October 12, 2011 - “ If we continue to use the potential of our future as leverage against each other, we will be plagued with the frustrations and unmet needs and expectations that have dogged our past. Instead, we must have the courage to make decisions about the future of our Territory – and demonstrate the capacity and unity to govern ourselves – effectively and in the interest of a greater goal.” - Floyd Roland , Oct. 12, 2011, Canada's North Beyond 2011 Conference, Edmonton Alta. 

Premier Floyd Roland's address to the Conference Board of Canada – Centre for the North at Canada’s North 2011 Conference. The Conference Board builds leadership capacity for a better Canada by creating and sharing insights on economic trends, public policy and organizational performance.

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Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this discussion today – and for the opportunity to provide an NWT perspective on the challenges and opportunities before the North.

I want to commend the Conference Board of Canada for creating the Centre for the North. I hope that it can be a forum to bring together Aboriginal, business and government leaders and community advocates to address critical issues and to explore how we can work more effectively as partners to achieve common goals.

Certainly, Canada’s North and the Arctic have never before had such profile nationally and internationally.

At one time, our challenge as leaders was to make it on the national and international agenda. Instead, we are working today to translate unprecedented interest in our Territory into tangible investments and sustainable development that will allow our Territory and our people to grow.

Certainly a lot of that has to do with our incredible wealth of natural resources.

The three foundational reports produced by the Conference Board’s Canadian Centre for the North highlight this fact and underline our region’s extraordinary potential to be a major contributor to the Canadian economy.

In terms of energy, alone, the numbers are staggering...

Canada's Arctic contains one-fifth of the world’s untapped oil and gas. Arctic Gas that – if we get it to market - will help to slow the ever-increasing growth in greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electrical generation plants and play a key role in reducing climate change.

Solely from the perspective of mitigating climate change the economic return on an investment in Arctic natural gas is immense. However, the benefits of building the pipeline to get this gas to market are also incredible.

The proposed Mackenzie Gas Project represents over 200,000 person years of employment, $86.3 billion in GDP and $10 billion in tax revenues for the federal government during its lifetime.

Here in Alberta, the project would create almost 78,000 person years of employment, $9.9 billion in GDP and over $800 million dollars in provincial tax revenue.

Meanwhile, we are also going to need investment in the NWT’s transportation infrastructure to get our other resources to market. And like the MGP, our proposed Mackenzie Highway isn’t just an NWT project. Its construction would benefit Canadians and their businesses from coast to coast to coast.

And investment opportunities in our Territory are not limited to our natural resource base...

My home town of Inuvik, for example, is well positioned to receive information from satellites as they pass over the North. It has become a key access point for a broad range of space data and a focal point for satellite technology focussed on Canada’s control and jurisdiction over our Northern lands, and our role in the responsible stewardship of the circumpolar world.

The planned construction of a high-speed fibre optic link to connect this data source with the world provides another opportunity for national investment to return benefits far beyond our Territory’s borders.

Clearly, the NWT is poised to realize substantial investment and economic activity in the years ahead...

So much so in fact – that we believe that by investing in the NWT, the Government of Canada can promote a sustained period of national economic growth and nation building for ALL Canadians - ensuring that our country continues to thrive and grow as a leader of the industrialized world.

So what’s holding all this progress back?

To state the obvious, billions of dollars of infrastructure investment are required to get these projects off the ground. Money a government as small as the NWT’s does not have. We need the financial backing of the federal government as well as the private sector to develop these projects.

We have a total population of just over 43,000 people spread over 33 communities. No matter how committed, talented and hard working we may be, we don’t have enough resources to unleash our territory’s immense potential.

Development in the North is still very much dependant on the products, investment, partnerships and services that we get from Canada’s southern provinces.

Our ice road truckers may be world famous. But don’t forget that the goods, fuel and machinery that they carry to resupply our diamond mines must all come through this city of Edmonton first.

And while Authority and control over natural resources have enabled provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan to capitalize on their resource wealth and become net contributors to our federation.

We’re still working to secure that same advantage in the NWT.

The unfortunate political reality is that even if we could act tomorrow to develop our incredible wealth of resources, we would not truly benefit.

The taxes and impact agreements we have in place would earn us nickels and dimes in comparison to the dollars flowing south in royalties.

When it comes to northern governance, any real foundation for the future of the Northwest Territories will need to start with moving beyond the reliance that we have on the federal government so that we can govern, guide and advance development in our Territory – ourselves.

This Devolution of decision-making authorities over public land and water from Canada to the Northwest Territories has been a matter of debate and negotiation for much of my lifetime.

But it is only by concluding this transfer that we will unlock the tools and instruments with which NWT residents and their governments will shape, build and sustain their future.

Northern decision making will provide clarity to our regulatory regime – our taxation infrastructure - our land and water agreements – and the countless other areas in which our investment and business partners are asking us to provide some level of certainty.

Over a decade ago, government, regulatory boards, industry and Aboriginal people in the NWT made a collective decision not to stand idly by and watch the value of diamond resources flow South.

Instead, for the last ten years, our diamond industry has provided our Territory with business and employment opportunities.
But it took a deliberate and cooperative effort to make it happen. We planned. We made choices. We made decisions.

Resource development in the NWT today has all but come to a standstill.

In large part this was decided by a global economic downturn and by a change in markets. But – I also believe that we as Government, industry and people of the NWT are falling victim to a lack of collective courage and will.

It is time to restore urgency to our decision making.

Interest in the North is growing. The sovereignty, resources and environment of Arctic countries is under increasing global scrutiny.

Federal engagement in our region is increasing. We are assured that the North is an important part of Canada’s economic future.
With the strength of our resource potential – and with the current need for economic stimulus across our nation, the opportunities that we have long-sought as Northerners and residents of the NWT are at hand.

Realizing the potential of this great Territory is not something that we can leave to any one Government alone. It will take a concerted and collective effort by each and every one of us.

Federal, Territorial and Aboriginal Governments and leaders will need to work together.

That was my intent when as Premier of the Northwest Territories I signed the Agreement in Principle on Devolution earlier this year.

Today, concerns are being raised by some leaders who are choosing to protest the signing and will not be represented in these important negotiations. It is disappointing – because all Aboriginal voices deserve to be heard and represented in ongoing devolution negotiations.

Our residents need their leaders to negotiate resolutions on the very issues that they say are important to them – for example, resource revenue sharing and the post-devolution management of resources.

With real power in the hands of our people, we will be able to ensure that the management of our land and resources is done in the best interests of our people; and we will begin to collect royalties from the development of our resources: money that we can use to invest in programs and services.

But it means that we have to step up.

The future of the Northwest Territories must be about what we want collectively as Northerners.

If we continue to use the potential of our future as leverage against each other, we will be plagued with the frustrations and unmet needs and expectations that have dogged our past.

Instead, we must have the courage to make decisions about the future of our Territory – and demonstrate the capacity and unity to govern ourselves – effectively and in the interest of a greater goal.

The Government of Canada defines the Canadian North as a part of its territory and exercises sovereignty over the land north of the 60th parallel and the islands in the Arctic Archipelago.

But effectively addressing Canada’s national interests in the Arctic will require Northern Canadians to have a voice in national and international decision-making. This Northern voice will help ensure appropriate positions are taken and relevant policies are enacted for the benefit of Northern and Southern Canadians alike.

Determining “our” priorities, setting “our” agenda, developing “our” own voice, as Northerners has never been more important than it is right now.