DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - Deninu Ku'e First Nation of Fort Resolution has hired a law firm to seek an impact benefits agreement (IBA) with a diamond mining company.

Acting chief Louis Balsillie said his First Nation currently does not have agreements with any of the three diamond mining companies operating in the NWT.

It has decided to first attempt to seek an IBA with De Beers Canada, which operates the Snap Lake Mine about 220 km northeast of Yellowknife.

"This is going to be the first and, if we're successful at it, we'll carry it on to the forefront and go after everybody else," Balsillie said.

The First Nation hired the JKF Law Corporation of Victoria, B.C., on Jan. 18.

Balsillie said he hopes the issue can be settled without having to go to court.

Deninu Ku'e will seek an agreement from De Beers equal to what the mining company pays to some other First Nations, plus a retroactive arrangement, he said.

Balsillie said his First Nation has always been denied IBAs from the diamond mines.

"Every time we have assemblies, all we talk about is how we're being denied the IBAs like the Yellowknives, the Tlicho," he said.

The members of Deninu Ku'e currently each receive between $260 and $270 annually in IBA money from other First Nations. The money originates with BHP Billiton, which operates the Ekati Mine.

Balsillie said the money totals about $250,000 a year.

He said Deninu Ku'e is researching how much other First Nations receive through their diamond mine agreements and will be seeking a comparable amount.

Deninu Ku'e is entitled to IBA money since it is part of the Akaitcho region and traditional users of the land where the diamond mines are located, he added.

"We're Akaitcho. We're one person. When it comes to money, it's like you're pushing us aside.

"That's the way I feel we've been treated."

De Beers has previously signed IBA agreements with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Thicho Government, the North Slave Metis Alliance and Lutsel K'e First Nation.

Deninu Ku'e First Nation has had an anthropologist working for it since 2008 to prove its genealogical and traditional connection to the land where the diamond mines are located.

Cathie Bolstad, director of external and corporate affairs with De Beers Canada, said there will be no more IBAs for Snap Lake.

Bolstad said the company will continue to talk with Deninu Ku'e about its other concerns, such as participation in the project and literacy initiatives in Fort Resolution.

"But the company has been clear that the decision on which communities have an impact benefit agreement for the Snap Lake mine has been made and that the decision is firm," she said.

Bolstad explained De Beers uses IBAs to mitigate impacts on current users of the land in a project area.

Decisions on which groups are entitled to an IBA are based on a multitude of information, she said, listing such things as historical land use and occupancy, archives, maps, community interviews, treaty and land claim agreements, interim measures agreements, and cultural, environmental and spiritual criteria.

For Snap Lake, the information was part of the project description, the environmental assessment from 2001-2004 and the permitting process.

"De Beers stands by that business decision today on Snap Lake," Bolstad said.

She said the process did not identify any current use of the land and resources in the project area by Deninu Ku'e First Nation.

The De Beers spokesperson declined to offer financial information on existing IBAs, explaining they are confidential arrangements.

As for the Deninu Ku'e suggestion that the IBA issue might result in legal action, Bolstad said she hopes that doesn't happen. "Our commitment is to keep talking to them, but the community has to decide for itself what it needs to do."

Bolstad said De Beers has, after community meetings in Fort Resolution, offered the First Nation a training agreement, but it was declined.

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