Native participation in northern development: the impending crisis in the NWT

Abstract

Collapse of the traditional economy in the Northwest Territories after World War II led to the development of a variety of federal government socio-economic programs designed to prepare native people for jobs in the modern economy. After a slow start employment grew until, in the 1980s, nearly two-thirds of the potential native labour force had jobs on at least a part-time basis. The NWT economy has now entered a period of stagnation in which the progress of previous decades is in danger of being reversed. The federal government appears now to have forgotten the commitments made at the beginning of the development process, while the Territorial government does not have the means to initiate programs on its own which would prevent the impending crises. -from Authors