Thank you, sir, and thank you, gentlemen, for allowing Nishnawbe Aski Nation to be represented here and to make a presentation.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation is a provincial territorial first nation organization that has a membership of 49 first nations in northern Ontario, which represents about two-thirds of the land mass, the height of land being the southern border from Quebec over to Manitoba. This also includes several tribal councils, seven in total, which includes the Matawa First Nations that my friend here has represented.
My presentation consists of two items.
First, we emailed a document called “Key Considerations for Resource Development in NAN Territory”, focusing on mining. That is a discussion paper. From that paper I've prepared a slide deck, which I'm going to refer to.
The Ring of Fire has the potential to become the major significant mineral development in northern Ontario, which will have huge economic impacts across the province, particularly on the surrounding NAN first nation communities. It will provide unique opportunities for first nations to plan for sustainable economic development in several broad areas: workforce training, land use planning, service and manufacturing industries, business partnerships, and equity participation, including regional and community infrastructure development.
There is a regulatory framework currently in place, and Ring of Fire development will provide a key test on existing provincial policy under the following legislation that is currently in place or in development: first of all, the Ontario Mining Act, which will attempt to regulate the exploration activities along the mining sequence directly proportional to the crown's duty to consult and accommodate; the Green Energy Act, which promised more enabling mechanisms to allow first nations participation and partnership in both generation and transmission development; and the Far North Act, whose goals are to protect 225,000 square kilometres of our homelands through community-based land use plans under the Ministry of Natural Resources rules.
How will these acts effectively benefit NAN first nations during these major resource developments?
Opportunities in the Ring of Fire can bring immense benefits and wealth to NAN first nation communities, which could supply the workforce to close the growing labour gap in Canada and specifically in northern Ontario. It is estimated that the mining sector alone will require up to 100,000 workers during the next decade in northern Canada. With the proper education and training, our growing first nation population of youth will be northern Ontario's future workforce. This demographic trend will, in itself, make NAN first nations a major force and player in the future economy of northern Ontario.
With regard to the proposed infrastructure, there are two key infrastructure requirements that are being considered by the mining proponents within the Ring of Fire developments. In terms of transportation requirements, KWG Resources is undertaking a geotechnical study for a potential north-south railway corridor from its mineral claim south to the Canadian National railroad near Nakina; in its technical report for the Eagle's Nest nickel deposit, Noront Resources proposes an east-west all-weather corridor from its site to Pickle Lake, Ontario; and Cliffs Natural Resources is also proposing a north-south all-weather road corridor from its mine site to Nakina.
The energy requirements are as follows: Noront Resources will require approximately 25 megawatts for its concentrator and mine at its site, and will require transportation of its nickel concentrate to existing processing facilities; Cliffs Natural Resources will require 300 megawatts to operate its mine and concentrator at its site, and another 300 megawatts for a ferrochrome processing at a site near Capreol, north of Sudbury.
All of these infrastructure requirements will present unlimited business opportunities for NAN First Nation business owners and potential partners. I would like to add here that from our past conferences, I know it is the desire of our first nations to take ownership of the infrastructure requirements in terms of transportation, energy, and other local and regional infrastructure.
I will next address community Infrastructure. In the past, we have seen mining companies simply bypass our communities after they've extracted all the wealth. The Ring of Fire creates a tremendous opportunity whereby the mining corporations can also support investment for community infrastructure in first nations through partnership agreements and/or impact benefit agreements. Such investment precedents have already been established with aboriginal organizations and communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
As an example, BHP Billiton’s community partnership program provides financial and in-kind contributions for community infrastructure initiatives. Rio Tinto has also funded infrastructure upgrades in remote communities, including construction of a new community centre at the Tlicho community of Weweti and new arenas in the Inuit community of Kugluktuk and the Treaty 8 community of Lutsel K’e. Since the Department of Indian Affairs' major capital budgets are in decline, in future NAN first nations may negotiate these infrastructure needs through agreements with mining companies operating within the Ring of Fire such as KWG, Noront, Cliffs, and others.
Of course you've heard the Matawa First Nations' reaction to the proposed Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s initiation of the comprehensive study. They have consistently called for a joint review panel EA process, as per their resolution passed in May 2011. A joint review panel EA would allow for first nation nominees on the panel as well as comprehensive public hearings and information centres in the impacted NAN first nation communities.
NAN supports Matawa First Nations' actions and requests for the joint review panel. We note that first nations in British Columbia are currently participating fully in the EA hearing process of the Northern Gateway pipeline hearings.
Why is that different? Why is that not happening here in Ontario in terms of the required panel review hearings, which should allow all our first nation members in each community to be aware of the impacts and to have participation and input into those issues that concern them?
The next slide refers to community relations and benefits. I'm not going to go into this aspect, but it refers to establishing working relationships between mining companies and first nations early during the mining sequence. I believe that hasn't been happening. It is expected that such relationships would promote additional benefits in terms of employment, traditional ecological knowledge, education, skills training, etc. including financial cash compensation.
NAN's major concern is the development of a negotiation framework. We have experienced a situation involving De Beers' Victor Mine project in northern Ontario near the first nation of Attawapiskat. That development did not benefit the first nations along the James Bay coast. As an example, the Province of Ontario, through its royalty structures, claims between 6% and 13% of the gross profits over the life cycle of the mine; however, the first nations, through the individual impact benefits agreements, have received less than 1% of the net profits after all expenses were deducted.
Consequently, we would like to promote a negotiations framework that will result in maximizing benefits for NAN first nations so that we avoid another Attawapiskat, another De Beers project. A unified regional negotiation process among a group of first nations will allow us to exact more leverage, benefits, and environmental protection measures than several individual agreements.
It is understandable that an individual first nation, or two or three first nations, may enter into memorandums of understanding or memorandums of intent for early exploration or for actual full exploration activities of the mining sequence. However, with a large-scale mining project, it would be desirable to collectively negotiate regional participation agreements among impacted NAN first nations.
There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, the principle of sharing our lands and resources was the key element agreed to by our forefathers that led to the signings of Treaty 9 and Treaty 5. The Nishnawbe Aski Nation has a responsibility to protect the treaty and aboriginal rights of not only the Matawa First Nations but also of the rest of the NAN first nations as a whole, as they will be impacted.
Why was Ontario the only signatory to Treaty 9, the only provincial signatory of all the treaties in Canada? There is only one reason: the lands and resources. We see that time and time again.