THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (CED) PERSPECTIVE

The CapitalCapital: cash, property, equipment, services, and contracts or leases., Big Business, Small Business, and Industrial Recruitment perspectives have one thing in common. They all assume that the future of Aboriginal communities hinges on the actions of powerful outsiders or a few resourceful insiders. Not so with community economic development (CED). As its name suggests, CED makes the community the foremost player in its own development. From the CED Perspective, the community's dependence on the initiative and resources of a select few is part of the problem. From the CED Perspective,

• every resident has a role to play in making the community prosper, not just a few.
• the personal health and growth of individual members are important investments, as well as their technical abilities as drivers, carpenters, managers, etc.
• small business improves as a local environment of skills, attitudes, organizations, and services grows up in support of it.
• jobs and businesses are especially valuable if they enable local people to rely on each other, rather than on outside suppliers.
• the earnings and savings of community members and their businesses should be reinvested locally as much as possible.
• community and privately owned and operated enterprises that promote local investment, employment, and training are crucial.

As important as economic growth, or jobs, or higher personal incomes may often be, they are not the community’s ultimate goal. Instead, the community is striving to become more self-reliant: to increase its capacity to plan and build an economic future that suits the values, priorities, and needs of its members.

From the CED Perspective, community self-relianceSelf-Reliance: the capacity of a community to plan and build an economic future that suits the values, priorities, and needs of its members. is the goal. You approach it by steadily increasing your community’s capacity – people, skills, organization, and systems that enable the community to set targets, marshal adequate resources, and carry out decisions quickly and efficiently. This is not a short-term process. In fact, it never ends. The experience, skills, and profits gained from one business or project get invested in another. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, the further you go, the larger your community’s capacity grows. Greater capacity is used to capture more benefits; more benefits are captured to build greater community capacity.

No two Aboriginal communities are alike in terms of capacity. Some communities spend their time managing constant crises. They struggle with high levels of stress and distress. There seems to be little space or capacity to think beyond the short term. Others have accumulated a lot of skills and experience. While they still face serious challenges, they are able to manage opportunities and difficulties systematically. They have a strong system of planning, research, policy-making to guide them as they make decisions.

When it comes to playing a role in mining, communities will always find their capacity to be an issue. Whatever stage it is at - Exploration, Construction, Operation, or Closure and ReclamationClosure and Reclamation Stage: restoration of disturbed and/or mined land to its original contour, use, or condition. - mining is a complex business. The Aboriginal community with greater capacity is better prepared to capture benefits from a mine. This does not mean an inexperienced community cannot protect itself or capture benefits, however. It will just find a good agreementAgreement: any explicit, signed document that is negotiated and includes mutual concessions or limitations placed on both sides. Examples are Negotiation AgreementsNegotiation Agreement: an early agreement in the mining process, likely to occur in the Exploration Stage, which would outline the basis of the relationship between the Aboriginal group and the mining company and how the relationship will evolve if the mine moves forward. , Exploration Cooperation Benefit Agreements, Socio-Economic Participation AgreementsSocio-Economic Participation Agreements (SEPAs): private, confidential contracts between Aboriginal communities and resource developers, like mining companies. SEPAs specify how the communities that will be affected by the development of a resource will also benefit from that development. Many SEPAs include terms about the employment and training of Aboriginal people, compensationCompensation: something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as for a service or loss or injury). payments, protection of the environment, and profit-sharing. SEPAs are often called Impact Benefits Agreements (IBAs) and Cooperation Benefit Agreements (CBAs), and other names. The Aboriginal Mining Guide calls them all SEPAs.. a lot harder to get, and will require a lot more help to get it. For examples of the different levels of capacity at which Aboriginal communities make a start in mining, see the *NWT Diamond Mines (p. Intro-10), and *Raglan Mine (p. Intro-21) case studies.

Many Aboriginal communities choose to create a separate organization to coordinate and manage projects, including businesses with a role in mining. This organization, often called an Aboriginal Development CorporationAboriginal Development Corporation: corporation that represents one or more Aboriginal communities and is the entity through which business that benefits the community occurs., plays a key role in the partnerships between the community, government, and private sector that help build the community’s capacity.

The Aboriginal Mining Guide approaches the role of Aboriginal communities in mining from the CED Perspective. That means the value of mining, if any, depends on the opportunity it presents for building community capacity.