As we quickly approach one-year of business and blogging at Shared Value Solutions, it seems like a good time to do some reflecting. Below are 5 of our favorite blogs from the past year, including our recommendation of the best audience for each. Thanks for reading and sharing with us.

1. For those who love environmental legislation (or a fashionable hair-do):

“Some Highlights (or Lowlights) of Recent Changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act” – this one is a favourite mostly because SVS partner, Scott Mackay, makes reference to hair dying in the title. Seriously though, this blog acts as a great quick and dirty reference guide of the CEAA changes from last year.

2. For those who wonder if “honest politician” is an oxymoron:

“Generate Trust Through Small Incremental Actions” – this article touches on lessons learned by SVS’s Don Richardson from then City of Toronto Councillor, later Mayor, David Miller, including his basic rule for community engagement: “If you say you are going to do something, do it and report back that you have done what you said you would do”.

3. For those interested in a) the Mining Act or b) the benefits of gathering and mapping Traditional Knowledge:  

“Get Upstream to Protect Culturally Significant Areas Through the New Mining Act” – Changes to Ontario’s Mining Act this year mean that Aboriginal communities now have the potential to get ahead of the staking and exploration permitting process to identify “no go” areas. We look at how. [BONUS: This blog has a companion piece, “Follow the Money, Follow e3 Plus: Ontario’s New Mining Act and Aboriginal Consultation“.]

4. For the kid in you:

“Kindergarten Supplies and Project Management” – from fruit scented markers, to sticky stuff for the walls, we share the contents of our standard brainstorming gear box and pass on 7 facilitation rules of thumb (with reference to Lyndsey Swinton’s blog). We’d love you to comment about your favourite and most interesting engagement techniques as well.

5. For those who want to Create Shared Value

“Let’s Get Real: 7 Critical Steps for Creating a Shared Value Strategy” – wondering where to start in creating shared value? this article breaks down the steps to creating a shared value strategy: 1) Pick an Issue, 2) Identify Business Activities, 3) Plan Your Resources, 4) Identify Desired Outcomes, 5) Implement the CSV Strategy, 6) Monitor and Measure Shared Value, and 7) Continue to Adjust the CSV Strategy as Needed (with reference to Michael Porter, et al).

View from the wooden covered bridge over the Speed River in Guelph, Ontario

By Don Richardson, Managing Partner, Shared Value Solutions Ltd.

Corporate visions and policies don’t have to be boring!!!  In business, we get to create the corporate culture, and we get to live it, every single day.  We can create bland, ugly, soul-destroying cubicle corporate culture or we can create remarkable, fun and authentic corporate culture.  Culture doesn’t happen – we create it.

In a recent Harvard Business Review blog post, John Coleman describes “Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture”: Vision, Values, Practices, People, Narrative, and Place. 

We’re in the midst of drafting our corporate vision and a series of supporting policies.  We’re actively creating our corporate culture.

After reading Coleman’s ideas, I thought it would be a good exercise to compare our emerging corporate culture to his six components of “great corporate culture“.  To do this, I draw on our current draft Corporate Vision Statement, crafted by Scott Mackay and Laura Taylor.  Scott and Laura have (wonderfully) managed to summarize our thoughts from a series of internal workshops and conversations, and the stories we tell to each other, our families, our friends and our clients.

1.  Vision.  A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement that orients every decision employees make. Coleman says that “when they are deeply authentic and prominently displayed, good vision statements can even help orient customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders”.  Our Mission Statement is: Have Fun – Make Money – Do Good – Do Good Work.  Our vision is in our name: We believe shared value is real.  In a few short months we have become a recognized leader in Canada for creating shared social, economic, and environmental value – resulting in our involvement in many of the most pivotal Ontario/Canadian development projects and issues of our time.  Our vision seems to have connected.

