INDUSTRY-INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: A TREND TOWARD DEEPER ENGAGEMENT

Energy Council of Canada

Published

4 years ago

9 minute read

INDUSTRY-INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: A TREND TOWARD DEEPER ENGAGEMENT

The Canadian oil and natural gas industry has a strong history of engagement with Indigenous peoples. Since its early initiatives, the petroleum sector has had many learnings and opportunities for growth with respect to its interactions with Indigenous communities. Consequently, these relationships have evolved towards ever-deepening forms of engagement including consultation and business partnerships. However, the nature of these relationships has been difficult to communicate with credibility; arrangements between companies and communities are often confidential, thus limiting the ability of industry to share positive stories of engagement.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), an association that represents Canada’s oil and natural gas producers, has utilized multiple surveys of its members in order to better understand the relationship between industry and Indigenous peoples. One of these surveys, known as the Telling Our Story survey, was commissioned by CAPP and conducted by Dr. Ken Coates of the University of Saskatchewan. Additionally, CAPP developed its own survey focused on procurement, community investment and consultation capacity funding in the oil sands. These surveys provide data that demonstrate the value producers place on building long-term, sustainable relationships with Indigenous communities. In particular, economic engagement is viewed as a primary opportunity to establish good relations and support Indigenous self- determination.

Survey Methodology

The purpose of the Telling Our Story survey was to collect information about the oil and natural gas industry’s efforts to engage Indigenous communities. Research was conducted by Dr. Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Coates used a comprehensive survey of industry representatives, in partnership with CAPP, plus CAPP’s member companies and partner associations including the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, and the Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors. A total of 122 companies participated in the study, representing a cross-section of the oil and natural gas industry in Canada. Data was collected in a confidential manner, anonymized and aggregated into a final report. The survey highlighted key themes related to industry’s engagement with Indigenous communities.

Consultation and Community Engagement

Companies within the oil and natural gas industry have developed long-term relationships with communities, and these relationships are multifaceted. Of course, a core aspect of relationship-building takes place through consultation processes. The trend toward consultation accelerated in 2004 with the Supreme Court of Canada decision on Haida Nation v. British Columbia, which determined the Crown has a duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous peoples when making a decision that could affect their constitutional rights. Procedural aspects of this duty can be delegated to industry, and now industry conducts the majority of project consultations. Survey respondents noted that today, companies are actively engaged in this process, seeking to ensure meaningful, two-way discussion in consultations. CAPP members indicated that they view these relationships formed through consultation as critically important to their business. Many companies have teams of staff dedicated to consulting and building relationships with communities, and funding is often provided to support community capacity to engage in consultations. A separate survey of CAPP’s oil sands members found that between 2015 and 2016, oil sands operators provided $40.79 million for consultation capacity funding to local Indigenous communities.

Associated with consultations are a variety of forms of engagement. CAPP’s members placed particular value on supporting various community activities, social and cultural priorities, and infrastructure needs. The aforementioned survey of oil sands members found that between 2015 and 2016 operators in the region spent $48.6 million on Indigenous community investment. According to companies, these focused investments positively impact relationships. Furthermore, there has been a trend toward the negotiation of long- term, collaborative agreements between project proponents and Indigenous communities in areas of operation that address community concerns and include clauses related to procurement, employment, community investment, dispute resolution, capacity funding and other topics of importance to the proponent and the community.

Economic Engagement

According to oil and natural gas producers, there is a strong emphasis on economic engagement as the priority in building relationships. In particular, procurement – the purchasing of goods and services from Indigenous businesses – presents a significant opportunity for mutual benefit. Both joint venture partnerships and preferential contracting arrangements with Indigenous-owned companies enable companies to build links and trust with communities. The focus on these arrangements is evidenced by substantial financial investment: in 2015 to 2016, oil sands producers spent $3.3 billion on procurement from 399 Indigenous owned- companies in 65 Alberta communities. While a sizable proportion of Indigenous businesses may be small or new, the data suggests their role in the sector will continue to increase.

This type of engagement allows Indigenous peoples to leverage their own expertise, build capacity, and ultimately establish pathways to prosperity. In this regard, industry can play an important role in supporting successful, self-determining communities. Although procurement was ranked most highly in terms of its benefit to the relationship between producers and communities, there are other forms of economic engagement; a number of companies have Indigenous recruitment strategies and support training programs intended to build the technical skillset of Indigenous employees and contractors.

Conclusion

The research commissioned by CAPP highlights the emphasis that oil and natural gas sector companies place on meaningful consultation, partnerships, and in particular, economic engagement. Industry has made strides in building deeper partnerships, and it is expected that the trend toward more meaningful engagement will continue. As an industry association, CAPP believes the oil and natural gas sector has an important role in tangibly advancing reconciliation together with Indigenous peoples in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 92. CAPP believes its role in reconciliation can be described as identifying and finding feasible ways to share economic opportunities arising from resource development, while continuing to learn, grow and improve strong relationships based on trust, respect, and open communication. Industry’s understanding will continue to develop, and the sector is open to further dialogue in order to inform its understanding of industry’s role in reconciliation.

