Innovative partnerships, joint ventures seen as the oil industry's future

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Native and business leaders held a conference in April to open lines of communication between the two groups. It's been a long time coming but there are some big changes in the works for resource development.

The Focusing our Resources conference in Calgary united 450 people, both from bands across the country and from oil and gas companies hoping to make some money on Canada's 2,200 reserves. There's a lot of money to be made.

Exploration and production has become big business, especially in Canada's North. In 1994 alone, 123 wells were drilled on First Nations lands and they produced over $60 million in oil and gas royalties. That's a 22-per-cent increase over 1993.

It's happening because the U.S. is looking for more and more gas, and higher oil prices are making drilling attractive. But, more importantly, Indian bands are looking to resource development to turn around stagnant and poor economies.

"It's exciting," says Joe Dion of the Canadian Indian Energy Corporation. He believes that a new era of communication and co-operation is here.

Poor communication and battles over land control have always been stumbling blocks. The oil companies and the government negotiated the deals, but no one talked to the bands.

"We showed up and said: 'We're here to drill the well, do you have any questions?'" said Dave Newman of Amoco Canada, a company involved in exploration and production on 20 reserves in western Alberta and northeastern B.C.

But times are changing. The conference stressed the need for better relationships between corporate Canada and the First Nations, not just in the areas of oil and gas, but in mining and forestry, too.

Calgary's Tsuu T'ina band has been in the oil business since 1952. But Chief Roy Whitney says the band has actually been in the royalties business. And it's time for the Tsuu T'ina to have a greater role in getting the oil out of the ground.

"In my opinion, partnership is not just about paying and receiving royalties," Whitney says. "Partnership is not just about employment. Partnership is seeing us in a new way. Partnership is about knowing us in a new way." That means an attitude adjustment on both sides.

"It's time to look at them as potential partners rather than looking to them as being at fault for our socio-economic conditions or as adversaries," says Whitney.

"We've had to defeat the stereotype that we are drunken, lazy Indians," says Harold Cardinal, a Native leader considered a pioneer in building relationships with industry. He says that old beliefs must be set aside.

"We can become business warriors, legal warriors," he says. "Indians are proving themselves, that they can meet the challenge of the industrial community."

There's been an attitude adjustment involving the government as well. New regulations introduced in January make it for the federal government and industry to consult bands before they start drilling or cutting down trees.

"It's significant," says Dion. Many people in the oil business, both Native and Non-Native, say there is far too much government involvement.

"We were assuming that the government represented the interests of Native people and that wasn't always the case," says Amoco's Dave Newman. Now, industry and bands are making their own deals and then going to the government for final approval.

Land ?claims settlements and self-government agreements have also given bands across the country more of a say in what happens on their reserves.

"The new era is the recognition that a very large part of lands are returning to management by Native people. That's the real breakthrough," says Bob Blair, Chairman Emeritus of Nova Corporation. Ultimately, Native leaders are hoping that the only governments making decisions on reserves are the band councils. There is even talk of eventually eliminating the need for both crown and corporate help.

The White Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan has just started a pilot project to design and implement its onoil and gas program. It has opened its own oil company and entered into a joint venture with Tri Link Resources of Calgary to drill 20 new wells. Under the deal, White Bear can outline how many Native jobs must be created and negotiate the royalties it will receive. It's never been done before, and is a dramatic change from the days when Indians got royalties and little else.