Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation highlights nation building priorities at Prime Minister’s Summit

“To build the nation and achieve greater sovereignty and resilience, we cannot think only in terms of resource development. We need healthy people, healthy communities, healthy lands, and healthy waters if we are to truly realize the economic potential of the Building Canada Act.

Prime Minister Carney is asking for First Nations to be partners in this process, highlighting it as a priority of his government, while failing to acknowledge our priorities.

Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, like other Arctic and northern communities across Canada, face unique infrastructure challenges due to climate, geography, and historical underinvestment. Strategic, long-term investment in Arctic infrastructure including in transportation, housing, energy, and digital connectivity is critical for ensuring a sovereign and resilient Canada. In addition, the federal government must urgently support First Nations emergency response efforts to address wildfires, floods, and the opioid and suicide epidemics that are impacting our communities.

Further, the Government of Canada must move swiftly to implement the new funding methodologies that self-governing First Nations and the federal government have collaboratively developed. These frameworks which support infrastructure, language revitalization, and lands and resources, are critical to honoring treaty obligations, enabling self-determination, and securing Canada’s economic future.

In order to truly achieve greater sovereignty and resilience, we must protect and support the well-being of our children. In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that Canada was discriminating against First Nations children and families. Nearly a decade later, the Government of Canada continues to frustrate progress on long-term reform.

We invite Prime Minister Carney and his Cabinet to meet with us, with First Nations in Yukon, and with self-governing First Nations across Canada, in our home communities to gain a better understanding of our governance systems, our challenges, and our solutions. Only through this dialogue can we build a truly sovereign and resilient Canada.”

Chief Pauline Frost