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Helping hand for aboriginals
Cenovus Energy to spend C$50 million over 5 years building about 200 homes on First Nations and Metis lands in its operating areas Gary Park for Petroleum News
Cenovus Energy, one of the big league oil sands producers, is filling a blank left by the Canadian government by pledging C$50 million to build about 200 new homes in six First Nations and Metis communities near the company’s major operations in northeastern Alberta.
If the venture, which Cenovus hopes will help build links and “contribute to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” is successful, the company said it will consider extending the commitment to C$100 million over 10 years.
Chief Executive Officer Alex Pourbaix said he was moved to take action after visiting the communities and encountering parents with large families living in nothing more than a one-room cabin, often without running water or electricity.
“It is an extraordinary problem,” he told a news conference. “We can’t solve the Indigenous housing crisis by ourselves, but through this initiative, we have the opportunity to significantly improve the lives of many families currently living in overcrowded and unsafe conditions.”
A Cenovus official said that while the federal government provides funding for First Nations for housing on indigenous land, existing budget caps prevent the communities from keeping pace with their population growth.
Drop in First Nations revenues In addition, many First Nations that have joint ventures with oil and gas companies have seen large percentage declines in revenues that make it harder for them to fund their own infrastructure projects.
Vern Janvier, chief of the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, said oil- and gas-based revenues have dropped in some cases by a third over the past six years since commodity prices tumbled.
He said the fact that a for-profit company is stepping into the breach is significant, especially when the funding is being made available without any strings attached.
Cenovus said it wants to work with the communities to develop a training program so that local residents can get jobs building and maintaining the new homes, while proper housing will allow the company to hire more Indigenous people for its Christina Lake and Foster Creek oil sands projects.
Cenovus recently announced that it has set new environmental, social and governance, ESG, targets that commit the company to spend a minimum of C$1.5 billion with aboriginal businesses on top of the almost C$3 billion it invested over the 11 years since it was founded in a break-up of Encana.
ESG metrics are becoming key milestones to institutional investors and foreign pension funds, many of whom have applied pressure on Canadian oil sands companies to adopt and demonstrate rigorous standards in this sector.
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