While Stephen is very diplomatic to a point about the AFN many of my First Nations friends and colleagues have told me for years that it is not representative of Canada's First Nations and not run democratically. As such some pause should be given on who we listen to and consult with.
The IOGC and the Indian Act control only a fraction of the provincial issues with First Nations as it only is relevant on reserve lands as I remember. Some reserves did very well for themselves if reserves were found on the lands and others were left with much less. Also some bands managed the royalties well and others not so much. In the end though, for the oil companies these were very manageable relationships: they were only dealing with one band at a time and the structure of oil and gas tenure was known before leases were obtained.
The issues around First Nations traditional lands were quite a bit more complicated. All the law around this evolved after oil companies had invested in exploration and development out of control of the provinces. Having dealt with the Alberta regulatory structures, the evolving reconciliation agenda seems to be a chaotic affair. The federal government has been in command of string of regulatory failures, of which reconciliation is only one. I point out that the Hibernia oil discovery of Newfoundland sat for almost a decade while the province and the federal government dickered about royalties and that delays with the Beaufort Sea finds were never developed because the regulatory delays resulted in shale gas eclipsing the find.
The issue behind the pipeline debacle is a lack of definition of First Nation rights against landowners, provincial timber, mineral and other rights. This has been a scope creep from simple consultation, to "deep" consultation, to prior consent. BC is currently dealing with the issues around the implementation of UNDRIP. Add to this centuries old treaties which never conceived of Canada as we know it and a string of more recent agreements and you have a regulatory Gordion Knot.
While Stephen is very diplomatic to a point about the AFN many of my First Nations friends and colleagues have told me for years that it is not representative of Canada's First Nations and not run democratically. As such some pause should be given on who we listen to and consult with.
Good episode Rob.
The IOGC and the Indian Act control only a fraction of the provincial issues with First Nations as it only is relevant on reserve lands as I remember. Some reserves did very well for themselves if reserves were found on the lands and others were left with much less. Also some bands managed the royalties well and others not so much. In the end though, for the oil companies these were very manageable relationships: they were only dealing with one band at a time and the structure of oil and gas tenure was known before leases were obtained.
The issues around First Nations traditional lands were quite a bit more complicated. All the law around this evolved after oil companies had invested in exploration and development out of control of the provinces. Having dealt with the Alberta regulatory structures, the evolving reconciliation agenda seems to be a chaotic affair. The federal government has been in command of string of regulatory failures, of which reconciliation is only one. I point out that the Hibernia oil discovery of Newfoundland sat for almost a decade while the province and the federal government dickered about royalties and that delays with the Beaufort Sea finds were never developed because the regulatory delays resulted in shale gas eclipsing the find.
The issue behind the pipeline debacle is a lack of definition of First Nation rights against landowners, provincial timber, mineral and other rights. This has been a scope creep from simple consultation, to "deep" consultation, to prior consent. BC is currently dealing with the issues around the implementation of UNDRIP. Add to this centuries old treaties which never conceived of Canada as we know it and a string of more recent agreements and you have a regulatory Gordion Knot.
This episode gets a positive checkmark.