Deloitte Canada sets sights on Nation Building

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Deloitte Canada has been on the leading edge of corporate Canada’s efforts to engage in reconciliation with First Nations.

It produced its first “Reconciliation Action Plan” in 2020, and publishes annual reports on those efforts.

It has a track record of working with some 270 First Nations. From the insights it has gained and relationships established, corporate officials said, it has taken the steps to more fully integrate those efforts to build stronger Indigenous communities into its own operations.

This week, Deloitte Canada officially launched a new Indigenous-led practice — called Nation Building — to help increase capacity within Indigenous communities, modernize governance and to help integrate a critical element of the Canadian workforce that has long been under-represented.

In an interview with the Free Press, program managing partner Jolain Foster said it is a project she’s been gearing up for throughout her 30-year career.

“We have worked with 270 Indigenous communities over the years, but this is a much more holistic approach that Deloitte is investing in to lead some real change in this country,” said Foster, a member of the Gitxsan Nation in northwest British Columbia.

With Indigenous people expected to represent seven per cent of the labour force by 2030, with 400,000 Indigenous youth entering the workforce over the next 10 years, Foster said the Nation Building initiative is something that will not only help to break down the systemic barriers but also provide that much more prosperity for the entire country.

“It is going to be a huge piece of building Canada’s economy, as well as building capacity in First Nations,” she said. “When you start to look at planning for career paths and being able to activate youth and get them prepared for the workforce, it could increase the national GDP by almost one per cent annually.”

Deloitte may have been the first Canadian corporation to produce a reconciliation action plan (it is also the first professional services company to earn silver-level certification from the Progressive Aboriginal Relations branch of Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business), it’s not the first company to make a heart-felt commitment towards reconciliation.

Foster insists Deloitte is fully behind the new initiative, with support all the way through the organization from the board to chief executive officer Anthony Viel.

“We have one of the most supportive boards I’ve ever seen,” she said Wednesday. “They have lifted us up to the very top of Deloitte.

“We are working with industry sector leaders and the CEO directly, and the board is constantly pulling me in asking for updates and where they can they help and where I need investment.”

In a prepared statement, Viel said: “We encourage all Canadian corporations to get involved and seize the opportunity to embark on this impactful journey together to catalyse change nationwide and transform our country for generations to come. More specifically, by taking targeted action to address labour market barriers for under-represented and under-employed groups.”

In Manitoba, Foster mentioned her admiration for the work the Southern Chiefs’ Organization is doing in economic development and the work Deloitte is doing with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, based at the University of Manitoba.

The idea is to use activate Deloitte’s deep expertise in professional services to assist First Nation communities, Indigenous entrepreneurs, as well as governments and corporate Canada that want to partner with First Nations.

Asked how impoverished First Nations who might need Deloitte’s assistance could possibly pay the high fees of an international professional services firm, Foster said: “What people don’t know about Deloitte is we have been discounting our rates significantly when working with First Nations for the last 30 years.”

Foster referenced the challenges First Nations leadership face because of governance imposed on them by the Indian Act that forces elections, sometimes as quickly as every two years. She said it doesn’t give them enough time to establish policy.

“Leadership is bogged down right away,” Foster said. “We want to continue being there as a trusted adviser to get them further down the road and fill gaps in capacity.”

Among other items, Foster said Deloitte is currently working in Saskatchewan on labour force development for the mining sector, adding it wants to do the same in Manitoba.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca