Welcome to 2025. Today we look back on some of the great conversations we had with Indigenous leaders across Canada in 2024.
I'm Mark McNacca and alongside my co-host Robert Brent, we're reflecting on some of the standout moments that shaped the journey of drum beats in the past year.
From impactful insights to inspiring stories, here's a look at some of the highlights that define this exciting year.
Drum beats kicked off in 2024. The opening beat, our first episode, set the tone for the rest of the podcast.
We explore the origins of the Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit, highlighting its role in fostering partnerships.
And drum beats is no different. So I remember last year, June 23, I was over at Canada House and there were two Indigenous leaders up on stage.
One of them said he was off to Buckingham Palace and for most people probably thought he was on a tour, but I'm sure he was to meet.
The Queen or the King at that time. And the other was yourself, Robin. I remember seeing that and I saw your name up there and I thought, no way.
So I got an introduction to you and said, you know, my name is Mark McNacca and are you a descendant of the famous Chief Joseph Brent?
And you of course said, yes you are. And I said, wow, my direct descendant fought with Chief Joseph Brent in the American Revolutionary War as one of Brent's lollies.
And so for me, that was very special to think after all this time and here we are in London of all places. We never met each other.
And we were now connected. I remember you looking at me, you know, saying very clearly you were. So why don't you tell your response to that and we can, you know, work through that story.
Yeah, I couldn't believe we hadn't met before, Mark, because we've both been in London for many decades, but it was an event focused around Indigenous investments that brought us together.
We discussed its importance in advancing Indigenous rights and shaping policies that drive positive and economic social change.
With changes in Canadian law adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that will give Indigenous nations a reveto over projects in their territories.
And our courts in Canada have been citing on the rights of Indigenous peoples and advancing those rights gradually through case law.
And so it all adds up to a really interesting time in Canada and some great opportunities.
Some really unique projects where Indigenous peoples are taking a real say in equity stake, a meaningful equity stake.
They want to seat at the board table. It's not enough to promise jobs or a royalty.
They want a real say in how these projects get developed and managed and operated.
In Indigenous investment in Canada exploring key opportunities and developments, we celebrate inspiring leaders such as Chief Crystal Smith, a champion of Indigenous-led projects.
She spoke about the strength of community-driven progress.
It was great to have a chance to talk to Chief Crystal Smith a few weeks ago as we did and talk about her project and Indigenous-led projects. We're seeing more and more of those.
Tapitha Bull's leadership within the Canadian Council of Indigenous Business demonstrate how Indigenous business leaders can thrive through strategic support and advocacy.
Tapitha Bull who leads what is now the CCIV, it was called the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, but they've renamed themselves.
She leads that and she talks passionately about that. When you think about it, it's absolutely incredible with all the history that there's no rules.
It's been too easy to gain the system, I think, up until now.
If a government is only interested in ticking a box and being able to say that a certain percentage of government contracts are going to Indigenous businesses, then nobody's spent a lot of time focusing on what is an Indigenous business and what really counts.
So I think now we're with groups like CCIV getting to the substance of these policies and what are they really trying to benefit? What are they trying to achieve? Who are they trying to benefit?
And so hopefully as more companies get certified, there'll be more confidence in these programs.
JP Gladdu shared insights from the Indigenous economy and the engine of reconciliation, growth and progress underlining the critical role of Indigenous economies and Canada's ongoing economic development.
JP Gladdu, I guess he was also Indigenous, he wrote this article in Summary and he's the one who talked.
JP's fantastic, yep.
So he's the one who said this isn't just a moral imperative anymore, there's an economic opportunity which of course opens up a lot of people's eyes. So that was really important.
He touched on a number of things that we talked about, Meadowlake and Indigenous business are growing.
He mentioned about Bouchier Group, 1300 employees, 40% Indigenous staff, you know, that's huge in those projects that are coming through. So he gave a great summary of what's happening.
In our episode with Ernie Daniels, Bank of Canada Director and First Nations Financial Authority CEO, Ernie explained how the FNFA supports First Nations in accessing financial resources.
