As Canadian governments and private investors begin to pour money in the rebuilding of our economy, Indigenous people – many of whom will be asked to host these projects on their lands – see an opportunity to be fully included in the environmental, economic and employment opportunities that these projects can offer.

Last year, the First Nations Major Project Coalition (MPC) undertook a worldwide survey to learn how local and Indigenous people in other jurisdictions meaningfully benefited from infrastructure projects in their countries and regions. The final survey report detailed 60 examples of local and Indigenous equity ownership arrangements in energy generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure.

MPC found that the main drivers of this growth in equity ownership is an increase in global demand for clean energy, a growing desire of Indigenous people to have a say in all aspects of resource development in their territories and an interest in acquiring long-term revenue streams that can fund self-determination priorities.

From an Indigenous perspective, equity ownership is the culmination of a 70-year process that has seen an increase in court decisions favourable to Indigenous rights, increasing availability of legal and technical resources, changes in societal attitudes and the rise of internet-supported activism and knowledge sharing.

Capitalizing on these changes, there has been a corresponding increase in Indigenous influence on large capital and infrastructure projects through negotiated participation agreements with companies and governments. Many Indigenous people are no longer interested in being passive hosts of infrastructure projects but want to share directly in the prosperity of projects via preferential contract bidding, revenue sharing and, increasingly, equity.

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