There are more sides to land-use issues in northern B.C. than ever before, but if all sides don't work together, untold millions of dollars and unrealized dreams can be lost for all involved.
A crowd of municipal, provincial, private sector and First Nations leaders shared this message at the Coming Together Conference at the Prince George Civic Centre on Wednesday. The conference continues today and Friday. Hosted by the Resources North Association, its aim is to bridge the gaps over land-use concerns in the North.
The stakes - financial and social - are massive for all, it was agreed.
That did not mean industry should get a free pass to extract minerals and petroleum, harvest trees, build roads, alter the landscape, etc. without adhering to a number of social criteria.
Several speakers, including those representing industrial interests, stressed the good business sense of having strict environmental oversight, proper safety, and a whole new way of working with First Nations.
Several mining companies were cited for their foresight in this new model of aboriginal relations - relations that have allowed their projects to move ahead for the benefit of all involved.
The Supreme Court of Canada clearly established that First Nations have never had their land-use authority ousted from their traditional territories. For corporations to fight them or for government officials to disregard their coexistent First Nations is a huge risk to those development dreams.
"The history between Kitimat and Kitimaat Village [municipality and nearby Haisla Nation community] is not good," said Ron Poole, the chief administrative officer for the District of Kitimat, where liquified natural gas (LNG), oil, port and other proposed developments are all focused. Some of it is coming to pass, he said, and more is expected, but not without direct partnerships with the aboriginal governments of the area. He said better relations are emerging quickly in his region, and everyone stands to gain substantially, together.
As an indication of the money involved, Poole said the taxpayer in Kitimat got paid $1.8 million last year, just by Rio Tinto Alcan and just for building permits. Many other revenue streams into local government also existed, thanks to the smelter expansion by the aluminum giant.
He also pointed to the work camps being designed for the area, to accommodate all the trades workers needed to build the various projects in the Kitimat area. The Kitimat LNG camp is slated to house 2,800 people.
The LNG Canada camp is expected to house 5,000 people.
Another camp is being considered inside Kitimat's downtown.
"We could find no place else where a work camp was situated within a municipality like that," Poole said, but there was a fiscal reason for doing so. It helped the proponent pitch work-camp life to prospective employees because the camp came with the town's library, pool, restaurants and retail stores, etc.
"These camps are not like they were in the '70s when the guys worked really hard then, when they got their time off, they'd get drunk and tear the town apart. There are strict rules now about consuming drugs and alcohol, and companies have made that a condition of working for them. If they can't attract workers or retain workers, those rules might relax. So it's better to work with the companies to help them, and in turn they provide many benefits for us."
Poole also said that international investors show up to talk with local government and private interests directly. They don't always go through the provincial or federal governments for that. These well-financed foreigners also understand the dynamics of First Nations partnerships, so everyone being on good terms reduces everyone's economic risk.
Zoe Younger is the vice-president of corporate affairs for the Mining Association of B.C. She told the conference audience that she got started in her career working with the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation and at the Barkerville historic site, so being back in Prince George to deliver her message was personally poignant. That message was: work with First Nations and respect community values and your industrial project stands a much better chance of survival. The list of major mine projects moving ahead with signed First Nations partnerships was long - New Gold, Mount Milligan, Mount Polley, Huckleberry and many more. Mining companies don't much like being on the other list: stalled or embattled projects, at odds with aboriginal communities.
"First Nations are not simply trading partners," Younger said. "They are full project partners at the table."
Questions were put to Younger about the poor - even disastrous - environmental and First Nations attitudes by industrial companies in B.C.'s history. She agreed, but added modern laws and business scrutiny by the public have greatly improved these
conditions.
"When I was a teenager, I made choices that were questionable. I would not make the same choices now," she said. "I hope people give [resource industries] a chance to show how times are different."
Industrial companies can't afford to lose public confidence or risk legal action. The natural resources sector is too competitive to invite trouble (cost) into your business, was the general message from Geoff Morrison, the manager of B.C. operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. His speech was titled Being a good neighbour: co-operative land management in B.C. and he used it to discuss the social codes his industry now has to live under, but how that makes their products more attractive on the open market. Companies need to do good business and demonstrate that to the public, he said, to sustain a viable business model.
"If you're performing but not communicating, how do you have credibility? But if you're communicating without performance, that's just spin and you'll get lost in the spin."
Morrison added that the natural gas industry - the petroleum product most rooted in northern B.C. - is beset by poor prices right now, causing a slowdown in
production and exploration.
"We are working with government to be better at [establishing stronger social license] in northeast B.C.," he said. "During a slowdown, it's a great time to do that work and get it right."
