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For generations, the story of Indigenous economic development in Canada has been one of vast potential without access to the mechanisms of power.

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Indigenous entrepreneurs had ideas without access to capital, and First Nations across the country had the potential for major projects on their ancestral homelands with no investment network. The ideas and will were there, but what was missing was funding — which, ultimately, holds the power to decide what gets built, and by whom.

That’s beginning to change. And it’s happening at a moment when Canada is re-examining how we build major infrastructure projects. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s nation-building agenda — through the Major Projects Office and a push to fast-track projects that combine economic development, environmental consciousness, and Indigenous partnership — is opening new avenues of opportunity. For the first time, public policy and Indigenous ambition may be pointing in the same direction.

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