Ottawa to back Indigenous groups buying project equity

The federal government is to start an Indigenous loan guarantee program in this year’s budget due April 16, according to a senior official at the Natural Resources Ministry.  

The program will help facilitate Indigenous equity ownership in major projects, Claudine Pagé, the ministry’s Director General told a conference in Toronto on Tuesday. Pagé declined to say how much money the program would hold or would make available to individual First Nations communities or projects. Budget figures are closely guarded until the throne speech.  

The ministry’s mineral programs branch is working on the program, she told the Indigenous Led Projects Forum. “We hope to be able to have some news on that and to be able to share information on how that program will roll out and what it will entail,” she said.  

Indigenous ownership of equity in mining projects has gathered steam in recent years at negotiating tables as a way to align the interests of companies and communities that may in turn speed up permitting timelines.  

The Tahltan Nation invested $5 million for a stake in Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE; US-OTC; SKREF) developing the Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia, while last year Osisko Development (TSXV: ODV; NYSE: ODV) granted shares to Williams Lake First Nation concerning the Cariboo gold project in B.C.  

Fed funding 

Pagé outlined the federal ministry’s other funding programs for mining and First Nations, including $13.5 million in total for grants to Indigenous communities concerning engagement and capacity building. They may want help developing business plans or risk analysis on transportation or clean-energy projects, she said.  

Projects have until the end of the year to apply for $50,000 to $150,000 each. Ottawa is to host a webinar next month to explain more.  

Provincial mining legislation and federal funding doesn’t help small and medium-sized projects because they’re not large enough, Andrew Kane, president of Thunder Bay, Ont.-based Kane & Associates, told the session. He represents several small lithium projects, which he declined to name but said one is trying to develop a critical mineral reserve in northwest Ontario.  

“Even the investors when we sit in front of them say, if you don’t have 50 million tonnes of spodumene, you’re not getting off the ground just because of the limitations,” Kane said. “You’ve got to be able to permit and finance on your own. It’s almost impossible.”  

Infrastructure spending 

Grants under the ministry’s $1.5-billion Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund are to be awarded this fall, Pagé said. The fund is considering $300 million this year by allocating $50 million for projects in preconstruction or infrastructure development, and $100 million for provinces and territories. Applications closed Feb. 29.  

The fund, which started in November as part of the wider $3.8-billion federal critical minerals strategy, will aid projects through 2030. It may pay for three quarters of an Indigenous project, three quarters of a northern Canada project, a third of a public-private partnership, and half of most other projects, Pagé said.  

There’s also the $80-million Indigenous Natural Resources Partnership program, of which $25 million is aimed at critical minerals projects, the official said. Last month, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson awarded seven First Nations projects a total of $10.4 million from the program.