Yellowknife, N.W.T. - The grand chief of the Deh Cho First Nations is arguing that the federal government is ignoring past agreements with his band through the way they are planning changes to the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act.

Samuel Gargan said that the government going ahead with the proposed changes amount to ignoring the agreements it signed with Deh Cho First Nations to negotiate resource management in their self-government negotiations.

“Most of the agreements that are signed today are not worth the paper they are written on if the federal government decides they want to unilaterally change things here,” he said.

The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Michael Miltenberger, acknowledged that the planned changes have caused consternation with aboriginal governments.

“Our approach is devolution is coming, let’s take over the process and then if there’s Northern changes needed and the Northern people decide we have to further adjust our regulatory regime, we’ll look at doing that,” he said.

A representative of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada was scheduled to meet with Aboriginal leaders on Wednesday about the issue in Yellowknife.

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