Foreword
The genesis of Protest and Partnership: Case Studies of Indigenous Communities, Consultation and Engagement, and Resource Development in Canada was a workshop in December 2014 and a conference in November 2016, both hosted by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
The workshop brought together nine Canadian academics with expertise in community-based research, natural resource development, and its effects on Indigenous communities. The purpose of the workshop was to identify potential case studies of successes and failures in consultation and engagement processes for further exploration and research and eventual publication as independent articles. An informal collaboration followed, with the School of Public Policy providing small funding support to engage research assistants for participants pursuing the case studies as independent research projects.
The purpose of the conference was “to share knowledge and stories about policy issues critical to Indigenous Peoples in Canada,”1 including preliminary results from the case studies. The conference included a keynote address by Chief Jim Boucher of Fort McKay First Nation on the story of the Nation’s economic successes; a panel on business and entrepreneurship in Indigenous communities; a panel with case studies of Indigenous communities’ experience with resource development; and a panel on improving consultation and engagement processes.
Several of the book contributors—Boyd, McMillan, Rodon, and Slowey—presented work in progress at the conference, and we felt pursuing a book to share the experiences of Indigenous communities with consultation, engagement, and resource development, based on contributors’ pre-existing research relationships would be valuable. We felt a collection of case studies, in a book where we could contrast different types of resource development activities where Indigenous Peoples had a variety of critical roles ranging from partners to protestors, would be more powerful than individual articles. Following the conference, Boyd and Winter began the process of developing a book prospectus and securing additional contributions.
The chapter contributors had pre-existing relationships with Indigenous communities, and case study topics were chosen with these in mind. We targeted breadth in Canadian jurisdiction and resource development activities to highlight differences in provincial and territorial Crown-Indigenous relations and show how the type of resource extraction may influence protest or partnership. Our focus is to understand the mechanisms and processes for successful and mutually beneficial resource governance relationships, and to assess what factors contribute to Indigenous Peoples’ protest and legal challenge of resource projects. Where possible, we include Indigenous voices. For example, chapter 4 is written with Indigenous community members, and chapter 6 was written at the request of Meadow Lake First Nation.
We hope that these case studies offer important insights into the role of Indigenous Peoples in resource development in Canada—an issue of critical importance to Indigenous Peoples, governments in Canada, and all Canadians.
Note
1 S. Lorefice, B. Boyd and Gaétan Caron. 2017. “Indigenous Policy Conference Summary Report: Beyond Reconciliation.” The School of Public Policy Publications 10, SPP Summary Paper. https://doi.org/10.11575/sppp.v10i0.43131.