ID: 1724
Presenting Author: janine bedford
Session: 588 - Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples: a transparency tool to strengthen the legitimacy of Impact Assessments (IA) in the face of misinformation
Status: pending
Examines failed Canadian resource projects to show how early, consent-based engagement could have saved costs, reduced conflict, and produced clearer, more legitimate project outcomes.
Across the last three decades, several high-profile resource proposals in Canada failed to advance after sustained Indigenous opposition. This paper examines several anonymized major projects to test a central proposition: had companies embedded a consent-based engagement approach—grounded in co-design and early willingness-to-proceed discussions—they would have either (a) arrived at permissible, re-designed projects, or (b) avoided years of sunk costs on proposals that were never going to proceed.
Drawing on public records, interviews, and practitioner experience, the research analyzes the practical consequences of proceeding without early clarity on community support. In each case, the absence of structured, consent-based engagement led to mistrust, stalled timelines, and escalating costs. Companies incurred substantial financial losses through abandoned infrastructure and legal disputes, as well as lasting reputational damage that reduced future partnerships and investor confidence.
Had these projects adopted the engagement practices now emerging in Canada—co-design, early consent discussions, and Nation-led scoping—they would have achieved faster certainty on project viability. Some could have advanced in modified form; others would have been responsibly halted at low cost. The findings show that consent-seeking is not only a rights-based principle but a practical decision tool that replaces uncertainty with clarity and predictability.
Janine Bedford, Fortescue’s Manager of Communities and Social Performance, has 20 years’ experience advancing Indigenous engagement and socioeconomic studies with major resource companies.
Coauthor 1: Christy McDonough
Coauthor 2: Alvaro Parades