NAN Grand Chief Harvey Yesno speech

There’s a message to everyone that there is a change, and there will be change. Some internally, and some in the approaches we’re going to take in our mandate.
One of the key issues for me as Grand Chief, obviously I’m responsible for all of the communities, there is certain amount of expectation on key issues and one by far is to do with the land, resources and waters. Also the Treaty. We have a relationship with the federal and provincial government, and that is certainly going to be paramount in my work and engagement, both on behalf of the First Nations and communities. We believe we’ve been at this for little over 100 years and we need to get both levels of government along with ourselves at the table and start implementing the terms of the treaty.
That’s crucial in terms of resource development.
One of the key things we’re not going to be doing, is we’re not going to be protesting over our lands anymore.
These are our lands. This is all going to be about protection of the lands. I think our chiefs have made a pretty clear statement that we’re not just going to watch development happen.
We want meaningful involvement, we want consultation that’s meaningful. Memos, emails and phone calls will not cut it. We have to establish treaty tables at the community level involving both the federal and provincial governments. That’s the issue. We can talk about programs and services all we want, but that’s not going to build the economy.
We’ve got to talk about creating wealth in the communities, that will create meaningful jobs and economic and business development. That’s what is going to change the communities.
You all hear about the lack of adequate community infrastructure, whether that’s housing or schools and on and on. But the unemployment is greater than the unemployment in the great depression. That’s unacceptable for any society. We want to see that change. We want to build capacity for our young people, we want to offer hope for our young people to achieve higher education and participate in the economy. Not only in our communities. Here we are in Thunder Bay, for example. These cities and towns benefit a lot from the work that we do as First Nations people. This is where things are made, this is where meetings are held and so on.
So we are definitely going to make some change. The engagement with the government certainly going to be first and foremost. I’m not interested in meeting with beaurocrats. I want to meet with counterparts that will be making decisions. We want to get things done. That’s a high expectations we put on ourselves, and we’ll do everything possible.
One thing for sure, on the lands, its going to be all about protection. We’re not going to protest over our own lands. Nobody protests over their own property. But people will protect their property. And that’s a big change. You’ve heard the chiefs already say what they’re prepared to do with protection.