Kudos to PM Carney. Trying to dictate which country we should trade with is not respecting our Sovereignty as a Nation ( As First Nations we know all to well what that means and how it feels BUT that is for a further discussion). Now is the time for us to unite as a country, help our businesses weather the storm ahead, and as the Prime Minister said in walking away from negotiations, Pivot and Prosper!
This week’s articles on out journey of reconcoiliation:
Next challenge for Arctic Economic and Security Corridor is to define exact route – CKLB Radio
Indigenous business may be hit more by Canadian levy than tariffs
Growing food for astronauts in space starts with Inuit in Nunavut
Historic agreement brings two First Nations together to advance major project – CKLB Radio
New docuseries on Arctic life premieres next month on APTN – Windspeaker.com
‘It’s all about self-determination’: Glooscap First Nation opens Annapolis Valley market | CBC News
Híɫzaqv defend their waters from invading European green crabs – Indiginews
Large pension funds lack Indigenous rights-focused investment policies: study – Alberta Native News
Treaties may include Sooke Mountain, Discovery Island parks – Victoria Times Colonist
Inaugural reconciliation report finds progress, warns structural barriers remain – Windspeaker.com
Indigenous issues should be deeper by now, but myths and stereotypes persist
Milton Tootoosis
Innu in Quebec reject Quebec-NL Churchill Falls deal
Geoffrey Moyse: BC NDP behaving as if it can do anything it wants with land
42 days to Truth & Reconciliation day – do you know where your reconciliation is? | LinkedIn
AMERICA 250: Tribal nations and the Supreme Court – ICT
https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/07/06/Land-Grab-Vancouver-Island-Rail-Baron
Tribal Disenrollment Demands a Tribal Answer
Artist makes statement about Innu history dispute with installation in St. John’s | CBC News
ICE Arrests at Gila River Smoke Shop Alarm Tribal Leaders
| DRUM BEATS Five First Nations Chart China-Independent Graphite Supply Chain With Global Battery Materials |
| Global Battery Materials is building a graphite-to-anode supply chain outside China, backed by the Canadian government. GBM has signed a letter of agreement with five First Nations, Dokis, Henvey Inlet, Magnetawan, Shawanaga and Wasauksing, covering a potential equity transaction in the Kearney Graphite Project in northeastern Ontario.Graphite is used in lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, grid-scale energy storage and data centre backup power.China controls the vast majority of the world’s supply, mining roughly 70 to 78 per cent of global natural graphite and processing over 90 per cent of it into the battery-grade material manufacturers actually use.The Kearney project lands as Ottawa moves to secure the graphite supply chain at scale, echoing European leaders’ call to reduce reliance on China supply chains. On May this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney broke ground on Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie mine in Quebec, which he said will become the largest graphite mine in the G7.”Canada has what the world wants, and we’re moving at speed to get it to market,” said Carney. |
| DRUMBEATS PODCASTThe $32 billion Race to Build Canada’s First Arctic Deep-Water PortCanada has no deep-water port in its Arctic. Russia has several. That strategic gap may be about to close. In March 2026, the federal government committed $32 billion in defence spending across four Arctic and Northern locations, centred on the Northwest Territories. Weeks later, the Diavik diamond mine produced its final output after 23 years and C$7 billion in territorial spending.Paul Gruner, CEO of the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation, and Mark Lewis, President and CEO of Det’on Cho Management LP, lead the economic development arms of the two Indigenous nations advancing the Arctic Economic Security Corridor: a proposed all-season road from Yellowknife towards the Arctic coast. The corridor would connect with the Grays Bay Road and Port Project, establishing Canada’s first deep-water port on the Northwest Passage. The resources are there, Indigenous businesses are already operating at scale and federal capital is beginning to move. Could this corridor close the infrastructure gap that has kept Canada’s critical minerals stranded? Listen on your favourite podcast platform. First Nations Alliance Targets Northern Energy and Defence Projects in C$35 Billion Arctic Push Canada is spending C$35 billion to expand Arctic airfields, build operational support hubs and modernise northern defence infrastructure, and Indigenous peoples are moving to deliver it.Ottawa now requires a minimum five per cent of defence procurement to go to Indigenous businesses, and the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business has released Pathways Forward, a report funded by Indigenous Services Canada setting out how to make that target work in practice.One alliance is already moving. Acho Dene Koe First Nation and the Malahat Nation have formed an Indigenous-led partnership to deploy energy storage and microgrid systems across the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut and northern British Columbia, positioning both Nations directly inside the Arctic infrastructure pipeline. |
