Since late November it's held open houses/public meetings in communities around the Yukon and the Northwest Territories with a stake in the region.
Here's a collection of stories written from the consultation's frontlines during the past few months.
They came, they saw, they puzzled
WHITEHORSE - “What the hell is a RUWA?”
That’s what one clearly irritated wag wanted to know after wandering into the Yukon government’s five-day open house on the Peel watershed land use plan, from the next door Gold Pan Saloon, and leafing through the public comment questionnaire.
Sure enough, the first of its four questions reads: “The RUWA designation’s purpose is to actively manage all land uses while protecting the values of the area. Do you have any suggestions on how the RUWA designation can achieve this goal?”
He had a point.
Even when told it stood for Restricted Use Wilderness Area, the guy remained perplexed because, of course, that didn’t mean anything to him either. Click here to read full story.
Consultations don't cut it: Peel chair
WHITEHORSE - Dave Loeks had hoped this round of consultations on the Yukon's Peel watershed land use plan would be the last.
WHITEHORSE - Dave Loeks had hoped this round of consultations on the Yukon's Peel watershed land use plan would be the last.
Now he doesn’t think so.
“I frankly don’t recognize what’s going on next door,” Loeks told a packed house at the Gold Rush Inn on Nov. 28, referring to the Yukon government’s Peel open house on the other side of the wall.
“It does not conform to the requirements of the Umbrella Final Agreement so I don’t think it counts,” he said.
“We’re going to have to do this again if they’re actually going to fulfill the UFA, so we’ll see each other again.”
Say no to Paz's Peel plans: youth group
WHITEHORSE - Malcolm Boothroyd is spreading a simple message.
WHITEHORSE - Malcolm Boothroyd is spreading a simple message.
Reject what he calls the “Pasloski plans.”
Better yet, rip them up. Literally. To illustrate the point.
That’s what the young Yukoner did in front of several hundred people who had braved minus 30 temperatures to pack a public meeting on the Peel in Whitehorse on Nov. 28.
Boothroyd, a founder of the Peel Youth Alliance, doesn’t want the Yukon to miss the opportunity to create a great wilderness legacy by protecting an entire watershed.
He reminded the audience that in many other parts of the continent all that’s left to protect is a single creek or a pond.
Former chief: 'Are we working together?'
MAYO – It’s been almost 20 years since Robert Hager signed the Na-Cho Nyak Dun’s land claim agreement.
But things sure haven’t panned out as promised.
That’s what the former chief told about 70 people who attended a public meeting on the Peel watershed land use plan at the community hall Dec. 3.
“When I signed that final agreement, about 400 people, they said sign it because the government was going to work with us and we were all going to work together. Are we working together?” he said.
Hager, now 72, spent years hammering out that deal – a deal which included an agreement to jointly plan the Peel’s future land use.
“Now you people are telling us you disagree with the commission’s plan. Why don’t you join us and work with us and make this thing happen,” he said. The alternative is a long and costly court battle. Click here to read full story.
“Basically I’m disgusted,” she told Yukon government officials at its Dawson open house on the Peel land use plan on Dec. 4.
Click here to read full story.
“I find that what’s happening is despicable. It’s disrespectful. I’ve never actually been so angry in my life at what’s going on here.”
The government’s hijacked the planning process and tossed out promises to work with First Nations, she said.
But she doesn’t think the public is going to let it off the hook this time.
“People are going to fight,” said Clarke.
“That’s unfortunate for the government. I think the message that you’re getting is: ‘Go back to where it was good, where people didn’t hate you because what you’re doing is creating enemies and you’re dividing society and it’s not the right thing to do.'" Click here to read full story.
Dawson blasts government's Peel plans
DAWSON CITY – Just hours after Yukon government workers had packed up their Peel maps and heaved a huge sigh of relief that they’d survived seven days of public grilling, a 5.1 magntitude earthquake rattled the mountains in the heart of the watershed.
DAWSON CITY – Just hours after Yukon government workers had packed up their Peel maps and heaved a huge sigh of relief that they’d survived seven days of public grilling, a 5.1 magntitude earthquake rattled the mountains in the heart of the watershed.
The second shaker to strike the region since consultations began in late October, it seemed like a fitting end to the government’s frenetic first phase of gathering public feedback on a final land use plan.
An exclamation mark of sorts - punctuating the mix of anger, frustration and, in some cases, sheer bewilderment, expressed by people who attended the open houses in Dawson, Mayo and Whitehorse during the past week and a half. Click here to read full story.
'An open house is not consultation'
OLD CROW – Vuntut Gwitchin elder and Yukon dogmushing legend Stephen Frost is a straight shooter.
OLD CROW – Vuntut Gwitchin elder and Yukon dogmushing legend Stephen Frost is a straight shooter.
The 81-year-old admits he doesn’t know much about the far away Peel River watershed, but he’s certainly no stranger to the land that lies in between.
So instead of giving his two bits about the Peel to the six-member Yukon government contingent at their open-house-turned-public-meeting on Monday, Frost said he wanted to tell a story.
It was 1954. He was with Charlie Abel, who later became chief of the First Nation.
They were travelling by dogteam between Johnson Creek and the Whitestone River when they ran into the first seismic crew clawing its way through the Eagle Plain region by bulldozer.
The newcomers were friendly enough. They even showed the young mushers how to drive to a Cat and work the blade.
But the chance encounter marked the start of a new era that doesn’t hold many other fond memories.
