NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: governance, self-government

Objective(s): To outline the current situation with respect to the level of Human Resource Capacity support offered by the Government of the Northwest Territories to Aboriginal organizations.

Project Description: The product of this research will be a paper that outlines the current situation with respect to the level of Human Resource (HR) Capacity support offered by the Government of the Northwest Territories to Aboriginal organizations. Furthermore, strengths, deficiencies, and gaps of this HR Capacity support with respect to what is required for Aboriginal organizations to successfully transition to sustainable Aboriginal Self-Governments. Furthermore, this paper will also produce viable recommendations that the GNWT and Aboriginal organizations could consider to address deficiencies or fill the gaps that exist based on the analysis. There will be one method - surveys. These surveys will be sent to participants via e-mail. The survey consists of 25 questions. They are qualitative (perspective-based) and not quantitative (number or statistically-based). The e-mail will provide Invitation Text to the participants and a Sample Research Consent Form will be attached in the e-mail, in addition to the survey. The E-mail Invitation Text will outline who the Principal Investigator (PI) is, who participants can contact to verify that this process is legitimate, the objective of the work this survey is designed to support, some context about the questions that have been provided in the survey, the approximate length of the survey, who will see the final product, some rationale why they have been asked to participate in the survey, how the information will be recorded, how their anonymity will be protected, and a clear indication that this is a voluntary survey. The Sample Research Consent Form will also provide similar details. The participant focus will be on leaders of Aboriginal organizations (the Dene Nation, regional and community-based governments), employees in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations (for the GNWT), several employees with the Department of Human Resources (for the GNWT), and employees who work in negotiations for the Federal government. E-mails with the documents (outlined above) attached will be sent out to the participants. They will be asked to fill them out and send them back to the PI via e-mail or facsimile. Having successful, sustainable self-governments in the Northwest Territories will foster a certain degree of political certainty. They also provide a stronger reflection of political representation in a territory where more than half of the residents are of Aboriginal descent. In turn this could increase the awareness and engagement of residents across the Northwest Territories in the political system since now they have their own, functioning government that is at an equal level as the Government of the Northwest Territories. There would be a blended knowledge base of traditional governing values in a modern day governing structure or system at a community or regional level. The traditional governing values would likely be grounded in cultural values that an Aboriginal group has practiced for generations. If individuals or community organizations would like a copy of the resulting paper the PI will make arrangements to provide it. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 17, 2014 to August 28, 2014.