Options And Opportunities: Resource Revenue Sharing Between The Crown And Indigenous Groups In Canada

Canada’s Indigenous communities are closely linked to the country’s natural resources sector. Today, private agreements to share benefits and encourage Indigenous community participation have become a common feature of resource sector projects across Canada. The shift in corporate-Indigenous relations complements a parallel shift in Crown-Indigenous relations at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels. This is evident in the increasing number of resource revenue sharing agreements being developed between Indigenous groups and their provincial/territorial counterparts.

This report is the first of an ongoing series on resource governance by Signal49 Research’s Northern and Aboriginal Policy group. It provides an overview of options and opportunities for Crown resource revenue sharing with Indigenous groups in Canada, summarizes findings from our ongoing research, and distills insights from forums we participated in throughout 2016–17. The report concludes with recommendations for advancing Crown resource revenue sharing with Indigenous communities in Canada.