The She Dances with the Earth, Water, and Sky sculpture by Mohawk and Oneida artist David General, is a strong symbol of Indigenous presence and beliefs.
A new report says boosting economic relations with Indigenous partners and incorporating their world views in business decision-making can help position Canada for a more resilient economic future.
The report, published Wednesday by Deloitte’s Future of Canada Centre, explores how sovereign Indigenous economic partnerships are among Canada’s most underleveraged growth opportunities.
“As Canada grapples and comes to terms with a very challenging economic and global restructuring, Indigenous peoples being included in economic growth and new projects is going to be part of the solution and not an additional cost,” said Dean Janvier, a partner at Deloitte Canada.
“In fact, it will be a net benefit to Canada.”
The report incorporates interviews with 12 nationally recognized Indigenous business leaders. Its findings are also based on research conducted with the aid of three leading Indigenous-owned business entities that have experience in joint collaborations: Athabasca Indigenous Investments, Glooscap Ventures and Manitoba Métis Federation.
It said Indigenous peoples are playing an increasing role in the national economy, with Indigenous gross domestic income growing from $37.6 billion to $63.7 billion between 2013 and 2023. Janvier said Indigenous communities are playing a prominent part in some of Canada’s most important sectors, including natural resource-based industries such as fishing, forestry, mining, and oil and gas.
He said companies in those industries are also engaging more with First Nations across the country before projects get off the ground.
“It’s now, I think, becoming more common that companies are figuring out what their shared interests are and developing more of a relationship-based approach to getting approvals, which leads to lower costs and increased productivity and profit,” he said.
“It starts with respect. Showing up, listening, and taking time to establish that familiarity … that will become the basis of trust in the relationship going forward.”
While the report urges policymakers and corporate leaders to help build on that momentum, it said barriers remain that hinder Indigenous-led growth.
Those include “resistance to change,” said Janvier, who also highlighted disadvantages that some Indigenous communities face when it comes to participation in the economy, such as geographic isolation.
Closing such gaps would nearly double the Indigenous economy’s scale, the report added.
“There’s a pocket of Canadian society that doesn’t appreciate change and that would prefer if things went back to the way things used to be,” said Janvier, a Denesuline member of the Cold Lake First Nations in northeastern Alberta.
“You see that coming out in terms of how some companies would prefer if the province or the federal government just ignored the rights or the Indigenous interest and went back to the ’80s when they would just hand out these permits and then tell them, ‘OK, now you go sit down with the Indigenous groups and negotiate nice agreements with them.’”
The report said more needs to be done to advance economic reconciliation. It points to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 calls to action, one of which urges businesses and government to apply lessons learned and avoid repeating past missteps.
“The opportunity now rests with implementation: embedding Indigenous partnership, consent, and equity participation into core economic strategies,” the report said.
That starts with understanding the Indigenous community’s history to help explain distrust, while also bridging Indigenous world views into decision-making, which the report argues “can be a strategic international advantage for Canada.”
At a time when Canada is reshaping its global trade relationships and focusing on “nation-building projects,” Janvier said the participation of Indigenous communities can be an asset.
“When … Canada starts asking itself, ‘What are some of our advantages in accessing new trade relationships, in increasing access to foreign markets?’ Well, guess what? Indigenous peoples have international relationships that have been in place for a very long time,” he said.
“They can use these relationships with other Indigenous groups in other countries that Canada wants to do business with.”
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