Natural Resources Canada has published an impressive list of 182 agreements that mining
companies have entered into with aboriginal communities across
Canada. These include exploration agreements, impact and benefit
agreements, participation agreements and socio-economic
agreements.
Although the cost, complexity and sophistication of these
agreements has been growing steadily, there is very little
transparency about their contents, especially on how much is paid,
nor on what the aboriginal communities do with the money.
Typically, such agreements require that any disputes be resolved
through private arbitration, rather than in the public courts,
which may keep their contents confidential. The lack of data makes
it very difficult for anyone to assess what is a fair or usual
benchmark, nor how much money or other benefits are flowing to
which communities. Similar agreements are reportedly being entered
into for renewable energy projects seeking aboriginal
