Council of Yukon First Nations quizzes territorial parties

The Council of Yukon First Nations has some questions for Yukon's political parties, and they tackle some big issues, according to Grand Chief Peter Johnston.

The CYFN distributed a questionnaire to all territorial parties earlier this month. Johnston says the five questions are about relationships between the federal, territorial, and Indigenous governments in Yukon. 

The document has a preface which says "our relationship with the territorial government spans many generations and has weathered many difficult moments. Our relationship is now one of equals since we are governments." 

Mining is 'biggest issue' 

Johnston says the biggest issue for the CYFN in this election is land use and resource extraction. 

One question describes Yukon's First Nations as having "retained 10 per cent of the lands of their traditional territories in exchange for, among other matters, the right to be involved in the management of public lands within their traditional territories." 

Johnston says the CYFN doesn't feel its members have enough say.

"Mining is one of the biggest issues in this election. The process for mining is not necessarily transparent as we'd like it to be. Obviously every mine is in the backyard of a First Nation traditional territory so it's very important that the First Nations are involved," he says. 

"Every day we're trying to bring forward that message that we want to be a part of that co-governance here in the Yukon."

Question on conflicts and avoiding court 

One court case that has marked the last five years is the management of the Peel Watershed, which has gone to Canada's Supreme Court.

"Unfortunately that's the way it's been. We're leaving it to a third party to help define our agreements once again and they were never meant for that," says Johnston. 

"We do have instruments that have been agreed to, such as the Yukon Forum. Unfortunately the Yukon Forum hasn't been as successful as it should be."

The CYFN represents 11 of Yukon's 14 First Nations, with the exception of the Ross River Dena Council,
White River First Nation and Liard First Nation. 

Johnston says he hopes self-governing Yukon First Nations can increase their control over services in the field of health, education and justice.  

"The whole idea of having self-government was about implementing programs and services on behalf of our people. And unfortunately we haven't had a lot of success in that negotiation phase. Definitely we're hoping to allow the First Nations governments to draw down the programs and services that they deem beneficial to their communities."

Johnston says the CYFN will not endorse one party as it did during the federal election when it told members to vote "strategically" to defeat the Conservative government.

One reason, says Johnston, is that all territorial parties (save for the Greens) have Aboriginal candidates.