RC107 JulyAugust2023 - Magazine - Page 40
PEOPLE & EVENTS
EVENTS
VANCOUVER, B.C.
FNMPC The Values Driven
Economy Conference
MORE THAN 1,500 people gathered in
Vancouver at the First Nations Major Projects
Coalition’s (FNMPC) annual conference
showcasing how the inclusion of Indigenous
nations throughout a company’s value
chain is a competitive advantage in getting
major projects approved, funded, built, and
operating profitably.
“Most of the proposed solutions for
achieving net zero by 2050 rely on using
Indigenous lands and resources to build
clean energy infrastructure and extraction
projects worth up to $6 trillion,” said
Sharleen Gale, Chief of Fort Nelson First
Nation and chair of FNMPC. “Given that
all these projects will be built on or near
Indigenous lands, Indigenous people
on both sides of the shared CanadaUnited States border expect substantive
participation in all the proposed clean
energy infrastructure and critical mineral
projects that Indigenous nations are
expected to host. For these climate critical
projects to be successful, they must align
with Indigenous values. To align with
Indigenous values, Indigenous nations must
be partners in the projects.”
The two-day event featured numerous
speakers, including Natural Resources
Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, B.C. Premier
David Eby, U.S. Ambassador to Canada,
David L. Cohen and Terry Teegee, Regional
Chief, B.C. Assembly of First Nations.
Ehren Cory, CEO of the Canada
Infrastructure Bank (CIB), also attended and
sat down to discuss how the CIB is working
to close the infrastructure gap in Indigenous
communities.
“We have spent the last 15 years underinvesting across our country in big cities
and small, in urban and rural communities,
and for sure Indigenous communities,”
he said. “Infrastructure is the stuff that
connects us, is the stuff that helps our
economies grow and creates access to
opportunities. It creates the fabric of
society.”
Already the bank has helped secure
funding for a major battery project in
Ontario with the Six Nations. The project
will be the largest battery storage facility
of its kind—some 10 acres—and will make
power available when wind or solar power
is not available.
“It’s an amazing project,” Cory said, an
example of a partnership between a private
developer and the Six Nations’ development corporation. “Quite early on they
came to us and said, ‘This is an important
project for greening the grid in Ontario for
making renewable power that we’re producing more stable and predictable as we
can store it. When the wind is low, we can
sell it back to the grid when needed.’”
Then he added, “And so I just use that as
an example of how there are tons of projects
like that where a First Nation or an Indigenous community is ready, willing, and able.
And what they need is partners, which in
that case, they found from the private sector, and they need access to capital, which
[we] were able to provide.”
During an exclusive interview with ReNew Canada at the conference, Cory
elaborated on the CIB’s role in helping
Indigenous communities get important
projects off the starting line.
“We have under-invested in infrastructure
for more than 50 years in this country and
nowhere is that truer than in our Indigenous,
northern and remote communities,” he stated. “So, we have significant gaps to close.”
Closing those gaps was why the CIB
launched the Indigenous Community
Infrastructure Initiative two years ago. “How
can you take what the CIB does in general
and scale it to the needs of Indigenous
communities?”
Canada Infrastructure
Bank CEO Ehren Cory
(far right) sat down
for a discussion with
FNMPC chair Chief
Sharleen Gale (centre),
and Dan George, CEO
of Four Directions
Management Canada,
at FNMPC’s The Values
Driven Economy
Conference.
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RENEW CANADA – JULY/AUGUST 2023
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