Cameco Corporation - Working with Aboriginal Community

Cameco Corporation is a uranium mining company based in Saskatoon, Canada. An unexpected approach from an Aboriginal Community which is Reindeer Lake Community (RLC) making the director of Corporate Responsibility (CR) at Cameco Corporation, Sean Willy, having a deep thought. Reindeer Lake Community were seeking an agreement similar to Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBAs) that had been negotiated with other communities in northern Saskatchewan. Sean Willy need to think fast whether he should accept the agreement or not.

The stakeholder in this case is Sean Willy, the director of Corporate Responsibility at Cameco Corporation. Another important stakeholder is the Aboriginal Community, Reindeer Lake Community (RLC). This community was a member of Peter Ballantyne First Nation (PBFN). The third stakeholder is Canada and Saskatchewan Government, the announcer of the merger and privatization of Elcador Nuclear Ltd. and the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation. Employees of Cameco Corporation also one of the important stakeholder in this case. In addition, English River First Nation (ERFN) and the Métis community are also the stakeholder.

Reindeer Lake Community is inexperienced with agreements of any kind. With little understanding of the history that had shaped the current Interest and Benefit Agreement (IBAs), this will make them not a suitable partner in the business. Not only that, RLC also inexperienced with challenged in terms of business capacity. This resulting that RLC need a lot of improvement in order to become a ready business minded. Another commercial problem in this case is that RLC was much more tied to the traditional economy of hunting and fishing. It will make them hard to communicate with and they will not simply accept change in their life.

As similar case happened to XYZ Corporation and JKL Community, I suggest that XYZ Corporation to do volunteer community work. This is the best way to support JKL Community directly. Moreover, XYZ Corporation could detect the real problems that JKL Community faced. For some of the community, there are many things that still just a dreams such as healthy children and a good job. In this volunteer community work, control of development are given to the JKL Community and respect the local knowledge. This will resulting that JKL Community will learn new things, building confidence, self-esteem and improve their job prospects. In the other hand, XYZ Corporation start to gain more trust and a long term benefits from the community.

In order to make JKL Community a partnership ready, XYZ Corporation need to help with bureaucracy. This is because most of the aboriginal community already have existing funds or initiative that provided by their government. The reason why the community not use the funds is they struggle to complete the necessary paperwork. This method not only give benefits to the community but it also will reduce cost occur by the XYZ Corporation. A little bit more training about the business world will make JKL Community more knowledgeable than before.

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