One of the other institutions that operates under the First Nations Fiscal Management Act is called the First Nations Financial Management Board.
And their mandate initially in 2011 when we were working with them was their mandate developed standards for financial management,
they were based on the COSO Committee for Responsing Organizations back in probably around just before 2010, they were working on that so they developed standards for a certain level of financial management.
So all First Nations have to adopt that. Then they went through an assessment of looking at their financial history and rating them with certain financial ratios recommended at the time from the capital markets.
So based on that, if the First Nations developed what they call a financial administration law that has these standards and passed the financial ratios that are awarded the financial performance certificate from the FNB, that was the ticket to get to FNFA.
So First Nations, all First Nations have to meet the standards of the one group, we have a boring group that's all the same standards. So once the First Nations has a performance, they come to us, we do our due diligence and assess their ability to finance that going into the future.
So we're more future looking, past is really done by the FNB which we rely on, but at the same time, we are looking for the nations, looking at what revenues they have that can support loans.
And so that's how members become a member with us.
We have about 170 members now, I believe it is. Steve Burnham, he may correct me on that because it changes pretty regularly. And of that is almost 100 that are borrowing of that group.
And one of the first steps, I got to go even further back, one of the first steps that a nation has to do, it's supposed to be a formality step, but it's the longest step in the process. It's requesting to the minister of CERNA, Crown Indigenous Relations Minister, that you want to work under the act.
So the whole purpose of that is to signify that First Nations are voluntarily working under their act and not being forced to work under the act. And so with anything with government, it's an easy process, I guess, that can take months.
So once they have that, then we work with them and we get financing to them pretty quickly if they need it. But we've set up our own due diligence.
The Loan Guarantee Program unlocks economic opportunities and has been a key area of focus.
We usually have to partner with a non-indigenous organization that can do that. And so it helps them out.
So again, the positive impact of a First Nations company getting up to this 5% and having this bonding, again, it's another economic driver. You're creating jobs. And it's not only, we can do the provincial governments.
So we're working on, again, another kind of concept with kind of the pooling together contractors that come together and setting up a backstop.
Much like the First Nations market housing was set up with a $300 million backstop to try to create a housing market across our nations, which is a very difficult task.
So we thought, well, if we had a $100 million backstop, we don't have to get the $100 million right away and come over two or three years.
We can use that to create this insurance pool where members are monitoring and policing each other and they have access to bonding.
If you could crack that, that would be really, really impactful.
So there are some of the things we're working on. Things get thrown at us every year. Like our organization is growing and evolving.
Like at the speed that I've never envisioned when I first started here, it's almost a different organization from year to year. We get this long guarantee thing thrown at us last year.
So I don't know what's coming next year, but we're trying to be ready for that.
We're making sure that we have staff in place that can do the due diligence, do the research, do all this groundwork that we need done, and to try to move ourself forward.
It's kind of, again, it goes back to creating a better quality of life for our communities.
So this is one way of doing it that I feel really, really good and really happy to be a proud of.
And also, if I can talk about being on the Bank of Canada for a second, being the first member.
Yeah, you're the first nation member to be appointed to the board. That's a real honour.
Yeah, so it is a real honour and I'm learning a lot from there. Really learning how important the role of the Bank of Canada is.
They're not seen as one of these organizations that really have an important role, but they really do.
But for me, it's not for me personally to go on the board. It's for the future.
It's to set that opportunity for other people to come on and go on the Bank's board.
I want to advocate for female Indigenous persons to get on the board.
We have a lot of talented young, not young, but my age, young females that can actually be on the board.
So that's what I think. And so that's what I want to kind of leave behind. I know the Bank is embarked.
The First Nations Financial Authorities COO Steve Berna talked about how FNFA supports projects like Clearwater Seafoods and other funding initiatives.
We were knocked on the door by seven MiCMAW communities in the Atlantic Canada.
They wanted to be 50% owners of Clearwater Seafoods. Never happened before.
Two things. We've never had a group of First Nations wanting to work together on an economic venture.
