Resource World Magazine

36 www.resourceworld.com F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 9 FIRST NATIONS www.puregoldmining.ca PGM:TSX-V Indigenous communities had little engagement with the resource sector and governments and corporations gave only passing attention to First Nations concerns. Much has now changed. First Nations are actively involved across the industry, from employment and direct investment to project approval processes and envi - ronmental evaluation. There are hundreds of Aboriginal-owned companies active in the sector, thousands of Indigenous employees, and dozens of collaboration agreements with First Nations communi - ties. The engagement spans the whole energy field, from uranium mining to hydroelectric projects, oil and natural gas exploration to pipeline development. That this has occurred is due, in large measure, to consistent and aggressive efforts by First Nations across Canada to gain recognition of their Aboriginal and treaty rights under British and Canadian law. After Indigenous people went to court, over a span of more than 20 years, Native claimants won a series of major Supreme Court decisions, highlighted by the 2004 Haida and Taku decisions and re-enforced by the 2014 Tsilhqot'in judgment. With the election of the Trudeau Liberal gov - ernment and its firm commitment to the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it became clear that Aboriginal communities have secured real and sustained authority in the resource sector. "We know now that, in order to get major resource projects and pipelines and infrastructure things off the ground, there has to be Indigenous engagement of a level that is very different than before," he said, noting that there is a "huge increase in aboriginal entrepreneurship that is largely tied to the resource sector," says Coates. What a difference a few decades and real political and legal power made. Companies, reflecting the 21 st century approach to corporate social responsibility, reached out to Indigenous communities. The "duty to consult and accommodate" requirements included in the Haida and Taku decisions increased Aboriginal authority and led to new collaboration and impact and benefit agreements. Indigenous communities, previously ignored along the development frontier, found themselves courted by companies eager to get them engaged with the projects. The new arrangements have included tens of millions of dollars in direct pay - ments, employment and training programs for Indigenous workers, and preferential contracting arrangements for Aboriginal- owned companies. The major pipelines, the source of much controversy, have already generated substantial agree - ments between project proponents and Indigenous communities. Aboriginal entrepreneurs established hundreds of service and supply companies. Resource companies hired many Aboriginal work - ers. In a growing number of instances, Aboriginal communities and companies took out equity positions in the resource projects, including substantial oil and gas, mining and electrical generation invest - ments and proposed equity stakes in new pipelines. "What we need now is more access to loan guarantees for Aboriginal inter- ests in resource development such as the pipelines, energy projects and mining. Governments could create something like the Inter-American Development Bank – which provides economic development funds for Latin America and the Caribbean – to use some of the profits from resource development to stimulate First Nations economic development," says Buffalo. "Remember that while the environ - mental movement seems to have owned the message for the most part, there is another voice here and that is the voice of working First Nations who want to go to work and provide for their children," says Buffalo. n

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