This week's Yukon Economic Summit is about more than pleasantries, says Premier Dennis Fentie.

He opened the two-day summit this morning with a brief address to representatives of first nation and non-first nation governments, of public and private sector corporations from across the North.

The Yukon is hitting its stride after 30 years of forging self-governing first nations and establishing certainty of ownership and management authority, Fentie told participants at the Gold Rush Inn.

'The Yukon has achieved a form of governance in the territory that is based on a solid partnership with our aboriginal peoples,' the premier said.

'In conjunction with this partnership in governance, we are developing and promoting solid economic partnerships with the corporate sector and Yukon first nations for the benefit of Yukon, the North and Canada. And that is why we are here today.'

In a brief interview afterward, Fentie insisted the summit is far beyond just rhetoric about how nice it would be for everybody to work together.

'If you consider this something that has been done in the past, I would strongly disagree,' Fentie said during the coffee break.

'You have to look at the first nations here and the corporate community that is here. The important thing is getting the corporate community and the first nations into an economic environment that breeds willingness.'

It was, he noted, a continuation of the promotion of partnerships started in Alaska last fall.

Around the room, of the 146 registered delegates, there was the woman who runs the one-woman consulting firm, engineers, heads of corporations, big and small, and those representating living examples of private-sector, first nation business partnerships.

There were pipeline and oil and gas executives, government ministers and deputy ministers.

Ross MacDonald, of the Inuvialuit Development Corp., was scheduled to kick off this afternoon by sharing the Inuvialuit's partnering with the private sector in a region that's boiling with oil and gas activity.

Beverly Sembsmoen of the Carcross-Tagish First Nation was to talk about partnering opportunities as they related to the proposed Four Mountains Resort. As well, Chief James Allen of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations was to share the floor with BP executive Ken MacDonald to discuss the Alaska Highway Pipeline project.

Grand Chief Ed Schultz of the Council of Yukon First Nations reminded the audience that partnerships have been around for centuries, though the first nations got the short end of the stick.

First nations, he said, have been involved in business for as long as they've have been around, bartering back and forth between the regions that flourished with different goods, whether they be inland or coastal.

It was to be that way with the arrival of the white man, so believed the first nations, he said.

The first nations, he said, did not receive their fair share of benefits from the early partnerships.

'Quite frankly, they were taken advantage of.'

He said through the decades following contact, there was the Gold Rush, the Alaska Highway and a press for land in the Yukon without regard for the thousands of years of occupation in the territory; without regard to making the Yukon's aboriginal communities benefactors of development.

And so arose the land claim process that established ownership over land and resources, and entrenched aboriginial rights, on and off settlement land.

The model of aboriginal and non-aboriginal governance in the Yukon is unmatched anywhere else in the world, and it's being watched by individuals and governments around the globe, Schultz told the audience.

'We are indeed, on the cutting edge.'

First nations, Schultz emphasized, want business partnerships and an economy for their citizens.

They want to work toward prosperity, and in partnership with the private sector that has the expertise to provide their citizens with the skills they need, for a rate of return that's not only financial, but comes with the satisfaction of building community, he said.

With the burgeoning first nation authority in the territory, however, there's also the equally important commitment to respect and protect the culture, tradition and environment that first nations still cherish, and will always cherish, he said.

Schultz told the audience he was asked to speak about certainty, but in business there is never certainty.

Business is risk venturing. First nations do no control the world metal prices, nor do they have a seat at table of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

What is certain, said Schultz, is that the territory's aboriginal people will be here until the end of time.

And it is time today for first nations and the private sector to take advantage of each other's expertise and assets, to benefit each other equally, he told the audience.

'We have the best chance in the entire history of this territory to do something right from the outset,' he said.

'If we are tied to the old ways of doing business, then I can say this with certainty, we will all fail.'