Industry Engagement Strategy A Meaningful Approach to Consultation Dan Martel Four Winds & Associates
Industry Engagement Strategy
A Meaningful Approach to Consultation
Dan Martel Four Winds & Associates
Working definitions
Intelligence
“Ability to deal with new or trying situations”
“Ability to apply knowledge to influence one‟s environment”
Innovation
“The successful implementation of creative ideas”
Working definitions
Consultation
Origin of the word lies in „calling together‟
“A meeting for deliberation, discussion, or decision”
Meaningful consultation
Underlying purpose
What do partners really want?
How can they go about getting that?
In simplest, most honest form:
“Who gets what in exchange for what?”
What do they want?
Industry Access to resources
Value to the community that matches the cost
Aboriginal communities Money (in itself never a lasting benefit)
Jobs
Economic participation
Reasonable compromise between exploiting resources & preserving environment & way of life
Focus today …
Sustainable jobs for Aboriginal Albertans through Aboriginal Community/Industry Engagement
Urgent priority for all stakeholders
Aboriginal individuals & communities
Want to take their place in the economic life of the province
Industry & business
Require qualified & productive workers
Province
Needs its citizens productively involved in the economy
Current scene
Foreign workers
Brought in to address shortage of qualified workers
Workforce projections indicate continuation
and yet …
Large (and growing) untapped Aboriginal workforce
Many trained at considerable expense
No government – federal, provincial or
Aboriginal Community – can afford the
increasing burden of supporting a large
population that is not productively
involved in the economy
Initiatives taken
Province Building & Educating Tomorrow‟s Workforce
MLA Committee on First Nations, Métis & Inuit Workforce Planning Initiative
Active engagement on government-to-government basis
Dialogue with urban Aboriginal organizations & service providers
Meetings with reps. from industry, employers, educational institutions, & training providers
In the MLA Committee’s words …
“The hope was this engagement approach would be a more positive, inclusive process and would support FNMI communities and leaders in bringing their interests, issues and ideas forward and actively involving them in the implementation of solutions.”
Another long, necessary comment …
Only when all parties get involved and commit to the action/s that each of them can and should be taking individually and collectively to improve Aboriginal participation in the workforce and economy will the meaningful results that have so far evaded all stakeholders become a possibility.
Why has success been elusive?
Different expectations
Unclear understanding of what each party is capable of and must deliver for sustainable results
Inadequate coordination & application of available resources
Program implementation controlled a too high a level in government and industry – not enough hands-on solutions
Funding levels lesser issue than absence of results
Not enough joint strategy development; practical accountability; or reasonable performance measurement
Be realistic
Industry gets blamed for the temporary nature of jobs provided to Aboriginal communities.
Many of those jobs, tied to development & construction, are temporary by definition.
Aboriginal career development is often hampered by lack of mobility.
Industry is pragmatic and would welcome Aboriginal workers who meet requirements.
Industry needs assurance that workers are well trained, productive, reasonably mobile, and committed.
Flourishing economies depend on ‘getting’ & ‘giving’.
The system (society) cannot sustain itself otherwise
Government & Industry invest in people: Governments educate & train people & support them
through infrastructure and services so that they can be contributing members of society – and put money back in the pot to help others.
Industry puts money into people who in turn produce money for the company & for themselves.
The system can only function sustainably as long as all parties – government / industry / individuals – give and get.
Aboriginal governments, too, cannot afford to train people if those people do not invest part of their earnings in government – through contributions & user fees.
It’s a two-way street that places legitimate
demands on all parties
Get Education \ Training
Get Job
Give Productivity
Get Pay
Give Contribute to Community
Balance avoids exploitation
Exploitation happens, but it cuts both ways – whenever any party in the circle receives without giving anything in return
The challenge is to keep a balance, but the basic process is essential
All stakeholders have a contribution to make
Community Province Industry / Business
Educational Institutions
Individual
Commitment to the process.
Inventory of skills, training & work history.
Trained, job-ready, committed people.
Social support network.
Services to help people be productive.
Funding. Expertise. Planning.
Share future plans.
Suitably tailored jobs.
Training. Wages. Future security.
Appropriately trained & educated workers.
Commitment. Work ethic. Contribution to community.
Paradigm shift
If the province, Aboriginal governments, & industry want results, nothing less than a paradigm shift will do.
This will involve 3 approaches:
One
Willingness to suspend political correctness (on both sides).
Open debate on the reasons why we have failed to meet the Aboriginal workforce participation challenge effectively.
Two
Agreement about- and acceptance of a number of „truths‟, and adopting those as a set of principles in designing solutions:
It is the interest of all parties to get greater Aboriginal involvement in the workforce & economy
Having a job is not a „right‟, but a privilege.
Creating the right atmosphere & circumstances for economic development & job creation is the responsibility of all levels of government – Aboriginal governments, too.
Aboriginal governments have an active stake in the challenge to get jobs for their people – the province is there to assist them, not to take the full responsibility.
Governments help prepare citizens for jobs on the tacit understanding that they become contributors to the economy & society.
Industry & business do not exist to „provide‟ jobs, but to produce products & services for profit. They hire people to achieve that.
Albertans cannot expect to gain employment & stay in the workforce if they are not qualified & prepared to maintain appropriate levels of productivity.
Jobs cannot be artificially created in the absence of viable local conditions.
Aboriginal leaders can only be effective at the table if they understand what is required in the workplace; what is possible and not possible; and the obligation on all parties to „bring their side‟.
Three
A change in the way „business is done‟:
Accepting that all issues are inter-related & there is no single answer for all circumstances.
Placing less emphasis on centralized, hierarchical decision making in the provincial structure.
Putting more authority for program delivery at the local level.
Taking „politics‟ out of the job creation & people preparation equation.
Change is tough
Tackling the status quo is never easy.
If government, communities & industry keep doing what has always been done with only minor tweaking, the results will not change.
Finally, the ‘change’ proposal
Time to take the bull by the horns
Go at the challenge with integrity
Talk turkey to one another
Acknowledge different interests & try to accommodate what is reasonable & possible
Accept responsibility where it falls
Remember, a balanced outcome is in everybody‟s interest