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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Doing Credible Cultural Assessment: Applied Social Science1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Patricia A. McCormack
Patricia A. McCormack*
Affiliation:
Native Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
*
Address correspondence to: Patricia A. McCormack, PhD, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Native Studies, Pembina Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H8, Canada; (phone) 780-992-9792; (e-mail) pat.mccormack@albertacom.com.
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Abstract

This article is about socio-cultural expertise and knowledge in the context of environmental hearings in Alberta, Canada, to determine whether or not new oil sands projects should be approved. It identifies serious problems with cultural assessments about potential impacts on Aboriginal peoples done by consultants for oil sands hearings in Alberta and proposes that consultants doing cultural assessments should have qualifications equivalent to those of expert witnesses for the courts. It also raises the concern that the review panel members who preside over such hearings and their staffs may also lack expertise in socio-cultural matters concerning Aboriginal people. Both gaps impact directly on the recommendations made by review panels to the governments that make final decisions.

Environmental Practice 18: 148–165 (2016)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 148 - 165
Copyright
© National Association of Environmental Professionals 2016 

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Footnotes

1

This article originated in a submission to an oil sands hearing in 2012 and then was prepared as a conference paper for “Who Has the Right to Define Cultural Values in Impact Assessment,” a session in Impact Assessment: The Next Generation, the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment, 13-16 May 2013, Calgary, Alberta. It has greatly benefitted by editorial remarks provided by Dr. Jennifer S. H. Brown and three anonymous reviewers; I thank them all for their commentary and recommendations.

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