Abstract
Canada currently faces the challenge of implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, while also managing the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This shift will require massive new mineral extraction projects in ways that will continue to impact both the Global North and the South. The provincial government of British Columbia and the Canadian federal government have ostensibly committed to the current era of “reconciliation.” Despite this, conflicts over Indigenous jurisdiction and resource development persist in the fossil fuel (i.e. Trans Mountain, Coastal Gas Link) and renewable energy sectors (i.e. Site C dam). Extractive bargains occur at local, national, and global scales. With respect to ongoing fossil fuel extraction in Canada, Indigenous peoples and territories have often been sacrificed in favour of the “national interest.” Myriad factors—legal, political, economic—have led to greater Indigenous involvement in mainstream resource extraction projects via revenue-sharing and impact benefit agreements. We argue that these extractive bargains have been largely Faustian in nature. At the heart of the problem is an ongoing denial of self-determination and Indigenous nations’ (in)ability to exercise true free, prior, and informed consent with respect to development projects, fossil fuel or renewable.
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Notes
- 1.
Comprehensive claims agreements (CCAs—colloquially known as “modern day treaties”) grew out of the 1975 federal comprehensive claims policy, which followed the 1973 Calder decision, where the Supreme Court of Canada was split on the existence and nature of Aboriginal Title regarding a land claim initiated by Nisga’a chief Frank Calder. CCAs are not treaties under international law, while many argue that “historic” treaties are.
- 2.
We normally use “Indigenous peoples” or specific names of Indigenous communities, but we use the somewhat archaic terms “Indian” and “Aboriginal” when referring to specific legal or legislative terms.
- 3.
For a deeper examination of Canada’s risk mitigation as a part of this conversation, see Pasternak and Dafnos (2018).
- 4.
These private contracts may be called by a variety of different names including mutual benefit agreements, participation agreements, and community benefit agreements, but all typically share a similar purpose.
- 5.
The Elected Band Council system is a system of governance created by the state through the Indian Act to replace traditional governing systems within Indigenous communities. The creation and maintenance of this system have ignited division and contestation within communities surrounding who has authority to speak on behalf of a community.
- 6.
See Reasons for Ministers Decision-Coastal Gaslink Pipeline Project, Oct. 23, 2014.
- 7.
For more on this police unit known as CIRG—Community Industry Response Group, see Forester (2022).
- 8.
See Peace River Agreement as an example.
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Atleo, C.G., Boron, J.M. (2023). Extractive Settler Colonialism: Navigating Extractive Bargains on Indigenous Territories in Canada. In: Bowles, P., Andrews, N. (eds) Extractive Bargains. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32172-6_5
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