Voisey’s Bay Mine, Guardians and a Path to Sustainability
The richest nickel mine in the world in Voisey’s Bay, Labrador is now widely heralded as a sustainability success story, strengthening one of the longest standing Indigenous land stewardship programs in Canada and setting new standards for consultation and accommodation. This successful model has also helped to pave the way for a national network of Indigenous Guardians.
For over two decades, the on-site Indigenous Guardians at Voisey’s Bay have improved communication between Indigenous leadership, governments, communities and the mine by conducting independent monitoring at the mine site and serving as liaisons between the company and concerned communities.
Like Indigenous Guardian programs across the country, they confirm that having clear channels to discuss development projects benefits First Nations and industry alike.
Indigenous Monitoring Clears Path for Collaboration
But with tumultuous beginnings marked by tense, armed standoffs and eviction orders, the project wasn’t always considered to hold such promise.
Discovered inadvertently by exploration company Diamond Field Resources in 1993, the nickel-cobalt-copper deposit on the coast of Labrador in northeastern Canada was one of the most significant mineral finds of the 20th century. Inco—now owned by Vale—purchased the $4.3-billion deposit in 1996.
The discovery came at a time of social despair among the area’s Indigenous peoples. Labrador’s Indigenous communities (the Innu and Inuit) were dealing with extreme levels of poverty, a youth suicide epidemic, and frustration with history of industrial developments on their lands that failed to provide jobs or benefits to their people.
In February 1995, the Innu decided to put a halt to the decades of development done without their consent. Issuing eviction notices to the company, residents travelled en masse from Davis Inlet to Voisey’s Bay by snowmobile to tell the miners to get out. While Diamond Resources’ personnel acquiesced, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would take their place, resulting in a bitter standoff at the exploration camp.
Fortunately for all parties, the conflict was short-lived. The company began negotiations with Innu leadership soon after and the parties an understanding. Along with the condition that there would be regular and ongoing consultation with communities on the project, the agreement called for the Innu to maintain a full-time environmental monitor at the site to ensure the land and wildlife would be protected while exploration continued.
Indigenous Guardians Care for the Land
Nearly 25 years later, the Innu Nation Minashkuat Kanakutuataku Guardians employ over a dozen people as land stewards throughout their vast territory in Labrador.
Since the first monitor was hired at Voisey’s Bay, the program has expanded to include four trained monitors at the mine site. Together with the Inuit, the Innu have a direct role in regulatory oversight of the project in cooperation with Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Many more Innu Guardians are spread out across the vast boreal landscape, doing work in fish and wildlife protection and assisting communities with harvest management and monitoring. The Forest Guardians program—the first of its kind—has ensured sustainability within the logging industry, with Innu forest technicians monitoring harvesting through ecosystem based management planning. They also provide broad support to the Innu Nation in land rights negotiations, environmental co-management and the establishment of protected areas.
“We are very proud of the fact that becoming a Minaskuat Kanakutuataku is a real option for young people in our community,” said Former Innu Grand Chief Anastasia Qupee. “It is a job that can provide young people with a career in which all the skills that are essential parts of being Innu--our language, our knowledge of the land, our bush skills—are recognized and valued, while providing opportunities to gain additional skills and certifications on the job.”
Guardians’ Presence Strengthens Community Support
Toby Pokue has worked at Voisey’s Bay for over a decade, starting as a mill operator. Seven years ago, he decided to change his path to become one of the Innu Nation’s Guardians at the mine site.
“What’s best about it is taking care of the land,” Pokue says.
Working as a team with the Nunatsiavut Guardians—a similar monitoring program established by the neighbouring Inuit as part of their own IBA with the company—and the mining company’s own environmental coordinator, Pokue is able to access all areas of the mine site looking for any potential environmental hazards, like spills or threats to wildlife.
“I like the freedom of the job,” he says. “I can go wherever I want. The best part is that it’s out on the land. It’s pretty fun, and I work with a wonderful team.”
Several years ago, Pokue discovered effluent spilling into a stream during his daily tour of the site and was able to alert the company, preventing a much larger environmental disaster from occurring and ultimately saving the mine cleanup costs. He is now working on possibly getting a fence constructed around the tailings area to prevent wildlife from accessing the ponds.
This high level of Indigenous-led, third-party monitoring is what has ultimately built social acceptability of the mine within Innu communities, says Valerie Courtois, former Innu Guardians program director and current director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Not only do the Guardians monitor from an Indigenous perspective, but they give information back to their communities in their own language—as opposed to having the company or private consultants performing that important task.
“There was a lot of fear about what the mine could do to the land, how it would impact the George River caribou, and how it could affect the Innu way of life in that area” Courtois says of communities’ initial reaction to the proposed mine.
“But the fact that they had people working for the Innu Nation wearing Innu uniforms and reporting back to the Innu what they saw -- who have more access on the site than the manager does -- was really a source of comfort.”
Having on-site Guardians has also assisted the mining industry in improving community relations and environmental protections. While the industry already boasts the largest private sector hires of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous Guardians are helping companies engage and empower Indigenous nations in capacity building around jobs and the co-management of projects.
“With boots on the ground and in the boardroom, Indigenous Guardians strengthen communication between leadership, community members, and companies interested in accessing resources,” says Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada. “The ability to manage the land is at the heart of healthy communities. And strong, healthy indigenous communities make good partners.”
The Guardians’ work was written into the Voisey’s Bay Impacts and Benefits Agreement (IBA) signed by Labrador’s Innu and Inuit people in 2002. The agreement also established employment commitments for Innu and Inuit at the mine site, and gives first consideration to Indigenous-owned businesses to provide goods and services to Voisey’s Bay. The government of Newfoundland and Labrador estimates the project will add approximately $20.7 billion to the province’s gross domestic product during the life of the mine.
A Model for Community Consultation
Voisey’s Bay holds important lessons for resource projects that are struggling to get off the ground about the fundamental conditions that must be fulfilled before developing on Indigenous territory, said Larry Innes, the Innu Nation’s former environmental advisor.
“It’s created an example, a real life working example, of how sustainability can be ensured. It shows how Indigenous people can be directly involved in environmental and cultural protection around these sites, and how governments can actually collaborate in shared decision making around major resource development,” said Innes. “At Voisey’s Bay, all parties came to the table with their own perspectives, but by respecting one another’s fundamental interests, were able to establish terms for the project so that it would create benefits as opposed to imposing impacts. Not all projects are successful in doing that.”
The trailblazing process at Voisey’s Bay set a new, higher standard for consultation in Canada. The project moved forward because it secured free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The mine has operated for more than 15 years and is expected to run for another 15. FPIC helped make that possible.
By fostering consensus and sustainability, the Indigenous Guardians of Voisey’s Bay inspired regional Indigenous governments to ultimately support the project. Far from remaining a site of conflict and resentment, the mine has generated shared benefits across communities, governments and industry in remote Labrador and raised the bar for collaboration everywhere.
