Posts by Yvonne

Minerals North, a non-profit association that hosts the annual Minerals North Conference, asked us to participate at the 2016 conference in a panel discussion entitled: Working Together and Moving Forward Post Tsilhqot’in. Held in Smithers, British Columbia on May 18 – 20, 2016, the conference included representatives from the provincial and federal governments, First Nations and the mining industry.…

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion Project (the “Project”) received National Energy Board (the “NEB”) approval on May 19, 2016. Pursuant to its responsibilities under s. 52 of the National Energy Board Act (the “Act”), the NEB issued a 553-page report detailing its belief that the Project is in the public interest and recommending that the…

On May 17, 2016, the federal government announced the appointment of Kim Baird, Annette Trimbee and Tony Penikett to a ministerial panel mandated to collect input from stakeholders, with a focus on Indigenous groups, on the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project. Terms of reference for the panel include: review and consider input from the public via…

Emerging and Lost Opportunities The role of Aboriginal people in the Canadian economy is coming full circle. From time immemorial, vibrant Aboriginal economies supported a strong trade network throughout North America. In fact, the Fraser River was a major trade corridor. This changed with the arrival of Europeans: fur economies centralized trade and communities around…

On Tuesday May 10, 2016, Canadian Indigenous Affairs Minister, Carolyn Bennett, announced that the Government of Canada would remove its permanent objector status to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). UNDRIP Background UNDRIP was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, after almost 25 years of negotiations between 148…