Governments invest in north

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The Canadian and Saskatchewan governments are each putting $10 million over five years into a fund aimed at strengthening and diversifying the northern Saskatchewan economy.

The Canada-Saskatchewan Northern Development Agreement will provide opportunities for northerners to improve infrastructure, training and education, and increase research and business investment.

The new fund is part of the Northern Development Accord, which provides a framework for federal, provincial and northern authorities to work together to improve living conditions and economic opportunities in the north.

"Northerners want to see action in this agreement . . . and they also want to see action quickly," said Saskatchewan's Northern Affairs Minister Buckley Belanger. Authorities say about $1 million will flow before the end of the fiscal year next spring, although details on the application process for projects have yet to be announced.

The fund will be managed by a committee of two members each from the federal and provincial governments and the Northern Development Board (NDB), which represents northern First Nations, the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan (MNS) and the municipalities of New North. Each party will have to agree before a project proceeds, essentially giving each party a veto.

To be eligible for funding, recipients must be legal entities, such as non-profit corporations, post-secondary institutions, hospitals and regional health care centres engaged in research, or other provincial agencies or legal entities created by the provincial government. Commercial businesses will not be eligible for support, except in circumstances where the community would benefit substantially from the investment.

Churchill River MP Rick Laliberte likened the support of provincial and federal governments to two snowshoes, and said it was now up to the NDB to wear those snowshoes and head in its own direction.

"We have new trails to make," he said, emphasizing that northerners needed to create wealth for themselves, not share wealth with other powers.

"This (accord) is a uniqueness in Canada," said Cumberland MLA Keith Goulet, who remarked that the NDB may need five-legged snowshoes, given all the partners-the Prince Albert Grand Council, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, MNS and New North.

"What I like about it is the partnership," said MNS president Clem Chartier, though he said the accord falls short of what was envisioned four years ago during development of the Northern Strategy, a similar accord between the province and northern leaders.

"This is truly an experiment in partnership and collaboration," said Goodale, noting that the accord demands that governments abandon the usual hierarchies of placing one government above another."