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Right now, resource development is the engine of the Northwest Territories’ economy and a significant source of middle-class jobs and business opportunities. But the Northwest Territories does not exist in isolation. We have a small open economy that is subject to external pressures like the global financial crisis 10 years ago and weak commodity prices. Between 2007 and 2016, the territorial economy declined from $4.5 billion to $3.7 billion.

Restrictions imposed on our vital energy and resource sector — the single biggest contributor to the NWT economy and source of middle-class jobs and incomes for many of our people — are driving companies away, and with that go the jobs that sustain healthy families and communities. Staying in or trying to join the middle class will become a distant dream for many.

That is why I took such exception to Canada’s unilateral decision to impose a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea a little more than a year ago.

I’m a realist, I understand that development is primarily a business decision and that current low prices are a disincentive to oil and gas development. Still, the decision to permanently take a significant economic opportunity for the Northwest Territories off the table with no discussion and no plan to replace its value for our people seems short-sighted at best, and certainly doesn’t take Northern needs, priorities, or self-determination into account.

Decisions about the North should be made in the North. A strong, thriving economy in the Northwest Territories is a crucial part of a successful model for Indigenous reconciliation that could serve as a guide for the rest of the country.

Protecting the promise of the North and saving the northern dream requires all Canadians to join together. It requires a national debate. The time is upon us to reset the course of the North. Meaningful reconciliation requires it, and the dream of a strong and prosperous North depends on it.

Bob McLeod is premier of the Northwest Territories.