Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can tell you that the trend out there is that communities, with the province and probably with the territories—I'm not familiar with the territories and how they work—have co-planning, co-management, and probably shared decision-making.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we do well is community engagement and partnerships—we really do—but the final decision at the end of the day is with the crown. We enable things, and even when we submit our project description, go through the environmental assessment and all the mitigation tables, and actually show either impact project agreements, at the end of the day, it's still the crown that approves the project.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  All we can say is that we're leaders on community engagement and negotiations, but it's built on relationships. Relationship building and engagement are what build the foundation for project success. We and other industry associations try to gather their insights and best practices, and offer guidance to their members.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The track record of PDAC members actually proves that some form of FPIC or consensus-making is what we do well with communities. Again, it's based on relationships, creating the relationship with communities, understanding their interests, understanding their needs and aspirations, and understanding how a particular project can assist in that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a good question. We live with divided constitutional powers and so I think part of the deep collaboration that allowed that was your province and the federal government and your people. You probably need that deep collaboration, and deep alignment and deep consensus in areas across Canada as well.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the practice of our members—the majority of our members—is in the spirit and the intent of this bill. I think the federal government's NRCan website actually tracks all the different agreements across Canada, and we're 500-plus to date. The only challenge I see in the future, not particularly with this bill, is the clarity around the implementation, and that's for any legislative project that the federal government implements.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Every project is different. It's project-specific, community-specific, site-specific. There's a balance of interests for each of those projects and agreements. How that turns out is a process of dialogue, relationship building, as well as implementation. It doesn't just stop when everybody signs the deal.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch. Wachay. Good afternoon, Chair and committee members. I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the territory of the Algonquin Nation. My name is Michael Fox. I'm from the Mushkegowuk Territory, from a community called Weenusk First Nation on Hudson Bay coast. I'm also an elected board member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, PDAC.

Natural Resources committee  Every industry is a bundle of disciplines. Mining is one of them, as well as geology, geophysics, environmental science, and mining engineering. You have to pick one stream of activities. In this case, I mention the environmental assessment, which has biophysical disciplines. In the example I gave, with the $27,000 in what was then called a comprehensive environmental assessment, there were three phases.

Natural Resources committee  From the PDAC's perspective, we encourage our members to engage early and often and effectively with aboriginal peoples and to respect their protected constitutional rights, and we urge governments to fulfill their obligations towards aboriginal people in Canada. That's easy to say, and I think you're correct.

Natural Resources committee  I think there is a trend of companies looking beyond project agreements. I think the end goal is to improve the quality of life of aboriginal communities. There are different ways of doing that than just straight-up project direct agreements for jobs or contracts or even royalties.

Natural Resources committee  In recent decades, the nexus between companies and aboriginal communities has transformed and continues to evolve, as relationships have been built and aboriginal communities have a more active role in mineral development. These changes were accelerated by legal, political, and social shifts, including the inclusion and protection of aboriginal rights in Canada's Constitution and subsequent aboriginal rights jurisprudence, more socially minded industry actors, formalized relationships through company-community agreements, and strengthened capacity of aboriginal communities to participate in project development and the mineral sector at large.