A Western Canadian resource company signed a joint venture in Edmonton on Wednesday with the Hobbema-area Ermineskin Cree Nation to drill for oil and gas.

"It's a new and innovative way to pursue oil and gas development, energy developments, with First Nations," said Blaine Favel, the CEO and president of One Earth Oil and Gas.

Under the deal, the Ermineskin Cree Nation will share in half the profits and band members will be hired to do the work. The band will also earn the royalties First Nations typically get in deals with energy companies.

Favel is a former grand chief of the Saskatchewan Federation of Indian Nations. He said the deal will directly benefit people on the reserve.

"It moves them away from being a passive recipient of royalties without a transfer of knowledge and training or education or the how-to of oil and gas development, and actually puts them in the driver's seat of actually being active participants," Favel said on CBC Radio on Wednesday.

The band will also be able to acquire the skills and technical knowledge it can use off-reserve to develop other oil and gas properties, Favel added.

The chief of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Gerry Ermineskin, said past deals with resource companies have been too one-sided, so he is pleased the deal allows the band to create more jobs on the reserve, where unemployment now sits at 80 per cent.

"These are things that we look forward to our members for the employment and training and the economic opportunities that will be there for our First Nation," he said. "We look forward to the future from this day on to better our community and our members."

Favel said he would like to sign 10 similar deals with other First Nations.

Favel is also a director of One Earth Farms, a corporate farming partnership with First Nations in Saskatchewan and Alberta.