BC Minister Rustad encourages industry, First Nations to ‘build relationships’

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation John Rustad said at this year’s Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver that the provincial government is working with First Nation groups to better define their participation in resource development in the province.

“Our constitution has a clause in it that says Aboriginal Peoples have rights, including title to the land,” Rustad said. “But it didn’t define what that means exactly. So over the years, courts have been coming down with some rulings and have given some definition to what this means.”

He referenced the precedent-setting Tsilhqot’in decision in June 2014, when the Supreme Court of Canada awarded primary control of nearly 1,900 sq. km of the land base in south-central B.C. to the small Tsilhqot’in First Nation, based on their continuous, semi-nomadic use of the land over many centuries.

Since then, Rustad says the B.C. government has worked diligently towards understanding how to “bring life to the title area,” adding that “for the past 18 months, we’ve worked with them on how we do things as simple as building roads, and who is responsible for those things. We’re working on that, but we’re also taking it a step further for the rest of the Tsilhqot’in Nation at how that relationship looks like going forward … and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to build an agreement with them in the near future to help them lay out that foundation.”

Rustad said that the B.C. government has signed 125 economic agreements with First Nation groups since the Supreme Court ruling, and are working on innovative ways to support activity and provide certainty for the industry.

The mining sector across Canada employs more Aboriginal Peoples than any other sector, he noted, and it provides “significant opportunity for First Nations to change some of the conditions for its people.”

He mentioned that the B.C. government has committed up to $30 million over the next three years towards job training for Aboriginals.

“We’ve developed 18 or 21 of these projects that will be out in the land base … one of the first that we’ve funded in partnership with the industry is in the Prince Rupert area called ‘Pathways to Success,’” he said. “About 115 people entered into the program, and it’s the first batch of people towards what we anticipate will become 1,000 people trained over the next year.”

He estimates that over $3.5 million in total income has already been generated from the 115 participants who have since entered the workforce. 

“These aren’t minimum wage jobs — they’re jobs that create good skills, good development and it’s really been able to change their lives, and help build what the First Nations are hoping to build for their communities.

“As we go forward we’ll be innovative with our approach … because if we want to see a successful mining industry and development on the land base, we need to find ways to close the socio-economic gap that First Nations have, and find means to make sure that as new resources arise, we can truly deliver the benefits to all British Columbians — Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike.”

Rustad added that there are challenges to manage First Nations’ expectations in dealing with explorers, who are already cash-strapped.

“Our hope is to build the relationships, and it will eventually become less of an issue … there’s certainly more work left to be done,” he said.

Rustad encourages all companies to “reach out and build a relationship” with First Nations in the regions they operate in.

“There’s a history of challenges and issues that First Nations have experienced that haven’t been positive, dating back 100 years or so,” he said. “To come in right off the bat, it’s important to build trust, and that will create a positive dialogue for what you need to do to advance your project to its full potential.”