2. Values. Coleman believes that while a vision articulates a company’s purpose, “values offer a set of guidelines on the behaviours and mindsets needed to achieve that vision.” We believe we have a funky, flexible, unbounded corporate culture that generates a high level of performance, initiative, job satisfaction, creativity, and loyalty among a group of self-motivated and creative employees.  We share in the risks and rewards of our work by partnering or joint venturing with our clients or other parties to advance the interests of our clients, to create shared value, and to advance our own long-term interests in creating a stable, diverse revenue stream.   Central to our values is our client-centred approach – a continuous effort to see things from the client’s perspective, to understand their organizational and political universe and provide unparalleled responsiveness and flexibility to meet client needs.

3. Practices.  The day-to-day things we do and encourage can reinforce or detract from achieving our vision and supporting our values.  Coleman says that “values are of little importance unless they are enshrined in a company’s practices.”  We manage our company in a way which promotes integration, minimizes costs, encourages leanness, adaptivity, and resilience, and enhances performance and affinity amongst our creative, self-motivated employees.   We manage our company with the core ethic of Creating Shared Value.  We support personal freedom and flexibility, self-motivation, creativity, and initiative within the framework of demonstrating strong performance.  We minimize hierarchy and integrate our diverse disciplinary skills for rapid problem-solving and ease of communication.  It’s not always easy, but it works.

4.  People.  Coleman says that great firms have great recruiting policies.  “People stick with cultures they like, and bringing on the right “culture carriers” reinforces the culture an organization already has.”  We look for people who are:

• Self-aware and expressed; reflective, introspective; able to balance intellect and intuition – living with integrity
• Positive, welcoming, open, appreciative, kind, curious, empathetic, respectful and willing to help
• Collaborative, collegial, inspiring people who enable and encourage creative exploration
• Communicators – able to give and receive constructive feedback; listen, hear and speak up when needed
• Learning-focused
• Entrepreneurial and self-motivated and want to play a role in building the business.

We seem to be attracting people with these attributes – that’s very helpful as we grow.

5.  Narrative. Coleman sees storytelling and celebrating unique stories as key to great corporate culture.  We love story telling – multimedia storytelling is core to being a full-service human environment consultancy.  It can be challenging to describe what it’s like to integrate environmental planning, community engagement, socioeconomics, and program evaluation.  As a result, storytelling is woven into the fabric of our culture - our stories about our “ah-ha” moments for creating shared value with our clients and their partners communicate the essence of what we do.

6.  Place.  According to Coleman, “place shapes culture. Open architecture is more conducive to certain office behaviors, like collaboration.  Certain cities and countries have local cultures that may reinforce or contradict the culture a firm is trying to create. Place — whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design — impacts the values and behaviours of people in a workplace.”  We love our place – our funky office space, our downtown Guelph location, our community and the wonderful two-rivers ecosystem that nurtures our souls and bodies.

Vision, Values, Practices, People, Narrative, and Place?  I think we’re on the right track.  What do you think?

Videographer Marion Gruner working with Shared Value Solutions Ltd. team on an Aboriginal traditional ecological knowledge project

By Don Richardson, Managing Partner, Shared Value Solutions Ltd.

As we grow and create new shared value solutions for problems and opportunities, we engage with smart people as partners, affiliates, and new and potential team members.  We find ourselves gravitating to people who know how to “figure it out.”

A recent Harvard Business Review article called “Figure It Out” by GE’s Chief Marketing Officer, Beth Comstock, got our attention.  Comstock identifies the reality we live every day working at Shared Value Solutions.  We face new problems for which road maps to solutions simply don’t exist, and we find that the necessary resources are scarce or are not in the obvious places.

So what do we do?  We figure it out.  We engage with people who are, as Comstock notes, “inventive, capable and enterprising.  Above all, they must be able to improvise – to take whatever they have to work with and make the most of it.”  We face problems and opportunities that push us to improvise and reach out to others who may have the ideas, resources or experience we need to help our clients.

Very often, for the problems and opportunities our clients provide us, no one has the exact training or detailed experience with what we’re handed.  We figure it out.  We pull in people from our extensive professional and personal networks.  We venture into new networks and look for radically different ways to address the problems and opportunities.  We often abandon our assumptions about what we think our clients need and instead, we spend time observing, listening, engaging and understanding how people actually live and work, and how they experience problems and opportunities.  Whiteboards, flipcharts, napkins and “what if” discussions are key tools.

