Our societies are becoming increasingly engaged with public policy issues such as climate change, decarbonization strategies, economic development and Indigenous rights and reconciliation. Although this shift is encouraging to see, public engagement on controversial issues can often lead to disagreement and polarization, making consensus difficult to reach. For decades, organizations have turned to Pacific Resolutions to help them navigate public opinion, stakeholder influence and policy development. With our help, governments, First Nations, industry and NGOs have signed dozens of government-to-government agreements and implemented countless public policy changes.

Columbia River Treaty Negotiations

Retained by the Provincial Ministry of Energy and Mines to provide advice, facilitation and negotiation support for the Columbia River Treaty Governance Steering Committee. The Committee included representatives from the Federal and Provincial Governments, three First Nations governments and B.C. Hydro, who is the designated Treaty Entity under the current terms of the treaty. The mandate of the Governance Steering Committee is to establish an agreed upon, UNDRIP-consistent, co-governance regime for the Columbia River Treaty in Canada. Pacific Resolutions supported the committee by facilitating discussions and developing a number of key inputs that the committee synthesized into the draft co-governance model. These inputs included: a Governance Design Guide, a summary of recent experience with government-to-government agreements in western Canada, international river basin governance norms and a analysis of UNDRIP compliance.