Rob Miller and Sarah Bird recently travelled to Yellowknife to
chair and speak at Insight's North of 60 Forum: Unlocking the
True Economic Potential of the North. The conference entailed an
enthusiastic discussion of economic opportunities in the North,
some of the hurdles facing Aboriginal communities in accessing
those opportunities, and paths forward. So what did we hear?
Welcome and Prayer
Chief Sangris, Chief of the Yelloknives Dene (Dettah)
Chief Edward Sangris opened the conference with a welcome to the
traditional territory of the Yellowknives Dene (Dettah). He talked
about the historic examples of "engagement gone wrong".
One of the three mines in his territory pays only $125,000 a year
in royalties to his community, and his people who work there still
hold shovels – they do not participate in management. In his
view, IBAs are always called a "win-win", but they
can't be called a "win-win" until there are some
implementation wins. Companies always show up
