Burnt Church and Elsipogtog: What a difference 15 years makes

Those who think the recent confrontations over fracking in Elsipogtog are unprecedented and intractable have forgotten their history. Fifteen years ago the issue was the fishery and Burnt Church was the flashpoint. Fast forward to today and what has emerged is an Aboriginal fishery that obeys the DFO rules, has created over 1500 jobs for Aboriginal people and holds out the prospect of real sustainable economic progress for dozens of First Nations communities in the Maritimes, all at a cost of a piddling $11m a year. Practical solutions exist to the problem of involving Aboriginal people in the natural resource economy. Read my column in the Globe’s ROB.