Thanks to Todayville for helping us bring our members’ stories of collaboration and innovation to the public.

Click to read a foreward from JP Gladu, Chief Development and Relations Officer, Steel River Group; Former President and CEO, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

JP Gladu, Chief Development and Relations Officer, Steel River Group; Former President & CEO, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business

Click to read comments about this series from Jacob Irving, President of the Energy Council of Canada.

Jacob Irving, President of Energy Council of Canada

The Canadian Energy Compendium is an annual initiative by the Energy Council of Canada to provide an opportunity for cross-sectoral collaboration and discussion on current topics in Canada’s energy sector. The 2020 Canadian Energy Compendium: Innovations in Energy Efficiency is due to be released November 2020.

Click below to read more stories from Energy Council of Canada’s Compendium series.

Energy Council of Canada

www.energy.ca/

The Energy Council of Canada brings together a diverse body of members, including voices from all energy industries, associations, and levels of government within Canada. We foster dialogue, strategic thinking, collaboration, and action by bringing together senior energy executives from all industries in the public and private sectors to address national, continental, and international energy issues.

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INDUSTRY-INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: A TREND TOWARD DEEPER ENGAGEMENT

Alberta

Alberta takes big step towards shorter wait times and higher quality health care

Published on April 9, 2025

Todayville Content Team

From the Fraser Institute

By Nadeem Esmail

On Monday, the Smith government announced that beginning next year it will change the way it funds surgeries in Alberta. This is a big step towards unlocking the ability of Alberta’s health-care system to provide more, better and faster services for the same or possibly fewer dollars.

To understand the significance of this change, you must understand the consequences of the current (and outdated) approach.

Currently, the Alberta government pays a lump sum of money to hospitals each year. Consequently, hospitals perceive patients as a drain on their budgets. From the hospital’s perspective, there’s little financial incentive to serve more patients, operate more efficiently and provide superior quality services.

Consider what would happen if your local grocery store received a giant bag of money each year to feed people. The number of items would quickly decline to whatever was most convenient for the store to provide. (Have a favourite cereal? Too bad.) Store hours would become less convenient for customers, alongside a general decline in overall service. This type of grocery store, like an Alberta hospital, is actually financially better off (that is, it saves money) if you go elsewhere.

The Smith government plans to flip this entire system on its head, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. Instead of handing out bags of money each year to providers, the new system—known as “activity-based funding”—will pay health-care providers for each patient they treat, based on the patient’s particular condition and important factors that may add complexity or cost to their care.

This turns patients from a drain on budgets into a source of additional revenue. The result, as has been demonstrated in other universal health-care systems worldwide, is more services delivered using existing health-care infrastructure, lower wait times, improved quality of care, improved access to medical technologies, and less waste.

In other words, Albertans will receive far better value from their health-care system, which is currently among the most expensive in the world. And relief can’t come soon enough—for example, last year in Alberta the median wait time for orthopedic surgeries including hip and knee replacements was 66.8 weeks.

The naysayers argue this approach will undermine the province’s universal system and hurt patients. But by allowing a spectrum of providers to compete for the delivery of quality care, Alberta will follow the lead of other more successful universal health-care systems in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and create greater accountability for hospitals and other health-care providers. Taxpayers will get a much better picture of what they’re paying for and how much they pay.

Again, Alberta is not exploring an untested policy. Almost every other developed country with universal health care uses some form of “activity-based funding” for hospital and surgical care. And remember, we already spend more on health care than our counterparts in nearly all of these countries yet endure longer wait times and poorer access to services generally, in part because of how we pay for surgical care.

While the devil is always in the details, and while it’s still possible for the Alberta government to get this wrong, Monday’s announcement is a big step in the right direction. A funding model that puts patients first will get Albertans more of the high-quality health care they already pay for in a timelier fashion. And provide to other provinces an example of bold health-care reform.

Nadeem Esmail

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Alberta

Alberta’s embrace of activity-based funding is great news for patients

Published on April 9, 2025

Todayville

From the Montreal Economic Institute

Alberta’s move to fund acute care services through activity-based funding follows best practices internationally, points out an MEI researcher following an announcement made by Premier Danielle Smith earlier today.

“For too long, the way hospitals were funded in Alberta incentivized treating fewer patients, contributing to our long wait times,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI. “International experience has shown that, with the proper funding models in place, health systems become more efficient to the benefit of patients.”

Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.

Under the government’s newly proposed funding system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered.

An Economic Note published by the MEI last year showed that Quebec’s gradual adoption of activity-based funding led to higher productivity and lower costs in the province’s health system.

Notably, the province observed that the per-procedure cost of MRIs fell by four per cent as the number of procedures performed increased by 22 per cent.

In the radiology and oncology sector, it observed productivity increases of 26 per cent while procedure costs decreased by seven per cent.

“Being able to perform more surgeries, at lower costs, and within shorter timelines is exactly what Alberta’s patients need, and Premier Smith understands that,” continued Mrs. Wittevrongel. “Today’s announcement is a good first step, and we look forward to seeing a successful roll-out once appropriate funding levels per procedure are set.”

The governments expects to roll-out this new funding model for select procedures starting in 2026.

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.