Report: Aboriginal communities as development partners – Canadian Mining Journal
Mar 19, 2015
MONTREAL – While the Quebec government was giving the green light this week to the development of the Arnaud apatite mine project near Sept-Îles, on the North Shore, opponents and supporters alike wasted no time making their voices heard. On what basis can we move forward on these debates surrounding natural resource development projects? Do any agreements exist that can satisfy all the parties?
An Economic Note published today by the Montreal Economic Institute shows that certain collaboration models, notably the one involving the Cree, encourage and facilitate resource development in Quebec’s north while respecting aboriginal communities and forming partnerships with them.
The study describes certain recent cases in which different aboriginal communities have a financial interest in the economic success of a mining or other development project. This can occur through stock ownership, as with the Cree community of Nemaska that holds shares in a mining project in the James Bay region, or the Mi’kmaq communities that are partners in a windfarm project in the Gaspé Peninsula. Other agreements between businesses and communities are based on mechanisms for the sharing of revenues with the community, for example through royalties that will grow as a function of a mine’s production or of profits earned.
