ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case that describes the issues faced by a community group in their attempt to form a working relationship with a company that plans to conduct surface mining operations in their hometown. The rise of community partnerships reflects a growing realization that individual entities—governments, non-profit making organizations and businesses. Corporations need to adopt socially responsible practices by developing close ties with the communities in which they operate and treating each other as partners, so that the communities are made to feel they are part of the whole process. John MacDougall is a member of the local Community Liaison Committee, a group set up to work with the mining company so that community interests were represented throughout the project. The company had nowhere to mine and several of their large clients, such as the provincial power utility and regional hospital, were in need of the coal resource.
