Western Canadians have a few action-oriented words of advice to resource developers.
They know that you create jobs and income. They know about your efforts to build communities and protect the environment.
But they want you to improve.
Resource industries looking to build support need to spend more time in communities learning about their expectations. A poll commissioned by the Canada West Foundation provides revealing clues of what they might learn.
Our pollster, Ipsos Reid, surveyed residents in the four western provinces, plus Ontario for comparison purposes. The purpose was to test peoples’ attitudes, and it found a number of examples of polarization.
For example, the most common reason given for trusting forestry was environmentally sustainable practices; the most common reason for not trusting forestry was that it does not follow sustainable practices.
For energy and mining, supporters see economic benefits and detractors see profit motives.
The dichotomy is clear. The question is what to do about it, and how to find the right balance between improving performance and communicating what is being done.
For example, respondents expressed strong concern over public health and safety even though resource companies already meet a very high standard. Our outreach needs to focus on understanding and closing the gap between performance and expectations.
Westerners, and especially Albertans, see energy contributing more strongly to the economy than farming. They also see resources as a key contributor to our future, and want to see all four resource industries expand.
However, performance is seen as lagging in environmental protection, health and safety, and contributions to local communities.
The survey also explored perceptions of the role of government. Western Canadians believe that governments exert the strongest influence on resource development, followed in order by non-government agencies (including industry associations), regulatory tribunals, conservation agencies, environmental NGOs, the general public and Aboriginal Canadians.
Respondents said that one of their main reasons to trust resource industries is government regulation, yet they are looking for better outcomes in key regulatory areas, such as environmental protection and health and safety. If governments can better understand and deliver the regulatory outcomes people are looking for, it will help build trust and support.
If governments deliver on economic benefits, environmental protection and societal development, then public support for resource development will grow. Fail to find that balance and individual projects will be dogged by broader issues.
Resource industries and governments must be willing to learn from communities, rather than vice versa. Just ask them what matters and what to do about it. Act on what they say.
And stay miles away from lightning rod positions like pointing to increased costs or competitiveness as a reason for not acting or even for constraining your willingness to act.
Len Coad is the director of the Centre for Natural Resources Policy at the Canada West Foundation, which exclusively focuses on policies that shape the quality of life in western Canada.