No surprise that my favourite movie scene is from the film Apollo 13 where a technician dumps a mess of material on a table and tells his colleagues that they have to use this mess to build a new carbon dioxide scrubber to keep the flight crew alive.  They figure it out and the crew gets to come home.

At Shared Value Solutions Ltd., we figure it out.  We get resourceful, we network and we partner.  This is how we get to work with people who help us innovate with clients for initiatives such as helping:

• Resolve a multi-year contaminated drinking water and lake water challenges for a northern First Nation using innovative technologies and creative resourcing approaches yielding over $8 million in new funding and new community partnerships
• Research new supply chain approaches and linkages to agribusiness for biogas enterprises
• Develop innovative community engagement strategies for different interest groups in urban mixed-use communities
• Develop appropriate approaches to regional environmental assessment initiatives that match environmental goals with infrastructure development goals for northern tribal councils
• Design and value engineer a new major highway to accommodate traditional Aboriginal ecological knowledge and current land use activities

If you can “Figure It Out”, let’s talk.

By Nichole Fraser MacDonald, M.Sc., Managing Partner, SVS

SVS talked in our October 2012 blog Bringing Empathy Back into “Development Deadlocks” (check out the full story) about our philosophy that bringing empathy and trust into the equation can help short-circuit conflicts between proponents and communities regarding environment and natural resource developments.

Optimism builds on empathy and trust as a third key concept that SVS employs to help our clients navigate through situations with high degrees of conflict. I’m currently taking a Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB – www.cfib-fcei.ca) course which talks about the importance of optimism – communicating a positive outlook, both verbally and non-verbally, even in times of stress. This concept really speaks to me.

Apparently research shows that optimists tend do better at school, win more elections, succeed more at work and are more effective leaders. I think we could safely add “negotiate win-win solutions” to this list.

My course claims that optimism is an issue of personal control and a habit of thinking; that it provides people with the ability to change things through their actions. Those who can stay optimistic and upbeat, even during periods of high stress, radiate positive feelings to those around them, which affects the social environment, productivity and overall positive outcomes. Powerful stuff.

… just a little inspiration for topping up your proverbial glass today.

Biogas & Agribusiness

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The project includes:

• Research/feasibility assessment for the development of an Agribusiness-Energy business cluster in Ontario where biogas facilities may combine with local value-chain assets that include excess industrial heat, industrial lands, agricultural lands, agricultural input providers & growers and potential regional fuel users,
• Examining requirements for determining generic location requirements for an Agribusiness-Energy business cluster: centralized or a distributed business cluster that includes several agribusiness and/or industrial site locations,
• Addressing research and knowledge gaps,
• A case for support to attract additional research funding and partnerships.

Creating Shared Value strategy session

Making Money and Doing Good can go Hand-in-Hand

Is it just me, or does there seem to be a directly proportional relationship between how well a company does financially and how evil people think they are? Maybe it’s because we so often see the Big Bad Corporation crushing the Little Guy (who we all have a soft spot for) in movies and other popular culture.

The desire to combat the Big Bad Corporation stigma, the push from industry and investors, and the pursuit of a social license to operate has driven many companies to invest in social, environmental and economic programs – also commonly known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.  All of those reasons to “do good” are fair, but they could be more strategic.

Creating Shared Value (CSV) goes a step beyond CSR. It’s where a company’s business performance intersects with its social investments.  When a company decides to invest in social, environmental or economic initiatives, it can do so in a way that also makes good business sense; in other words, creating shared value for society and the company at the same time.

Wondering how to go about creating shared value? You need a strategy.

