Parliament considers bill giving Northwest Territories power over resources

OTTAWA – The federal government has introduced legislation that would give the Northwest Territories province-like control over its resources.

N.W.T. Premier Bob McLeod says the bill is the culmination of a generation’s worth of work that will now see the territory get the royalties from mining and energy production.

Most of the territory’s aboriginal groups are in favour of deal.

But some have major concerns about other parts of the bill, which seek to reform regulatory review of resource development.

They say the bill, which centralizes control in a single group, violates the spirit, if not the letter, of their self-government agreements.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt says that the reforms don’t violate any of the agreements and he won’t change the legislation.