Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates who attended the two days First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) Conference which concluded on Tuesday in Toronto.
Freeland, who is also Minister of Finance, participated in the “Ministerial Panel on Indigenous Loan Guarantees and Economic Growth” on that final day, April 23.
Freeland touted the $5 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, which she announced April 16 as part of the 2024 federal budget. The program provides affordable capital for Indigenous capital participation in energy and natural resources projects.
Freeland said the concept for the program had been in the works for several years.
“It’s a really important thing,” he told the assembled indigenous leaders, business people and government representatives.
“I think this is something in the budget that everyone in Canada supports.”
Freeland said: “Indigenous economic participation in the major projects that will build our country and our economy into the future is an essential step.
“I will even say that it is the essential step in building economic prosperity and economic reconciliation for indigenous people.”
Freeland said the program will improve important projects.
“I really believe that Indigenous participation in these projects will mean that we do them the right way from the beginning,” he said.
“I am also absolutely convinced, therefore, that these projects will be built faster. This is an approach that will, first and foremost, promote Indigenous economic prosperity. “It will drive prosperity for all of Canada and all Canadians.”
Mark Podlasly, director of sustainability at FNMPC, moderated the panel.
“For the members of the FNMPC, this has been a cause for us from the beginning,” he said. Access to competitively priced capital for capital investments “is one of the founding reasons for the creation of the FNMPC almost a decade ago,” he said.
The FNMPC is a national group made up of more than 150 elected First Nations councils, hereditary chiefs, tribal councils and development corporations. This year was the coalition’s seventh annual conference.
Like Freeland, Podlasly praised the program’s announcement. And he provided some background on why he anticipates this will usher in change.
“Historically, our First Nations have been excluded from accessing capital markets or assets due to the colonial structures of the Indian Act,” he said. “The Indian Act considers us wards of the state and all our assets are held in trust by the government, which makes it very difficult for us, although we control land, we do not legally own it. Or assets, in any case.”
Podlasly is confident that the new program will be beneficial.
“Based on our model, we know there are billions of dollars of projects waiting to happen in this country that will be unlocked by this program,” he said. “This should mean a transfer of wealth to First Nations, which is historic in the founding of Canada and in the history of our country.”
Freeland was asked to provide details on how the program will work.
“This is a sector-independent program,” he said. “That was very important to me personally. It is not up to any federal government minister to choose for indigenous peoples the projects in which they want to participate. I firmly believe it. And that is a guiding principle of this program.”
Freeland acknowledged that implementing the program will not be an easy task.
“We also realized that these are big projects,” he said. “They are really challenging. Financing is difficult to resolve. It’s complicated. Financial structures are complicated. The projects themselves are complicated.”
As a result, Freeland said support will be provided through Natural Resources Canada to help Indigenous participants gain access to the program.
“We have also established in the budget of the Privy Council Office, which is like the heart of the public service, a special office to deliver clean energy projects more quickly,” he said.
“And I think there will be some really great collaboration between that office and some of the larger projects that I hope we see funded through the $5 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program.”