“We can’t let Ottawa be in charge again.”

OTTAWA – The North should break free of the federal government, create its own governance models and keep the revenues from resource development, says Stephen Kakfwi, former premier of the Northwest Territories.

That was Kakfwi's advice to delegates at the 2030 North national planning conference, where delegates mulled over such issues as climate change, governance, research and security between June 1 and June 4 in Ottawa.

Kakfwi said it's time to throw off the "shackles" of the federal government, which have hobbled progress in the North.

While northerners worked towards changing the map of Canada's North, the federal department of Indian and northern affairs was hanging on to their ankles and "fighting us every inch of the way," he said.

"If we're going to do something positive for the Arctic, we can't let Ottawa be in charge again," he said.

In a later chat, Kakfwi admitted he's also fed up with overly academic conferences where people from the South sit around in the South and discuss the people in the North, just like during the 1970s and 80s.

"And we're still doing it," he said, before ducking out of the conference to check his email.

The 2030 conference, organized by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the University of Calgary's Centre for military and strategic studies, should have taken place in the North, some said.

"It would have been different," said a delegate from Nunavut, who wondered whether all the talk would produce anything new at all.

As it happened, many from the North, who did make it to Ottawa for the conference, didn't attend all the time.

In a session on the pace of change in the Arctic, only a few conference-goers from Nunavut remained in the room, although more than a dozen had been there the previous night for the opening of conference.

After only one morning in the meeting, were they bored, frustrated or simply eager to go shopping?

Even without their absence, the lack of northern participation stood out because many speakers kept on repeating how much Canada needs more involvement from northern peoples and government on issues that affect them.

There was not a single elected politician from the Government of Nunavut present at the conference. And there was no one but ITK president Mary Simon to represent Nunavik.

Defenders of the conference's Ottawa location said a similar gathering in the North wouldn't have drawn so many participants or been able to be broadcast to a much larger, national audience on CPAC, Canada's national public affairs television network.

The conference's format of speakers followed by individual round-tables did generate interesting discussions and policy recommendations, which Ottawa may take seriously.

Sitting around a table, Kakfwi, another former NWT premier, George Braden, Ed Schultz, the executive director of the Yukon First Nations, and Franklyn Griffiths, a distinguished political science professor from the University of Toronto, agreed that the Arctic Council should be stronger.

The Arctic Council, with eight member nations from around the circumpolar world and permanent indigenous participants, needs more teeth, they said.

The council "roars a bit but can't bite," Schulz said of the council, where he sat as an indigenous participant for the Arctic Athabascan Council.

The goal of the 2030 conference was to produce recommendations that will breathe new life into Canada's northern strategy.

This strategy, according to an INAC web site, is supposed to strengthen Canada's sovereignty, protect the environment, promote economic and social development and improve northern governance.

To date, some of its concrete measures include expanding the Canadian Rangers and supporting International Polar Year, an INAC fact sheet says.