The goal of an IBA is to secure project certainty while ensuring benefits are shared among communities, risks or negative impacts are mitigated, and the interests of communities are acknowledged. As IBAs are increasingly becoming a common means of acquiring community consent (especially among Indigenous rights holders) and this can later be considered part of the Crown’s duty to consult, now more than ever, it is critical that communities and industry craft meaningful impact benefit agreements. In this workshop, speakers will share key insights and provide principles to support First Nations communities in preparing for and implementing IBAs. Topics of discussion include:

• Reviewing the key differences between types of natural resource projects that should impact negotiation
• Developing best practices for pre-negotiation
• The importance of early relationship building
• Building community capacity to negotiate and benefit from projects
• Identifying goals, needs, and expectations of communities and industry
• Developing best practices for negotiation
• How often to meet, and when, and how
• Understanding what “success” means to each negotiating party
• Considering any fiscal regimes needed to secure monetary benefits
• Setting out non-monetary benefits and impacts
• Finalizing an agreement
• Developing best practices for implementation
• Realizing and managing benefits from the project
• Mitigating adverse impacts and keeping detailed reports
• Monitoring IBA performance and adjusting the IBA as needed
• Developing best practices for post-project completion
• Ensuring IBA benefits and their impact are sustainable and long lasting
• Evaluating the IBA and using that evaluation to inform future agreements