AFN’s Fontaine looks to past to see future

New Horizons

The relationship between Canada’s mining community and First Nations can mostly fit into three categories: the good, the bad and the ugly.

To the good, De Beers Canada continues to establish an exemplary relationship with the Attawapiskat First Nation in the James Bay lowlands where the company’s $1-billion investment in the Victor diamond mine is providing needed jobs and has resulted in programs for education and training. And on Vancouver Island, Polaris Minerals’ president and CEO Marco Romero is on a first-name basis with the chiefs of two local First Nations after negotiating separate impact benefits agreements while getting an aggregate mining operation off the ground.

But here in Ontario, junior Frontenac Ventures has launched a $77-million suit against the Algonquin First Nation because it refuses to let the junior explorer conduct further work on a prospective uranium property in Frontenac Cty., near Sharbot Lake, Ont. In turn, the Algonquin have launched a $10-million counter-suit.

And Northgate Minerals’ failed proposal to develop the Kemess North property in northern B.C. didn’t get the nod from a joint federal-provincial review panel, mostly because local First Nations members don’t want the project to go ahead.

It was against this backdrop that the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) invited the Association of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine to Toronto to start a dialogue. And there was palpable tension in the room when he took the podium before a crowd of about 320 at a luncheon on Toronto’s Bay Street in mid-October.

Fontaine didn’t disappoint. He started with a walk through history, outlining federal policies relating to First Nations people enacted during the late-19th century Yukon Gold Rush.

“The Indian Act — Canada’s apartheid legislation — was implemented two years before Yukon gold was discovered and we are still trying to get rid of it,” Fontaine explained. “An even more disastrous policy was the residential school policy. While non-First Nation people were rushing to the goldfields of their dreams, Indian children were being ripped away from their families and communities and herded into residential schools by the thousands.”

He added: “It will take at least another generation or two before the repercussions of that policy are finally laid to rest.”

“With few exceptions, native people do not figure prominently in written accounts of the Klondike Gold Rush. As a race of self-sufficient people, however, it was their undoing as tens of thousands of ‘civilized’ people suddenly invaded their traditional homeland. Because of their greed for gold, the whites imposed their laws and languages, their religions and social customs,” Fontaine said.

Some in attendance shifted awkwardly in their seats.

“As national chief, I have an obligation — indeed, a mission — to ensure that travesties like Indian residential schools or the Yukon Gold Rush can never happen to our people again. This requires empowering First Nations to break the chains of dependency and despair; empowering them to revitalize our languages and cultures; empowering them to participate and prosper in the Canadian economy; and empowering them to be proud once again of what it means to be an Indian. Part of the secret to success will be collaboration and co-operation with like-minded partners in industry, government and civil society.”

About 10 years, ago a Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples said “transforming aboriginal economies from dependence to self-reliance will not be easy. The greatest boost for most Nations will come from access to a fair share of lands and resources. Lack of access to land and resources is still the single, greatest impediment to achieving self-sufficiency.”

Over the last few months, the AFN has been co-drafting legislation with the federal government that is designed to speed up the resolution of specific land claims. But, Fontaine said, First Nations are still getting mixed messages.

“Just a few weeks ago, the Canadian government was one of only four countries in the world to vote against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Fontaine said. “It leaves us more than a little perplexed about Canada’s commitment to our human rights and equal citizenship.”

Fontaine then began to outline principle guidelines for working with First Nations.

“The first principle of collaboration with First Nations is respect for, and protection of, our cultures and values. Development which substitutes economic impoverishment for cultural impoverishment is a non-starter,” he said. “The second principle is respect for our rights to our lands and resources. Our inherent aboriginal and treaty rights are recognized and affirmed in Canada’s Constitution and they have been repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court. The third principle of collaboration is meaningful consultation with the local First Nations from the very beginning of a development project.

“In resource development, First Nations and the mining community are natural partners. There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to work together to create mutually beneficial projects,” Fontaine reasoned.

“A recent example of where things haven’t gone well is in northern B.C.,” he said. “You may be aware that last month, Northgate Minerals had to abandon its proposed three-billion-dollar Kemess mine operation in northern B.C. because it had failed to consult with affected First Nations about plans to pollute a lake with cast off tailings. I have heard that Northgate investors have since posted racist comments on the Internet about dealing with First Nations. This is unacceptable.”

A discussion paper published by the PDAC addressed the benefits of resource sharing with First Nations. “Sharing of the public revenues would increase the political stability and economic predictability that support long-term investment,” the paper said.

Fontaine said his people need $1.3 billion from the federal government in the next budget to address current shortfalls in education and skills development. He asked miners to support the idea.

“You need well-trained local people. We need the jobs,” Fontaine explained. “The First Nations population is a huge untapped resource right now. In the years to come, as our population continues to grow faster than any other group in the country, it will be a major part of Canada’s workforce.”

Fontaine noted that some mining companies have contributed to the prosperity of First Nations. In 1999, he said, Diavik Diamond Mines signed socioeconomic agreements with five First Nations communities in the Northwest Territories. More recently, Virginia Gold Mines and First Nations company Cree Gold Exploration started exploring for gold and base metal deposits in northern Quebec. And in northern B.C., NovaGold Resources and the Tahltan First Nation are working together at Donlin Creek.

Other First Nations are getting involved at the grassroots level. In northern Ontario, for instance, the Kasabonika Lake First Nation has created its own Prospectors Alliance.

“I can assure you that First Nations people are not anti-development. Our people want exactly what you want: healthy children and grandchildren with a good future, who will have a chance to share in the benefits and prosperity of this abundant land,” Fontaine said.

His talk touched on the environment, too.

“Everybody is finally accepting that global warming and serious environmental degradation must be addressed. First Nations stand for responsible development. Anti-pollution measures, tax incentives, and cultural impacts — all must be taken into account, and require the co-operation of all the stakeholders involved,” Fontaine said. “The bottom line is that good economic development must support human development — it has to work for people.”

Looking to the future, Fontaine waxed philosophical.

“Breaking with the past takes a leap of faith. It takes
courage, and it takes imagination. Imagine with me, the Attawapiskat example, replicated hundreds of times over, in partnership with corporate Canada; Imagine with me, the enhanced reputation mining companies and other corporate ventures will enjoy in the financial community, in government and with First Nations when they commit to sustainable community development; imagine with me, our First Nations youth fully employed in local resource and information industries with improved education and skill levels.”