Powerful or Just Plain Power-Full? A Power Analysis of Impact and Benefit Agreements in Canada’s North

Abstract

Impact and benefit agreements (IBAs) between natural resource developers and Aboriginal communities are increasingly portrayed as viable approaches to assure Aboriginal people will reap economic benefits of resource extraction in their traditional territories. Drawing from existing literature about the social context of IBA negotiations, especially in Northern Canada, the authors’ analysis contributes to the study of negotiated agreements by using Lukes’s three dimensions of power to examine how IBAs confer particular advantages and disadvantages to Aboriginal people and proponents of development, thereby distributing power inequitably. The authors argue that, under some conditions, IBAs may provide more direct engagement with industry and a sharing of benefits from resource development than heretofore has been provided in Northern Canada. Depending on the before-, during- and after processes and outcomes, IBAs can also stifle Aboriginal people from sharing information about benefits negotiated by other groups, prevent deeper understanding of long-term social impacts of development, thwart subsequent objections to the development and its impacts, and reduce visioning about the type and pace of development that is desirable.