Oil and gas and the Inuvialuit people of the Western Arctic

Abstract

PurposeTo learn how Inuvialuit people feel about the oil and gas activities on their land.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were administered to a stratified sample, on Inuvialuit land. Participants included: Inuvialuit elders; entrepreneurs; public servants; employees of the private sector; managers of oil companies; unemployed persons; housewives; the mayor of Inuvik; and the first aboriginal woman leader in Canada.FindingsIt was reported that oil and gas industry activities are having a positive impact on the regional economy, creating indirect as well as direct financial benefits for the Inuvialuit among others. However, some residents qualified their support saying that they are in favour of continued activity only if benefits filter to them as opposed to being enjoyed only by oil companies and migrant employees. Concern was also expressed for the environment and for the threat that development brings to wildlife upon which people rely on as a food source.Research limitations/implicationsThis study should have a longitudinal follow‐up.Practical implicationsWhile oil and gas exploration and the building of a pipeline may have economic advantages, this might have social, cultural and environment costs for the Inuvialuit.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates how oil and gas activities on Inuvialuit land will transform the lives of these people.

A State‐of‐the‐Art Review of Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Pollution

“…This category includes exploration, fracking and extraction operations, and pipeline transport, and is the source of considerable amounts of pollution in many IP lands (Cepek 2002; Dana et al 2008; Pristupa et al 2018). Although there is no global database on the impacts of oil releases on indigenous communities, well‐known cases featured in the media include the Exxon Valdez oil spill that affected Chugach hunting grounds in Alaska, resulting in a nearly 50% drop in hunting (Burger 1997; O'Rourke and Connolly 2003) or the infamous oil spills in Ogoniland (Osuagwu and Olaifa 2018).…”

“…For example, many IPs participated in Canada's Arctic Environmental Strategy to include a Northern Contaminants Program (Selin and Selin 2008). Other examples include changes in Indonesian law to add indigenous permits for mining (Spiegel 2012), use of impact benefit agreements (Wright and White 2012); creation of IP corporations and contracts for running oil concessions (Dana et al 2008; O'Faircheallaigh 2013), community mining consultations (Walter and Urkidi 2017), or participatory mechanisms to involve IPs in pollution assessments (Burger et al 2009).…”

Harm reduction through housing first: an assessment of the Emergency Warming Centre in Inuvik, Canada

“…First, acrimonious relationships between original inhabitants of the Mackenzie Valley and southern business interests led to the Berger [4] report which recommended that Aboriginal land claims be settled before oil and gas exploration commenced. Second, the estimated high cost of oil and gas extraction delayed construction of the pipeline, and when combined with market volatility, stymied further extraction research projects by oil and gas companies [1, 8, 11]. …”

“…The frontier character accompanying oil and gas exploration brought with it substantial social impacts, the effects of which are still present. While the causal linkages between homelessness and concurrent disorders are debated at many levels, a substantial body of research in northern Canada identifies the negative impact of colonization, resource extraction and economic development on Aboriginal peoples [1, 3, 8, 11, 37, 38]. Following Berger [4] comments, research on communities affected by resource extraction repeatedly shows that boom cycles are associated with (a) increasing crime and addiction rates, (b) housing shortages and increased housing costs and (c) strains on public services including health, social work and most levels of government infrastructure [3, 13, 37–39].…”

Arctic petroleum: local CSR perceptions in the Nenets region of Russia

“…Various studies of petroleumrelated CSR programmes around the world have had different objectives and different outcomes (e.g. Dana et al, 2008Dana et al, , 2009Frynas 2005;Moe, 2005, 2007;Kirat, 2015;Rowe, 2016;Schmidt, 2011;Wilson, 2016;Wilson and Stammler, 2006). Frynas (2005) and Gulbrandsen and Moe (2007) distinguish between micro and macro-level CSR, the latter finding (p. 813) that micro-level CSR activities by their nature involve 'benign' and uncontroversial issues and projects, potentially benefiting both company reputation and community development.…”