that cost billions to build, it's a small
price to pay upfront for project certainty
and long-term peace in the community.
"It cannot be overstated how
important it is for resource companies
to engage early and often," says Pepita
McKee, founder of Impact Resolutions,
a Vancouver consulting •rm special-
izing in community and stakeholder
engagement. McKee advises corpora-
tions to consider a series of commu-
nity engagement exercises "to better
inform them of the concerns, issues
and expectations of First Nations."
They must also be patient, accord-
ing to Beaton. "Part of the approach
that I've seen that does not work is the
backdoor deals, including taking lead-
ers away from their territory to places
like Vancouver to have meetings," he
says. "I've seen projects where those
bills can be racked up very quickly—the
ˆights, the hotels, the consulting, the
pressure to sign now. But a lot of times
First Nations leaders are not willing to
sign now. So those processes tend to be
drawn out over a number of years, and
the costs add up."
Even if companies like Kinder
Morgan Canada convince First Nations
leaders to sign agreements, if those
leaders didn't include their members
in the decision-making process, the
result can be a legacy of conˆict and
bad blood—as in Peters. "The band had
an opportunity to engage the commu-
nity members, and they failed miser-
ably," member Samantha Peters says.
"We're so fractured down here that you
can't really get all of us into one meet-
ing room. People will call the cops on
each other. It's that bad."
Fellow band member Andrew
Genaille has some advice for Kinder
Morgan and any other company want-
ing to cut deals with First Nations.
"What they have to realize about First
Nations reserves is…there's one family
in power, and then everyone else has
no say in what's going on," he warns.
"What they should do if they really
want to make sure that they have
informed consent when the vote hap-
pens, is they need to identify the indi-
viduals that don't have a say and sit
down with them.
"But that's up to them," Genaille
says.
BCBUSINESS.CA JULY/AUGUST 2017 BCBUSINESS 67
CFAsociety.org/vancouver
JUST THREE
LETTERS CAN
MAKE A REAL
DIFFERENCE.
©
2017
CFA
Institute.
All
rights
reserved.
CFA Vancouver Ad.indd 1 6/7/17 2:08 PM
www.eclipseawards.com | 614 Alexander St. Vancouver, BC
RECOGNIZE.
EMPOWER.
REPEAT.
Celebrate special people
and important milestones
in your company.
Beautifully handcrafted
plaques and awards.
Made in Vancouver and
personalized for you
within 10 days.
