Is Canada Capable of “Economic Reconciliation”?

So-called Canada’s approach to “economic reconciliation” promotes financial opportunities for Indigenous communities through participation in resource extraction, like mining for ‘critical minerals’ and expanding pipelines. In an era of greenwashing by industry officials, language matters—it plays a pivotal role in shaping narratives. The co-optation of words like “reconciliation” to create a false sense of progress from colonial states like Canada is not lost upon us.

If we were to meaningfully engage with “reconciliation” in the context of the economy, it needs to be led by Indigenous peoples, and requires true, systemic change. This then begs the question of… **is Canada even capable of economic reconciliation with Indigenous communities?**

At Indigenous Climate Action, our vision for climate justice extends beyond offering climate solutions that are rooted in Indigenous knowledge and values. Our work is grounded in a just framework that centers Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, and the revitalization of our relationships with the land. Achieving climate justice in our communities requires that we confront and dismantle the systems that perpetuate exploitation under the guise of “reconciliation,” while truly addressing the historical harms of colonization.

This idea of ‘economic reconciliation’ contradicts genuine reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and exists in opposition to Canada’s global climate commitments, like achieving "Net Zero" (emissions) by 2050, by continuing the projects that are directly responsible for rising greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and global average temperatures–but it’s somehow okay because these emissions are Indigenous owned! In the same way that electric cars were designed to save the car industry, not the environment - economic reconciliation serves to restore our relationship to the economy, not our lands or cultures. Instead of keeping fossil fuels in the ground and stopping emissions at the source, governments and industry officials are pushing carbon markets and just transitions at international climate discussions, while their actions continue to prioritize profit over Indigenous people back home. By further entrenching these colonial systems that prioritize profit over the health of our lands and waters, economic reconciliation destabilizes Indigenous sovereignty by making our communities agents of industry.

Credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

What is Economic Reconciliation—Really?

We move through this conversation with a deep understanding of the legacies of colonization that our communities have inherited, and how we must contend with these symptoms everyday–racism, environmental destruction, and poverty to name a few. We empathize with our kin who came from the most abundant places on Earth, who then had scarcity and dependency introduced to them by the settler state of Canada under capitalism. It is not our fault that our people have entered into industry to feed their families and provide for their communities, but it is now our responsibility to transition our communities in a just way that actualizes our presence as RIGHTS holders to the land, not STAKE holders in industry. This is why Indigenous-led Just Transitions are essential in taking genuine climate action in our communities and beyond.

Through the lens of so-called Canada, economic reconciliation is portrayed as a pathway for Indigenous peoples to achieve financial gain and independence through integration into mainstream industries, like Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure and critical mineral development, such as uranium and nickel. Under this guise of economic reconciliation, Indigenous communities are coerced into participating in extractive industries that continue to exploit our lands to serve the needs of the state, both nationally and internationally. Canada is interested in reconciling with Indigenous communities only if it continues to pad their own pockets. It has been almost ten years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released their 94 Calls to Action, and it is telling that economic reconciliation is one of the few Calls that is being acted upon.

In its current form, economic reconciliation may “grant us a seat at the table,” but is a table built on the bones of our people worth being at? When we replicate these market-based approaches that have been imposed on us, we risk repeating the harmful impacts that have already devastated our lands and communities. Despite the promise of economic opportunities, our lands will remain sacrifice zones under economic reconciliation. Now, Canada seeks to take what little we have while framing it as progress towards energy independence.

In the 2024 Federal Budget, the Canadian government outlined plans to “ensure Indigenous communities have access to the capital they need for equity in major projects” by rolling out incentives like the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program (ILGP). This program is designed to accelerate the development of critical mineral infrastructure and increase Indigenous ownership in resource projects. We point to the ILGP to unpack some of the inherent flaws that exist within the broader concept of economic reconciliation. Let’s call it what it is: introducing large amounts of capital into Indigenous communities—many of whom lack financial freedom, by design—with the intent of manufacturing consent to exploit our lands, is coercion. This tactic bypasses Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) by enticing us with resources while massively downplaying the risks. In ICA’s most recent report, Healing the Land: Indigenous Perspectives on Divestment, “Free means consent must always be obtained without force, coercion, intimidation, manipulation, or pressure from government or industry. No violence, physical intimidation, or financial or social coercion can be used to force decisions in favour of development.”

If our communities become owners or primary stakeholders in resource extraction projects, this allows Canada to shift the liability for its legacy of destruction directly onto our shoulders.

Canada Must Economically Reconcile with Indigenous Peoples Globally

Economic reconciliation with so-called Canada involves so many more Indigenous communities than just those confined to these colonial borders. Canada has consistently extracted resources from Indigenous lands globally–from targeting Ecuadorian land defenders to forced labor in Eritrea–Canada has maintained a death grip on resource extraction and development across the world at the expense of Indigenous livelihoods. In an era of catastrophic climate change with fossil-fueled (*not natural) disasters occurring every other week, Canada needs to be downsizing their extractive operations globally, not ramping them up and framing it as an advancement of Indigenous rights.

