Government and corporate duty to consult with Aboriginal communities when conducting activities that may affect Indigenous lands was one of the topics of discussion
Tuesday at a Saskatoon mining conference.
The province is currently in the process of designing a handbook which aims to provide guidance to companies whose operations have the potential to infringe on Indigenous lands and activities.
Karen Bolton, the director of Aboriginal consultation with Saskatchewan Government Relations, says duty to consult covers a wide range of lands and activities.
“The duty arises when you have an activity or a decision being made by government on unoccupied Crown land or Crown land to which First Nations and Métis have right of access,” she says. “In order to carry out treaty and Aboriginal rights to hunt, trap and fish. And in our case in Saskatchewan, to undertake traditional use activities which include things like gathering, holding spiritual and cultural sites…”
Bolton adds companies need to figure out the protocols of a particular community prior to engagement.
“The question around simple things like protocol – ‘What do we do, do take tobacco, do we take a gift, who talks first, who talks when, where do we have the meeting?’ Those kinds of things. The simple answer to that, and we provide that advice here, is if you’re curious about the protocols, call them. Because unfortunately they differ, so we couldn’t provide yet another definitive answer.”
The Saskatchewan Geological Open House concludes on Wednesday afternoon.