Conflict Arenas in the Management of Renewable Resources in the Canadian North: Perspectives Based on Conflicts and Responses in the James Bay Region, Quebec.

Abstract

The mandate of the working group for which this background paper was prepared was to identify national and regional interests and conflicts in the management of renewable resources in the Canadian north. Then to explore the means available to reconcile or to deal effectively with such conflicts, highlighting those that are resistant to effective reconciliation. In the paper I comment mainly on the means being tried for reconciling conflicts in the James Bay region of Quebec. I consider five arenas of conflict: the recognition and definition of the basic rights of Native hunters; the management of the resources; the allocation of the resources among conflicting users; the provision of adequate cash incomes for Indigenous hunters; and the protection of renewable resources from the effects of non-renewable resource development. I review the provisions, logic and initial implementation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) of 1975 in these conflict arenas. I identify some of these conflicts over renewable resources in the North that may be resolvable in the short and medium terms primarily through recognition and enhancement of local control over lands and resources. I identify other aspects of these conflicts are not so resolvable. They require looking for means of making more fundamental political, economic, and cultural changes, including to Canada’s national interests.