N.W.T. Chamber of Commerce calls for halt to Thaidene Nene park

The N.W.T Chamber of Commerce is asking the territorial government to throw the brakes on the creation ofThaidene Neneparkon the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

The proposed 26,000-square kilometer protected area has been in the works for more than three decades. But the new head of the Chamber says moving forward with the park would be "a reckless endeavour at a time when our economy is severely challenged."

In a letter sent to Robert C. McLeod, the N.W.T.'s minister of environment and natural resources, Richard Morland argued that it's unwise to close off so much land to development before it's been properly explored for potential mineral resources.

"It just doesn't make any rational sense to me to be considering locking up this area of land at a time when we really don't understand what its economic potential might be,"Morlandtold the CBC.

The proposed protectedarea includes a 14,000-square kilometrenational park, and a further 12,000 square kilometres of territorial park or protected caribou habitat.

• Boundaries revealed for Thaidene Nene, new N.W.T. national park

"The boundaries of that combined parcel of land are adjacent to the existing Akaitcho land claim, so what we're effectively doing is tying up a very large portion of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, effectively blocking access to the southeast corner of the Northwest Territories," Morlandadded.

'Rather appalled'

The letter has not gone down well with Lutsel K'e chief Felix Lockhart.

"I was rather appalled, to have that type of mentality and mind set in regards to ourselves as an Indigenous community," said Lockhart.

"We believe in working together, we believe in sharing our land resources, water, what not, in a very good way. And so far all our public policies have always been geared towards dictating to us what's good for us, and so we find it very appalling," he added.

Lockhart says his community has seen mining in the area before.

"They extracted quite a lot of resources within our area and we never really benefited that much from it. A lot of those dollars trickled down somewhere else, leaving us destitute and impoverished."

He says his community is not against mining, but"we want to be able to balance out everything, with mining or with renewables and non-renewable resources in our area."

Lockhart sees the creation of the park as fulfilling multiple goals: protecting the land, providing employment opportunitiesand honouring the legacy of the elders who began pushing for the park in the 1970s.

"All we want to do is be able to do something for ourselves, to get us out of poverty, to get us into a higher level of education, to have some sense of a feeling that we're connected strongly with our culture, our language, way of life, and I think that's going to alleviate a lot of our social problems," he said.

Morland, for his part, acknowledged the jobs the park could create, but argued they would hardly compare with jobs from possible resourcedevelopment projects.

"By all means contemplate the small number of jobs that a park might provide, but don't do it at the expense of the hundreds of jobs that would be created by well-run resource developments.Don't do it at the expense of the tens of millions of dollars of royalty and taxation revenue that would be generated from well-run resource projects," said Morland.

Actually off bounds?

Despite the conflicting views, it doesn't appear that the whole park would actually be off bounds for development.

In 2015, the N.W.T government's plan for the park left almost a quarter of the area open to development a proposal that was "reluctantly accepted" by Lutsel K'e.

• N.W.T.'s Thaidene Nene park plan leaves 25% of area open to development

And as much as Lockhart seemed surprised by Morland's letter, he said he waswilling to discuss the Chamber's concerns.

"It's not a done deal, there's still time for talk I believe, still time to exchange information on how we're going to go ahead," he said.

"We're really ready to have more discussions if need be, because we are very cognizant that this will have an impact upon ourselves."