NOVA Corporation of Alberta is a widely held, shareholder-owned company operating internationally from headquarters in Calgary, Alberta. NOVA builds its future principally on pipelines and the manufacturing and marketing of chemicals produced primarily from Alberta natural resources. As part of their philosophy, the Corporation supports a unique policy to encourage the Native community to participate in the growth and development of the Canadian economy and to ensure Native people are involved in all aspects of the Corporation’s operations.
NOVA’s Reclamation program is designed to effectively stabilize the right-of-way as soon as possible after construction, re-establishing native vegetation where appropriate, enhancing fish and wildlife habitat where possible, and to meet the requirements of regulatory agencies and landowners. In the past, native contractors have been used primarily where seeding was required within the forested Green Zone of the province. In recent years, this involvement has been expanded to include the agricultural White Zone, averaging 38% of the total work over the past eight years. In 1991, the Environmental Management Department dedicated one person as a liaison between NOVA and the aboriginal contractors in an effort to improve communication and information exchange. Pre-bid meetings and workshops were initiated to improve the aboriginal contractors’ understanding of NOVA’s reclamation requirements, and to assist them in effectively bidding on projects. The reclamation program within the Alberta Gas Transmission Division of NOVA has been a useful vehicle for aboriginal contractors to diversify, improve the quality of their work, improve their competitive salary and develop viable businesses.