Senator Klyne: My question is for the Honourable Lisa Raitt. In 2022, RBC released a report entitled 92 to Zero: How economic reconciliation can power Canada’s climate goals. The report noted that achieving net zero would:

. . . rely heavily on vital sources of capital held by Indigenous nations. RBC estimates Canada needs roughly $2 trillion in capital over the next 25 years, much of it from Indigenous sources — or unlocked by Indigenous partnerships, including ownership.

The report notes that “Indigenous lands hold vast resources . . . to green energy systems . . . ” including “. . . 56% of advanced critical mineral projects.”

With the urgency of economic development, if the government looks at prioritizing some critical mineral projects involving Indigenous lands by way of meaningful engagement and consultation, I can see substantial opportunities for Indigenous self-determination. If you’ve been following the procedures thus far, there are some concerns about this meaningful engagement and consultation. I’m looking for some advice on behalf of the Indigenous partners.

Do you have a recommendation for Indigenous partners as to an engagement strategy to get the table set and proactively flip that table and invite the government to lay out their engagement expectations of the government?

Ms. Raitt: Thank you very much, senator. I will say in my day job at CIBC I was very proud to be part of a team that worked on behalf of the Haisla Nation on Cedar LNG where we helped them find the financing to be the majority owner of Cedar LNG, and that was a very fulfilling experience. I know a little bit about what it’s like to try to get to a “yes” in terms of deals.

The government is giving themselves power to be able to move these national projects along, but that’s only paper power. What the power really resides in is having the proponent and the Indigenous community be partners, quite frankly, and it’s up to the Indigenous community if they would like to be an equity partner or they don’t want to be an equity partner. It’s completely their own decision making on it.

Even if you have this national priority designation, without having the meaningful cooperation, participation and partnership of an Indigenous community, it’s going to be very difficult for a board to give you that final investment approval, quite frankly, because it’s always going to be that part.

As First Nations Major Project Coalition Chair Sharleen Gale says, you need to have us along because we are going to actually make it a lot easier along the way. Regardless of what is said here in the act, the onus is still going to be on companies and proponents to make sure that they do what is needed to be done, and that is to work with, obtain the consent, partnership and advice of the First Nation community as they go through their process.

It doesn’t happen without them. To quote JP Gladu, all roads to resources go through Indigenous communities in this country.