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Good afternoon and thank you all for being here today to join in celebrating National Aboriginal Day.
It was 20 years ago today that Canada celebrated its first National Aboriginal Day, a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to our nation.
In 2001, the Government of the Northwest Territories made National Aboriginal Day a statutory holiday, the first; and currently only jurisdiction in Canada to do so. It is a day to recognize and acknowledge the valuable contribution of Aboriginal Peoples to the healthy development of our communities, territory and country.
Aboriginal Day is one of the many ways the Government of the Northwest Territories shows respect for our Aboriginal population. Partnership and mutual respect are key to our success. Approximately half of the Northwest Territories’ population, is Aboriginal, a vast majority do not live on reserves. Aboriginal people live and work side-by-side with our non-Aboriginal residents in communities all across the NWT. In 1984 the NWT passed official languages legislation that recognized nine official Aboriginal languages along with French. In 2014, before it was a recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we implemented a Residential School Curriculum that every student must take in order to graduate from high school. We have Aboriginal culture curriculums that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students are taught in our schools. Many of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Report are actions our government was doing already, and many were already being implemented at the time of the report. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people participate fully in our economic and political life and we are committed to ensuring that all of our people enjoy the advantages of living in a strong, prosperous territory and benefiting from the development of our natural resources.
The Northwest Territories is also home to seven regional Aboriginal governments. Each of these governments represents their own people, have their own jurisdictions and their own priorities. Three of them have settled land claims and another has a settled land and Self-Government Agreement. We are also home to Canada’s first community-based Self-Government in Deline, which will come into effect this September.
We maintain formal government-to-government relationships with NWT Aboriginal governments, as outlined in Respect, Recognition, Responsibility, our formal commitment to work in partnership.
Even with this diversity, we share a common interest in creating a strong and prosperous territory that provides for all of our people. Finding ways to work together in the interests of all residents’, takes leadership and a commitment to listening, respect and cooperation.
Governance in the NWT is complicated, but we make it work through collaboration with our Aboriginal partners. The values I spoke of earlier, partnership and mutual respect, guide the shared interests and interdependence of the people who live in the communities involved. They build deeper understanding and foster trust. The result is more effective public programs and services, founded on coordination, formal alliances and strengthened capacities.
The Government of the Northwest Territories Devolution Agreement that came into effect in 2014 is unique in Canada, which sees participating Aboriginal Governments provided with 25 per cent of the GNWT’s post‑devolution resource revenues from development on public lands. This is the richest and most far-reaching revenue sharing agreement in Canada.
Aboriginal-owned businesses have received more than $4.3 billion in direct contracting with NWT’s three diamond mines since 1996. Aboriginal people have benefitted from 9,400 person-years of employment with diamond mines since 1996.
Ensuring our residents have a real and fair chance to succeed remains a priority for me as the first two-term Premier of the Northwest Territories. The North is markedly different than the rest of Canada, and achieving success for NWT residents requires recognition of the unique circumstances we face.
In a letter to our government during the 2015 Federal Election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Prime Minister has three main jobs: keeping our country united, keeping Canadians safe, and ensuring everyone has a real and fair chance to succeed. While we have leveraged partnerships with regional Aboriginal governments, we need the federal government to do its part to ensure that our residents have the same chance to succeed that their fellow Canadians do.
The Government of Canada have an historic opportunity to invest in the North and address its lagging economic and social development, and would go a long way towards redressing the historic inequities experienced by Canada’s indigenous people and demonstrating the federal government’s commitment to renewed relationships with them.
Aboriginal Day celebrates the outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to our nation, and it’s important our governments do our part to empower the people we celebrate today.
Thank You.