I read some positives from the article as well, but also the usual negatives e.g.:

But Mr. Rickford, who hails from Northern Ontario, said the development corporation should be overhauled so that other parties are more directly involved. He noted that Ottawa was never consulted on it and has no idea where it would be involved in the decision-making, and First Nations have also expressed concern about their lack of involvement.

The provincial government is in the driver's seat, as it should be IMO. However things went terribly wrong when the they chose to keep their election promise and establish the DevCo before the were really ready to do so, and were subject to a hurricane of critisism from the FN Chiefs for not inviting them to the table.

I live in Denmark, so my only source of information regarding the natives is what I read on this forum, but being a Dane, I also follow what's going on in Greenland, where the inuits were granted self government in 2009 on the premise of the annual subsidy from Denmark being frozen.

And from what I see and read there are many similarities, some of them being the lack of understanding about how business is done in a broad sence that inables them in getting things done and respecting a deal when it's done, the reverse racism towards the Danes living in Greenland as being second class citizens as they talk about THEIR land in the sence that Danes (that effectively run the country for them) are regarded as guest workers. Also the corruption and nepotism that I read about here is wide spread.

The results were seen up to the general election in 2013, where the new prime minister won the election on a promise to renegogiate the the royalty agreements that the former government had negotiated with a number of ressource companies. After the election she demanded a bigger piece of the pie, and consequently the ressource companies pulled out. She also employed and promoted friends and family. Then recently she was exposed spending public funds for private purposes and thrown out. After a new election in November, the new government is struggling with the economy having to make large budgetcuts..., or get an increase in the annual subsidy from Denmark.

I know it's a long story, but my point is that it's not wise to invite the FN chiefs to the board of the DevCo before there is a detailed plan, because you don't want them running the show, as they'll mess it up. They won't get anything done, and when they do, it'll be the wrong thing.

I'm not a racist or anything. IMO it's lack of education, business culture and the fact that they feel as being a parallel society that are entitled to special priviliges that makes the FN chiefs so hard so to handle.

I suspect that's why Gravelle has not appointed the board. He has to keep control, to get it right. Remember, 1 billion of the provincial taxpayer's money is committed to the RoF, and exactly as the federal government, he doesn't want to just hand over a cheque to the board without laying out a specific plan for them to follow.

You might argue that the board will be made up of representatives from industry, and the federal and provincial governments as well to keep the FN representatives in check, but I suspect that the FN representatives, not being business men, won't respect the normal way of doing business where you keep your board room discussions to yourselves, and act as a unity externally. They'll probably act as politicians and use the media to apply pressure to the board, to get things done the way they want it.

Another thing to acknowledge is that the FN chiefs are only important people as long as they are being difficult. As soon as the agreements are done e.g. regarding revenue sharing, they are out of the spot light. That's probably the reason why the negotiations seem endless.

For that reason Gravelle IMO is in a very difficult position. He can't appoint the board untill there is a firm plan to work with, and he can't make the plan untill he knows he can count on federal funding. It's his Catch 22.

This is where the politics get ugly. They want the same thing, the federal government just doesn't want the provincial government to succeed. The provincial government never said they would hand over their billion to the DevCo without a plan, and of course the same goes for the federal billion. The difference is that the provincial government has no problem in making the commitment publicly because they know they are in the driver's seat, opposed to the federal government who will have to hand over their billion without being able to control what it's spent on, and at the same time providing their political rivals with the tools for success.

The positive thing to note is that Gravelle seem to be ready to reveal his plan within a few months, as he has now taken the initiative to contact Rickford - and hopefully things will progress from there.

GLTA Notsters!