Building on Common Ground

Trade secrets inform a breakthrough guide to industry and aboriginal relations

By Bill Sass

February 01, 2009

The Northwest Territories has legislation that protects projects against retroactive interference owing to future land claims settlements. “We never had an issue with someone coming in and saying, ‘This is our land and it’s now our mine,’” Hoefer recalls.

But wise companies strive to be progressive when it comes to native relations, said Barry Robb, vice-president of business development for Mackenzie Aboriginal Corp. and current chairman of the ACR Aboriginal Project. MAC is a model in the field as an Alberta construction consortium primed for northern industrial work by two native partners – Gwich’in Development Corp. and Denendeh Development Corp. – and contractors Flint Energy Services Ltd., Kiewit, Ledcor and North American Construction Group.

“From an operational prospective, land claims tend to be a separate issue, but I think a number of companies in this province, and especially oil and gas companies, learned early on that it’s really important to be that good neighbor,” Robb says. “Others that didn’t take that kind of approach found the court cases quite instructive as to what they needed to do.”

The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are not the only jurisdictions affected by developments in aboriginal law. “Those court cases have had a huge impact in the provincial system as well. The province is now much more concerned and sensitive about who’s been consulted about what. That’s a much more onerous part of the work that’s being done than it was 10 years ago,” Robb says. “We’re affecting, or have the potential to affect, their way of life.”

Early engagement is a ticket to success with aboriginal communities, Robb reports. “We both have common goals. We both want to see jobs; we both want to see development. How do we do it in a way that meets both of our needs?”

As chairman of the Chamber of Resources’ aboriginal project, Robb focuses on ensuring firms do not lose sight of native relations in the current economic storm. “Every company is struggling with raising capital and the credit crunch and how to resize and reshape. Those who will survive are those who remember to retain those working relations.”

The Edmonton-based chamber also aims to find out what the aboriginal communities think about its native relations project. While some aboriginal companies participated, there has been no broader response from native communities.

“What we’ve got now is industry’s perception of what industry is doing that’s working. What we don’t have is the aboriginal perspective of what we’re doing and whether or not it’s working as well as we think it’s working,” Robb says. But he adds that the aboriginal population is far from homogenous and obtaining an overall verdict on the partnership strategy is a formidable challenge.

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