was Côté's old patron General McNaughton, and it was due to his influence that Côté was appointed to the Joint Commission. In 1955, he was appointed assistant deputy minister in the national resources sector of Northern Affairs department. During this time, he oversaw the restoration of the Fortress Louisbourg in Cape Breton Island, negotiated a treaty with the United States concerning migratory birds and worked with the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway. During the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the U.S. government wanted control of all three locks, but Côté during his negotiations with the Americans ensured that Canada had control of one of the locks and a say in the running of the other two. In 1963, he was appointed deputy minister of Northern Affairs. His major concern at the Northern Affairs was the devolution of power in the Northwest Territories, which had until had been governed from Ottawa as he made the arrangements to ensure that the people of the Northwest Territories could elect their own government. Ever since the Northwest Territories had been created in 1870 following the purchase of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, the federal government had divided it as it had pleased, ceding parts of it to other provinces while carving new provinces and the Yukon territory out of it. Most of the population of the Northwest Territories were First Nations peoples, being a mixture of Indians and Inuit. The idea of further dividing the Northwest Territories into a territory that would be Inuit and another that would be Indian was considered as part of the devolution process, but it was decided to let the peoples of the Northwest Territories decide for themselves whatever a further division was necessary. In 1965, he was appointed by Prime Minister Lester Pearson to head the committee that planned the Centennial celebrations of 1967 to mark the 100th anniversary of Confederation. From 1968 to 1972, Côté sat on the board of governors of the University of Ottawa representing Saint Paul University. During the time of campus protests at Canadian universities, his daughter Denyse, was involved in the protests at the University of Ottawa while he sat on the board of the University of Ottawa. She recalled: "I remember it because I was a leftie at the time. He was a very liberal man and we never argued. At one point he drove me to