And we'd never lent $250 million a large size for us at that time in 2021 to take a risk that wasn't infrastructure, but it was business related.
And that led into hiring outside legal councils, doing due diligence on the financial, economic side,
taking a look at the capital markets reports on whether Clearwater Seafoods was a well-run company.
It was the capacity for the market to absorb the certain amount of seafood or harvest that the company had.
Sometimes we would do videos. And by doing that, when we sat down with investors in Canada, US, Europe, Asia,
all of a sudden it wasn't so much the dollar size that mattered anymore.
$250 million, that's fine. Now we're doing $500 million.
This year we're going to do $1.2 billion in 2024. It became the story.
We discussed the Centre for Indigenous Corporate Partnerships initiative that started in Australia and has been transplanted in Canada,
which Boston Consulting Groups and other firms have tried to establish in Canada highlighting how corporate engagement can support sustainable Indigenous business growth.
ECG, to their credit, has started an initiative in Canada based on something they have rolled out in Australia over the last 20 years.
And that is initiative that involves corporate, the non-Indigenous corporate world, in this case corporate Canada,
getting together and supporting by providing pro bono services to Indigenous communities across Canada to help with economic and social initiatives.
And so BCG and a couple of others, Jay Wright from Arterra Wines, now retired or rewired as he says,
Chief Clients Louie of the Soyuz Band in British Columbia, and Brad Baker at BCG,
founded something they're calling the Centre for Indigenous Corporate Partnerships.
And like I say, it's modeled on something that BCG have done in Australia for over 20 years.
And over that time helped more than well it's into the hundreds of Indigenous communities in Australia and garners some support in corporate Canada to establish this centre.
And it was a really interesting gathering. They had maybe 40 people together, bankers, Indigenous leaders,
and others interested in professional service, advisor, review, folks, and some big names involved from the banks, First Nations.
And so I was a part of that because I am interested in myself and we'll see if McCarthy-Tatral will get involved.
Yes. And so just coming back, I think it's called the Centre for Indigenous Corporate Partnerships, CICP.
That's right.
And in terms of the make-up, it's interesting, you were describing it was there.
And like yourself, an Indigenous person representing the corporate world, or coming from that world,
is that what you found for most of the corporate partners that more and more the representatives who are working with the Indigenous communities are of Indigenous background themselves?
No, we're still a minority, but organisations in corporate Canada, they're all finding that this issue is rising in importance.
They're dealing more and more with Indigenous communities across Canada. They're looking to hire.
A lot of this is in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action, especially for corporate Canada.
And sadly, in the last week, we lost Senator Murray Jinker, who was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Yes, a great loss for all of Canada and really took Canada on that journey of, you know,
leading through the Truth and Reconciliation process, which was initially modeled on South Africa's approach to apartheid.
And his famous throughout Canada was very well respected and was a very difficult time and process, but he was able to bring us everyone together,
united through that process.
We had the pleasure of speaking with the Vice Chair of CIBC Capital, the Honourable Lisa Wright, on Strengthening Indigenous Investment.
Lisa shared insights on long guarantees in the role in strengthening Indigenous investments across the country.
I think that's a big win and it's a big recognition of all the projects, but of course, I think it's $5 billion of long guarantees.
That can go like that. So we'll see whose projects are going to win first.
But I do know that any Canadian government now or in the future is going to be carrying both critical minerals.
And that is where the relationship with First Nations and Indigenous communities is the most important.
Because, like you said about energy transition, we're talking national security as well, making sure that supply chains, friend-shoring.
The BC Hydro Call for Power episode showcased how Indigenous communities are driving renewable energy projects,
illustrating the value of trust and collaboration in the energy development and the critical role governments have in continuing support Indigenous communities.
The focus was on the recent BC Hydro Call for Power talk to clients about what that meant and also some lessons learned
because they're with all of these proposals for power. There's an Indigenous equity component that's required.
And BC, of course, being British Columbia, north of California for some of our listeners who haven't been there before.
That's right. It was BC Hydro who put out the Call to Power in April of this year.
And BC Hydro is the only power company in BC?
Yeah, yes, they are.
