Progress giving leaders hope for more of the same in 2025
When electric utility BC Hydro launched a procurement process earlier this year seeking new sources of clean energy for the province’s power grid, it included a specific requirement: projects must be at least 25 per cent owned by First Nations.
Other major achievements in 2024 included a positive final investment decision by the proponents of Cedar LNG, a US$4-billion liquefied natural gas terminal being built off the coast of B.C. The facility will be majority-owned by the Haisla Nation, making Cedar LNG the largest Indigenous-owned infrastructure project in Canada.
While corporations have begun to recognize that Indigenous communities deserve to benefit from projects on their lands, in recent years these benefits have typically come in the form of construction jobs or procurement opportunities and have fallen short of offering Indigenous people a full equity stake.
“We still see a focus on respecting rights and providing access to procurement opportunities and jobs and employment and training, and that doesn’t go away now that we’re talking equity in addition. But Indigenous communities are looking to be part owners in the future as we continue to develop Canada,” Bourque said.
Government-backed loan guarantees, like the ones that have been offered in Alberta since 2020 through a provincial Crown corporation called the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp., have helped increase the number of deals in recent years. James Jenkins, executive director at the non-profit Indigenous Clean Energy, said the number of wind, solar and other forms of clean energy projects across Canada that have some level of Indigenous equity ownership has increased by about 30 per cent annually since 2020.
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