It is great to see that Tyhee has produced a social responsibility statement with special reference to the welfare of aboriginal people in the Yellowknife area. This kind of approach is becoming more important as time goes on, and as natives become more assertive and as government attempts to change the conditions on reserves to make them more independent and progressive in developing their economic resources.

In the short term, in places where natives have not had any history of dealing with mining companies, it can be anticipated that there will be some difficulties. However, natives themselves are most often very interested in working and in developing their opportunities on reserve, and recognize the benefits of supporting mining.

Aboriginal policy in Canada for many years has been aimed at increasing government resources to natives on reserves by transferring larger amounts to local Band governments, and in many cases directly intervening to build housing stocks and install infrastructure when these have been associated with poor public health. There have been some successful businesses developed on reserves. However, serious problems in the past have been a tendency for Band Councils to set their own priorities for spending government money (often creating serious inequities among band members and benefiting themselves rather than the community), and for the populations on reserves to become more dependent on government and demobilized by their local politics reinforcing inequities and dependence.

The Canadian government is responding to a need to: 1) make the case for diverting a significant share of Treaty benefits from Band Councils to individual Aboriginal Canadians; 2) to make the case for introducing on-reserve taxation by Band Councils; and 3) introducing the idea of private ownership of property and resources.

These new policies and the developing awareness of individual and family opportunity by aboriginal Canadians will stir up a new politics both within local Bands (as vested interests are threatened and respond), and between the Bands and the government and mining companies, but over the long term it is believed that the benefits of private resources and mobilization of the huge capacity of aboriginals to contribute to their own welfare will bear fruit for them and for mining companies as well. Ike