Social & Economic Innovation

RRM is striving for resource integration at the landscape level. Building on the past of Canada’s natural resources sector, the expected result of RRM will be an innovative natural resources sector that is a global leader in both social practices and green technologies.

Using the collaborative and multi-stakeholder approach of the CMFN as a neutral and honest broker, it will provide the venue to facilitate discussion, decision-making and adoption of new practices in Canada’s natural resource sectors. These forums will result in:

• Changed public perceptions of Canada’s natural resource sectors
• Exchange of lessons learned and engaging partners in new discussions
• Learning, sharing, building, and implementing industry best practices which will facilitate discussions during the planning and continue into the development and closure phases on topics pertaining to:
  1. Improvement of community engagement strategies across sectors
  2. Improvement of lines of communication from the bottom-up and vice versa
  3. Indication of Canadian natural resource sector challenges and opportunities
• Investment in research for greener technologies and adoption of higher industry standards for equipment and heavy machinery
• Emergence of Canada as a global leader in responsible resource management

Rural & Aboriginal Training and Employment

Canada’s natural resources sector is expanding. Canadian forest product companies will need to hire 60 000 or more new workers by 2020. The Canadian mining and minerals sector will be looking to recruit approximately 100,000 new employees in the next 10 years.

In contrast, the unemployment rate among Aboriginal people according to the 2006 Canadian Census was 14.8%, more than double the Canadian average. Employment in rural areas is a current challenge, with many young people moving to urban areas in search of employment.

The CMFN RRM strategy will engage rural and Aboriginal young people to contribute to filling the jobs needed in the Canadian natural resource sectors. This will be done by:

• Identifying, at the local level, where industry jobs are located and what specific skills are required to fill those jobs
• Identifying what challenges local communities are facing to be able to gain employment in local natural resource sectors
• Building national partnerships with industry associations and training agencies to jointly engage rural youth about the opportunities in Canada’s natural resource sectors
• Working closely with communities to provide education and training for employment in natural resource sectors
• Planning, developing, and implementing programs that engage a broad group of stakeholders and natural resource sectors (multi-disciplinary in its approach)

A Healthy Environment for Tomorrow:

The CMFN envisions a healthy Canadian environment for future generations. RRM will create an integrated resource management approach that will give industry and local people the tools to engage in effective and meaningful decision-making to harvest and extract natural resources in a way that won’t compromise the well being of future Canadians. RRM will contribute to a healthy environment and communities by:

• Working with industry and stakeholders to build assessment, production and closure plans for the project
• Framework for identifying species at risk, socially meaningful ecological sites, fragile ecosystems, and other high conservation value elements