NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, land use

Objective(s): To collect information for planning and incorporation into Avalon’s Developer’s Assessment Report (DAR) as required by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board’s (MVEIRB) Environmental Assessment Process.

Project Description: The Traditional Knowledge study described in the following sections is wholly contingent upon the Fort Resolution community’s review, input and approval. It is also contingent upon the application and receipt of a scientific research license from the Aurora Research Institute. Upon the successful completion of these items, the proposed study is planned to be conducted for Avalon by: • EBA affiliated Research Analyst Sara Swisher, B.S. & M.S. Communication; and/or • EBA Environmental Planner Tara Schmidt, B.Sc. Environmental Planning & MCIP. The collected information will be used for continued planning and incorporated into Avalon’s Developer’s Assessment Report (DAR) as required by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board’s (MVEIRB) Environmental Assessment Process. The study will be conducted in general conformance with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board’s (MVEIRB) Guidelines for Incorporating Traditional Knowledge in Environmental Impact Assessment, July 2005. Avalon will hire local Community Representatives, whose essential functions will be to: • Identify interview candidates; • Coordinate meeting times; • Assist with the administration of the “Participant Prior Informed Consent” form; • Translate and/or clarify where necessary; and • Review interview notes with the Research Analyst and/or Environmental Planner at the end of each day. The Community Representatives will be recommended by the Deninu Ku’e First Nations (DKFN) and Fort Resolution Metis Council (FRMC) and compensated by Avalon. Qualitative interviews will be used to collect the Traditional Knowledge in this study. Interviews will be held in a mutually agreed upon location; preferably a comfortable and private location rented by Avalon from the DKFN. The Research Analyst and/or Environmental Planner will give a brief description of Avalon’s Thor Lake Project if the participant is not familiar with the Project. The description will be followed by a series of qualitative survey questions. All participant responses will be recorded on the survey instrument with hand-written notes. Throughout the course of each interview, the Research Analyst’s and/or Environmental Planner’s written responses will be read back to the participants for approval, editing and/or clarification as needed. Each interview will require approximately 1 hour 45 minutes and will be conducted by the Research Analyst and/or Environmental Planner with the assistance of a Community Representative from the Deninu Ku’e and Metis communities. The sample population for the qualitative interviews will be identified by the Deninu Ku’e and Metis Community Representatives and will include 10-15 DKFN and 5-10 FRMC individuals. Elders and/or individuals with extensive land-use experience and knowledge of the South Slave region are the preferred sample population for the study. Study participants should be representative of the entire community and come from different families with different experiences in order to avoid biased results. Once the data is collected, the Research Analyst and/or Environmental Planner will develop a final report for the Deninu Ku’e and Metis communities. Copies of all of the field data and the final report will be returned to the community for archival purposes. The data will be compiled and reported using standard qualitative research practices. Participant names will be noted in the “participant” section of the final report. However, all comments and results will be reported confidentially. The participants’ original surveys and Participant Prior Informed Consent forms will be returned to their respective DKFN and FRMC communities with their names on them for archival purposes. Any copies of the participants’ surveys that are made during the course of the study will be destroyed upon completion of the study. Original final reports will be sent to both the DKFN and FRMC. Avalon will retain a copy of the report for incorporation and use throughout the Environmental Assessment process. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 30, 2010 to December 31, 2010.