N.W.T. Métis Nation signs benefit agreement with De Beers
Agreement with Gahcho Kue co-developer promises jobs, training
The N.W.T. Métis Nation has signed an impact benefit agreement with the companies behind N.W.T.'s next diamond mine.
The signing took place on Friday in the Yellowknife office of De Beers. Together with partner Mountain Province Diamonds, De Beers is building the Gahcho Kue diamond project approximately 280 km northeast of Yellowknife.
The N.W.T. Métis Nation represents indigenous Métis currently living in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Resolution and Fort Smith. This is the first impact benefit agreement it has signed for a diamond project, and only its second IBA to date.
IBAs are key agreements outlining a developer's commitment to offer jobs, business contracts, training, scholarship funding and undisclosed payments to aboriginal groups considered by the company to be "impacted" communities.
Unlike the Tlicho Government, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation and the North Slave Métis Alliance, the N.W.T. Métis Nation did not ink an IBA with De Beers when the company was developing the Snap Lake diamond mine.
"We weren't at the table in those days," said Garry Bailey, president of the NWT Métis Nation.
"I'm proud of the mining companies that are starting to recognize Métis have the rights, that they're respecting the rights that we told them we had all along."
The construction of Gahcho Kue is expected to generate close to 700 jobs. Another approximately 400 jobs will be created once the mine goes into operation.
"They need quite a few employees," said Bailey. "I'm sure that we don't have enough Métis to fill all the jobs that they're going to need."
The group will also form part of a committee charged with making sure De Beers and Mountain Province keep to their commitments, added Bailey.
In a news release, De Beers' chief operating officer in Canada, Glen Koropchuk, said, “We want to thank the negotiating teams on both sides for their hard work in concluding the IBA.”
According to De Beers' website, Gahcho Kue is expected to start operating around the third quarter of 2016.