THE MARTLET
Volume 59 No. 6 / 2006-09-14
by Matthew Gauk
Jeff Corntassel has one word for the new National Chair of Aboriginal Economic Development at UVic and its corporate benefactors: "shameful."
The new chair position, which will be chosen this school year and starts in the fall of 2007, will operate in the faculties of business and law. It’s been in the works for about six years, but the last year-and-a-half has seen a boom in fundraising success. Calgary-based EnCana Corporation, Canada’s largest energy company, donated $1 million to the chair, and this past June Enbridge Inc., another Calgary-based energy company, donated $200,000.
The stated aim of this chair is to "direct a program of research, relationship-building and education to advance aboriginal economic development in Canada," according to a UVic media release.
"The university has traded away some of its integrity for corporate sponsorship," said Corntassel, a member of the Cherokee and professor of political science in UVic’s Indigenous Governance Program.
Corntassel bases much of his opposition to the chair’s corporate sponsors on the fact that Enbridge is currently in the midst of a heated debate with First Nations in northern B.C. over the oil company’s proposed Gateway Pipeline Project.
The pipeline would start northeast of Edmonton and end in Kitimat, a small coastal community in the northwest of B.C., where the oil would be exported to places like China and the United States.
Enbridge has encountered some serious opposition to the pipeline from local First Nations groups whose land the pipeline would cross. Bands like the Haida, the Carrier Sekani and the member nations of the Treaty 8 have all voiced concerns over possible spills and an unfair distribution of oil wealth. To this end, Enbridge is trying to increase awareness of the economic opportunities such projects could bring remote native reserves.
But Corntassel worries that the chair may be beholden to corporate motives such as Enbridge’s desire for broad support among First Nations for the pipeline project. He said this kind of resource extraction-based economic development, which includes things like logging or the diamond industry, has historically been terrible for indigenous communities all over the world and ends up benefiting only a small number of people.
"The way I see it is these two corporations that have really poor track records of working with indigenous communities are seeking some form of legitimacy through the university," Corntassel said. "They’re promising jobs, job training; they’re promising new managerial positions and entrepreneurial opportunities. But these are pretty hollow promises when you look a little deeper."
Another of Corntassel’s concerns about the corporate sponsorship has to do with the reputations of these two energy companies. EnCana has come under fire from Amnesty International due to its work in Ecuador.
The documentary, Between Midnight and the Rooster’s Crow, examines the purported collusion between EnCana and the Ecuadorian government to quell opposition to their work by any means necessary. Similarly, Enbridge operates Colombia’s biggest pipeline, OCENSA, and some groups, Amnesty included, share concerns that the OCENSA security apparatus is involved in conflict in Colombia.
Enbridge and EnCana representatives were not available for comment.
John Borrows is a professor in the faculty of law at UVic and is chair of Aboriginal Justice and Governance. Borrows, an Anishinabe and a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation, filled the first of two chair positions sought by the faculties of law and business a number of years ago, and he supports the creation of a second.
"Funders have been brought in, yes, but their aspirations direct the chair,"
he said. "In the past so much of economic development in aboriginal communities has been driven by external factors, by business and government.
But we’ve been able to establish the independence of the chair."
Because the chair will be filled by a member of the faculty who will work as a professor, they will have complete academic freedom, according to Borrows.
They will be accountable to the university senate, the dean and the board of governors, and not to EnCana or the provincial government. The chair will have complete independence to take positions and set their own research agenda, with "no strings attached," he said.
There will be a symposium this fall to determine the exact nature of the position. In broad terms, the chair will do research on what constitutes successful economic development within aboriginal communities and how to get there. It will establish working relationships with various arms of government and the business world to develop the material capacity of aboriginal communities, and it will create an environment to encourage students to come to UVic and study aboriginal economic development. The chair will also have a publications function and will create links with the co-op program to place students in the field.
Borrows said the chair would address some of the traditional problems in native communities such as higher levels of unemployment and underachievement in education. Any economic development in these communities will be done in accordance with aboriginal traditions and with respect to their view of the world.
"I guess this is a good thing if you see economic development as a solution to the problems in these communities," said Taiaiake Alfred, director of the Indigenous Governance Program. "I happen to think that economic development is a secondary concern. The first is ensuring the health and the cultural and social strength of the community.
"There’s no evidence that money positively affects situations in native communities. Money has never solved the problems."
The remainder of the money for the chair came from Industry Canada, which donated $2 million, and the provincial government, which donated $1 million.