The example of the role that the vision of Nunavut played for the Canadian Inuit is helping Aboriginal people elsewhere to find their own visions for overcoming the despair and apathy that often threaten their communities. Modern treaty making moves us beyond merely the affirmation of rights and frameworks for assimilation. Treaty-making is having a profound impact on all aspects of governance. It promotes a level of competence at the community and regional level that is giving rise, as we noted previously, to imaginative sustainable development initiatives, partly because the treaties themselves contain many of the elements of sustainability. In recognition of this the CWG believes that a framework for Canadian foreign policy for the circumpolar Arctic should reflect the regional and sub-regional realities and the visions they bring for the future.
Expectations are high, capacities are limited and evaluations of efforts to date are needed.
Devolution and Globalization Throughout the Arctic, authority and responsibility is being shifted from the centre to the regions. At the same time however, the forces of globalization draw nation states into increasingly broader international arrangements that link economies and legal regimes, and in the process, make capital even more mobile than in the past. We are therefore faced with managing contradictions - initiatives designed to enhance and protect unique local economies and cultures versus multilateral trading and investment arrangements. With this backdrop the CWG noted the following. In Canada, territorial and federal governments are negotiating the devolution of powers in several policy sectors.