For the North, 1986 proved to be a year of promise and of disappointment.
On the positive side, a number of developments seemed to break new ground in the effort to resolve difficult policy questions.
Foremost among these was the publication in March of Living Treaties: Lasting Agreements, the Report of the Task Force to Review Comprehensive Claims Policy. Chaired by Murray Coolican, the task force completed its work in an almost unheard of way: on time and under budget. More importantly, the report supplied the federal government with the first coherent view of the nature of comprehensive land claims since the renewal of the treaty-making process in the mid-1970s.
The report acknowledged some necessary truths, among them the argument of aboriginal people that land claim settlements must be more than real estate deals; rather, they must be seen as social contracts between a larger society and aboriginal communities. Hence, agreements must be flexible and evolving; notions of absolute finality, as applied in the legal terminology of "extinguishment", must be modified. The report's recommendations recast what are essentially minimalist objectives in current policy-clearing up problems of title, for example-with objectives worth pursuing in their own right, such as accepting the desire of aboriginal peoples to run their own lives and sharing the resource wealth of traditionally occupied areas.
Against the backdrop of the task force work, a considerable amount of quiet progress has been made on comprehensive claims in the Northwest Territories. Dene-Métis negotiations have continued, and, although details have yet to emerge, a package of provisions covering land ownership, financial compensation, and wildlife rights and management now appears possible.
In the eastern Arctic, 1986 witnessed the conclusion of a wildlife agreement after a five-year stand-off. The agreement calls for the establishment of a joint decision-making-management body, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board; in the pre-settlement period, the board will be established on an advisory basis. The Tungavik Federation of Nunavut also made headway on the important issue of benefits to be derived by Inuit from major resource development projects.
Another promising development in 1986 was the return of the Yukon economy to something approaching good health. With the reactivation of the lead-zinc mine at Faro under new owners, Yukoners began to sense that the worst days of the mid-decade recession were finally over. The Yukon government has been able to build on the renewed momentum engendered by Faro's revival with the Yukon 2000 project, a carefully conceived effort to diversify the Yukon economy and reduce exposure to the vagaries of international mineral prices.
The past year also witnessed a major victory by the Northwest Territories in securing federal recognition of the unique importance of the sea-ice to the Inuit communities along the arctic coast. Pending federal legislation will ensure the application of federal, provincial, and territorial laws with respect to offshore areas under Canadian jurisdiction and will redefine the boundaries of the Northwest Territories to include those archipelagic waters that fall within baselines developed for sovereignty purposes. Although the Government of the Northwest Territories and Inuit organizations have both argued for the inclusion of additional offshore areas within N.W.T. boundaries, the new arrangements are likely to leave the Northwest Territories with greater jurisdiction over sizeable offshore areas than is the case with any of the provinces.
Finally, the triennial meeting of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) in Kotzebue, Alaska earlier this year resulted in the adoption of a first-cut comprehensive arctic policy. The policy will be further developed in the period leading up to the 1989 ICC meeting in Greenland, and will help spur the various central governments of the circumpolar region to demonstrate similar imagination of purpose.
If the year saw a number of promising developments, it also saw some major disappointments.
First and foremost has been the virtual collapse of the oil and gas industry in the Beaufort Sea and arctic islands. The end of the Petroleum Incentives Payments Program has reinforced the effects of the downturn in international hydrocarbon prices. There are at least two major consequences of the collapse:
Most immediately, the end of the boom represents a severe economic blow to thousands of individuals who now earn their living from the industry's activities. Ironically, most vulnerable will be those northern residents and small businesses who had been open to the argument that participation in an industrial economy could readily replace the pursuit of the traditional subsistence economy. The blow to the oil and gas sector will also mean a more stringent financial situation for the Government of the Northwest Territories at a time when a young, growing population is imposing a higher level of demand on public sector resources.
Less immediately, but perhaps no less importantly, the boom-and-bust cycle of the oil and gas industry in the North may well continue into the future. Indeed, without some combination of government policies serving to smooth the process, a sharp upturn in international prices could stimulate pressure to begin large-scale production quickly. With the technical and administrative knowledge acquired over the past decade and a half, there may be scant time for environmental and social niceties should the economics of the industry change for the better.
Another major disappointment of 1986 was the lingering uncertainty surrounding division of the Northwest Territories and development of new constitutional arrangements for Nunavut and the western Arctic. Much of the excitement that greeted the tentative boundary agreement of January, 1985, and the public endorsement of the division process by then Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, David Crombie, appears to have been lost.
There is increased talk in the Mackenzie Valley about the risks of division, and the energies of eastern Arctic politicians seem to have been deflected from the hard choices at hand. Progress has been made insofar as there is now broad, if not universal, consensus that the Beaufort Sea region must be part of the western territory; at the same time, political will has not yet been adequately focused on the design of regional and local political institutions in the Mackenzie Delta, the economics of division, the popular ratification of a boundary agreement, and the timing of federal government legislation.
Given the close inter-relationship between land claims and the devolution of administrative authority from Ottawa to the North, and given the enervating effects that habitually attend unresolved constitutional issues in any setting, it is to be hoped that the division issue will proceed with some speed.
A number of other disappointments were apparent in 1986. The resumption of land claims negotiations in Yukon has been perplexing, particularly with respect to the role played by the federal government. Having insisted in 1985 that a memorandum of understanding between the Government of Yukon and the Council for Yukon Indians was the necessary first step in the resumption of serious negotiations, the federal government showed confusion about the status and significance of the memorandum once it was concluded.
Another disappointment has been the dismaying reluctance of federal officials to comment publicly on policy issues. At a CARC seminar on community economic development at Frobisher Bay in September, officials of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans declined to offer comment. At a CARC seminar on circumpolar issues at Toronto in October, officials of the Department of External Affairs similarly declined to participate. We can only hope that occurrences such as these are exceptions and not indicative of a growing aversion on the part of federal government departments to communicate needed information to members of the public.
If the experience of 1986 has been a mix of promise and disappointment, it has also been a year that ends with a considerable sense of anticipation. Numerous policy questions remain very much up in the air:
A Word about the Future
This has been something of a transition year at CARC. In addition to making a number of personnel changes, CARC brought its multi-year projects on the Arctic Ocean and conservation to successful conclusions. We are now in the process of developing and securing funding for several new projects to serve as focal points for the balance of the decade. These projects will examine economic and social development, circumpolar relations, northern inland waters, and northern science, and will, of course, reflect our ongoing responsibilities with respect to the monitoring of important environmental, wildlife management, conservation, and energy issues.
-John Merritt