7 Critical Steps for a successful CSV strategy

1. Pick an Issue – can you see a social, environmental or economic issue that needs to be addressed?

2. Identify Business Activities – what relevant business activities can you undertake to help address the issue? This could include[i]:

• Reconceiving products and markets – environmental, social or economic benefits realized from a company’s products or services
• Redefining productivity in the value chain – environmental improvements, better resource use, investment in employees, supplier capabilities
• Enabling cluster development – community investments and strengthening local suppliers, institutions and infrastructure in ways that enhance business productivity

3. Plan Your Resources – what inputs (costs, staff, time, infrastructure, other resources) are needed to implement the changes?

4. Identify Desired Outcomes – be intentional about the desired business and social benefits you hope to achieve

5. Implement the CSV Strategy – implement the changes

6. Monitor and Measure Shared Value – build in a robust evaluation strategy to understand your return on investment and the benefits relative to your costs

7. Continue to Adjust the CSV Strategy as Needed – adjust business and social activities accordingly to ensure they are carried out as efficiently and effectively as possible

So can Creating Shared Value initiatives help combat the Big Bad Corporation stigma? Maybe to some degree.

Likely, there will always be people who think that making a buck is a bad thing. But being up front about investing in social issues because they make good business sense (as opposed to doing it for a PR stunt) is definitely a good start to making your company a whole lot more “real”. And the only thing we cheer for in the movies almost as much as the Little Guy is people who are “real”.

[i] Measuring Shared Value.  Michael E. Porter, Greg Hills, Marc Pfitzer, Sonja Patscheke, and Elizabeth Hawkins

SVS Partners Jeremy Shute and Scott Mackay help Magnetawan First Nation get upstream with traditional land-use mapping interviews.

(c) Shared Value Solutions Ltd., 2013

This is the second in our series of blog posts on Ontario’s new Mining Act and the mandatory regulations that take effect on April 1, 2013.  Last week’s post is titled “Follow the Money, Follow e3 Plus: Ontario’s New Mining Act and Aboriginal Consultation“. If, after reading these posts, you want some guidance or advice, we’re here to help and we’re a phone call away and easy to contact.  There’s no charge for a good phone conversation or chat over coffee.  We like to work with explorers and Aboriginal communities interested in getting on the right track and creating some shared value solutions.

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By Scott Mackay, MSc, RPP, MCIP Managing Partner with research assistance from Kerry Ground

Until recently, Aboriginal communities in mining areas of Ontario were regularly being surprised by drilling rigs and camps suddenly “showing up” on the land in areas they considered sacred and sensitive.   Until recently, exploration companies were regularly being surprised, and even sidelined, by the negative reaction from Aboriginal communities to what was considered a lawful, routine, and required set of operations in the mining industry- one which did not require permits or approvals.

The modernization of Ontario’s Mining Act means that companies pursuing mining exploration projects now have to apply for permits and consult with potentially affected Aboriginal communities (see our previous blog post on Ontario’s new Mining Act).  While this helps to create additional certainty for both companies and communities, it also comes with added workload and due diligence for both parties.

But an additional provision in the new Mining Act allows Aboriginal communities, or communities collaborating with interested developers looking for greater certainty, to get upstream of the staking and exploration permitting process to identify “no go” areas which are culturally significant.

The legislative and policy basis for this change are found in Ontario Regulation 45/11 (see section 9.10) and in the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines’ Policy on  Sites of Aboriginal Cultural Significance.

The process is relatively straight-forward.  A community, First Nation or Métis, working independently or working with a company with which it has an development agreement, identifies culturally significant areas which meet the criteria of:

• 25 hectares in size or smaller
• Being strongly associated with social, cultural, sacred or ceremonial purposes, including because of its traditional use by that community, according to Aboriginal traditions, observances, customs or beliefs.
• It is in a fixed location, subject to clear geographic description or delineation on a map.
• Its identification is supported by the community, as evidenced by appropriate documentation.

The community then applies to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) to have these areas removed or restricted from staking and exploration using an Application for an Order Withdrawing a Site of Aboriginal Cultural Significance.

If approved, the sites will be withdrawn and shown as withdrawn on claims maps.  There are some restrictions however, as shown in the section below.

