We pledge to listen, repeatedly, to Knowledge Holders, Community Advisory Groups, Elders and Chiefs, to ensure on an on-going basis that we understand the resource issues from the traditional and cultural perspective that are embedded within our client's collective memory.
We will repeat back to our First Nation clients our understanding of the mandate that they have asked us to work on. Only then will we begin our technical and professional analysis of the actual natural resources, the analysis of Cumulative Environmental Impacts and Climate Change, the technical environmental evaluation, and the local, provincial and jurisidictional arrangements currently in place, the legal basis for their water and environmental management activities, the interface betwen jurisdictions and on the ground enforcement policies (or lack thereof) that define the the totality of current natural resource management across the traditional territory.
We apply this approach to both treaty and resource development reviews.
First Nations Specific Negotiation Experience
Brian Olding & Associates Ltd. was selected by the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group to prepare chapters and provide table negotiation support and strategy for chapters on Environmental Assessment, Sub-surface management, Environmental Protection, Water Resource Management, and, Shared Decision Making. We spent five years working with Hul'qumi'num community working groups, from whom the ground-up mandates were conveyed to me by community knowledge holders, Elders and Chiefs. Brian Olding directly assisted at the tripartite table negotiations for assigned chapters.
Federal Negotiation Experience
Brian Olding M.Env.Des., worked for five years with the Federal Treaty Negotiation Office on environmental and water mandate development. Brian Olding chaired the British Columbia Treaty Negotiation Advisory Committee, carried out evaluations of First Nation regional resource management initiatives in British Columbia, managed the BC Capacity Initiative, components of Treaty Related Measures and the Canada-BC Information Sharing Agreement, for which his Team won the first Federal Treaty Office Outstanding Achievement and Award of Excellence.