| Ottawa Commits C$1.98 Million to Indigenous-Led NWT ProjectsThe Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency has announced a contribution of up to C$1.98 million to support four Indigenous-led projects across the Northwest Territories, alongside a C$49.5 million investment to upgrade the runway and access road at Inuvik’s Mike Zubko Airport. This was delivered in partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories to bolster the north.The funding covers airline infrastructure improvements in the Sahtu Region, timber harvesting advancement in Fort Providence, software upgrades for Yellowknife businesses, and an entrepreneurship bootcamp for 30 Indigenous youth in the South Slave Region.The four projects span across infrastructure, timber harvesting, and software upgrades that modernise how Indigenous-owned firms operate and compete. Four Miners Race to Open Ontario’s First Lithium Mine Rock Tech Lithium has secured a C$200 million anchor investment from BMI Group and a seven-year offtake agreement with Swiss trader Transamine, including a development prepayment facility of up to $80 million.This positions it to bring its Georgia Lake project near Beardmore, Ontario into production within two years, positioning the company to be first among four rivals in the race to develop Ontario’s largely untapped lithium resources.Rock Tech’s Georgia Lake project sits on the traditional territories of four Anishinaabek First Nations, Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, Red Rock Indian Band and Anishinaabeg of Naongashiing, with whom the company holds a cooperation agreement. |
| First Nations Take Part in Largest-of-Its-Kind C$70 Billion Clean Energy Deal |
| Prime Minister Mark Carney alongside Québec Premier Christine Fréchette and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham announced on 17 August a C$70 billion historic agreement to upgrade and expand the Churchill Falls Generating Station, and develop the Gull Island hydroelectricity project to build one of the largest electricity projects in Canada and North America.Under this agreement, Canada will provide C$10 billion in federal financing to support Labrador clean energy projects. This initiative will also unlock co-investment opportunities for the Innu of Labrador in a new Labrador onshore wind project.The investment package is touted to be the largest clean energy investment in North American history.Once completed, the clean energy projects are expected to generate 14,000 MW of renewable power, nearly three times Churchill Falls’ current capacity. That is enough to power the homes of Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver combined. |
| First Nations Are Leading Clean Energy Infrastructure Twenty-five years ago, a Hupacasath First Nation chief on Vancouver Island was told First Nations would never own a hydro project because they were too complicated. She built one anyway. Her son, Kwatuuma Cole Sayers, is now taking that legacy to a much larger scale.As co-founder and executive director of the Indigenous Power Coalition, Kwatuuma is bringing First Nations together as collective owners in major transmission infrastructure. “When you’re dealing with linear infrastructure, you’re dealing with ten, twenty, thirty nations,” he says. “How do you bring them together so that they’re a collective owner that’s on their own terms?”For Kwatuuma, equity is only the starting point. First Nations are moving from passive participants to project leaders and long-term owners, with transmission assets viewed across generations rather than investment cycles. That creates a natural alignment with patient, long-duration infrastructure capital. Majority First-Nations-Owned LNG Corridor to Deliver 15 Million Tonnes of Gas to Europe Kino Aski Inc. and Marinvest Energy Canada Inc. announced on 17 August the joint development of Kino Aski LNG, a First Nations-led energy corridor designed to supply Europe with up to 15 million tonnes of LNG annually.The project would move gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin to a new liquefaction facility at the Port of Baie-Comeau, Québec, with capacity to deliver low carbon energy, powered by Québec’s renewable grid.Kino Aski, under the leadership of the Atikamekw Nation, holds the majority ownership interest in the project development company. The project is currently in the development phase, where discussions with governments, communities, and industry partners are still ongoing. |
| Two Nations Clear the Path to Canada’s First Arctic Deep-Water Port |
| Last week’s Drumbeats featured Paul Gruner, CEO of the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation, and Mark Lewis, President and CEO of Det’on Cho Management LP, on the race to build Canada’s first Arctic deep-water port. This week, the story moved forward. The Tłı̨chǫ Government and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation have now reached consensus on a proposed route for the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, a 400-kilometre all-season road that would give Canada its first land-based link to the Arctic coast.The corridor would run from Yellowknife to the Nunavut border, where it would connect with the proposed Grays Bay Road and Port project, together forming Canada’s first all-season route from the national highway system to a deep-water port on the Northwest Passage.Prime Minister Carney referred the Northwest Territories section to the Major Projects Office in March. The agreement, reached after more than a year of negotiation between the two Nations, moves the corridor away from its originally proposed path near the Diavik, Ekati and Gahcho Kué diamond mines and onto a route the two governments say better protects caribou habitat while still opening access to the mineral-rich Slave Geological Province. |
