ESTABLISH THE AGENDA

Explore the Long-Term Interests of Each Party

To kick off the discussion of issues and items to be negotiated, each party should outline its long term interests to the other. Each should present a vision of how the project might serve all the parties around the table. This will help clarify the basis for the negotiations and for a possible future relationship. It will help define the extent and import of their common interests as well as potential points of tension.

Get out on the table all the issues that are important to your team and community. This is not a time to be coy. The negotiating agenda has to reflect your real issues.

Holding back or being secretive about what you want will backfire. It is difficult to introduce new issues after the agenda is complete.

Commit to Communicate

Even when people are completely “up front,” this first exchange of information may take some time and effort.

In the early 1990s Falconbridge wanted to realize a huge opportunity in the Raglan Property (see *Case Study #2, p. Intro-10). The communities of Salluit and Kangirsujuaq wanted to ensure that they were participants in, not just observers to the mine and its economic spin-offs. Falconbridge knew community support was essential to get the development approved. The Inuit knew they wanted to benefit from the mine.

Falconbridge hired a local advisor to provide a liaison between the company and the two communities. A community consultation process brought together people from every walk of life. In the room together were company personnel, villagers, mayors and councils, the Kativik regional government and Environmental Quality Commission, Makivik Corporation, the federal Coast Guard, and Québec provincial ministries responsible for mining and environment.

Through these discussions, it became clear that the main concerns of the local people centred on three things:
• the environment
• employment
• the influx of southern people to their lands

This information provided a clear starting point for discussions. Falconbridge informed the Inuit that they needed shipping access through waters within Inuit traditional territory. The Inuit knew that this and support for the mine were of critical importance to Falconbridge. The two parties worked hard to express their needs and interests to each other. They worked together in good faith. After two years of negotiations, they signed the landmark Raglan Agreement.

No agreement is without its problems. However, the spirit of co-operation between the mine’s management and Inuit people is still strong. There is a genuine willingness to communicate with each other, work through issues, and find solutions.

The parties you meet across the negotiating table may not always express their long term interests so forthrightly. That’s why the six pieces of homework are so important to this stage of negotiations. When you introduce this information during the discussions where appropriate, the others will realize that you know what influences their decision making. Once “they know that you know,” their tongues may loosen. They may become more willing to get their interests out on the table where they can be factored into the agenda.

The start of negotiations is something like a “first date.” The couple wants to know if they are compatible. So they explore one other's interests and gets an idea of what is important to each of them. Then they can decide if and how their respective desires and values might fit together.

Clarify Benefits

Once compatibility has been confirmed, negotiators give short shrift to romance. The courtship cannot be extended over months and years. Time and money are at stake. They plunge right into a discussion of a basis on which to strike a deal.

Each team of negotiators expresses what it wants from a deal. Points of agreement and difference are clarified. When substantial differences arise, each party may begin to indicate the benefits it will bring to the deal, and how its participation addresses the key interests and benefits of the other.

Luckily, over the years the SEPAs have begun to take on a more established format. The details of their contents vary widely between agreements. But a broad pattern of what will and what will not be talked about is easy to determine beforehand. Here are some standard topics of discussion:

• Employment and training
• Economic development and business opportunities
• Social, cultural, and community support
• Financial provisions and equityEquity: the dollar value of what a person or organization owns (as opposed to debt, which indicates what a person or organization owes). A person or organization can have an equity interest in something if they have part or full ownership. participation
• Environmental protection and cultural resource
• Use of traditional knowledgeTraditional Knowledge (TK): the knowledge, observations, and understandings about the natural environment, and about the relationships between living beings and their environment, that Aboriginal people have accumulated over many generations.
• ConfidentialityConfidentiality: a promise not to reveal the contents of an agreement to anyone. and dispute resolutionDispute Resolution: a process by which two or more parties may discuss their disagreements and come to decisions about how to proceed.
• ImplementationImplementation: the carrying out or execution of an agreement, decision, or plan., monitoringMonitoring: the act of observing something and often keeping a record of it. People monitor mining activities or impactsImpacts: the effect or impression of one thing on another such as the impact of a mining project on the life of an Aboriginal community. in order to determine their effect on the land, resources, and communities. and reporting
• Renegotiation, project expansionExpansion: increasing the area or size of a mine or exploration area. Expansion may trigger a new environmental assessmentEnvironmental Assessment: a written report, compiled prior to a production decision that examines the effects that proposed mining activities will have on the natural surroundings.., and sale of project to other parties⁴

Module 5 describes these provisions (and more) in detail. Each section has its own complexities. Think about each carefully when you are doing your homework.

One final point: be sure to get all your discussion and conclusions about the agenda down on paper for reference during the negotiation of the actual agreement. Negotiations can become complex. People lose track. Failure to keep a clear record in a convenient form can lead to poor quality results.