The applicable regulation under the Mining Act states that, in deciding whether to approve such an application, “the Minister may consider whether other mechanisms are available and appropriate to protect the site”.  Accordingly, it remains to be seen what other, less restrictive, options aside from withdrawal or restriction orders the Minister may use to meet the same ends.  One alternative MNDM discusses in its policy document is putting conditions or restrictions on individual exploration permits.  Where communities are working closely with developers there are obvious benefits to working together to achieve a common understanding of ways to protect theses sites.

There are multiple benefits for an Aboriginal community, working independently or with a company around a development agreement, for gathering and mapping its traditional land-use and traditional knowledge.  Some of the benefits include:

• Describing and identifying impacts from resource development to Aboriginal and Treaty rights.  This has particular importance considering the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act provisions (see our previous blog post on this topic).
• Creating an important focal point for community discussion and appreciation of the value and future of its lands.
• Transferring this important knowledge and record of the community’s use of the land from elders and adult knowledge-holders to youth and future generations.
• Generating important supporting evidence for land claims and other legal processes.

Shared Value Solutions Ltd. regularly undertakes Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Land-Use (TK/TLU) studies.  Often these studies are undertaken within the context of development agreements between Aboriginal communities and companies.  We take a combined video ethnography and participatory mapping approach based on the methods of Terry Tobias as best described in his book “Living Proof:  The Essential Data-Collection Guide For Indigenous Use-and-Occupancy Map Surveys”.  A recent project example is work for Magnetawan First Nation for a study to help the community identify culturally significant and traditional land-use areas as input to the environmental assessment and design of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s Highway 69 Four-Laning project between Parry Sound and Sudbury.

If you are a company in the process of creating a development agreement or a community entering into such an agreement, let us help you get upstream of the claim staking and exploration process to protect  the community’s culturally significant sites and take advantage of the many other opportunities a TK/TLU study has to offer!

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Keeping our heads up around the new Mining Act: Shared Value Solutions team members in the bush for a traditional knowledge study

Ontario’s New Mining Act & Aboriginal Consultation

By Don Richardson, Kerry Ground, Nichole Fraser-MacDonald, Scott Mackay, Jeremy Shute and Laura Taylor 

(c) Shared Value Solutions Ltd., 2013

If, after reading this, you want some guidance or advice, we’re here to help and we’re a phone call away and easy to contact.  There’s no charge for a good phone conversation or chat over coffee.  We like to work with explorers and Aboriginal communities interested in getting on the right track and creating some shared value solutions.

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The Government of Ontario recently ‘modernized’ the Ontario Mining Act. The new regulations came into effect November 1, 2012 and become mandatory on April 1, 2013.

As with most legislation, the devil’s in the details, or in this case, in the accompanying regulations.  For both mining exploration companies (explorers) and Aboriginal communities, it’s very important to “follow the money” aspects of the regulations, especially Ontario Regulation 6/96.

In general, with regard to Aboriginal consultation, the key parts to the new Act are:

•  New exploration plan and permit requirements – explorers must notify and consult with Aboriginal communities and surface rights owners who may be affected by proposed exploration activities;
•  Mining Act Awareness Program – informs prospectors about changes to Mining Act, including early exploration and Aboriginal consultation, and how consultation costs might be recouped;
•  Sites of Aboriginal Significance – Aboriginal peoples are now able to apply to have sites withdrawn due to Aboriginal cultural significance under Ontario Regulation 45/11.

The bottom line for explorers: if you want to make money and manage risk in the Ontario mining business, take the new Act’s requirements for Aboriginal consultation seriously and take advantage of the guidance available in the Prospectors and Developer’s Association of Canada’s (PDAC) e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration.

The bottom line for Aboriginal communities: If you represent an Aboriginal community, recognize that the new Mining Act and its regulations have a lot to say about Aboriginal consultation.  And recognize that the e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration is a terrific tool for helping your community orient explorers around mining industry expectations for the social, environmental and health and safety performance considerations for Aboriginal consultation, and good practice in general.

We start in Section 1 by looking at some general implications and ideas for the mining industry and follow that in Section 2 with some general implications and ideas for Aboriginal communities.

