Welcome to Drumbeats, the must -listen -to podcast
which explains why Indigenous partnerships are
the key to securing successful outcomes in natural
resource and infrastructure investment in Canada.
I'm Mark McNacken. My co -hosts Robert Brant
and I are joined today by Natan Obed, President
of the Inuit Taprit Kanatami, representing 70
,000 Inuit across 40 % of Canada's land area.
In our conversation, you'll discover why Inuit
territories control critical infrastructure corridors
worth billions, learn about the structure partner
mechanisms that provide investment certainty,
and understand how multi -billion dollar defense
and resource projects are creating unprecedented
opportunities in the Arctic for UK and continental
European investors. Obed, the president of ITK,
and I will try to pronounce the Inuit Tapiri
Kanatimi organization. Very nice of you to join
us and make some time to talk to us on Drumbeats
today. Yeah, happy to be here. Yes. Pleasure
to have you with us, President Natan. Great to
have someone from the north. And we talk about
Canada being a northern country. Perhaps you
could tell us a little bit about the background
and a part of Canada many Canadians don't know
very well and share the story of Inuit and the
Indigenous people in the north. Yeah, absolutely.
As I've been introduced, my name is Natan Obed.
I've been the president of Inuit Tepperi Kanatmi
for 10 years now. I'm just ending my third term
as president here and have been very proud to
represent Inuit here in Canada or wherever the
work takes me. There are approximately 70 ,000
Inuit in Canada. Under the Canadian constitution,
it references three distinct Indigenous peoples,
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. To a global
audience or even a Canadian audience, things
that are very simple for us because we live the
realities of these decisions or these constitutional
arrangements may be something that people have
not even encountered at all in their life. So
I always try to start with the very basics, that
we are one of the three Indigenous peoples of
Canada. And that means that... We have very different
realities from a legislative and a policy perspective
than First Nations and Métis. We do not fall
under the Indian Act. We are citizens of public
governments in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec,
Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. But we
also have created... our own institutions or
Inuit treaty organizations. And we have treaties
with the crown across the entirety of our homeland,
which we call Inuit Nunangat. And those treaties
have been signed between 1975 and 2005. The sum
total of land area is about 40 % of Canada's
landmass, or approximately 4 million square kilometers,
and 72 % of Canada's coastline. We also... have
about 32 % of Canada's fresh water within our
homeland of Inuit Nunangat. Another really interesting
distinction is that we have within these areas,
co -management or institutions of public governance,
where we sit at a table with provinces, with
territories and the federal government, depending
upon the area, and co -manage. things like water
and lands and economic development within the
entirety of these spaces. So we have a very progressive
relationship with the federal government and
one that we've worked very hard over the last
50 years to assert our rights. At the national
level, Inuit Tapir Kanatimi represents the rights
of Inuit to the federal government and to Canada.
And we work on the basis of consensus and unity.
We have a board of directors. The presidents
of each of the four treaty areas sit as the board
of directors for ITK. And so we can faithfully
present Canadian positions to the government
and to the world. That's great background and
helpful, President Dobit. What about your own
background? Where did you grow up? And what led
you to the position of president eventually?
I'm from Nain Nunatsiavut, which is Labrador.
And I grew up in Labrador, but also in the United
States. My mother is American. And so I bounced
back and forth between Labrador and Maine for
most of my childhood. I also played hockey. So
I ended up. playing junior hockey in New Hampshire
and Montana in the US and then played at Tufts
University in Boston before finding my way back
to Ottawa. I always had the intention of living
in Canada. I've always identified as an Inuk
and I've always wanted to help however I can.
So I've been very fortunate to be able to have
a life experience where it has allowed for me
to live in non -Indigenous parts of North America
to really get a sense of different realities
and then bring those realities together for the
common purpose and common good of Inuit. I also
lived in Nunavut for 10 years. My boys, who are
now 18 and 16, still live in Akhali, Nunavut,
the capital of the jurisdiction of Nunavut. And
so I have a little bit of a footprint in both
Nunatsiavut and Nunavut. I've worked at Inuit
Tepperit Kinatpi now three times. I started off
my career as an environmental policy analyst.
I also worked in Nunatsiavut implementing the
Voices Bay project, which is a large nickel -cobalt
mine there in Nunatsiavut, and then also worked
at Nunavut Tungvik in Iqaluit. So I've spent
my entire career working on behalf of Inuit.
in different positions and have not regretted
it for one second. I've really enjoyed the ability
to have a career and work on behalf of my people.
