AFN works with Prospectors and Developers Association for First Nation economic opportunities
AFN Press Release
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) join forces to work on improving First Nations economies with signing of Memorandum of Understanding at PDAC Convention
OTTAWA, March 4 /CNW Telbec/ - AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine and Patricia Dillon, President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today at the PDAC annual convention in Toronto for the purposes of working together to improve the lives and local economies of First Nations.
This historic initiative comes after a very well-received keynote address to the PDAC by the National Chief last October. The AFN and the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) also signed a Letter of Intent last November to work towards a Memorandum of Understanding in the AFN Corporate Challenge.
"In resource development, First Nations and the mining community are natural partners," said National Chief Fontaine. "Developing a new partnership between the AFN and PDAC will complement and enhance the growing relationships between First Nations and Canada's major mining companies."
Patricia Dillon, President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, stated: "The deliberations and discussions leading up to the signing of this MOU have been undertaken with much goodwill on both sides. This historic document formalizes a relationship that has been flourishing for some time and lays a framework for the mineral industry to work cooperatively with First Nations and aboriginal communities."
The AFN Corporate Challenge program creates partnerships with corporate Canada to increase investments, procurement and employment opportunities for First Nations.
"The resource sector is booming in Canada and First Nations will be key players in the years and decades to come," added the National Chief. "We want to work together towards greater certainty and sustainable mining developments that will contribute significantly to the economic, social and environmental well-being of First Nations."
The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.
-30-
/For further information: Media contact: Bryan Hendry, AFN Economic Development, Cell: (613) 293-6106, bhendry@afn.ca; Philip Bousquet, Director, Sustainability, PDAC, (647) 338-5667/
++++++++
Editorial - Mining one solid deal
Posted March 5, 2008
If federal and provincial governments showed the same commitment and determination to work with Canada's First Nations people as the country's mineral prospectors have shown, there would be far less confrontation.
On Tuesday, Canada's First Nations and the country's mineral prospectors signed a memorandum of understanding committing both sides to greater co-operation and mutual understanding.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine took part in a traditional pipe-smoking ceremony with leaders at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, who are holding a huge gathering in Toronto.
Fontaine and Prospectors and Developers Association director Patricia Dillon signed the document aimed at ensuring future mining development works for both Aboriginals and industry.
"It's really a commitment on the part of the corporate sector to focus its efforts to ensure that we are able to participate in a significant way in whatever development that the corporate sector represents," Fontaine told a horde of national reporters in Toronto. "This is a good basis for the work that we want to do with various business interests."
The progressive memorandum deals with such issues as ensuring First Nation people will get access to good jobs when mines open on or near land owned by First Nation people, training and ensuring Aboriginal suppliers of goods and services will get equal consideration in competing for contracts at mine sites.
Dillon called the memorandum "a demonstration of trust" and she insisted the association she represents fully intends to improve and enhance relations with First Nations across Canada.
Mining prospectors and developers often have to work near First Nation land and it's important for the association and its members to fully respect First Nations people and understand their practices and beliefs, Dillon said.
For far too many years, major mining companies in Canada would locate major deposits on traditional First Nation territory and spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing various mine sites. But the benefits to the local First Nation communities were often insufficient in terms of guaranteeing jobs to Aboriginals and ensuring local companies would get a fair opportunity to compete for lucrative contracts while the mine sites were being developed and once they were operational.
Whenever a large new mine site opens anywhere in Canada, the impact on the land, lakes and local economy most often last for decades.
When that mine site is on or adjacent to First Nation land, the concerns of local residents and their leadership should always be paramount. That has simply not been the case in Canada for far too long.
If a powerful organization like the Prospectors and Developers Associaton of Canada can make a heartfelt commitment to working with First Nations people, then so can our provincial and federal government and the big bosses in the suits and ties who run these huge and powerful mining companies.
The mining industry in Canada has never been more successful than it is right now. The spirit of co-operation shown by Tuesday's agreement will hopefully begin a new positive chapter for the mining industry in Canada.