Building Relationships with First Nations and Gas/Oil Companies in Canada

Tags:

CBI Practitioners:

Patrick Field
Matthew McKinney

Clients:

Indian Taxation Advisory Board, Canada
Canadian Energy Pipeline Association

 

Since 1998, CBI has worked closely with the Indian Taxation Advisory Board (ITAB) and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) to help improve relationships and negotiations among First Nations and the gas and oil industry. To accomplish this objective, CBI has developed and conducted a four-part training series of workshops.

 

Background
First Nations and gas and oil in Canada face a changing tax environment, a history of old agreements made by the national government on behalf of the First Nations, and a past filled with many disagreements about the siting of pipelines, as well as how they should be maintained and operated.

In the last twenty years, extensive natural resource development in western Canada, along with increasing legal rights for and independence by First Nations has raised conflict and opportunity. The four-part series is designed to build a set of sophisticated skills among the parties to build relationships, strengthen alliances, and institutionalize change.

 

The Four Courses in the Series
The first introductory mutual gains negotiation workshop was presented at Lake Louise, Alberta, in November 1998 and again in New Brunswick in 1999. A second on advanced negotiation course was presented in Calgary, Alberta, in May 2000 and Halifax, Nova Scotia, in July 2000. These two courses sought to develop and improve negotiation skills among the parties. CBI worked with ITAB and CEPA to develop two sophisticated simulations - Riverbend, a six party, bilateral, inside-outside negotiation and Big Oil, a two party two issue exercise.

The third workshop, focused on developing skills in consensus building and was offered in Calgary in November 2001. CBI’s partner, Matt McKinney, and CBI staff conducted the course, seeking to offer skills in convening and managing, complex, multi-party negotiations. The tailored case of the Marsee First Nation was developed for this course, as well as a series of Negotiation Challenges to help participants apply general principles to specific cases. The fourth in the series on partnering and lessons learned, was offered in December 2003 in Calgary.

 

For more information on this case, please contact Managing Director Patrick Field.