Pervince them?
Absolutely. And they put out a call. This is their first call for new power in 15 years in British Columbia.
And they have requested approximately 3,000 gigawatt hours per year of new clean electricity was the call.
And is it, sorry, just with that, is that because they're running up to their limits or it's for what they see as the expansion plans?
Because 15 years with no new capacity coming online.
Yeah, no, there's a bit of urgency to this call. The BC government revised their forecast for their needs for power into the future.
And so they had been forecasting a surplus of about 500 gigawatts in 2030.
And they revised that figure to be a deficit of 3,500 gigawatts by 2030.
And so the Call to Power went earlier this year and they are looking for projects that would come on stream with commercial operation dates by 2028, 2031.
Wow, that's pretty quick for power projects, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
Wow, points to the need.
And if they all come on stream, that'll add about 5% to British Columbia's current power supply.
And BC hydro estimates that this call will lead to total public and private capital investments of approximately $40 billion.
So their focus is on big projects.
Yes.
And we talked about the urgency of the request.
But the other unique aspect of the Call for Power was the requirement that all proposals include indigenous ownership in the proponent making the proposal.
Is that the first time that's happened in a...
It is, yes.
In 2008, which was the last time British Columbia called for power, there was only a passing reference to indigenous consultations.
But this time the Call to Power was quite explicit and it was requiring that indigenous communities that are affected by any of the proposals have at least 25% of the equity in the project.
That's a minimum 25%.
And I guess that should make the process of bringing the power on stream quicker, right?
Because the indigenous parties are stakeholders from the get-go, not at the end of it, oh, now we've got to get their approval and they're not bought in and just slows it down.
So actually this should help it come online as quick as they want.
Yeah, absolutely.
British Columbia is one of the provinces in Canada who have adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, meaning effectively there's a...
not just a consultation requirement, but a consent requirement when it comes to projects that affect indigenous peoples in what better and clearer way to show consent than to have an ownership stake in the project.
And so we mentioned 25% as a minimum, proponents will get additional credit in the process if there's a bigger stake than 25% ownership.
And so I know there are some proposals that will have a majority of indigenous...
And a bigger credit, what do you mean?
Well, when they're assessing these proposals and they did receive 21 proposals for a combined 9,000 gigawatt hours of those 21 proposals from independent power producers throughout BC, about 70% were for wind, new wind projects, 20% for solar, and 10% included biomass.
And so many proposals being assessed, contracts are going to be awarded next week, so this is happening right now.
And the review process in assessing the different 21 proposals, picking the winners, similar criteria they will look at are how big a percentage of equity ownership is there from local indigenous communities.
And I guess a couple factors, so BC, if you will correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's one of the provinces who has the most non-treaty territory that's never been resolved.
Yeah, actually all unceded territory.
The province of British Columbia.
One of the last in the confederation, right?
So there's a good way to start solving those issues is, okay, we know we have to solve this, so you're going to get a stake in it.
And that will help hopefully come along with that.
I guess the other interesting thing is the amount of wind power, the hydro opportunities in BC, I guess most of the dams have been built.
I think everybody thinks that there won't be any more dams built.
There is one site C, which has been under construction for many years and proposed for many years in the northeast.
British Columbia, that is actually completed and expected to come on line next year.
I think the dam is complete, the reservoir is filled, the moment, and power starting next year, I believe.
And once it's up and running, there's about 4,500 gigawatt hours of power from that one dam.
It'll be the fourth largest, I think, producer of hydro power in British Columbia.
But I think that most people figure that is probably the last one.
Okay.
And so when you're talking about clean energy projects, there's lots of scope for more wind.
I guess for that site C dam, if I remember correctly, it's down from another dam, the WAC Bennett Dam.
And he's a former Premier of British Columbia, but since most people think Canadians are very conservative,
his nickname was actually Wacky Bill Bennett.
And it's the Social Credit Party of British Columbia.
Western Canada has always had these populace come through, which is different where Canada was formed in Upper and Lower Canada,
between New France and Ontario and Quebec.
