Photo by Pat Kane

January 17, 2018

“Don’t just talk about it; go do it!”

That has been the message time and time again from Joseph Kochon, Band Manager for the Behdzi Ahda First Nation, as he relates his community’s approach to resource development.

With a population of 157, his community of Colville Lake, Northwest Territories is one of Canada’s smallest. Its tiny size is in stark contrast to the area’s prodigious natural resource potential.

It is the potential that drove Kochon and his small community to start thinking big; and to take the lead in capitalizing on the wealth of opportunities that they envision for their future.   

“If you want something for your community, you need to speak out,” Kochon says. “We see the potential in natural resource development to give our people a better future.”

As with many of the NWT’s Indigenous economic entities, the seeds of economic self-sufficiency in Colville Lake were first sown by the oil and gas sector and explorers eager to assess lands and sub-surface resources.  However, while Kochon and his team were willing to navigate an exploration partnership with Petro Canada and British Gas, his community’s leadership remained skeptical.

Sensing a stalemate, Kochon applied the tenets of traditional knowledge to fortify their vision.

“It is very important in our culture to have visuals,” he says. “My community needed culturally relevant, real-world education on the oil and gas industry.  So, to help them feel more comfortable with industry, we brought community members to Alberta to see pipelines, seismic work, gas plants; you name it.”

With community leaders more embracing of resource development generally, the move paid off and led to a partnership with Paramount Resources Ltd. and Apache Canada for more than $375 million in seismic testing and oil and gas exploration. 

The band’s leadership, however, went one step further – weaving the terms of their deal to provide much longer-term benefits than the immediate exploration.   

They developed a human resources plan to build skills and capacity amongst their residents; and in addition to training opportunities, they negotiated asset acquisitions. “We received more than $500,000 of equipment as part of our agreement,” says David Codzi, President of the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation, the organization responsible for managing regional land use.

“That, along with the employment opportunities and revenue sharing, set us up to do right by our people.”

Unfortunately for the people of Colville Lake, a follow up project was not to be as activity in the oil and gas sector paused. But while Oil and Gas development may have taken a hiatus, the community of Colville Lake did not.

When talk began about reinvesting its capacity and assets into a new airport, it didn’t last long. A new runway was ready to go within two years; and a new airport terminal was opened in 2012.    

Today, the community of Colville Lake has turned its attention to Mining; partnering with the Geological Survey of Canada to study and map their part of the Sahtu region - and preparing themselves to capitalize on a growing interest in the region’s mineral potential.

“We’re now investing in bringing our people the knowledge to succeed in mining,” Codzi says. “From prospector and GIS training, to heavy equipment operation to the training associated with our new sluicing equipment— job readiness is continually improving amongst our people.”  

Research by the NWT Geological Survey may support the band’s new vision. While its remoteness means it has not experienced as much mineral exploration as other NWT areas, diamonds have been found in the region, and its geology is favorable for the formation of a variety of base metal deposits. 

Pre-existing assessment work, collected under the NWT Mining Regulations and curated at the NWT Geological Survey, provides a starting point for the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation and partners taking up the mineral exploration challenge.

“You go in blind and you come out better,” Codzi says. “We can’t base our decisions on fear — just good research and an understanding of how we can best deliver for our people.”

“Culturally, this is all very new to us,” he says, “but we have a great deal of pride in our community and we have witnessed the independence that resource related opportunities provide for our people.” 

Their success and industry-friendly approach is a model for other Northwest Territories bands and indigenous governments anxious to replicate their success.