The Negotiations Division is responsible for leading the GNWT’s participation at land, resources and self-government negotiations in the NWT. Successfully concluding land, resources and self-government agreements throughout the NWT will lay the foundation for attaining political certainty, building mutually respectful government-to-government relations, and realizing the economic potential of the NWT.

The need for negotiations arises from:

• differing understandings between the Crown and First Nations of what was agreed upon at the time Treaties  8 and 11 were signed;
• the absence of a Treaty with certain Aboriginal peoples indigenous to the NWT; 
• the need to clarify the Aboriginal and Treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of the NWT; and
• the need to clarify the NWT Aboriginal peoples inherent right to self-government.

The parties to Aboriginal rights negotiations in the NWT have chosen to enter into negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement on what these rights are, rather than pursing clarification of these rights through legal action. 

Click here for Current Negotiations