And it's like in Alberta, there's some of this as well.
So Canadians are not as conservative as one thinks.
If you have a Premier named Wacky Bill Bennett.
Yeah, no.
And politics in British Columbia is interesting, left and right.
Yes.
So there was also election in BC.
That's right.
Just in the last few weeks and the ruling New Democratic Party Socialist Party just hung on.
They had a large majority going into the election.
They want a very, very slim majority by one or two seats.
And so Indigenous peoples were watching that election closely because the opposition party conservatives were proposing to rescind
the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Indigenous Peoples,
promising to replace that with something even better.
Something better.
You can't.
I mean, it's crazy what comes up in politics because, you know, I think Canada is well on its road to resolving this issue by, you know,
including Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the rights of the Indigenous peoples,
the recognition of their treaty rights, and also when the federal government signed up for UNDRIV,
it set a standard across the country.
And so, yeah, we would have been back to court cases and delays to projects and fights.
But government continues in place in British Columbia and people expect as regards Indigenous communities and energy policy that it's business as usual.
I always thought the NDP was like a European Social Democratic Party,
but obviously you're very North American and they're socialists.
Right?
Is that it?
I guess that's perspective from here.
Everything in North America is right up here, but everything in Canada is actually left of what's in America.
Right?
So, you know, when they say somebody's left of center network,
use the term socialists, they usually think of Canada and America.
But it's not.
But there's a lot of people who are right of center too.
You know, if you look, what goes on the Prairie Provinces or Alberta, you know, in particular.
Okay.
So through the election, BC Hydro, and we're talking about the amount of clean energy in the wind power projects.
Why are the wind power projects going in BC along the coast?
Is that, do you know?
I don't know, to be honest, the valleys.
Yeah, of course, right with the Rockies.
Yeah, yeah.
But I don't know specifically where.
I know of the 21 proposals that it is, they are spread quite broadly across the province.
Okay.
And solar energy in BC?
BC always reminds me a bit of England.
Right?
Where does the sun shine all the time in BC?
Somebody's figured it out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd be surprised in some places in British Columbia.
In the interior, for example, Eritre and quite sunny conditions.
Great.
And the future, you know, retirement destinations.
Absolutely.
Right?
And you'll have power, clean power too.
What a better place to end up than a place like that in BC interior.
Sunny, close to the coast, close to the Rockies, can't ask for a better life.
That's why everyone goes to BC, right?
That's right.
Very nice lifestyle.
And natural resources.
Okay.
Super.
And any other issues coming out from your trip to BC?
Well, no, I guess just to highlight again as part of these equity packages in the hydro
call, there is a standard financing package offered by Canada's infrastructure bank,
government owned bank that has a pretty standard package now of loan guarantees to help finance
that equity stake that Indigenous communities will be required to have in those projects.
So government loans at the federal level, Canada infrastructure banks federal institution
and provinces have similar loan guarantee packages.
There are some grants, private sector is doing some interesting things, helping to finance
these equity stakes, not just for power, but in other situations too, talking to one of
the Canadian mining companies who are in London this week for the resourcing tomorrow conference.
That's actually tomorrow, I think.
It's on now this week.
So it's not, it's resourcing tomorrow, but it's yesterday as well as tomorrow.
Okay, and today, right?
It's the old mines and money conference which has been going in London for many years and
attracts mining companies from around the world.
Why did they give up on such a good name like mines and money?
They kind of put it all together today and tomorrow.
No way, mines and money.
I think it's part of an image rebrand.
Yes.
It's not just digging.
Digging up, digging up the ground, right?
But that's what it is.
I mean, and a lot of people don't appreciate, you know, if you actually fly over where resources
are being extracted, it isn't a pretty sight.
But you know, this has been man on planet Earth since the beginning.
It's all necessary.
Yes.
I mean, these green projects all require minerals and they have to come out of the ground.
Somehow mining companies are getting much better at using clean power to get those minerals
out of the ground, but you have to get them out and use them to generate the clean power
and other products that we all use.
And what about, so a couple of issues on that.
Is that financing capacity that you've just alluded to?
