Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Marking the 10th anniversary of a documentary that portrayed corporations as so many Godzillas

Communism and socialism were based on the delusion that economies can be run more efficiently and morally from the top. The left’s moral justification came from allegations that capitalism led both to unconscionable gaps in wealth and income and to dangerous corporate power.

It is intriguing that just as the latest example of gap obsession — from French economist Thomas Piketty — is being shot down, the anniversary of a particularly virulent example of its anti-corporate twin is being “celebrated.”

Ten years ago, the documentary The Corporation, based on a book by University of British Columbia academic Joel Bakan, was released to the sort of copious praise from the same Chattering Classes that greeted Citizen Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century.

The Corporation, both the book and the movie, might have been classified as hate literature. Their tedious central claim was that corporations — instead of generating wealth and welfare — were trampling over society like so many psychopathic Godzillas.

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The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Some say social licence is now the most important determinant of successful resource development. Others argue the concept doesn’t belong in a market-based economy and that the national interest is more important.

In a paper for the Canada West Foundation, released Monday, Michael Cleland argues the ad hoc approach used so far is inadequate to meet the challenges ahead and that a new approach is needed.

Some of the things he says need fixing right away include: restoring public confidence in the regulatory system; developing a credible way forward on greenhouse gas management; building capacity so communities can share in the benefits of projects; and doing a better job of compiling and sharing independent information on environmental effects.

First, let’s acknowledge the obvious: like it or not, new forces are influencing resource projects and having a profound impact on industry’s ability to move forward.

Just ask those involved in building pipelines like Enbridge Inc., which is awaiting a response from the federal cabinet in the weeks ahead about whether its controversial Northern Gateway pipeline will get a permit; or those producing gas and oil using hydraulic fracturing techniques; or those building oil sands projects.

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United Nations pipeline report goes too far

United Nations special rapporteur James Anaya crossed a line recently between promoting the cause of Aboriginals in this country and unhelpfully interfering in Canadian politics.

Anaya, the rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, a law professor at the University of Arizona specializing in human rights, is one of 37 unpaid UN rapporteurs who regularly examine and publicly report on human rights problems around the world.

With so many civil wars, terror activities and natural disasters rampant around the globe, it is hard to believe human rights conditions in highly developed, democratic countries would be a priority for the United Nations. Canada already is so aware of the Aboriginals’ plight, and the courts so attentive to their aspirations.

This country is taking measures to address past wrongs, with financial redress and a truth-and-reconciliation process. The federal government is advancing legislation aimed at improving on-reserve governance and education for Aboriginal youth. It also is taking measures to improve water quality on reserves.

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On Tuesday, a coalition of First Nations, environmentalists and lefty think-tanks vowed to fight the $12 billion Energy East pipeline to take oilsands oil from Alberta to refineries and ports in eastern Canada.

Although not formally aligned yet (they have held a closed-door strategy meeting in Winnipeg, but have not forged a single front organization), the groups pledged to oppose Energy East with as much ferocity as opponents of the Keystone XL project have used in the United States.

Many of these same groups and others also vehemently oppose Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan in B.C. Not all, but most of them are, indeed, opposed to oilsands development altogether.

But just so I’m clear, here, you groups all still want even more billions from Ottawa and the provinces for development on reserves and in other First Nations communities, right?

Just where do you imagine that money is going to come from? If you block the largest economic development projects in the country, from whom will the federal and provincial governments collect the taxes to pay for the social spending you dream of?

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The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA — At 30 years old, Phil Fontaine was an angry man.

A survivor of sexual abuse at a residential school, separated from his parents at a young age, forbidden from speaking his native language, the Anishinaabe from Manitoba was elected at the age of 29 as chief for the Sagkeeng First Nation, situated east of Lake Winnipeg. By his own account, he was impatient and belligerent, especially in his dealings with government bureaucrats.

The former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations mellowed over the years. He became convinced he could do more for aboriginal people through compromise and pragmatic action than angry radicalism. But he remains passionate about the need for Canada to address the appalling poverty among First Nations people. He sees resource development as one way to end that poverty.

Now 69, Mr. Fontaine works with some of this country’s largest companies – the Royal Bank of Canada and TransCanada Corp. – to advance their interests among aboriginal Canadians and to advise them on how to support First Nations communities and businesses.

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The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Duty to consult and accommodate. Remember those five words. Properly applied, they could help usher in a new era of co-operation between First Nations and natural resource development. Ignored or disregarded by governments, or used to raise unrealistic expectations of unlimited aboriginal power, they could herald a period of discord, mistrust and lost opportunity – including for indigenous people.

The words themselves are drawn from a Supreme Court decision on a British Columbia government decision to transfer some tree licences to a forestry company. The Haida First Nation sought an injunction to stop the transfer, because it believed it violated their aboriginal rights. The B.C. government claimed it had the traditional legal and constitutional authority to manage the province’s natural resources as it deemed appropriate.

When the issue reached the Supreme Court, neither party got what it wanted. Instead of confirming government power, or transferring some or all of that power to aboriginal peoples, the court created the duty on governments to consult and accommodate aboriginal interests when government decisions encroach on potential or established aboriginal or treaty rights.

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