CHAMPAGNE – The premier and Yukon First Nations chiefs announced the approval of a joint action plan Friday that outlines the next steps required to progress on shared priorities.

“I think we’re at a very pivotal time in our relationship,” said Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) Grand Chief Peter Johnston during a press conference following Friday’s Yukon Forum.

“I’m very pleased to see that the Nations who I represent are at a place of contentment, and they feel optimistic and positive in regards to the roads that need to be ventured upon next.”

The impending creation of a joint action plan was announced at last January’s Yukon Forum. That was the first between the CYFN, First Nations chiefs and Premier Sandy Silver’s then-new Liberal government.

The government-to-government meeting was revived after years of neglect following its founding in 2005 under a Yukon Party government. It will now occur quarterly, its leaders promised last January.

The action plan operationalizes a series of shared priorities – fiscal relations, “made in Yukon” processes for bilateral and trilateral government engagement, the implementation of land claim and self-government agreements and collaborative legislative agendas.

These priorities aren’t new, noted Johnston, and the plan itself does not include a lot of “fundamental detail.”

It does establish joint working groups, necessary reviews of existing collaborative mechanisms, and timelines for the completion of various goals.

Under its fiscal relations section and resource revenue subsection, for example, the joint action plan mandates that a discussion between self-governing Yukon First Nations and the territorial government will convene on or before Oct. 31 to examine a resource revenue-sharing agreement and the territory’s current resource royalty regime.

“Our goal is to advance reconciliation and work together to find tangible solutions that create healthy, vibrant and sustainable communities across the territory,” Silver said of the joint action plan in a statement.

At the media briefing, Silver explained that because the government works on community-specific issues in its bilateral relationships with individual First Nations governments, the Yukon Forum and the plan it has produced are all about “common goals and common priorities.

“As every Yukon Forum goes forward from here on, (the action plan) becomes more of a living, breathing document and it becomes more comprehensive as we go,” he said.

Many of the timelines in the plan are “very bold,” the premier acknowledged.

Health and social services are one of the action plan’s stated priorities

It outlines expectations that an evaluation of existing opportunities for joint engagement on health and social services be completed by November.

A “new path forward” on the priority that includes necessary resources should be determined by February 2018 and an implementation and evaluation plan by April 2018, according to the joint action document.

It goes on to outline similar steps with varying deadlines for other shared priorities, including education, justice, heritage and bilateral and trilateral government engagement protocol.

“As some of these priorities are fulfilled, other priorities will take their place in regards to these pillars that we’ve agreed to,” said Johnston.

All of the Yukon First Nations represented by the CYFN approved the joint action plan, according to the grand chief.

The next Yukon Forum is expected to meet in December.

“Champagne and Aishihik First Nations is honoured to host the Yukon Forum in our community of Shadhäla (Champagne) today,” said Champagne and Aishihik First Nations Kaaxnox, Dän Nätthe Ada (Chief Steve Smith)

“We are pleased that the Yukon Forum is being held in the communities because it allows leaders to see the impacts of our decisions at a community level.

“Continued collaboration by our governments is vital.”