Is it sufficient or is there concern that the indigenous peoples are kind of coming
up to barriers in terms of what they can get to invest in opportunities that they have?
They're there, but do they have enough financial resources yet to be able to do that?
And who's going to fill that gap?
Not at the moment.
There is a concern that the needs are great and there's only so much capacity for funding
in Canada, whether it's government or private sector.
And when you look at the projects that are in the pipeline and all requiring indigenous
equity, then these are pretty daunting numbers.
And so that's why some are looking outside of Canada for that investment.
Yes.
That's one of the reasons for the summit here in London.
Absolutely.
And there are different novel ways that people are coming up to find those funds, to finance
the equity.
Again, talking to one of these Canadian miners, there's a structure in Canada that's used
called Flow Through Shares.
And Flow Through Shares effectively allow the investor to use the deductions that the
company would otherwise be able to use.
So a typical example is an exploration company spending a lot of money to explore but years
away from actually generating revenue and income.
And so in those early years, being able to deduct expenses doesn't really help the company.
Correct.
Canadian system allows certain companies to issue what are called these Flow Through
Shares.
And so if I invest in my Flow Through Shares from your company, I can use the deductions
against my tax bill that that company would otherwise be able to use.
And so you have Flow Through Shares, very popular for many years in Canada.
I think they were attached with MIRBs, multiple urban residential developments.
Probably they can use them in many...
Yes, it's very popular in Canada actually.
And then one twist on the Flow Through Shares structure is something called charitable Flow
Through Structures.
And that's where investors who want to donate their shares to a charity are able to buy
the Flow Through Shares from the company, use the deductions for tax purposes, and then
sell those shares on or donate them to a charity.
And so the charity can hold the shares.
It doesn't get to use the deductions.
They can only be used once, but it's a charity.
It doesn't need the deductions.
And so a common structure is the investor buys from the company, the Flow Through Shares
donates those shares to a charity.
The charity then has a buyer, usually an institutional buyer, who again doesn't get to use the deductions,
but is able to pay cash to that charity.
And it wants the shares.
The charity gets its cash, the original investor has put money into the company, it uses the
tax deductions, and there's a multiplier effect on what we've been able to do with
a similar amount of money and donate.
Wow.
It becomes quite attractive.
Everybody wins with that one.
Who doesn't win?
Everybody does.
I guess the Canadian taxpayer picks up the bill for that one, I guess that's one of the
reasons why.
They're trying to encourage exploration and allowing somebody to use those deductions
that other businesses would otherwise be allowed to use.
So it's an incentive to get investment in.
It's an innovation.
Encourage exploration.
Absolutely.
And when you look at all the parties who get to benefit from that, you've got a lot
of important stakeholders.
And so in some cases you could have that charity be the indigenous community, local indigenous
community, and you could have an investor invest in the company, then donate those shares
to the indigenous community who could either hold the shares because they want their equity
or they could sell them to an institution and just take the cash at that point.
Wow.
I'm sure that's going to be used quite a bit with a lot of these projects.
It's another way for the indigenous communities to get access.
So again, another example of some pretty innovative ideas and all indigenous communities to get
their equity stakes.
Great.
And you also, so when you finish up, I think you were in Alberta as well.
Went to Calgary.
Yep.
Cold, cold, snowy Calgary.
Yes.
About like middle of February.
Well, when you're in the prairies, you know, it comes in October and leaves in April or
May, right?
Kind of consistent.
What's it like today?
What's it like?
It's cold.
And yet you've always had a plug in your car on the prairies.
And it's not because they're all electric, but if you don't plug in your engine block,
you know, the oil will freeze in the other cracked engine block.
So people have been plugging in their vehicles for years on the prairies.
It's nothing new.
So these guys from California come in.
Oh, you get to plug in your car.
So, and was there any indigenous issues?
Well, I was catching up with some contacts and then just on my own time, took a drive
out to Susina, the First Nation that borders Calgary on the southwestern edge of Calgary.
And they've just opened a new ring road highway around Calgary that goes through Tutina territory.