Stick with final Peel plan, says Old Crow
OLD CROW – The Peel watershed may be miles away from this remote village on the Porcupine River, but support for the final recommended land use plan seems to be as strong as anywhere else.
In part because the Peel is part of the Vuntut Gwitchin’s traditional territory and in part because it includes some of the Porcupine caribou herd’s winter range.
Despite howling winds and blowing snow, several dozen people turned up at the Yukon government’s open house, held at the community hall Jan. 14.
But they weren’t interested in visiting the “stations” set up to provide information on what one bureaucrat referred to as the two plans – the commission’s and the government’s.
Nor were they prepared to simply converse with one of the six officials on an individual basis.
They wanted a public presentation so the people could understand why the government had come to the community of 250 and what it wanted. Click here to read full story.
Gwich'in urge Yukon to accept Peel plan
TSIIGEHTCHIC, N.W.T. – Gwich’in Tribal Council vice-president Norman Snowshoe was in no mood for government bafflegab when he turned up at the Yukon’s open house on the Peel land plan.
After politely sharing a lunch of caribou stew and cupcakes with Yukon officials and community residents in the school gym Jan. 22, Snowshoe and other local leaders simply rearranged the seating, called the meeting to order and proceeded to say what they’d come to say.
The Gwich’in of the Northwest Territories support the final recommended Peel land use plan.
They’re not prepared to settle for anything less.
“We recommend to the Yukon government that they finalize the commission’s plan as agreed to in the framework, as agreed to in the planning process, and as agreed to in all the meetings we’ve had over the years to develop this,” said Snowshoe.
As for the government’s recent unilateral “rewrite” of that plan , he made it clear the four Gwich’in First Nations his council represents, including the Gwichya Gwich’in of Tsiigehtchic, most definitely do not support that. Click here to read full story.
Gwich'in support Peel plan
INUVIK, N.W.T. – Tetlit Gwich’in elder Robert Alexie Sr. stands scanning one of the Peel River watershed land use planning maps that’s taped to the wall of the Mackenzie Hotel boardroom.
He’s made the 175-kilometre drive from Fort McPherson to attend the Peel open house on Jan. 24. That’s because the Yukon government cancelled the one it was supposed to hold in his community the day before, saying it was too cold for its workers to travel from Inuvik.
But the frigid temperatures last Thursday didn’t faze Alexie Sr. who has never missed an opportunity to tell stories about his traditional territory and why he wants it protected.
Finding the spot on the map he’d been searching for, he summons his nephew, Robert Alexie Jr., over to have a look. Pointing to a place along the upper Peel, between the Hart and Blackstone Rivers, the senior shows the junior where one of their family members is buried.
The Alexie family and the Tetlit Gwich’in - people of the headwaters – have a long, long history in the region. Click here to read full story.
'Do the right thing: withdraw your plan'
INUVIK, N.W.T. – It doesn’t seem to matter where the Yukon government sets up its Peel consultation shop, the message it receives is pretty much the same.
Protect the watershed. Accept the final recommended land use plan. Take the “concepts”off the table.
It was no different here.
Once the people got to speak that is.
As in Mayo and Dawson, Old Crow and Tsiigehtchic, the First Nations had to do a little arm twisting, so to speak, before the government agreed to turn its open house into an impromptu public meeting. But each time it seems to be put up less of a fight.
All it took was a request from the Inuvik-based Gwich’in Tribal Council and the bureaucrats lined up two rows of chairs and patiently waited for president Robert Alexie Jr. and his delegation to arrive. Click here to read full story.
'Please, please listen to our people'
FORT MCPHERSON, N.W.T. – In a community where you’ll find Protect the Peel stickers on everything from playground equipment to coffee mugs and ball caps to garbage can stands, it seemed perfectly natural that a meeting on the watershed’s future would attract a standing-room-only crowd.
The town of 850 – mostly Tetlit Gwich’in who are originally from the headwaters – is, afterall, the only settlement in the entire transboundary region.
Perched on the banks of the lower Peel, fish camps still dot the shoreline at the Dempster ferry crossing and the river still serves as a highway – summer and winter – for hunters and others who want to get out on the land.
So when six Yukon government officials arrived by charter plane from Whitehorse Feb. 12, they shouldn’t have been surprised to find the community hall walls already plastered with student artwork on the Peel, leaving little room for their land use planning maps.
Nor was there any debate about whether the four-hour event would be an open house or a public meeting. Click here to read full story.
Fort McPherson rallies for Peel protection
FORT MCPHERSON, N.W.T. - Fort McPherson residents turned out in force for a Yukon government meeting Tuesday on the Peel River watershed land use plan.
More than 200 people crammed into the Johnny D. Charlie community hall – from school children to elderly grannies – to discuss the river that flows past their front door.
Even though most of the watershed lies in the Yukon, McPherson’s Tetlit Gwich’in have strong historical ties to the entire region.
They still rely on caribou from that land and the fish from the river. And they know that whatever happens upstream could eventually come down the river to haunt them.
“We are the first community that will be affected by any sort of development,” Tetlit Gwich’in official Diane Koe told the six-member Yukon contingent who flew in from Whitehorse for the four-hour meeting.
“The world is changing drastically and it’s because of development and it’s because of industries that ruin land and water all over this world,” she said.
“As Gwich’in people, we want to keep the Peel watershed free from development.” Click here to read full story.
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