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| Name | Socially Responsible Development in the Rapidly Evolving Canadian North Project (CURA) |
| Project Lead | Wes Cragg |
| Email | wcragg@schulich.yorku.ca |
| Project Status | Pending |
| Administrator | Michael Windle |
| Administrator Email | mwindle@cbern.ca |
| Workspace Portal | http://cbern.sharpschool.com/research/projects/workspaces/cura_project/ |
| External Website | www.cbern.ca |
| Areas of Interest | Development; Economic - Environmental; Economic - Social; Education; Human Rights; Resource Extraction; Spirituality; SRI/Responsible Investment; Sustainability |
| Region | Northern Canada |
| Summary | This project proposes to build shared understandings of the values, needs, expectations and knowledge, that can lay the foundations for “joint visioning” of the design and implementation of development projects in the Canadian North. |
| Description | Economic development has been identified by many northern First Nations and other northern communities as essential to their survival and their quality of life. It is now widely acknowledged, however, that economic development alone cannot and will not ensure the well being of the northern communities it impacts. What is required is development that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. To achieve this goal, development must be grounded on an awareness of, and respect for, the insights, traditional knowledge, cultural imperatives, and rights of northern Aboriginal and non Aboriginal communities. At the same time, attracting the development so necessary to the creation and maintenance of viable communities in the North requires a shared and realistic appreciation of the economic imperatives that ground and attract economically viable and socially responsible development.
Currently, there is a pressing need to build shared understandings of the values, needs, expectations and knowledge, that can lay the foundations for “joint visioning” of the design and implementation of development projects in the Canadian North, a need to which our proposed Community/University Research Alliance (CURA) is a response.
Our Community/University Research Alliance has three goals:
Knowledge generation, aimed at mapping the diverse values that intersect around economic planning and development initiatives;
Capacity building, so that northern First Nation and non Aboriginal communities, resource development companies, and relevant stakeholders are better able to form productive relationships and together navigate the complex process of moving toward responsible development; and
Knowledge mobilization, to ensure that, through dialogue assisted by advanced information communication technologies, knowledge is accessible and shared across the North and with companies exploring or engaged in mineral extraction in the North.
The initiative for this CURA originated with and is being formed at the specific request of our two community partners, the Naskapi Nation of northern Quebec and the Missanabie Cree Nation of northern Ontario. For these partners and many other similar communities in the Canadian North, resource extraction and mining offer an opportunity, and, in some cases, the only realistic opportunity, for economic development. This project will focus primarily on the challenges and opportunities that mining poses particularly for First Nations in the northern areas of Canada’s provinces and for the companies interested in mining the North’s mineral wealth.
The research team will be jointly led by Wesley Cragg, Director of the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN), based at the Schulich School of Business at York University, two First Nation partners, a First Nation Elder and an experienced team of four academic co-applicants drawn from three universities, York, Carleton and Guelph. The research team will also include, as partners and collaborators, three Canadian mining associations, two mining companies, two national government departments, three Not-For-Profit organizations, three self employed business consultants with extensive experience in the mining industry, and an additional four scholars from three additional universities.
We anticipate that this CURA will yield new knowledge and theoretical insights on the concept of responsible development in the North, as well as practical tools for increasing the capacity of First Nation and other northern communities and resource extraction companies to share knowledge and resources on these issues. Of equal importance, this CURA will support the evolution of institutions, processes and guidelines that will contribute positively to community well being and economic development in the Canadian North.
The genesis of our proposal submitted to SSHRC in September 2009 was supported by funding from SSHRC through the CURA LOI grant, awarded to CBERN and its partners in March 2009.
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| Lead Organization | CBERN |
| Start date | 2008 |
| End date | |
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