Check back here for our forthcoming companion blog post: “Get Upstream to Protect Culturally Significant Areas Through the New Mining Act” to fully understand the implications and opportunities for Aboriginal communities with the new Mining Act.  Below are some key implications of the Act.

1) Mining Industry & Aboriginal Consultation: “Follow the Money” and e3 Plus Considerations

1.1 General Implications

• Explorers must submit an Exploration Plan.  Before deciding whether to issue a permit, the Director of Exploration will consider whether Aboriginal consultation has occurred and the arrangements made with Aboriginal communities that may be affected by exploration.  The e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration is an excellent primer for framing both consultation and the social, environmental and health and safety performance considerations for an exploration plan.
• Advanced exploration and mine production cannot occur until Aboriginal consultation has been conducted in accordance with the regulations, to the satisfaction of the Director.
• The Act provides a dispute resolution mechanism for disputes related to Aboriginal consultation.
• For companies undertaking rehabilitation of mining lands, the Director will consider whether Aboriginal consultation has occurred before granting a permit.
• After April 1^st, 2013, investors will probably be looking for evidence that explorers are following the Act and regulations.  Smart investors will also be looking to see if explorers are taking full advantage of opportunities to recoup consultation costs.
• Explorers should consider using the e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration to help describe to their consultation activities and their contributions to community development and wellbeing.
• Follow the Money: And yes, there are provisions for recouping the cost of Aboriginal consultation under Ontario Regulation 6/96, but you must keep accurate records of the people with whom you have consulted and all actual costs associated with Aboriginal consultation if you expect to be able to recoup costs.
• Follow the Money: The list of eligible costs under Ontario Regulation 6/96 tells a story of what the Director might reasonably be expecting to see as part of an Aboriginal consultation effort:
  • costs for document preparation,
  • travel (including travel for community members to accommodate consultation),
  • meeting costs,
  • costs for third party review of technical documents, studies or mapping projects (such as traditional knowledge studies or traditional land use and mapping studies), and
  • honouraria for Elders or other designated community members directly participating in a consultation activity.

 1.2 Ideas to Help Explorers Meet the Director’s Expectations

• Spend time building relationships with communities.  You know how to build relationships with investors, suppliers and regulators.  Use those relationship building skills.
• If you think Aboriginal communities are your adversaries, you may be making a serious mistake.  Think about how you can work with Aboriginal communities to “make the pie bigger” and create new value through combining your efforts and resources with theirs.
• Consider how project activities might add value to communities, through jobs, shared environmental data and environmental monitoring, training and youth programs, health and safety initiatives, discussions with Elders and Knowledge Holders, and through active participation in projects.
• Develop agreements for access to traditional territory and for environmental & health and safety considerations.  Develop protocols for sharing information, and include these agreements with permit applications.
• Document all your meetings, phone calls and emails and prepare a summary document on Aboriginal consultation with permit applications, and this will also come in handy in case you need to access the dispute resolution mechanism in the Act.
• Regularly review the e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration to help continuously improve social, environmental and health and safety performance and integrate these three aspects in exploration programs and consultation approaches.  Pay special attention to the content on community engagement.  Document your Aboriginal consultation work using indicators you can derive from the e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration.
• Better understand Aboriginal and Treaty rights by building relationships and engaging in frank conversations with Aboriginal community members.  Legal interpretations are valuable, but they are no substitute for good conversations.
• Recognize that Aboriginal communities often do not have time, money, staff resources or the detailed technical expertise required to engage.  Capacity development and funding for third party review of technical documents, studies or mapping projects can go a long way to building relationships and establishing mutual understanding.  If you are not sure about how to recoup these costs or what is eligible, speak with the Ministry.
• Industry associations, such as PDAC, can assist by working with members to share stories and evaluations of the return on investment yielded by spending time, money and staff resources to improve community relationships.  Did the time, funds, and staff resources invested in notifying and consulting Aboriginal communities pay off in the long run? Companies can be encouraged to set indicators, based on tools such as the e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration, early on, to monitor and measure to determine success.

