EN:

The Yukon has one of the fastest growing, albeit smallest, economies in Canada, with an increasing population and a tight labour market. Modern treaties and self-government agreements have empowered First Nations governments, and Supreme Court decisions and treaty rights secured Indigenous governments a significant place in the resource sector. Yet Yukon First Nation businesspeople are not yet benefiting fully from this positive political and economic situation. This paper explores the underrepresentation of the Yukon First Nation businesspeople in the economy by examining the available data from the Yukon Business Survey (YBS), a census of Canada self-employment data, and a new national program at Statistics Canada that is working to better identify the presence of Indigenous businesses within the national economy. The research shows that work still needs to be done to better support the development of Indigenous businesspeople as they strive to break through the barriers that have left them on the margins of the northern economy.

EN:

Renewable energy (RE) is at the forefront of Canada’s strategy to achieve a net-zero electricity grid by 2035. The development of RE projects is also promoted as a means to deliver energy services in rural and remote Indigenous communities across the North. Although RE projects have the potential to contribute to sovereignty, self-sufficiency, and economic reconciliation, the social value of RE to Indigenous communities is often overlooked and poorly understood. This article advances themes for understanding and approaching RE developments to better assess their social value. It does so based on the analysis of lessons from RE research in northern Canada and Alaska. We demonstrate that RE projects can create outcomes that are value generating or value eroding and that such outcomes are often couched in the context of supporting or detracting from self-determination. Techno-human variables, from community vision and capacity to policy environments and local RE ownership, serve to enable or inhibit the realization of value-generating outcomes from RE. Finally, we identify several pathways to creation from RE, including relationships and collaborative leadership, knowledge and skills-development, Indigenous-led policies that decrease energy bureaucracy and manage benefits distribution, and regulations and structures that safeguard ecologies.