"Today, mining is the largest private-sector employer of First Nations in Canada. We have helped to stimulate new aboriginal businesses, improve literacy and training on and off reserves, create wealth, opportunity and hope. . . The northeast coal sector has 40 percent Aboriginal employment."

Pierre Gratton, President and CEO, Mining Association of British Columbia, Jan. 13

Pierre Gratton gave his presentation, Mining and Aboriginal Communities: Building Stronger Relationships, to the B.C. Natural Resource Forum in Prince George.

New to the province -- and to North Vancouver -- in 2008, Gratton was enthusiastic about the involvement of the B.C. mining industry in a partnership that has become an essential template for any industry needing to attract a new generation of skilled workers.

The initiative also has the potential to help eliminate poverty in Canada's Aboriginal communities.

If that approach holds steady, it may hold the key to solving the most serious challenge facing B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

From the mid-1800s through to the present day, British Columbians have had a love-hate relationship with the mining industry.

While we were happy enough to take advantage of the economic benefits of ore extraction, we have often been uneasy with the collateral damage mines were wreaking on the land and the Aboriginal way of life.

It was not until 1992 that, as Gratton said, "the very nature of mining . . . required the industry to move farther than any other outside its comfort zone to address criticism, find common ground with communities and stakeholders, and adapt."

Gratton did not just describe how far the industry has come over the past 19 years; he pointed the way ahead for what he predicted would be "new partnerships and new markets."

In 1999, as the promising efforts of the 1992 Whitehorse Mining Initiative began to wane and because the industry had again "dropped the ball," the Mining Association of Canada launched what it described as "the leading sustainability initiative in the country: Toward Sustainable Mining."

As outlined in Gratton's paper, two important commitments of TSM are to: "respect aboriginal and treaty rights and seek to understand local perspectives" and to "acknowledge and respect the social, economic, environmental and cultural interests of Aboriginal Peoples."

With TSM in mind, and with seed money from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association and 15 partners launched a $27.1 million Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership program, which was intended to provide 148 jobs in B.C.

The federal government seeded the initiative with $4.4 million, while mining and minerals-related corporate partners and associated organizations provided $22.7 million.

The partners include three industry-related associations, four educational institutions, four aboriginal bands/societies and five mining and exploration corporations.

Most interesting of all, as I began to research what seemed to be a straightforward story, was that, virtually unnoticed, these encouraging collaborations were conceived in 1999 and have been building in earnest since the 2003 launch of the federal ASEP program.

Originally projected to be a national, five-year, $85-million federal employment program, ASEP was designed to directly match "skills development to economic opportunities."

In 2007, the federal government put in a further $105 million and again in 2009, through its Economic Action Plan, agreed to provide an additional $100 million to ASEP over three years.

The ASEP agreement with BCAMTA is only one of a potential 25 such partnerships across Canada -- partnerships that could involve industries as diverse as aerospace, construction, fisheries, forestry and mining. Three are in B.C.

So with the federal funding for the ASEP program due to expire in less than two years, it is essential that the current agreements bear fruit if Ottawa is to be persuaded to extend the initiatives beyond 2012.

Reached for her comment, Laurie Sterritt, executive director of the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association reinforced the urgency of the industry's need to adapt:

"Projections show that, within five years, 25 per cent of (skilled workers) in all areas of the operation will have retired from the industry."

Sterritt, herself a member of the Gitskan Nation, went on to explain that "BCAMTA trains candidates for careers," not just for stop-gap jobs.

"Depending on the candidate, we might begin with the basics of how to handle a job interview, focus on safety and first-aid procedures or on heavy-machinery and mill operations.

"It's training for all aspects of the industry and for the allied trades involved, including for management."

That should be music to the ears of children and youth representative Turpel-Lafond, who has seen many types of multi-million-dollar funding initiatives roll by only to reveal the same chronic poverty still entrenched in their wake.

"We have no shortage of governance," she told me last Friday.

Then, not surprisingly, she went on to emphasize, "But whatever the program, we must make sure the lens is in the right spot; the efforts and the resources must be aligned so that they benefit the children and the families."

Amen to that.

Turpel-Lafond did not say it -- perhaps she did not even think it -- but despite my attempts to remain positive, the niggling cynicism remained: Will this end up like so many other well-intentioned initiatives and government programs? Will the dollars be eaten up to cover administrative, corporate and political expenses?

I truly hope not, but the results depend upon the goodwill and energy of all partners involved.

There is a long road yet to be traveled before people will be happy with the industry's performance; and indeed, mining companies may never meet the zero-tolerance mark espoused by the most ardent of environmentalists.

But our whole way of life depends on our getting the ASEP initiatives right, especially when it comes to mining.

If we don't, we can say goodbye to the copper that carries our Hydro, the salt in our soup and even to the talc we use on a baby's clean bum -- because, as a miner would grumble, "If you can't grow it, you have to dig it."

Worse still, whoever lives in poverty now will still be poor.

These initiatives offer us an opportunity to be a beacon to the world -- an opportunity to show that partnerships between industry and their communities can respect the social, economic, environmental and cultural interests of all British Columbians.

So it is incumbent upon Aboriginals and the industry alike to prove they can be relied upon to stay the course, that they are in it for the long term and not just for the short-term dollars available.

Introduced to this idea only last Wednesday, I have barely scratched the surface of the topic, let alone mined its potential.

It is a subject worthy of much wider coverage than is possible within the confines of dry business pages at the back of our daily newspapers.