New NWT MLAs to meet more than a dozen Indigenous groups

The Northwest Territories’ incoming government will hold a day-long round-table meeting with leaders of more than a dozen Indigenous groups next week.

All 19 newly elected MLAs will meet Indigenous and municipal leaders at Yellowknife’s Tree of Peace friendship centre on Thursday, October 17, Legislative Assembly staff announced in a news release.

The legislature said the following groups will attend:

• Dehcho First Nations
• Dene Nation
• Deninu K’ue First Nation
• Gwich’in Tribal Council
• Inuvialuit Regional Corporation
• Kátł’odeeche First Nation
• Łutsel K’e Dene First Nation
• North Slave Métis Alliance
• Northwest Territories Association of Communities
• Northwest Territory Métis Nation
• Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated
• Salt River First Nation
• Smith’s Landing First Nation
• Tłı̨chǫ Government
• Yellowknives Dene First Nation

“This meeting will provide a forum for leaders to share their perspectives and voice their concerns and interests about the many issues and opportunities the Northwest Territories is faced with today,” the news release stated.

MLAs-elect, who officially become MLAs during a swearing-in ceremony on Friday morning, spent Wednesday in the legislature setting out their own visions for the next four years in a public broadcast.

Acknowledging the rarity of a meeting where all 19 MLAs sit down alongside more than a dozen Indigenous groups and governments, less than a week after being sworn in, legislature staff wrote: “A meeting … so early in the life of a Legislative Assembly aims to build strong relationships as well as inform members as they begin the process of setting priorities.”

The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed live on the Legislative Assembly’s website and social channels.