A bond between governments was evident, assured, at Thurday’s signing of the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan in Mayo.

The leaders emphasized the importance of the achievement, the importance of the Peel.

The First Nation chiefs described how their ancestors depended on the watershed, how their elders insisted it must be protected to honour their past and to maintain their cultural connection today and into the future.

As part of the water ceremony, each leader poured water into a vase to be emptied into the Stewart River at the end of the celebration.

Northern Tutchone elder Walter Peter began the ceremony with a prayer, then emptied water from the Hart River into the vessel.

Chief Simon Mervyn of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun poured water from the Goz Lake.

Chief Roberta Joseph of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in emptied water from the Black Stone River. Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm brought water from the Ogilvie River.

Deputy Grand Chief Jordan Peterson of the Gwich’in Tribal council poured water into the vessel from the Peel River.

And Premier Sandy Silver poured water from the Yukon River.

Each spoke of the challenges and triumphs over the last 15 years in achieving a land use plan and protection for what they see as a wilderness region that remains pristine, one of the last in the world.

They spoke of past leaders who bore the struggle before them.

Tizya-Tramm told the audience no lines on a map, no borders could define what the Peel watershed meant to the Gwitchin, nor could they convey the relationship they had to a land that sustained them for thousands of years.

“Today is one of beyond words that no document can contain,” he told the audience, which included federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

“There was no choice for us to protect the Peel watershed,” said Peterson.

“This plan is a promise from us to protect this region as pristine for the future, just as it was left for us.”

Growing up in Aklavik on the banks of the Peel River, the river was life to their community; it was their highway, said the deputy grand chief.

After the leaders concluded their individual remarks, they walked over to sign each of the five land use plans that lay on a table next to the podium.

There were exchanges of gifts crafted by artisans from the different communities.

Each of the leaders was presented with a beaded cover for their copy of the land use plan.

A community feast ensued, and ended as the waters of the different rivers flowed from the vase into the Stewart.

The celebration was livestreamed, and scores of supporters of the Peel land use plan gathered at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre in Whitehorse to watch.

The land use plan covers 67,431 square kilometres, of which 83 per cent is protected from development with no provision for access by road or rail.

The remaining 17 per cent is set out as integrated management areas that will allow for development, though the type and intensity are yet to be defined.

Developing regional land use plans in the Yukon is a provision contained in the territory’s land claim settlements that are enshrined in the Constitution of Canada.

The Peel planning process began in 2004. The planning commission delivered its initial draft of the land use plan in 2009 for public review.

It immediately raised a red flag with the mining industry, and with the then-Yukon Party government. Both were concerned about the lack of opportunity the plan provided for economic development and the mining industry.

After the commission delivered its final version of the plan in July 2011, the government discarded it and developed its own plan, prompting a challenge that began in the Yukon Supreme Court.

That was followed by an appeal in the Court of Appeal and finally a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on Dec. 1, 2017.

Each of the courts found the Yukon government had not fulfilled its obligation to negotiate the land use plan honourably.

As a result, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Yukon government must adopt the terms of the final plan recommended by the commission, though it sent the parties back for a final round of consultation, based on the commission’s recommended plan.

It also ruled any changes to the plan could only be minor, though the parties were allowed to give consideration to changing circumstances that might influence the land use plan.

The final round of consultation was carried out last year, paving the way for the final plan and Thursday’s long-awaited celebration.

Tizya-Tramm explained in a late-afternoon press conference after the formal speeches that increasing the conservation area from 80 per cent to 83 per cent, and decreasing the area for future development by three per cent, was done in recognition of the mounting threat to boreal caribou populations across the North.

It was agreed to by all parties, and does fall in line with the decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Vuntut Gwitchin chief insisted.

Samson Hartland of the Yukon Chamber of Mines said this morning the chamber has not had a chance to go through the plan in detail.

But he suggested legal action from the mining industry seeking compensation for alienation of their legitimate mining claims is a very real possibility now that the Peel plan has been finalized.

Removing surface access in the region essentially amounts to expropriation of the claims because with no access, there is no value to the known mineral resources in the watershed, said Samson, who was in Mayo for the ceremony.

Silver said during the press conference he is not contemplating compensation for mining and exploration companies going forward.

What lies ahead is bringing the parties together to implement the plan; to do the fine-tuning for each of the 16 landscape management units, he said.

Chief Joseph said whatever activity is allowed in the areas where development can proceed will be in keeping with the culture and values of the First Nations.

In their words of celebration, the leaders insisted the plan is a reflection of their strength and a recognition of the self-governing authority laid out in their land claim settlements, and what can be achieved working together.

They held up the land use plan as a milestone on the road of self-determination that began when Yukon chiefs delivered the document Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow to the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau in 1973.

Chief Mervyn told the audience the Peel planning process was the one of the longest and most difficult tasks the Northern Tutchone of Na-Cho Nyak Dun have faced in modern times.

“We have created something that will resound through the ages, for future generations,” he said.

“Mussi cho to all the people who participated in this remarkable achievement.”

Joseph said the relationship with the Liberal government elected in November 2016 has come a long way, and not just in the Peel planning process, but in other areas the governments have identified as priorities.

“It is a tremendous honour to be here today on the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun,” said Silver. “It is an historic day.

“I am incredibly proud to be here with you today as we write the new chapter for the Yukon and Canada, and the North as well.

“The Peel plan will stand as testimony to your commitment to the North. Today is by no means an end of the journey but the beginning.”

Asked during the press conference to describe the depth and schedule of implementation work that lay ahead, the premier replied, “We’ll cross that river tomorrow. Tonight we dance.”