2) Aboriginal Communities and Mining Industry Consultation: “Follow the Money” and e3 Plus Considerations

2.1 General Implications

• Some of the changes in the new Mining Act are meant to ensure that Aboriginal communities are appropriately notified and consulted throughout the mining sequence.
• There is potential for building positive relationships with the mining industry that yield social, environmental and economic benefits.
• The new Mining Act and associated regulations contain expectations for explorers to consider contributng to your costs for participating in consultation and obtaining third party assistance for review of technical documents, and community studies or mapping projects related to the explorer’s sites.
• Explorers may be eligible to recoup costs for third party assistance and community funding for such things as traditional knowledge studies, traditional land use and mapping studies, efforts to identify and map sites of Aboriginal cultural significance and Aboriginal ecological knowledge studies.

2.2 Ideas to Help Aboriginal Communities work with Explorers

Spend time building relationships with explorers.  You know how to build relationships with other Aboriginal communities, with local communities, with suppliers, consultants and government officials.  Use those relationship building skills.

• If you think explorers are your adversaries, you may be making a serious mistake.  Think about how you can work with explorers to “make the pie bigger” and create new value through combining your efforts and resources with theirs.
• Get familiar with the industry “best practices” contained in the Prospectors and Developer’s Association of Canada’s (PDAC) e3 Plus Framework for Responsible Exploration.  Remind explorers that you expect them to make use of this industry generated guidance for social, environmental and health and safety performance.
• As you spend time building relationships with explorers in your area, think creatively about how their project activities might add value to your community, through jobs, shared environmental data and environmental monitoring, training and youth programs, provision of goods and services, health and safety initiatives, discussions with Elders and Knowledge Holders, and through active participation in projects.
• Be prepared to work with explorers to develop agreements for access to traditional territory and for environmental considerations.  Consider developing consultation protocols and protocols for sharing information.
• Document all your meetings, phone calls and emails.  Your notes and meeting minutes will help guide your thinking around any future agreements and will come in handy in case you need to access the dispute resolution mechanism in the Act.
• Recognize and plan for the time, money, staff resources, and understanding of the mining sector and cycle that are required to for effective engagement.
• You can expect to see a lot more project notifications after April 1^st, 2013 – this is no April Fools’ Joke!
• Don’t be afraid to ask for technical advisory services, legal support and administrative capacity if you need it.  Remind companies that they may be able to recoup many of the costs associated your participation in consultation activities, including costs for critical third party review of technical documents, studies or mapping projects.  Traditional knowledge studies or traditional land use and mapping studies, efforts to identify and map sites of Aboriginal cultural significance and Aboriginal ecological knowledge studies, all may be eligible for explorers to recoup costs under Ontario Regulation 6/96.
• Recognize that your existing community programs, plans and existing documents for land use planning and traditional knowledge / traditional land use studies and ecological mapping take on additional importance with the new Mining Act.  Take some time to consider how to protect this information for long term community use, benefit and access, including off-site data storage to protect critical documents from risk of fire, flood and computer failures.
• If you have sites of cultural significance within your traditional territory, and you wish to protect those sites from potential damage or incursion from exploration activities, the new Mining Act may help.  The Ministry has a guidance document on Sites of Aboriginal Cultural Significance on its website, but it’s also good advice to sit down with explorers and help them understand why these sites need to be protected and discuss your ideas to help protect them.  Sites with a surface area of 25 hectares or less, may be considered as a site of Aboriginal cultural significance for the purposes of the Act if the following criteria are met:
  • strongly associated with an Aboriginal community for social, cultural, sacred or ceremonial reasons, including because of its traditional use by that community, according to Aboriginal traditions, observances, customs or beliefs;
  • in a fixed location, subject to clear geographic description or delineation on a map;
  • its identification is supported by the community, as evidenced by appropriate documentation.

Take 10 minutes and walk through these slides – you’ll find it’s worth every minute.

About 14 years ago I spent a day in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the guy quoted in slide 4. I’ve thought about what he said ever sense. I think he’s right: