Project-Specific Social Issue Management: Legal Considerations (Term Paper Sample)

PROJECT-SPECIFIC SOCIAL ISSUE MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Table of Contents PAGEREF _Toc447586757 \h 2Project-Specific Social Issue Management PAGEREF _Toc447586758 \h 3Legal considerations PAGEREF _Toc447586759 \h 3Consultation PAGEREF _Toc447586760 \h 4Compensation PAGEREF _Toc447586761 \h 6Resettlement PAGEREF _Toc447586762 \h 7Cultural resources PAGEREF _Toc447586763 \h 7Employment PAGEREF _Toc447586764 \h 8Local economic impact PAGEREF _Toc447586765 \h 8Health PAGEREF _Toc447586766 \h 9Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc447586767 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc447586768 \h 11Appendices PAGEREF _Toc447586769 \h 12
Project-Specific Social Issue Management
Sustainability means taking the generations to come into consideration and at the same time being aware that the actions undertaken today affect others and the world around us. Social sustainability takes into account a company’s relationship with the surrounding community and culture. Project level social sustainability refers to undertaking sufficient social inquiry and evaluation that allow for suitable documentation of social openings and effective mitigation of risks and impacts of social issues. There are several social issues to consider when planning executing a project and the way these issues are handled largely determines the success or failure of a project in the integrated oil and gas industries. This paper dwells on how to tackle social issues ranging from legal considerations, consultation, safety, cultural resources, resettlement, compensation, local economic impact and health in the oil and gas projects and the benefits realized when the issues are successfully dealt with.
Legal considerations
The majority of critical social issues which are finally dealt with during a project initially appear in the early country entry stage or in the course of project development negotiations. Often, issues like employment, compensation, revenue allocation, business opportunities and security arise at the initial stages (Badiru & Osisanya, 2013). Consequently, it’s crucial that company’s legal personnel comprehend the possible implications of bargains and deals reached and the pertinent legal clauses and regulations in the host country. Oil and gas projects often elicit complex legal issues, and for good reasons (see Appendix A). The company’s negotiation process need to consider social issues that may arise (Lovejoyand Homan, 2013). Also, there is need to consider completed and reviewed pre-assessment studies. Barker & Cole (2009) argue that misinformation is a major problem in the oil and gas industry. As such, it is important to think about the types of information that the studies are centred on. Do the studies hinge on contemporary interviews, tertiary information or secondary literature?
It is important that the company makes use of adequately completed studies that can provide sufficient detail in providing critical information required to bargain social issues terms such as employment and land acquisition and others that are usually key determinants of schedule (Naybour, 2014). Host country social specialists may also be called upon to offer an evaluation of on-going happenings as well as probable trends which can be pertinent to the definitive jeopardies as well as security connected to the project. Previous commitments and approaches (where applicable) ought to be re-evaluated, and the lessons learnt revisited (see Appendix B).
Having a robust legal team that can put every aspect of social issues into perspective can be said to be the main reason Enbridge, Inc.'s Alberta Clipper pipeline quietly succeeded, yet a strikingly similar project, the Keystone XL pipeline, attracted mammoth criticism and activism. In the end, President Obama rejected the Keystone project saying that the country is undertaking serious action in the fight against climate change (Shelby, 2016). The Clipper and Keystone projects were proposed at nearly the same time and to execute the same task: transportation of tar sands oil in large quantities to the U.S. from Alberta tar sands (Vaillancourt, Alcocerand Bahn, 2015). However, Keystone monopolized regulatory purgatory and was ultimately blocked. The Clipper, on the other hand, has deftly avoided problems by taking into account the anticipated social issues, pertinent federal laws as well as manoeuvring its way to a positive environmental review.
Consultation
The role of transparent, timely as well as continuous consultation with all possibly affected stakeholders has taken centre stage in project planning over the past decade. Consultation is presently an indispensable component of nearly all major developments and is a requirement of the conservational planning processes by most governments as well as lenders. Consultation can also be crucial in delivering an effective health and safety plan (see Appendix C).Consultation is the core technique for engaging stakeholders, gain respect and trust, as well as build partnerships with the affected communities (Pinto, 2007). Early and mutually strengthening interactions are determinants of success. There's need for openness and honesty for consultation to be effective. A big number of multinational lenders demand public consultation effort, and it's also a prerequisite project planning component of most governments. Early as well as continuous consultation is crucial to the success of the project. Consider the kinds of information distribution and public relations efforts planned or undertaken. Since public relations and public consultation acts can have divergent goals, I would emphasize that the company considers where aims of public relations and public consultation actions deviate or come together.
Barker & Cole (2009) note that different companies have different in-house public consultation policies. It is, therefore, important to deliberate on the actions hitherto implemented by the company as well as legal requirements for public consultation. Usually, public consultation actions comprise of the revelation of information that is typically not revealed. Where a huge proportion of stakeholders is not educated, there is a need to employ special consultation methods for consultation to be effective and the project to be successful. Additionally, successful consultation calls for the consideration of important societal issues such as historical governance relations and gender considerations (Badiru&Osisanya, 2013).
Do not disregard the language(s) spoken by the locals (see Appendix D).
Identifying the full spectrum of possible stakeholders – and without under-representing some of them – is a key factor in achieving project success (Naybour, 2014). Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and other groups usually (claim to) represent various sets of stakeholders. Although this is important, I think the company ought not to solely focus consultation actions on NGOs and other groups. Consultation efforts need to be intensified on groups that can be termed as native or vulnerable. This is so because indigenous populations and vulnerable groups are cold-shouldered by the rest of the people and thus they have special needs in the consultation process. TransCanada would need to put more effort into consultation and negotiation with the aboriginals in Quebec and Ontario to win the support of the Maliseet people as well as others along the project's route who are claiming aboriginal veto (Vaillancourt et al., 2015).
Safety
The company should seriously assess how it handles safety and security issues throughout the project lifecycle. Risk should be assessed in regards to the likelihood of occurrence as well as the magnitude of possible consequences. Assessment of risks should incorporate issues comprising of catastrophic happenings such as terrorist deeds and huge explosions, as well as risks connected to minimizing employee injuries while operating hand tools (Barker & Cole, 2009). Each activity has a connected risk, a big number of them occur due to human interactions such as labour unrests. Thereby, considering general as well as particular social connections in the country and places with projected oil and gas project is a crucial component of project planning. While the safety of oil and gas workers, as well as possessions, could be at jeopardy in various places across the world, the kind of security dangers can be different (Badiru&Osisanya, 2013) (see Appendix E).
I think that project managers should firstly consider whether the area proposed for project development has had a history of turmoil, military fighting or social unrest. It is important to consider the causes of unrest and more so whether the discontentment was directed towards a project similar to the one proposed. Another consideration would be whether a project similar to the proposed has elicited unrest. If there’s potential for proposed operations to result in similar actions and put the safety and security of project workers at risk, consider measures to minimize the risks to tolerable levels. Think through whether there are emergency response teams and plans available.
Commitments could have been made by the project operators or other players to the local communities and social groups which could be expected to be implemented or completed by the planned project. This could be the preference to employ locals or funding health centres or even teachers. Earlier projects can set precedents to fund as well as maintain community facilities which can turn to be unfeasible socially or economically (see Appendix F).
Safety is a major worry to communities living around an oil pipeline. Most companies laying pipelines such as TransCanada utilize various safety features to keep the communities and the project wor...