What about Indigenous communities and their land?
Certain Indigenous communities hold constitutionally protected rights in Alberta, and the Crown's duty to consult is law. A growing number of these Indigenous communities are choosing a larger role than consultation: partnership and ownership. This page covers both, and the difference between them matters, because communities decide for themselves which role they want.
The Alberta approach
The duty to consult
When a project could affect Treaty rights or traditional uses, Alberta consults the potentially impacted First Nations communities before the related approvals can be granted. The duty is triggered by the nature and location of the project.
Section 1
How the duty to consult works
The duty to consult is a constitutional obligation on the Crown. It is triggered when a proposed project could adversely affect Treaty rights, such as hunting, fishing and trapping for food. Whether it applies depends on what the project is and where it sits. The extent of consultation depends on how serious the potential impact is on the rights.
Where the duty applies, consultation must be completed before the related approvals can be granted. A project cannot receive its Water Act licence, its public lands disposition or its environmental approval until that requirement is satisfied.
Alberta's consultation process includes mechanisms to ensure that proponents meet consultation expectations and are accountable for the quality of their consultation activities. Serious proponents consult early and properly. Even where the legal duty to consult is not triggered, Alberta encourages companies to engage with local Indigenous communities as part of responsible development.
Did you know?
Where the duty to consult applies, a project cannot receive its water licence, its public land disposition or its environmental approval until consultation is completed.
Section 2
Support to participate meaningfully
Meaningful participation in consultation requires time and resources. Alberta's Indigenous Consultation Capacity Program provides funding to support Indigenous communities' participation in consultation activities. While the funding is not intended to cover all consultation-related costs, communities may use it at their discretion to support activities that help them participate in the process.
The consultation process is also not the only door. Before a company can file for a power plant approval, the utilities regulator requires it to engage Indigenous communities within range of the project, document what it heard, and report what remains unresolved.
Section 3
From consultation to ownership
Some Indigenous communities in Alberta are choosing to participate as investors and owners in major projects.
The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation supports Indigenous communities by providing loan guarantees that improve access to financing, reduce borrowing costs and enable Indigenous communities to pursue equity investments in major projects, on commercial terms. Returns from these investments flow directly to participating communities to support their long-term needs and priorities. Indigenous-led and Indigenous-partnered data centre developments are now emerging in Alberta on exactly this model.
Neighbour
Participant
Partner
Investor
Owner
Whether a community chooses to be a neighbour, a participant, a partner, an investor or an owner is a decision for each community. Alberta's role is to help ensure those opportunities are available.
The role each Indigenous community takes, participant, partner or owner, is the community's decision to make. Alberta's goal is to make every one of those doors real.
Did you know?
Through the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, Indigenous communities can pursue major investment opportunities through loan guarantees that improve access to financing and reduce borrowing costs.
More information+
Is consultation a veto? The duty to consult requires meaningful consultation and, where appropriate, accommodation of the concerns raised. Courts enforce that standard, and approvals granted on inadequate consultation can be overturned.
Learn more: Indigenous consultations in Alberta · Indigenous Consultation Capacity Program · Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.
Is a project proposed near you?
You have the right to be heard, and Alberta makes it easy to learn how.