If Canadian businesses are serious about reconciliation, then they need to prioritize the truth in Indigenous relationships 

Any entrepreneur worth their salt is very careful about who they do business with. 

Backgrounds are checked. Past employment is measured. Every effort is taken to ensure that, when a crisis comes for you, your business partner will be there for you, not the reason you are there.  

For me, this centring of trust echoes both in my professional career and in my reality as an Indigenous person. 

When I am looking at beginning a business partnership with a company, before I examine the profit margins or the reputational impact, I ask a very simple question: who are you? 

Are you a person who looks for profit or prosperity? 

Do you think about yourself first or about community? 

Do you evaluate the scope of a project by its impact on your bottom line or on the environment? 

Now, Indigenous peoples are not a monolith. However, this is how I believe the majority of us examine every decision we make.  

We are people who strive for abundance. We believe that there is enough for everyone, and that is a fact that should be celebrated and guaranteed, a reality that should be centred in everything that we do. We put aside our personal opinions and take a look at things broadly, not linearly. All-encompassing, not top-down.  

But this top-down, linear perspective has been the root of several failures in relationships between leaders of industry and Indigenous communities. 

In 2021, after the discovery in Kamloops, the Canadian public briefly escaped this entrapment. Canada opened its heart to the Indigenous community, offering sympathy and apologies to us in a moment where we were reeling emotionally. Canadian businesses in particular appeared ready to step up. 

But it’s critical that this be more than just a burst of participation. Relationships aren’t built overnight and require sustained, reciprocal engagement. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 92 urges the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework. 

From a legal perspective, this can be complicated, but the principles are simple. It means meaningful consultation and respectful relationships, including working patiently to obtain the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects. 

It means equitable job and training opportunities for Indigenous peoples and advancing long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects. And it means education for management and staff on the history of Indigenous peoples, so that we can gradually foster intercultural competency. 

For leaders who are used to a top-down form of thinking, this may be an adjustment, but it’s part of a necessary mindset shift for long-term, truthful, trusting, and fair-minded relationships with Indigenous communities.  

It’s those relationships that will prepare us to work together better to figure out the changes, challenges, and opportunities we all face in the years ahead. To me, that reset towards the pursuit of abundance is worth prioritizing. 

Karen Mackenzie is the President of MacKintosh Canada, an Indigenous-owned, international consulting company.