A SHORT HISTORY OF SEPAs

In 1974, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry looked into the impact that a gas pipeline and energy corridor might have on Canada’s North. It was led by Justice Thomas Berger. He recommended a 10-year moratorium on pipeline construction and that any future pipeline be subject to provisions that would protect the people of the North, their environment, and their economy.

The results of this Inquiry started to shift the outlook of mining companies. They began to realize that part of their business was to come to agreements with the Aboriginal communities that mining was going to affect. Impact Benefits Agreements (IBAs) was the early name for these agreements. Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, which protects Aboriginal and Treaty rights, exerted more pressure on mining companies and Aboriginal communities to conclude these agreements.

A great many new names for these agreements have also grown up. They get called partnerships agreements, cooperation agreements, participation agreements, benefits agreements, accommodation agreements, economic development agreements, socio-economic participation agreements, and socio-economic accords. The name often just depends on what a mining company and an Aboriginal community choose to call their agreement.

In the case studies we call the agreements by the names people commonly use. (For example, the “Raglan Agreement.”) Otherwise, for the sake of simplicity, the Aboriginal Mining Guide refers to all these agreements between Aboriginal communities and companies that own and operate actual mines as Socio-Economic Participation Agreements (SEPAs).