First Nations Major Projects Coalitions serve more than 170 First Nations across Canada.

THE KICK-OFF: Niilo Edwards was born in Alert Bay and raised in Sointula, a fishing village of about 500 people on Malcolm Island on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. This context contrasted slightly with his first professional experience as a constituency councilor in the House of Commons in Ottawa.

“I was very lucky; people took chances on me,” Edwards recalled. “I don’t know if I was the best student in high school, but I became interested in politics and ended up working a summer job for the local municipality. MP right out of high school. The local MP said to me this fall: “Why don’t you come work for me in Ottawa?”

Edwards did so while earning a degree in public administration at the University of Ottawa. He eventually became the executive assistant to Senator Gerry St. Germain, a position he held for approximately six and a half years. “He instilled in me an entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of urgency,” Edwards says of St. Germain. “It gave me the ability to look at opportunities and gaps in systems and think about how we could help First Nations fill those gaps and move forward with their own agenda.”

ACTION PLAN: When St. Germain retired, Edwards returned to British Columbia to work with the First Nations Financial Management Board, a non-profit organization. “I was given the responsibility to help determine how we could increase the ability of First Nations to directly access capital markets and reduce the cost of borrowing so that First Nations could take equity interests in projects natural resources and large-scale infrastructure. » he said.

A few years later, some First Nations came together and decided to form the non-profit association Coalition of Major First Nations Projectswhich seeks to pave the way for reconciliation by offering First Nations opportunities to obtain participation in major projects that cross their territories. “As I had participated in our initial leadership in creating the basic governance and operating principles of a new organization, they asked me to take over in the interim. CEO eight years ago. And I’m still here,” Edwards says with a laugh.

CLOSING STATEMENT: At its founding, the FNMPC represented 11 communities. Today, it serves more than 170 First Nations across Canada and has a team of approximately 35 employees. Its project portfolio amounts to more than $45 billion, spread across around twenty different commitments. “It’s a huge financial benefit that gets put back into First Nations bank accounts when they otherwise would have been left on the table or gone to banks due to the high cost of borrowing,” says Edwards.

Questions and answers

What is your little job?

In high school, I ran my own lawn care business. I had all the contracts with the local town: I took care of the town hall, the cemetery and the baseball field.