ID: 2130
Presenting Author: Mina Patel
Session: 749 - Engaging Indigenous Nations for Inclusive Impact Assessments and Misinformation Response
Status: pending
The changing role of the assessors in community engagement during Impact Assessments in Canada in recent years has implications for IA outcomes and community trust in proponents and assessors (consult
In Canada, federal Impact Assessment (IA) practitioners are increasingly excluded from directly engaging with Indigenous communities as proponents delegate this responsibility to their internal community relations teams. While this welcome shift aligns with lifecycle engagement and procedural obligations under the Crown’s Duty to Consult with Indigenous Peoples, it can introduce significant risks—particularly the spread of disinformation, erosion of community trust in the IA process and impacts to the Project schedule. As assessors are retained by proponents, ethical tensions also arise around transparency, timelines, and narrative control.
To mitigate these risks, we recommend a minimum standard of engagement that includes clear delineation of roles between proponents and assessors, knowledge sharing agreements with Indigenous communities, community meetings facilitated by IA experts, and Valued Component (VC) workshops with community leadership, and early and ongoing engagement which can influence decision-making. We argue that fulsome engagement requires all parties—proponents, assessors, and communities—to share the same information and sit at the same table and agree upon a minimum standard of engagement. This minimum standard can work towards the expectations of universal standards such as the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and inalienable Indigenous rights in Canada, as enshrined in the Canadian Constitution and Treaties signed with the Crown.
We present examples from situations where the absence of assessor-led engagement presented c
Mina is a Lead Social Scientist at WSP and a Social Science and Indigenous Engagement expert with 20+ years experience working on behalf of Indigenous Peoples, a federal regulator, and proponents.
Coauthor 1: Shaina Sehgal