Inuvialuit self-government: What's in the agreement-in-principle

Nellie Cournoyeaadmitsshe didn't get everything she wanted in the Inuvialuitagreement-in-principle for self-government, but she said there'sstillmuch work to be donebefore a final agreement can be signed.

Cournoyea,chair and CEO of theInuvialuitRegional Corporation, signed the agreement-in-principle on Tuesday in Inuvik, N.W.T., along with N.W.T. premier Bob McLeod and Mark Strahl, parliamentary secretary tothe federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

"There could be a lot in the agreement-in-principle that we would like to have had," said Cournoyea. "We will work towards that."

The agreement could affect more than5,000 Inuvialuit, and possibly non-Inuvialuit, insix communities in the N.W.T.'s Beaufort-Delta region.

Who will pay?

The agreementacknowledges that both Ottawa and the territorial government have a role infunding programs and services that an Inuvialuit government might take on.

Who will pay for those services has not been decided.

However, the agreement says the federal government is developing a "new national fiscal policy" that "may be provided to self-governing aboriginal groups in Canada."

Another issue still to be decided is who will administeroffshore leases of the Beaufort Sea's vast oil and gas reserves.

"We would want to get a stronger clearer negotiation on what happens offshore," Cournoyea said.

At a jointnewsconference after the signing of the agreement on Tuesday, McLeod agreed, saying six months after the territory signed its devolution agreement, negotiations on who controls the offshore were supposed to begin.

"Obviously elections are in the way but that's something we want to get going on," McLeod said.

Strahlattended the news conferencebut did not addressthese concerns.

Limits to new powers

Despite the need for further negotiations, the 86-page agreement-in-principle outlines a variety of areas for which an Inuvialuit government could assume responsibility.

That includes delivering health care, regulating adoption, performing marriages, developing income assistance programs, launching social housing and opening day cares and universities.

It also outlines restrictions on some ofthe new government's powers:

• An Inuvialuit government could start traditional healing programs butit cannot regulate medical or health practices that require licensing or certification under any federal or territorial law. Nor can they regulate medical and health practitioners, such asdoctors or nurses, who require licensing or certification by federal or territorial law.
• An Inuvialuit government could impose fines or even imprison people who violate their laws. These sentences could reflect "the culture and values of the Inuvialuit," but sentences or punishment cannot be harsher than comparable offences under federal and territorial law. Negotiators still have to determine how such punishments would apply, if at all, to non-Inuvialuit.
• An Inuvialuit government cannot establish a police force or issue firearm permits.

Cournoyea said many of the new powers in the agreement wouldn't be used immediately.

"Whether anyone understands or not, we are not going to become a government with everything in place and dealing with everything at once," shesaid.

Instead, shesaid the new government would begin by addressing priority issues such aseducation and how to increase class attendance.