Comment: How to break the resource deadlock – Financial Post
Aboriginal communities right across the country will have likely won 200 legal rulings in the resources sector by the end of this year. This unprecedented winning streak has become the central plank in the native empowerment ‘toolbox’ and it outclasses the toolboxes of governments and industry, both of whom now seem to accept resource project delays as an economic fact of life.
Indeed the cumulative negative impact on our resources future is the biggest under-reported business story of the decade. Over the past year, I have been promoting a series of recommendations at resource symposiums to reverse this unhappy trend.
Before delving into my suggestions however, it is important to note that the Federal Government is pretty well out of the resources business. The provinces rule that roost, the northern Territories have been sufficiently devolved in order to run their affairs, and even offshore energy plays are managed under joint boards. The Feds are left with mandates in (some) environmental approvals, climate change protocols, species-at-risk, marine transportation and national infrastructure. None of these drive resource projects.
