NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, monitoring, remediation

Objective(s): To identify the socio-economic predictions made by communities affected by the Diavik Diamond Mining Project; to determine the degrees of “accommodation” made in relation to the predicted effects including what measures were taken to mitigate or manage problems created and determine what issues remain unaddressed; and to develop a framework and tool for communities to track issues and their address over the life-cycle of these mining projects.

Project Description: The objectives of this project are to: 1) identify the socio-economic predictions made by communities affected by the Diavik Diamond Mining Project; 2) determine the degrees of “accommodation” made in relation to the predicted effects including what measures were taken to mitigate or manage problems created and determine what issues remain unaddressed; and, 3) develop a framework and tool for communities to track issues and their address over the life-cycle of these mining projects. This research will consist of two parts. First, the Principal Investigator (PI) will meet with the Chief and council to determine the interest in the project and the desired outcomes for the community stemming from this research. In this initial phase of research the PI would like to better understand the community's needs in order to conduct appropriate research on this topic. Secondly, assuming there is adequate interest for this research, the PI will conduct semi-structured interviews with local community members. With these interviews the PI will examine the concerns stemming from consultation and the lack of attention to addressing concerns raised in the consultation process. There will be many opportunities for local involvement within the community throughout the course of the research. To help collect data and information, there will be a research assistant from the community who will assist. As part of the research the PI will be helping to set up a monitoring program for youth to engage and understand environmental issues in their region. It is hoped that this youth monitoring program would exist long past the duration of the research. To collect the data the PI will conduct interviews. Additionally, the data collected in the interviews conducted will be given back to the community in order to familiarize the community with community members concerns regarding consultation in environmental management. Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation will receive copies of all interviews conducted where the permission has been granted by the interviewee to disclose this to the community. The results, conclusions and possible publications from this research will be shared with the community. This will allow the community to better understand the impacts from natural resource extraction in the region. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from October 20, 2017 to December 31, 2017.