How industry, First Nations and provincial leaders forged a consensus in Labrador

As the New Brunswick government and the Wolastoqey Nation prepare for what could be a decade-long legal battle over Aboriginal title, an alternative approach is continuing to unfold on the eastern edge of Atlantic Canada.

In Labrador this week, the owners of the Voisey's Bay nickel mine have halted marine shipping to and from the mine, just as they do every year on Dec. 6.

It's part of an agreement to minimize the breaking up of winter ice by ships so that Inuit and Innu hunters can cross that ice to harvest in their traditional territories.

Two decades ago, "the issue threatened to be a deal breaker," said a 2008 presentation by two officials with Vale Inco, the mine owner.

But the Inuit and the Innu people, already deep into land claim negotiations with the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, agreed to set up a working group with the company.

"Over a number of years this group established trust and common understanding between the parties on the issue of both open water and winter shipping," Vale Inco said in 2008.

Now the company halts shipping periodically through the winter to let the water freeze over again so it can be used by the Inuit and the Innu.

That agreement, and broader agreements on financial and job benefits for the Inuit and Innu of Labrador, are a potential model for other provinces facing seemingly intractable land disputes.

"It was new, different. It was sort of ground-breaking at the time," said Roger Grimes, who was premier of Newfoundland and Labrador at the time the deals were negotiated.

Fighting it out in court might have doomed the mine and cost the Inuit their five per cent share of provincial royalties from the mine, said Theresa Baikie, the impact and benefits co-ordinator for the Nunatsiavut government.

Nunatsiavut is the self-governing entity of the Inuit people of Labrador established in 2005 as a result of their land claim settlement.

"I don't know if the project would have proceeded" if there had been a lengthy court fight, Baikie says.

"Either that or we would not have the benefits that we get, whether it be training, employment or royalties or business opportunities."

Royalties from the mine have helped pay for education, culture and language preservation, youth programs and job training in Nunatsiavut communities.