| This dissertation examines the ways in which three Aboriginal communities in the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories are participating in decisions and activities related to non-renewable resource extraction on Sahtu lands. In particular, I examine local involvement in the assessment and regulation of a 1,220 km natural gas pipeline and related infrastructure, collectively termed the Mackenzie Gas Project, currently proposed for the Mackenzie Valley. Overall, this work addresses the conditions under which Sahtu Dene and Metis participation in resource decision-making takes place; it identifies and offers a critique of some of the assumptions inherent in regulatory, environmental assessment, and consultative processes currently in place in the Sahtu region, and argues that while there has been significant progress in establishing avenues for Sahtu Dene and Metis participation in resource decision-making, non-local epistemological underpinnings of governance, regulatory, and environmental assessment institutions and practices can hinder local participation in resource decision-making and may serve to reinforce existing power relationships between proponents, Aboriginal communities, and the Canadian state. The findings of this research suggest that there are several barriers to Sahtu Dene and Metis participation in resource decision-making, including: (1) how environmental impacts are assessed and the associated determination of their "significance" in environmental assessment and management regimes; (2) the naturalization of techno-rational knowledge paradigms and legalistic discourse in environmental assessment and regulatory processes; (3) incongruent communicative practices and norms of appropriate human and human/other than-human relationships between local Dene and Metis participants and those of large development corporations and governments; (4) divergent perceptions of the landscape; and (5) changing governance structures resulting from the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim. This research contributes to a growing assessment of current participatory and resource co-management processes in the Canadian north, and addresses the call for research reflecting local experiences of various participatory processes in resource management, including the often messy and contradictory positions taken by members of a diverse community. |
