Negotiations

NWT Self Government Negotiations

Stephanie is a thirty-year veteran of Indigenous rights-based negotiations. Beginning as an assistant negotiator on the joint Gwich’in Tribal Council and Inuvialuit Regional Corporation self government negotiations in 1996, she has held progressively responsible positions, managing technical advisors on negotiating teams and leading subject matter negotiations. She has been Political and Governance Advisor for the Délı̨nę Land Corporation (now Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government); led self government negotiations as Governance Advisor and Fiscal Negotiator to the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation and Behdzi Ahda” First Nation self government negotiations; as Governance Advisor to the Nihtat Gwich’in negotiations; and as Governance Advisor to the Gwichya Gwich’in Council self government negotiations.

Fiscal Negotiations

Over the last decade, Stephanie has taken on negotiation of financing and taxation agreements associated with self government agreements. A representative for clients to the Self Government Collaborative Fiscal Policy Process since 2016, she has a depth of experience in contributing to developing expenditure models that form the basis for determining financing of self government from the government of Canada. She has developed expertise in negotiating self government agreements to include elements triggering maximum fiscal benefit to clients. This has included gathering extensive knowledge of fiscal model calculations, fiscal analysis and reporting by governments across Canada, and understanding the interface between legal status of organizations and eligibility and access to funding through federal and territorial programs. She has worked in this area negotiating fiscal agreements during self government negotiations, and in the context of implementing and renewing existing self government fiscal agreements.

Implementation Negotiations

For the past thirty years, Stephanie has been engaged in implementing self government and modern treaties, managing experts and participating in negotiation of implementation agreements, and leading implementation plan reviews for clients. Through this work, she participated in the process which developed the Collaborative Modern Treaty Implementation Policy and participates in its ongoing development and implementation. Understanding how modern treaties, implementation plans, and fiscal agreements inter-relate is a unique area of expertise gained over three decades of working across all aspects of negotiating and implementing self government.

Treaty Disputes

Implementing treaties inevitably leads to disputes over implementation, and treaties can be asserted in ways that require governments to negotiate how they implement their policy goals in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples. Going to court is often expensive and does not solve immediate problems facing Indigenous governments trying to provide programs and services. Stephanie is experienced in initiating treaty disputes as a basis for successfully securing negotiated resolutions to obtain immediate goals and benefits, while entering into discussions on longer term solutions in the context of the treaty relationship.