Empowering Indigenous Communities Through Strategic Planning

The Mission: Meaningful Involvement

Your community achieving a true and meaningful involvement in a project all starts with an effective well-designed and well executed consultation process. This commences with detailed introductions between your community leaders and project leadership. Then an effective consultation process aims to create strong relationships and excellent communications between all the parties. The community needs to know the details of the project including the technical, environmental, financial and legal aspects of the project. Your community is entitled to, and needs to play a role in project design and planning.

Consultation is not something that just happens at the beginning of a project. Consultation should carry on throughout the whole project lifecycle including origination, development, construction, operation and then project decommissioning or renewal, in order to be truly effective. The goal of successful consultation is for the project to work with the community to achieve what is sometimes referred to as a mutual “social licence to operate.”

What is “Meaningful Involvement” in a project?

Meaningful Involvement has come to mean actual equity ownership in the project. In the past, meaningful involvement was achieved through royalties, Impact Benefit Agreements, Community Benefit Agreements or other forms of compensation.

The reason equity is now so popular is that it provides the community with a true substantial ownership role in the rewards of the project with all the potential upside that this offers.

To assist Indigenous communities purchase their equity, there are now a number of provincial and federal government financial support programs which offer options such as loan guarantees.

It is important to structure agreements with projects to bring a full suite of benefits to the community including training, employment, subcontracting and materials supply, all primarily during construction.

Even more important is sharing in a substantial portion of the project’s profits through distribution payments based on equity.

Tim Richardson has over 20 years of experience working with Indigenous communities to achieve strong relationships and meaningful involvement in projects and in negotiating true equity ownership and other benefits.

Tim is dedicated to helping communities achieve the best outcomes with projects in their traditional territory.

Consultation

Consultation is important. I can help, starting with deciding which projects to focus on, right through designing and carrying out a comprehensive consultation process that carries on for the life of the project.

Equity Ownership

It is common now for communities to seek and achieve true equity ownership in projects. I have years of experience in negotiating, designing and documenting effective, mutually beneficial equity partnerships.

Different types of involvement

In the past, often communities did not participate in the benefits from projects. In today’s development market it is becoming more common, and increasingly desirable, for communities to achieve true equity ownership.

Sometimes a community desires a risk-free benefit program which can be achieved through a royalty agreement along with other community supports. In other cases a community can enter into a Community Benefit Agreement which provides for a set income based on the size or performance of a project. The important thing to consider is that I have a wealth of experience in achieving powerful, and very beneficial agreements that create financial independence and a long term legacy for the community.