Assessing Stakeholder Participation in Sub-Arctic Co-Management: Administrative Rulemaking and Private Agreements

• Main Author: Sari M. Graben
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; French
• Published: University of Windsor 2011
• Subjects: Law; K; Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence; K1-7720; Arctic; Mackenzie Valley
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/0bea138c7db74f6a8e78780e8bb6e2ee

This paper argues that participatory governance initiatives like co-management can be made effective through agency rulemaking. Using the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board as a case study, this paper affirms that it is possible for marginalized stakeholders to participate in co-management and alter decision-making. By using its formal authority to generate rules that reflect community perspectives, this board contextualized environmental assessment in community-based perspectives. The study of participation presented here illustrates: 1) that a high level of agency support for community participation in rule-making can lead to rules which reflect community perspectives; and 2) that agency implementation of community perspectives has led to the increased use of stakeholder collaboration through private agreement. Nonetheless, the paper also addresses limitations on the ability to translate social needs into privately negotiated agreements where negotiations depart from highly commoditized terms. Consequently, this paper questions the use of negotiated agreements to meet the goals of stakeholder participation, as conceived by deliberative democratic strands of new governance. Dans cet article, l’auteure soutient que le pouvoir de règlementation d’un organisme peut rendre plus efficace de nouvelles initiatives en matière de gouvernance telles que la cogestion. Prenant l’Office d’examen des répercussions environnementales de la vallée du Mackenzie comme exemple, elle affirme que des parties prenantes marginalisées ont la possibilité de participer à de nouvelles modalités de gouvernance comme la cogestion et d’influer sur la prise de décision. En exerçant son pouvoir d’adopter des règles inspirées des valeurs communautaires, l’Office a procédé à une évaluation environnementale en tenant compte du contexte communautaire. L’étude de participation présentée ici démontre: 1) que, lorsqu’un organisme appuie fortement la participation de la collectivité à l’élaboration des règles, les règles adoptées ...