Next Steps on the Pathways - Stephen Kakfwi, Udloriak Hanson, and R. Scott Serson

Next Steps on the Pathways (Udloriak Hanson, Chief Operating Officer with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.; Stephen Kakfwi, former Premier of NWT; and R. Scott Serson, former Deputy Minister of INAC).

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Stephen Kakfwi is an instrumental leader in advancing the Aboriginal land and self-government rights of the Northwest Territories (NWT) Dene, Metis and Inuit. He has had a distinguished career in public government promoting NWT political, constitutional and economic development in the north, within Canada and internationally. He is the former Premier of the Northwest Territories (1999 – 2003) and President of the Dene Nation (1983-1987). Carrying a vision for reconciliation in Canada, Mr. Kakfwi is the President and CEO of Canadians For a New Partnership.

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Udloriak Hanson is Chief Operating Officer with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), the land claims organization representing Nunavut Inuit. She is also NTI’s Chief Negotiator for devolution.

Ms. Hanson served as Senior Advisor to the Clerk of the Executive Council for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on Aboriginal Issues and Arctic Economic Opportunities. Ms. Hanson also served as A/Executive Director and Special Advisor to Mary Simon, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing Inuit across Canada.

She led the development of Qaujisaqtiit Society, the Nunavut territory’s first charitable consortium of Inuit non-profit organizations. She sits on the Board of Directors for The Circle of Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples of Canada and the Rideau Hall Foundation. She is also a Board member with Arctic Children and Youth Foundation. And is a proud member of the Canadians for a New Partnership.

Ms. Hanson has undergraduate honours degrees in business administration and adult education. She currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut where she was born and raised.

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Scott Serson is a member of the Board of Directors of Canadians for a New Partnership, and a former federal Deputy Minister who spent much of his career working on issues related to First Peoples.

Appointed Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs in 1989, he provided strategic advice on federal-provincial relations and Aboriginal constitutional issues. He also co-chaired the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples Rights in the process that led to the Charlottetown Constitutional Accord.

In September 1995, Mr. Serson was appointed Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. In that role he was instrumental in the development of the government’s response to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He also provided public service leadership in the final stage of the creation of Nunavut.

After retiring from the public service in 2003, Scott served as a policy advisor to the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine for five years. During that time he helped conceptualize and negotiate the Kelowna Accord, which would have transformed federal financing of services for First Nations.