Well, you have a very interesting background,
as you've highlighted, having been down south
for part of your life and then up north again.
So you do have those different perspectives that
many Canadians, many North Americans don't have.
And you're a hockey player. So some team made
the mistake by not drafting you. Is that correct?
We need a team up north, right? Yeah. Well, it
was always my dream. My only dream for the majority
of my childhood was to play in the NHL. And sadly,
that didn't come to pass. Join the club. Join
the club. I guess we're going to have to ask,
what was your dream team that you wanted to be
drafted by? Well, if you're from a remote community,
you really only have two choices. It's Montreal
or Toronto. That's all you see on Hockey Night
in Canada. And as a kid, especially on the East
Coast, I'm not staying up to watch the late games.
So in the 1980s, Toronto was pretty terrible
and Montreal was winning cups. So I always imagined
to be a Montreal Canadian and I'm still a Montreal
fan. have been cheering for Toronto for far too
long, so at least you've had the experience.
Yeah, I grew up between Toronto and Montreal,
and so I actually support both teams, but living
in the Toronto area now, the Leafs are my team.
I was born in Manitoba, so there was no way at
the time anybody, I don't think anybody cheered
for Montreal. There are very few, but a great
hockey club. Again, coming back to your experience,
really unique, very interesting. Can you talk
a little bit, just again for historical perspective
for our listeners and viewers over here in the
UK, about where Nunavut sits? Because for a long
time it was in what was just called the Northwest
Territories. And Nunavut too, because for an
area that I don't know much about, We had Clint
Davis not long ago on the podcast, also from
Nunatsiwit, and understanding how Nunavut, Nunatsiwit,
and the other regions fit together would be helpful.
Well, in some ways, Inuit are fortunate in that
the places that we occupied were the hardest
to get to. especially for colonizers who wanted
to build cities and build infrastructure or have
pastoral lands. There's not much pastoral lands
in the Canadian Arctic. So our colonial histories
started with whalers and with the Hudson's Bay
Company and with missionaries. From Nunatsiavut,
we were colonized first by... Moravian missionaries
from Germany, but they only got that ability
through land grants from the British crown as
Newfoundland and Labrador was a part of Britain
at the time in the 1770s. Other parts of the
Canadian Arctic had many more interactions with
whalers or with trading. And it wasn't until
around World War II and the aftermath in the
Cold War. that many of our communities became
permanent communities. Much of those reasons
were because of Canadian fears around sovereignty,
but also the new ability to have a very overarching
and intrusive control over Inuit communities,
and in many cases, compelling Inuit to abandon
our seasonal structure of living and to move
into newly created fixed communities with terrible
results, I might add. But we are situated at
the top of Canada and in some cases as little
as 100 or 200 kilometers from Greenland on our
eastern borders. And on our western borders,
we are very close to Alaska. So much so that...
Many Inuit have family members or have intermarried
and have deep connections across borders from
Greenland, Canada to Alaska. Even though we have
an incredible distance, towards the 5 ,000 kilometers
from east to west, we have one culture and one
overarching language and a very common way of
seeing the world. So we have actually an international
body called the Inuit Circumpolar Council. And
we have Inuit in the Chukotka region of Russia,
Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, who all come together
and work together on the international stage
on the UN processes and really creating unity
amongst each other. So it's a pretty remarkable
society. It can't be underscored enough how important
this area of the world is now, geopolitically,
and how important it is to involving it in whatever
is to come. Yeah, that was pretty clear. I traveled
for the first time up to Nunavut earlier this
year. That's where I first met you at the Nunavut
Arctic Sovereignty and Security Conference. And
I was really... blown away, partly because there
were, as you say, Greenlanders there who were
clearly considered themselves brothers and sisters,
but also the interest in the Arctic from all
corners now, and the excitement on the one hand
for what might come, but also hesitation too,
because a lot of development. in initiatives,
but that change sometimes isn't easy. Yeah. We've
gone through a lot and much of it is well documented,
especially in the time period between the 1950s
and the 1970s where Inuit were coerced into communities
in many cases. Inuit children are taken away
to residential school. We didn't have health
care facilities. So in the advent of a TB epidemic,
thousands of Inuit were brought from our homeland
to southern facilities and put in sanatoriums
for years on end at many times. We also relied
on our sled dogs. Through government policy and
through police ordinance adherences, the majority
of our sled dogs were killed when we were put
into communities. And so the entire structure
of the way that we lived our lives and the way
that we were self -determining within our homeland
was disrupted. And much of the work that we have
done since then was try to... regain self -determination
and try to figure out how to work to improve
our society while maintaining our traditional
ways, but also understanding that we are a part
of Canada and that citizens of Nunangat will
want to be a part of the economy. to be a part
of academics and healthcare and education. And
so figuring out how to have a foot in both worlds
and to do that successfully is a large part of
the work that we do here at IDK. So just building
on that, what are some of the current priorities
at IDK that you're focused on at the moment?
