National Indigenous Peoples Day — 30 Years
June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada. This year marks the 30th anniversary. We want to say something honest about what that means and what it asks of us.
More than 630 First Nations communities across this country. Métis peoples across the Prairies, Ontario, and British Columbia. Inuit communities who have held the Arctic for thousands of years. These are not historical footnotes. They are living cultures with active governance, languages coming back into daily use, and people of every generation working as engineers, tradespeople, lawyers, and program leaders in the same industries we do. Peers, in the full sense.
The day is also a moment to be honest about what reconciliation requires in practice, not just in principle. Progress on keeping Indigenous communities and their lands safe and honoured has been uneven. The work starts with acknowledging that.
On the projects we work on, Indigenous consultation begins before any land is touched. That is a practice, not a policy statement. It runs through procurement, construction, and commissioning. Indigenous economic participation is built into the project structure from the start, not added at the end. PM7G, our joint venture with Makhos, is one way we put that into practice rather than leaving it on paper. Cultural monitors have real authority and site access when we work on sensitive land. Agreements are made in good faith by people who intend to honour them.
We acknowledge the Indigenous territories on which our projects are built and our offices sit. That acknowledgment is an active practice, not a formality.
Today we say it out loud. The other 364 days, we show up and do the work.
