Gwich’in Tribal Council Grand Chief Ken Kyikavichik recently visited Ottawa to speak with ministers about some of the most important issues facing his people.
He ultimately got some unexpected face time with two of the country’s most powerful politicians: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.
“The purpose of the trip actually was to meet with various ministers, parliamentary secretaries and senior staff with a number of departments,” Kyikavichik said shortly after his trip concluded. “While we were there, I was able to attend the Liberal holiday party, where I was able to have a couple moments with the prime minister.
“Then also the office of the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reached out wanting some time while we were there. It wasn’t planned. It sort of came about while we were there, upon them learning that we were on (Parliament) Hill and having a number of meetings. So we were able to get some time with the Conservative leader.”
Outside of his unplanned conversations with Trudeau and Poilievre, Kyikavichik estimates he took part in about 17 meetings during his visit to the nation’s capital, which lasted from Dec. 9 to 15.
Over the course of those meetings, he drew attention to some of the most important issues facing Gwich’in people and the broader North.
“We had about 15 issues that we needed to raise,” he said. “Each department [we met with] had about three to five items that we needed to talk about specifically. There was also some legislation that we’ve provided some input on that we needed to follow up on.”
The issues Kyikavichik broached in his meetings included mental health and wellness, infrastructure, housing, and economic reconciliation, which aims to “ensure that Northern and Indigenous businesses and people are getting their share of economic opportunities of the work that is happening in the North.”
He also spoke about plans to construct a tiny home village in Inuvik, which is intended to address homelessness in the area, as well as plans to develop a national park along the Peel River, which flows through Gwich’in land in Yukon and the NWT.
By the time the trip concluded, the grand chief was confident that he had “absolutely” been heard by the politicians he met with.
“It’s especially important as we embark upon the budget development discussions that are occurring right now in Ottawa that the North becomes a very prevalent aspect of the federal budget, because we all know there’s significant investments required in each of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to be able to assert things such as Arctic sovereignty and to ensure that the quality of life is comparable to other parts of the country,” he said.
“We know we live in a very special place in the Northwest Territories, and the same is true across the Arctic. However, we do require some significant government investment — a whole of government approach, as I like to say — to address some of the serious mental health and wellness challenges, housing shortages, and just improve services overall for our residents.”
Working with the new premier
With his visit to Ottawa behind him, Kyikavichik is back in the NWT, where the political landscape recently transformed with the election of the 20th Legislative Assembly and the appointment of a new premier in R.J. Simpson.
Kyikavichik called Simpson a “known entity,” having met with the former minister of Education, Culture and Employment several times in the past.
“He is from outside Yellowknife, hailing from Hay River, and also being an Indigenous person is helpful in terms of his knowledge of some of the issues that are being faced by Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories,” he said.
There are a three main issues Kyikavichik is hoping to address with the new premier.
First, he would like to see a “more progressive approach” from the GNWT when it comes to negotiations for regional self-government for the Gwich’in.
Second, he hopes to see “a level of improved economic cooperation” in the Gwich’in Settlement Area, “such that our Gwich’in businesses are getting improved opportunity with government procurement and contracting, and thus increased opportunities for employment for the over 1,500 Gwich’in that live in the Gwich’in Settlement Area.”
As well, he would like to see “an improved approach” with respect to tackling mental health issues, addiction, and medical travel procedures — the former, he said, has been “broken for years.”
“Far too many of our people when undergoing necessary treatments in Yellowknife and Edmonton are not having the adequate support that they require to be able to travel to those locations and also properly be supported while they are undergoing medical care and in southern jurisdictions,” he said.