Often we have... two streams. We have a stream
that we have decided ourselves that are priorities
for Inuit. And then we also have the stream with
the federal government where the federal government
may have a reconciliation agenda or an economic
agenda. And we fit prominently within the aspirations
of a particular mandate of a particular government.
And so we have to be at the table and engage
and work with governments. And so that sometimes
is a large pull on our time. Some of the things
that we've worked on for a long time, just in
relation to equity in healthcare and educational
outcomes, on life expectancy, on very basic infrastructure
needs for our regions, the ability to have connectivity,
broadband across our homeland, The ability to
rise out of poverty, to have enough food. We
have strategies and policies and are trying to
implement programs and services across the Unangat
for all of those different areas. In the last
six months or so, there have been a lot of conversations
nationally about whether it's defense and militarization
of the Arctic or building one Canadian economy.
And so we've been brought into that conversation
as a priority as well. And it aligns with the
long -term needs that we have in Inuit Nunangat,
in one of the most remote places in the country.
We just hope that we can align the interests
so that we don't have a replication of what happened
during the Cold War era, where the U .S. and
Canada built massive infrastructure projects
across our homeland. With no intention of having
any of the benefits, whether they be economic
or practical benefits to communities and to innovate
ourselves. It was done as almost like a layering
on top of an existing society without any overlap
between what was happening at those installations
and at those bases versus what was happening
within our society. So we don't want to see a
replication of that. We want to be integrated
in the way that we approach these issues. We
are proud Canadians. We want to stand up for
our country, but we also want to bring Inuit
Nunangat into Canada. We want to ensure that
we can be economically successful, but also that
our communities can be sustainable and enhanced
by any of the investment. that is to come in
the Canadian Arctic. Some First Nations leaders
and others are concerned about how quickly the
Canadian government wants to move and concerned
about infringing hard -fought rights. Do they
in any way share that concern? Are you comfortable
with and excited about the next few years? Yeah,
Bill C -5 was contentious. ITK opposed the passing
of Bill C -5 in the manner that it passed. It's
not that we had massive concerns with the spirit
and intent of the legislation. We were concerned
about the lack of consultation and the fears
in some of the provisions that may be at odds
with our modern treaties and the provisions of
our modern treaties. We have been told repeatedly
by the prime minister and the cabinet members
associated with the work that our treaties take
precedent over Bill C -5. We also did a lot of
work in the previous government to amend the
Interpretation Act to include a universal non
-derogation clause. That's a lot of... for anyone
who doesn't follow legislative paths closely.
But basically, the non -derogation clause says
that no piece of legislation can ever be passed
in Canada that supersedes the constitutional
and the overarching rights of Indigenous peoples,
especially through treaties and through previous
pieces of legislation. You can't amend the Constitution
through legislation or impede the rights of Indigenous
peoples through legislation that's protected
under the Constitution. And in Canada, we were
very fortunate to have that cover under our Constitution
for the upholding of our rights. We hope that
all of this holds. And just because we have the
ability to litigate, It does not mean that we
feel safe in any way, shape, or form. The partnerships
that we want to make have to be earned, and they
have to be done in a spirit of partnership rather
than one of coercion or thrust upon us the way
that many people do fear. We also aren't going
to abandon environmental assessment or any of
the other mechanisms within our treaties that
allow for things like impact benefit agreements
to be signed for any sort of major projects that
happen within our homeland. We believe that we
can do all of this quickly. We can have shared
ambition. We can get to these nation building
projects and do it in a way that doesn't undermine
any of the processes that we've fought so hard
to create, or the legislative cover that we have
that under no circumstance will we abandon. We've
wanted to have these links north to south for
decades now. And if this time and in this moment,
there can be the investment to create better
marine infrastructure, to create more air infrastructure
or road infrastructure from the south to the
north, or from the north to the south, no matter
what we look at it. I think we are in for an
exciting time that will really change the fortunes
of Inuit and Inuit Nyungat for the better. Thank
you for that. You talked about environmental
assessments. is always the number of them. Federal
government has one at the provincial or territory
level. How do we eliminate duplication? Is that
something you see happening? Is that already
happening? My answer to that immediately is through
efficiency rather than through abandonment or
abroad. revisiting of existing legislation. We
recognize and as proponents in some cases of
projects have been quite frustrated with the
length of time that some of these processes take.
