development in the Eagle Plains area in the traditional territory of the Vuntut Gwitchin. However, in the Gwich'in settlement area, there is no development, period.
We have 3,400 people. Last year we realized that more than 50% of our people live outside the Gwich'in settlement region. We are tasked with the very big job of providing for our people.
The Gwich'in are in full support of devolution. There was a time prior to this administration when the Gwich'in were in litigation with the government over the devolution, but since then we've come on board with the other parties. We have said in the past that we fully support devolution, but little did we know that the NWT devolution act, which I have said that we do support, contains amendments to amend the MVRMA that the Gwich'in do not support. The amendments to the MVRMA go against the spirit and intent of the Gwich'in agreement.
One of the objectives of the Gwich'in agreement was to give meaningful participation to the Gwich'in in the management of lands and resources, which we believe the Gwich'in Land and Water Board provides. We have two representatives on the Gwich'in Land and Water Board, the government has two, and there's a chair. It's been 22 years since we signed the Gwich'in agreement in 1992, and for the most part, it's been a good working relationship with government. The few times that we've had to disagree, it has not been an easy process.
I would like to let the committee know that the Gwich'in Tribal Council will be submitting a report that contains 25 recommendations. One that I think Ms. Blondin-Andrew touched on is a “regional presence”, as we call it. We are looking to keep the Gwich'in Land and Water Board. The other issue we have is about how the chair of the super-board is appointed. It's a decision made arbitrarily by the minister and we are not in favour of that. The other one that Ms. Blondin-Andrew also touched on was the binding policy direction on the land use planning boards. Once again, we are totally against that.
As I mentioned, the Gwich'in Land and Water Board was established in our area in I believe 1996, but it wasn't given effect until December of 1998. The land and water board issues land use permits, water licences, and authorizations in the Gwich'in settlement area. For the last decade or more since it came into effect, the board has worked. We've had no major problems that I can remember with regard to processing any application in the Gwich'in settlement area.
The Gwich'in Tribal Council has always had meaningful participation in the management of their land and resources by nominating their people to the Gwich'in Land and Water Board. As Grand Chief Erasmus said, like their people, our people have very close ties to the land. We've had discussions on this issue for many months and we are not in support of any amendments to the MVRMA, but like I said, we are put in a very tough position because we are in support of devolution.
The Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement was supposed to make our lives easier by providing clarity in our participation in our lands, waters, and resources. Too many times, the Gwich'in Tribal Council has been caught up in a state of conflict with other signatories to the Gwich'in agreement. This is one of them.
As you know, in the last couple of days and weeks we've had another very serious issue that we are dealing with. That's the protection of the Peel watershed and the support that we, the Gwich'in of the NWT, have for the Peel commission's final recommended plan. That's another area that we have to deal with.
Another issue is the ongoing concern we have regarding the implementation of our agreement. It seems to be a long, drawn-out process.
I don't have too much more to say. I think the main issue is that we support devolution. We are not in support of any amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. As I said, it puts us in a very tough position because the two are included in Bill C-15. As the premier said earlier, the changes will give more authority to the people in the NWT in due course, due course meaning five years. We have to take a good look at that, because while the Gwich'in Tribal Council and the Gwich'in can probably wait and see what happens after five years, the bigger issue is the amendments to the MVRMA. To those we have to voice our opposition.
I would like to thank you very much.