Corporate Canada urged to harness the power of Indigenous youth

Partnerships actualizing reconciliation must include dedicated pathways for First Nations youth, says Chief Ian Campbell.

Chief Ian Campbell, Governing Council Chair of the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase.

Indigenous collaborations with corporate Canada must have dedicated pathways to build meaningful careers and provide leadership opportunities for First Nations youth that will actualize reconciliation, says the Governing Council chair of the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase.

“We have this huge demographic of young people who are looking for meaningful careers and opportunities to contribute to our communities . . . economic partnerships that make First Nations youth a priority are among the best ways forward to actualize reconciliation,” said Ian Campbell, a hereditary chief of the Squamish Nation and former elected councillor.

“Our demographics are largely youth, with a majority of our members being under the age of 25, and there is a huge opportunity here to unlock and maximize their economic potential,” said Campbell, a leading advocate for First Nations economic equity.

The latest projections by Statistics Canada show Indigenous youth are the fastest-growing cohort of Canadian youth and that they will represent 45% of the Indigenous population by 2030.

The population of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities could rise to nearly 3.2 million by 2041 if high birth rates continue and more people continue self-identifying as Indigenous, said the federal number-crunching agency.

This trend is in line with how Indigenous communities have been steadily growing in recent decades. Over the next 20 years, Indigenous populations are also projected to grow faster than non-Indigenous populations, Statistics Canada noted, despite the latter expecting to see an increase due to international migration.

The Indigenous population in Canada was 1,800,000 based on 2016 census data, and that figure is expected to rise in all provinces and territories.

A recent RBC survey of 2,000 Indigenous youth found that the Indigenous youth population in Canada is growing at a pace four times faster than the rest of the country's youth, while Indigenous people create new businesses at an astounding nine times the Canadian average.

The analysis found that the median age of Indigenous Canadians is 29 versus 41 for Canadians as a whole.

For Campbell, these numbers speak volumes to the importance of cultivating Indigenous youth leaders to be future decision-makers who are well-educated in both traditional community practices and contemporary leadership skills.

“I see all aspects of capacity building that can be passed on from our Elders and our communities in partnerships that can prepare young people for a shared prosperity,” said Campbell, who grew up in North Vancouver under the shadow of Canada’s shameful Indian residential school legacy.

“My parents and grandparents never had these opportunities . . . I feel a sense of stewardship and responsibility that we have to change that narrative and create real tangible assets for our future generations.

“My anxiety has always been who is going to occupy these fields and capitalize on these opportunities from our First Nations communities,” said Campbell, who first began working for the Squamish Nation in 1999 as a cultural ambassador and negotiator. 

With a wealth of experience building bridges between Indigenous communities and enterprise partners, Campbell sees Indigenous-enterprise partnerships as the key to advancing a positive vision for the future.

“I was drawn to this event because it provides a great platform to advance Indigenous partnerships in general and provides an amazing venue to showcase the progress that can be made around such partnerships,” Campbell said.

IPSS 2023 will be held in Vancouver and online on June 1 and 2.

“I truly believe in partnerships that have value alignments where Indigenous values and principles aren’t just tokenized. We don’t want to do business just for the sake of business . . . these partnerships must be a collaboration of western practice along with indigenous ways of knowing . . . Most importantly, these partnerships must garner consent from First Nations, which will allow projects to proceed and provide access to natural resources.

“Collaborative partnerships with consent from First Nations are relationships that recognize aboriginal rights and title . . . they recognize that our titles, rights and land were not extinguished when British Columbia joined the Federation.”

IPSS was started in 2020 by a team led by Stewart Muir, a Victoria-based entrepreneur and founder and executive director of Resource Works.

"With the UN's Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being enshrined into our legal systems, Canada suddenly found itself at the cutting edge of global reconciliation,” said Muir. “At the same time, a new era of business engagement was already well underway, bringing unprecedented opportunities to hundreds of aboriginal groups across the country."

Further impetus for IPSS came from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which called on the nation's corporate sector to take a more active role in achieving progress. TRC co-chair Murray Sinclair was keynote speaker at IPSS in 2021.

Expertise in managing this transition is now in greater demand, as are the stories of those who have created successful business partnerships. 

"IPSS is a platform for sharing knowledge about how to be part of this movement of change, said Muir, "while also allowing those with accomplishments to be noticed by Canadians. The whole country is waking up to how important this is, and this event is fulfilling a need to understand the big picture and find ways for all our organizations to be part of change."

Be inspired by the stories of Indigenous-enterprise success redefining Canada at our upcoming event on June 1-2, 2023, by purchasing your tickets now.