And so there is a shared concern about how long
it might take to get some of these projects off
the ground. And the administrative structure
is in place to do that or sometimes inadequate
or take wholly too long. So we look forward to
working with all parties involved from communities
all the way up to federal departments to ensure
that we can find efficiencies and that we can
also just put our minds to it and do it in a
quicker way. I do like the prime minister's mantra
of doing things quicker than have been done in
decades. imagining the post -World War II boom,
especially in housing, as something to emulate
and model. Canada has built quickly before without
compromising our environment or the due diligence
within law. And let's do that again. Yeah, this
time though, well, a lot of things have changed,
but one of them is Is leadership like yourself
and a law that backs your place? I don't think
it's going to be possible to do these big nation
-building projects without meaningful involvement
from Indigenous communities. Part of your background
as well is you've been on the Inuit Crown Partnership
Committee. Can you explain again to our listeners
and viewers a little bit about what that is?
what it's set out to achieve? Yeah. Well, I'd
like to start by saying I'm not sure that another
nation state has a structural partnership with
its Indigenous people the way that we have created
with the Inuit Crown Partnership between Inuit
leadership and the Canadian government. This
was formed in 2018 and there's a declaration.
that underscores the creation of the Inuit Crown
Partnership Table. We then created a rough terms
of reference that allows for structural participation.
The Inuit Treaty Organization presidents, myself,
the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council
Canada, and the president of Pauk Tuti Inuit
Women of Canada, and also the president of the
National Inuit Youth Council, sit alongside.
federal ministers of the Crown and for two meetings
a year. And for one meeting a year, the prime
minister attends as well. We schedule three meetings
annually. And the principle is this, that there
will always be innate priorities and there will
always be federal priorities. We have a relationship
within this nation state that is structural.
We have shared ambition. So why don't we identify
the shared priority areas we have, then create
work plans and create priority areas, and then
hold ourselves accountable to achieving the outcomes
of those work plans year over year. So we've
been able to identify 12 different priority areas
that we work on on an ongoing basis. We try to...
Only identify priority areas that are multilateral,
meaning that it's not just Crown Indigenous Relations
and ITK that need to solve something. It may
be that the finance department needs to be involved.
It may be that Health Canada needs to work with
Indigenous services. It needs to work with different
regions. We try to take our complex problems,
and if we have a shared ambition of an outcome,
we flow them through that partnership table.
We just had a meeting in Inuvik where the prime
minister and I co -chaired the ICPC. It was about
a seven -hour meeting. The Bill C -5 and the
major projects were a large part of that agenda,
but only a part of it. We had seven other ministers
of the Crown who were there who are also wanting
to use the ICPC space to be able to get effective
outcomes and do work. We had the finance minister.
We also had the minister of defense. When the
prime minister does not come, I co -chair the
space with the Crown Indigenous Relations Minister.
Most often than not, there are between five and
seven ministers of the Crown. that sit on the
other side of the table. And our treaties are
with the Crown and Right of Canada. So the United
Crown Partnership is just very literally taking
the treaty relationship that we have and putting
it on the working level rather than it being
something that is nebulous or that has no day
-to -day functionality to it. Within the implementation
of our treaties, it's always, for First Nations
and Inuit alike, it's been really difficult in
this country over the last 150 years to keep
the Crown's honour front and centre within the
implementation of treaties, but also practically
to not drift apart and become adversaries. Our
leadership, especially Dwayne Smith, Inuviali
chair always says, you know, they're just as
much Canada's treaties as they are Inuit treaties.
We try to keep that spirit within the work we
do. We have some great outputs, one being the
Inuit New Lingot policy, which is a policy that
we co -developed through the ICPC space, but
Prime Minister Trudeau announced was a federal
government policy. and released it in 2023. There
was a cabinet directive that was done towards
the end of 2024 that further expressly talked
about the implementation of the Inuit and Inuit
policy across the federal public service. And
that is, I think, one of the ways in which Inuit
are trying to transform our relationship with
the Crown. We are often... misunderstood or not
considered at all when there is a piece of legislation
or policy that is being considered that has effects
on Indigenous peoples. We are interrupting that
and providing an explicit guide or even in a
harsher term, an obligation for the federal government
public service to follow whenever anything impacts
inmate. This has never been done before within
the federal government of Canada. And we're really
hoping that it will, as I said, interrupt either
processes that exclude Inuit or processes where
the federal government decides which, on its
own, which way to go. It's not a choose -your
-own -adventure with Indigenous peoples. We have
structural relationships and they need to be
implemented. Well, when you get a group like
the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance,
Minister of Defence and a few others at a table
wanting to talk, you get an idea of the importance
of the subject matter and the region. So I hope
you are right. And I'm wondering if there are
opportunities for foreign... investors or partners
in some of these sectors that are going to see
investment in the next few years. All of my description
of our governance and our treaty relationship
with Canada and our ambition as people, I think
sets the stage for certainty in any sort of natural
resource extraction projects, any sort of joint
ventures for... shipping or for infrastructure
or for aviation. There are opportunities within
Unangat that are emerging, especially in the
defense sector and the military spend, which
is going to be in the billions and will be ongoing
for the foreseeable future. We have development
corporations and birthright organizations. We
also have individual entrepreneurs who run successful
businesses or joint ventures with non -indigenous
businesses to do work in Inuit and Inuit. And
so what I'm describing is a stable environment,
a rule -based structure in order to then make
a quantifiable decision around the risk associated
with any of the projects or any of the big ambitious
natural resource projects that might happen in
the next decade. We've talked, you know, in the
news, there's been projects like the Grays Bay
Road and Port with the Kivilik Hydrofiber Link.
Those are two projects that are in Nunavut, but
are going to be billions of dollars to get off
the ground. And not only are they to service
in our communities, but they also are going to
be launching pads for natural resource extraction
or other economic activity within those regions.
All of a sudden, we're changing in, say, the
central part of Nunavut, the main fuel source
of being diesel, which is incredibly costly.
costly to run and then dirty from a pollution
perspective, to hydro and that hydro coming from
Manitoba. The opportunities to have a larger
supply of clean energy within the central part
of Nunavut may spur on development in many different
ways that we don't know. The Grays Bay Road and
Port is explicitly meant to open up mineral corridors
in the western part of Nunavut and parts of the
Northwest Territories as well for underdeveloped
resources that are significant in scope. From
a natural resource extraction perspective, there
are these big opportunities. Also from a building
infrastructure perspective, there's going to
be talks of building roads or building ports
or... improving aviation infrastructure. All
of these projects are going to need a lot of
investment, but also a lot of know -how and expertise
that is in some cases or many cases going to
fall outside of our ability to provide on our
own. So there are many different opportunities
for partnership. And I would just say that Going
through the front door is always the best option
when working with Inuit. We have land claim agreements.
We have rights holding institutions. We have
development corporations. This is not a wild
west. And if investors or potential businesses
think that they can come in and treat Canada
like a third world country or like an... an unregulated
environment where Indigenous peoples are not
a central part of this equation of doing business.
I would just say that that is not the case. No,
there are good structures in place. There are
knowledgeable advisors and great leadership like
yourself to hopefully avoid that. That's a great
message. Yes. Absolutely. Just before we wrap
up, unless there's some other issues you'd like
to raise, it's been a great conversation. Can
you talk a little bit about the flag? Because
most people will not have seen that flag. Can
you describe it for our audience? Okay. It's
meant to do two things. One, there are four Inuit
regions within Inuit Nunangat in Canada. So there
are four Inuit on the flag. They represent men
and women. Women have a different style of parka
or winter clothing called an amauti. Many people
would know that women carry babies in their backs
just as much as any other way when they're infants.
And so there are two women and two men. In the
negative space in the middle, there is the Canada
flag. the maple leaf that is on the Canadian
flag. It's meant to show that we are a part of
Canada, and we're very proud to be a part of
Canada. And then just under the Canadian flag
in that negative space is the outline of an ulu,
which is a woman's life. Our organization, Inuit
Taparit Kanatami, literally means Inuit Taparit
is united, or are united, and Kanata is Canada,
and mi is in. So United in Canada is our literal
name. We are very literal people sometimes. Wow.
It's been a great conversation speaking with
you, President Nathan. Very informative. Rob?
Yeah, no, real pleasure. Thank you for your time
this morning. Thank you for your years of service
to your people. And best of luck over the next
stage. Very exciting. years ahead. Well, thank
you, Rob and Mark, for having me on your podcast
and look forward to future conversations. We
certainly do. Thank you very much. Thank you
to President Natan Obed for sharing his insights
with us and thank you for viewing and listening.
Mark your calendars for the upcoming 2026 Summit
taking place on the 8th of April. Be sure to
share, subscribe, and leave a review on your
favorite podcast channel. Thanks for listening
to Drum Beats. Until next time.