Climate justice cannot fully exist without Indigenous rights, and the meaningful participation of communities in decision-making spaces that directly affect the wellbeing of their lands and waters for generations to come. As fossil-fueled disasters displace more Indigenous peoples globally, we need to disrupt these narratives that uphold colonial violence over Indigenous bodies and lands at every level of government–from uplifting local leadership, to holding national governments accountable, and creating international partnerships and coalitions–ICA is committed to building and amplifying narratives and campaigns that center Indigenous sovereignty in global climate discussions back home and in international spaces such as the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

While we have to contend with this extraction on a global level, the other side of this mess is the intentional disruption of resources, and access to capital in Indigenous communities through ongoing settler colonialism and the necessary mechanism of war to uphold these states. Canada cannot reconcile with Indigenous communities HERE, while actively supporting a genocide of our Palestinian relatives that has utterly decimated their livelihoods and any chance of surviving under capitalism. While Canada has openly accepted over 200,000 Ukranians since Russia's invasion, this government has made it nearly impossible for Middle Eastern and North African people fleeing war to enter the country… Wars that Canada has a vested interest in to maintain strongholds over resource extraction and political power in certain geographic regions, such as Sudan and Palestine. Humanitarian aid cannot bypass political inaction by Canada and similar settler states who wield lots of institutional power at the international levels. Does this really have to do with available resources?

Our solidarity is bound together, and Indigenous Sovereignty cannot exist without Black Liberation or a Free Palestine. Can Canada reconcile with that truth?

Real Economic Reconciliation is LAND BACK

The current discourse on economic reconciliation presents a false sense of progress while ignoring the critical need to address the root causes of climate change. For true reconciliation to take place, governments and industries must be held accountable for the systemic inequities they have created by acknowledging the harms of dispossession and land theft, and recognizing the deep need for reparations.

The historical relationship between colonial governments and private capital cannot be ignored. Canada continues to benefit from the legacy of land theft—like the illegitimate sale of Rupert’s Land—and the economic contributions Indigenous peoples were forced to make in bankrolling the development of the state. This includes mismanagement of the Indian Trust Fund and the imposition of the Dominion Act. Such events not only facilitated the accumulation of corporate wealth, but also exploited Treaties by restricting Indigenous peoples’ access to lands and resources. This history is mirrored in current economic reconciliation frameworks that prioritize corporate interest over true reconciliation—which would require justice and restoration.

The biggest step Canada can take towards economic reconciliation is to give the LAND BACK. If Indigenous peoples had jurisdiction over our lands and waters once again, we could decide what operations and infrastructure—physical, social, cultural—could take place on our lands. For us, by us. Current processes of economic reconciliation are framed through a top-down approach that continues to entrench settler colonial interests. LAND BACK is a bottom-up model.

In their Cash Back Report, The Yellowhead Institute offers us some transformative questions in challenging us to consider what the relationship between Indigenous Nations and settler colonial governments could look like if it were rooted in justice and restoration:

“What would it look like if Indigenous people drew up land leases and served them to cities, provinces and the federal government? What if Indigenous people came to collect overdue payments and agreed to payment plans to allow the country to catch up on their debts? What if all the colonial infrastructure, financed from the Indian Trust and off Indigenous lands, was now subject to local Indigenous taxation schemes? It would create a broad, overarching system that flows down the chain, resuming Indigenous jurisdiction over ancestral homelands?”

— (p. 61), Cash Back Report, The Yellowhead Institute

LAND BACK would not only allow us to retain the capital and resources within our communities, but it would also allow us to revitalize our original forms of currency and trade—such as community-to-community exchange—and reclaim our understandings of abundance and wealth.

In Conclusion

We are rights holders, not stakeholders. True economic reconciliation means respecting our right to self-determination, which can only start with the restoration of our lands. Climate justice requires sustainable, long-term commitments to the protection of lands and waters, NOT the protection of profit. People over profit. Always.

But history has shown us that Canada has continued to fall short of engaging in relationships built on reciprocity and mutual respect, and waiting for action only delays things further. The time for action is now. This is why Indigenous-led Just Transitions are absolutely critical. They offer a path forward in the pursuit of climate justice that prioritizes life, land and sovereignty, while offering solutions that uplift Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

As Janelle Lapointe reminds us, “When the day comes for restitution and justice, it will not be granted by politicians or industry. It will be hard won by a movement of everyday people. People who are tired of half-measures and nice words. People who see the fight for climate justice as inextricably connected with the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.”

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About the Authors

Alexa Metallic (she/her) is Mi’gmaq from Listuguj First Nation, located in Gespege’wa’gi, Mi’gma’gi, and works as the Research and Policy Coordinator with Indigenous Climate Action.

Willo Prince (they/them) is Carrier Dakelh from Nak’azdli in northern BC, and they work as the Education Coordinator with Indigenous Climate Action.

Blog: Profit Over People - How Economic Reconciliation Threatens Climate Justice