So they were compensated for that, allowing that road to be built.
And they're doing some really interesting things with that.
So then the lawyers show up.
Well, they're trying to develop their land in there so well situated right on the edge
of Calgary.
There's a massive property development going on there with shopping, residential planning.
Who's behind that development?
Number of partners.
It's Tutina Nation.
Yes, Tutina Nation.
First Nations.
Okay.
And of course, for those of our listeners and viewers who don't know, actually the largest
stampede in the world is held every year in Calgary.
President Ava Clayton shared the success of the Nisga Nations modern day treaty.
She talked about the modern day tree blending tradition and modern governance to create a
model for indigenous self-determination, not in British Columbia, but across the country.
The Nisga Nation is the first modern day treaty, 2000.
After many years of negotiating, our leadership has since gone past on.
But in 2000, we left the Indian Act.
So we thought that we are delved into Nisga government coming from a bank council structure.
What a challenge.
And it still is a challenge today, but we are overcoming it.
We have a lawmaking authority, meaning that we can make legislation on Nisga lands.
But whatever is in place for Canada and BC, who are treaty partners, their laws like the
criminal code of Canada still applies.
We don't have that.
We have the authority to make laws on Nisga lands.
And we can introduce at some point in time the policing for our people on Nisga lands.
But for the Nisga Nation, we have maybe 9,000 Nisga citizens registered.
And we are made up of four communities, four village government.
They are known as Concolas under the Indian Act, Lackle's Act, formerly known under the
Indian Act as Greenville, and once formerly known as Canyon City under the Indian Act.
And New Orleans is the larger of the four communities.
Then we're made up of three urban locals who are established under the Societies Act of
BC.
But we have, they participate in the treaty in the government so that we continue to take
care of our Nisga citizens in the urban areas.
So there's three established urban centers for Nisga, that's Vancouver, being the bigger
metrop, then Prince Ruford Fort Edward, and Tess.
The Nisga people have been at the forefront of a lot of indigenous initiatives in Canada
over the years.
In British Columbia, most of the province is unceded territory and the Canadian Supreme
Court recognized back in 1973 a famous Canadian case initiated by the Nisga in 1973, the Calder
case.
Yes, Dr. Frank Calder.
For years our people, in 1910 they created the Nisga Land Committee.
In 1910.
Not before, yeah, long before that.
But for my memory, in 1910, what we called the Nisga Land Committee.
And they took things to a level nobody even thought of, you know.
When the head Neri's coming to our lands, the Queen sending her missionaries, or you
can't tell us what to do on our land, these are some of our chiefs talking.
And you can't tell us at what land we own.
We own this land.
We've been here since time before memory.
And from then it really took off and carried on by our leaders over the decade.
And to the point where we are now today, we have Nisga Statement.
That we really need to look at creating that story for our nation.
And I think that will be a story indeed for our students.
I continue to push that within our education that we have to have our history told.
The Nisga Nation has been silent for too long.
One of the chief counselors this past term made a statement that was so profound in my
mind, you know, why is the Nisga so secretive?
The world doesn't even know too much about the Nisga Nation today as we exist under the
modern day treaty process.
So the very first modern day treaty in 2000, and we have the treaty partners, Kan Dan
BC, that we work together with.
And we are still finding challenges along the way.
Because for Kan Dan BC nobody told him how to treat modern day treaties.
And modern day treaty groups, why are we still answering today?
To become grandfather in Ottawa, BC, but we are working towards a true self-government.
We want to be sustainable financially.
This is why Nisga government has been very forward thinking.
We have been visionaries in what we want to do for our nation.
This night at the resourcing conference, resourcing tomorrow, I believe it was, mining
and money, the Nisga Nation received an award for innovative forward thinking.
The ESG initiative of the year and the industry.
Congratulations.
Because that's a global conference.
Yeah, but this year, Nisga Nation took that.
Fantastic.
We're very happy with that.
The work that we're doing is paying off, but also, and I was explaining to Rob last night
during dinner that the Nisga Nation has been faced with rebuilding our economy.
We stood by the wayside.
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