It was a striking scene..The ribbon cutting on the southwest leg of the Calgary ring road was an event planned by a small army of government communications staffers. Alberta’s premier, Calgary’s mayor, the chief of the Tsuut’ina and a small army of other public officials carefully preened themselves and prepared their best self-congratulatory speeches on the opening of this massive new infrastructure project..Then, a young man walked unexpectedly up to the microphone and stole the show..Seth Dodginghorse’s short, poignant speech drove home the reality that this project has impacted some lives. When he then cut off his braids and tossed them on the new road, he ensured that he would dominate every headline on the project for days. Give Dodginghorse his due. It was a brilliant and peaceful protest which captivated the nation..We have to look beyond the scene of the protest and look more deeply into the claim made by Dodginghorse that consultation had been inadequate. The term “consultation” has turned into a very loaded word as the definition of what is considered to be adequate consultation is nebulous to say the least. I can’t imagine how many man hours of work have been deferred and billions lost over the years as courts continue to hear claims on virtually every major project that there had not been enough consultation done..The amount of consultation done on the Southwest portion of the Calgary ring road has been staggering. The plan has been in the works for nearly seventy years. Hundreds of public meetings have been held and thousands of private meetings over the decades. Plans were drafted, redrafted and adjusted endlessly. Not one, but two full referendums were held on the Tsuut’ina reserve on the project with the second one winning over 80 per cent support from the band members. How high does the bar have to be set?.The Southwest ring road is a fantastic and beneficial project for the entire Tsuut’ina reserve. They negotiated a magnificent deal for themselves and it will pay off with jobs and access. Every member of the band got a direct payment of $61,742. $65 million was dedicated to move the few homes which were directly impacted by the road. Nobody was left homeless. A $137 million dollar legacy fund was created for the band. In compensation for the 428 hectares of land used by the project, the band was given an additional 2,160 hectares of provincial land adjacent to its boundaries. A new commercial district has been developed which will provide band revenue and jobs for members for generations. Despite all this, some people feel that the project should never have gone ahead because there was not unanimous approval from band members..It sounds like an exaggeration, but it is not. Many activists and even some justices feel that no project should ever go ahead if even one indigenous person feels aggrieved by it. Just look at the mess made as all levels of government rushed to indulge the illegal protests of a tiny segment of the Wet’suwet’en band in British Columbia over a pipeline which was fully approved by all elected native bands and already under construction. Extremist groups blockaded railways around the nation in support of the handful of self-appointed “hereditary” chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en while police and officials hid in terror rather than enforcing the law..There will never be a major project which will gain the approval of 100 per cent of the population, yet we seem to be setting the bar at that impossible level. No amount of consultation will ever be enough for some and eventually those who are opposed to a project have to simply be told “too bad, it’s going ahead”. That would take some courage and political will which is dearly lacking in Canada right now..As we indulge a tiny but vocal group of activists who demand never-ending consultation on projects as a delay tactic, the people being harmed the most are the indigenous people of Canada. It is a modern world and isolated bands are living in a dependent state of socioeconomic misery. With little opportunity for local development, band members with ambition find themselves forced to leave their traditional homes in pursuit of opportunity while those who remain are locked in what is essentially a racially based enclave devoid of any chance for economic independence..Developments are being modelled to stay as far away from indigenous populations as possible. That makes urban latte-lappers feel good about themselves as they see themselves as protecting their Hollywood version of what indigenous people should be from the evils of the modern world. In reality, they condemn indigenous people to a cycle of poverty and isolation..The days of sustenance hunting and gathering are long gone. Native bands enjoy modern comforts and have modern needs. This means they need economic development. The activists prefer to view indigenous peoples as belonging on unspoiled reserves in the wilderness where people live in a neolithic fantasy..Consultation is vital with any project whether with indigenous or non-indigenous alike. Unfortunately, we have allowed the principle of consultation to evolve into a monster which halts projects rather than facilitates them..Cory Morgan the Podcast Editor and a columnist for the Western Standard
