From "social licence" to "social partnership" : Promoting shared interests for resource and infrastructure development

The central challenge facing governments, businesses, and affected communities is how to bridge the gap between regulatory requirements ostensibly intended to serve the broader public interest, and competing views of “legitimacy” based on the accommodation of diverse social and political interests and values. [...] Effective engagement should draw from promoting the formation of multistakeholder existing models of successful multistakeholder groups and encouraging proactive industry outreach consultation and cooperation to secure mutual to municipal governments and First Nations accommodation between the interests of companies through corridor coalitions and related approaches and stakeholders throughout a p [...] As a result, from and adapt existing models of multistakeholder federal and provincial regulatory processes can lead consultation and cooperation to secure mutual to major political disputes, as in recent conflicts accommodation between the interests of companies over “urban drilling” policies in Alberta and the and stakeholders throughout a project’s life cycle expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans- [...] To address broader Ongoing negotiations among the Haida nation life-cycle questions, longer-term partnerships are and the federal and British Columbia governments required to ensure the effective sharing of benefits since the 1980s provide yet another model for and management or the avoidance of risks (CEPA mutual recognition and partnership building. [...] These activities contribute to the sharing a practical means for the collaborative review of of best practices and the development of industry risks from the development and application of new guidelines as a complement to changing regulatory technologies.