Planning for Lancaster Sound: Where to Now?
By Terry Fenge
In May 1985, the Treasury Board allocated $2 million for 1985, and $3.5 million for 1986, to implement land-use planning in the Lancaster Sound and Beaufort Sea-Mackenzie Delta regions in the Northwest Territories. Should planning be successful in these regions, other regions in the Northwest Territories will be added to the planning programme in the future.
The northern land-use planning policy, developed by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), was approved by the federal Cabinet in 1981. This policy was criticized bitterly by the territorial governments and northern aboriginal peoples because it perpetuated Ottawa's control of northern resource development and offered northerners no more than advisory roles in the planning process. In July 1983, after months of negotiation, DIAND, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), the Dene Nation, the Métis Association of the Northwest Territories, and Tungavik Federation of Nunavut (representing the Inuit of the eastern Arctic), agreed on a new process for planning in the N.W.T. that will enable native peoples' groups and the territorial government to participate as decision makers. This agreement is the basis for the planning exercise that is now underway.
The aboriginal peoples' groups incorporated eight principles into the 1983 planning agreement that challenged DIAND's centralized approach to planning in its 1981 planning policy.1 Two of these principles are particularly important in determining how planning should be conducted:
The primary purpose for land use planning in the N.W.T. must be to protect and promote the existing and future well-being of the permanent residents and communities of the N.W.T. taking into account the interests of all Canadians. Special attention shall be devoted to protecting and promoting the existing and future well-being of the aboriginal peoples and their land interests as they define them. To be effective the public planning process must provide an opportunity for the active and informed participation and support of the residents affected by the plan. Such participation will be promoted through means including ready access to all relevant information, widespread dissemination of relevant materials, appropriate and realistic schedules, recruitment and training of local residents to participate in comprehensive land use planning.
Clearly, if these principles are to be fulfilled, planning must be based in the planning regions, not in Ottawa or Yellowknife.
The July 1983 land-use planning agreement deals primarily with the degree to which the federal and territorial governments and aboriginal peoples' groups will be represented on planning institutions. It does not deal with how planning should be conducted or how residents of the planning region should be involved, nor does it specify what a land-use plan should do. These important questions must be answered in the corning months by the Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission, an eight-member committee appointed in January 1986 by the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to oversee and direct planning in the N.W.T.
This commission is at the core of the system of institutions for land-use planning outlined in the 1983 agreement (sce the box on page 11 ). Members of the commission are nominated by the federal and territorial governments and four northern aboriginal peoples' groups, and are appointed by the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Regional land-use planning commissions draw members from this territorial commission and from communities within each region. The regional land-use planning commissions direct planning and the Northern Land Use Planning Office in Yellowknife provides technical support. The Policy Advisory Committee, co-chaired by senior civil servants in DIAND and the GNWT Department of Renewable Resources, takes its membership from four federal agencies, territorial agencies, and aboriginal peoples' groups. This committee advises the federal minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the territorial minister of Renewable Resources on policy issues and terms of reference for the regional land-use planning commissions. The regional commissions submit plans to the ministers. Draft plans must be approved by the federal Cabinet and the territorial executive committee before implementation.
What should the planning process achieve?
The recent decline in the price of oil and a continuing poor market for lead, zinc, and other minerals produced in the North have reinforced the need for the Inuit of Lancaster Sound to maintain their traditional economy based on hunting, fishing, and trapping. Wage labour provides cash needed to purchase snowmobiles, rifles, boats, outboard motors, and other equipment. Inuit need and want access to wage labour through the development of both renewable and non-renewable resources, but they are determined to ensure that wildlife habitats are not destroyed. A sustainable economy will require careful control of the use of all resources. That control is the goal of land-use planning.
In general, planning aims to minimize conflicts between various resource uses and to maximize the public benefits of resource conservation and development. Given the special circumstances of the North, and of Lancaster Sound in particular, planning must also serve the cultural survival of aboriginal peoples. Sustainable economic development and the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitat therefore must be the first priority of planning for Lancaster Sound.
In 1979, the Lancaster Sound Environmental Assessment Panel pointed to this approach when it concluded that government decisions should "avoid committing Canada to a course of action prejudicial to the optimum conservation and utilization of all resources in the area."2 The public review phase of the Lancaster Sound Regional Study established that sustainable economic development in the Lancaster Sound region should be a priority. It is now up to the Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission to transform these ideas into action.
Overcoming Obstacles
Many obstacles must be overcome if land-use planning is, at last, to be implemented successfully in Lancaster Sound and elsewhere in the N.W.T. The chief obstacle is the inertia within federal and territorial government agencies that is a result of caution and defensiveness. The Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission will need to develop, quickly, a sense of purpose and urgency and to provide direction to civil servants. This commission must articulate a planning process, agree on what the product of planning should be, and draw federal and territorial government agencies into the planning process. By participating in the process, government agencies should develop a commitment to land-use planning. This commitment will help the commission to overcome or bypass the inertia within government agencies.
There are currently several complicated political processes underway in the N.W.T. The land claims of the Dene Nation, the Métis Association of the Northwest Territories, and the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut remain unresolved. The territorial government hopes to receive authority devolved from Ottawa, soon. Division of the N.W.T. into two new jurisdictions is a central aim of many northerners, particularly of the Inuit. These political initiatives could easily slow or even stall the land-use planning process. The Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission will need to be sensitive to all of these processes to ensure that this does not happen, and that, instead, its activities support the transfer of decision-making authority to northerners. If the commission can negotiate these uncharted paths, it will fully deserve the support of all stakeholders-government, industry, aboriginal peoples, and other northerners.
The Lancaster Sound Environmental Assessment and Review Process and the Lancaster Sound Regional Study provided momentum for the establishment of a planning process for Lancaster Sound, but this momentum is dissipating. This summer is the ,fifth anniversary of the federal northern land-use planning policy. Federal and territorial governments have come and gone, the price of oil has risen and fallen, concern about the North and its inhabitants has been stimulated by threats to Canada's sovereignty, but the land and the conflicts over its use endure. Planning for the uses of this land will leave future residents of Lancaster Sound and elsewhere in the N.W.T. a valuable legacy. Can there be a more noble political aim?
Terry Fenge was Director of Policy Studies with CARC from July 1982 through January 1986. He is currently Director of Research with the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN).