Interest group/government intermediation in the Yukon Indian land claim
Date
1990
Authors
Gomme, Graham
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Abstract
The Yukon is presently undergoing immense change. Since 1973 The Yukon Indian Land Claim process has been the focus of this change. The emergence of the Indians a political force concurrent with the devolution of federal powers to the newly legitimized Yukon Territorial Government has created an unique environment for politics. In addition, the Yukon has a northern location and its territorial status results in a more subservient relationship with the Federal Government than wbuld be found with a province; both of these characteristics contribute to the unprecedented political challenges the Yukon faces within Canada.
This study gives some insight into political development in the Yukon by analyzing how four interest groups relate or associate with the various parties negotiating the Land Claim Settlement. The interest groups of choice are the Yukon Outfitters Association, the Association of Yukon Communities, the Yukon Fish and Game Association and the Yukon Chamber of Mines. The governing parties involved in territory-wide negotiations are the Council for Yukon Indians, Territorial Government and the Federal Government. This study utilizes four models of interest group intermediation to assess what type of relationship each group maintains with the various governing bodies.
This assessment takes place in Chapter Four and concludes that all four groups barely communicated with the Council for Yukon Indians. However the Federal and Yukon governments collaborated to create a strategy of interest group involvement which included most interest groups in the territory. In addition, even though there is at present very little association between interest groups and Yukon Indians, the Land Claim Settlement proposes formal institutions which will promote joint involvement for both interest groups and Indians in policy making and policy decisions.
Societal corporatism seems to be the model that best describes each of the four relationships and the land claim process in general. Unlike pluralism and consociationalism, the two models most used to describe interest group and government relations in North America, societal corporatism displays more pro-active government involvement with interest groups. As well, this type of interaction promotes formal institutions and agreements which bring government and interest groups together. This strongly suggests different interest group/government relations for the Yukon land claim than that observed by most political scientists for the rest of Canada. Indeed this is one indication of the emergence of a very different regional political system in Canada.