This article originally appeared in National Newswatch.
By Ken Coates and JP Gladu, January 15, 2025
He worked with his First Nations colleagues and friends — initially in northern British Columbia, and eventually across the country — to develop the idea that collective capitalism, the union of many First Nations to make a more formidable economic force, held great promise for Indigenous economic renewal.
Edwards died Dec. 16, 2024, from complications of a kidney transplant. He was only 37 but he achieved so much.
Starting out with a limited budget and no promises of long-term support, the First Nations Major Project Coalition brought together a few dozen — now over 170 — Indigenous nations across Canada to collaborate on economic development and investment projects.
With incredible persistence and superb knowledge of Canadian government, Edwards worked successive governments and ministers to obtain sustained support for the FNPMC.
Collectively, the FNMPC and its member First Nations pushed for the creation of the Canadian National Indigenous Loan Guarantee program, which promised to provide up to $5 billion in loan guarantees for Indigenous equity investments in resource and energy projects. The FNMPC has produced a portfolio of some $46 billion in investments.
From the outset, the First Nations Major Projects Coalition reflected the priorities and aspirations of its Indigenous members. Watching Edwards help put the FNMPC together offered stunning lessons in the real meaning of reconciliation.
He supported, and in some cases mentored, powerful community leaders to the nuances of high stakes finance, investment strategies and government policy-building. He accompanied the leaders to Ottawa, made sure that FNMPC was known across the House of Commons and Senate, as they become a regular presence in the capital cities across the country.
But in the world of FNMPC, mentorship runs in both directions. First Nations leaders and their members, having convinced themselves of the depth of Edwards’s sincerity, embraced him. Over his time with the coalition, Edwards was brought to a superb understanding of Indigenous history, values and cultures.
He worked to bend policy, the law and finances to the needs of First Nations and not the other way around. Non-Indigenous, he knew his lane and he was honoured to be accepted into Indigenous circles of friendship and co-operation.
His passing was marked by dozens of touching memorials on Facebook and X, from close friends and major political leaders and hundreds of poignant emails shared between Niilo’s legions of acquaintances and admirers.
Niilo McCloud Riksman Edwards was born in Alert Bay and raised in Sointula, a small fishing village off the coast of B.C.
He moved to Ottawa as a young man and worked in the office of Sen. Gerry St. Germain, a man of Métis descent who served as a mentor and second father, and who sparked a passion for Indigenous interests.
Edwards’s deep understanding of the complicated political fabric of Parliament Hill gave him the ability to navigate government to provoke meaningful change. He was in Ottawa during the latter years of the Stephen Harper administration, working behind the scenes to identify resources to support Indigenous economic development.
Along the way, he married Rachael Durie, his wife of 16 years, who eventually donated a kidney to help save his life.
Edwards was all meaningful action, zero showmanship. But eventually his efforts were recognized by the outside world. He was honoured by Time Magazine and named BC Business Entrepreneur of the Year 2024.
FNMPC will survive his death; Edwards ensured that. His successor, uber-talent Mark Podlasly (Nlaka’pamux Nation), has been announced by the board as the next CEO and will see the coalition to further success thanks to much of the foundation Edwards was instrumental in building. The First Nations Major Project Coalition will forever bear his mark, values and spirit.
The greater message from his life rests with the possibility and essence of reconciliation. Indigenous peoples have been surrounded by well-meaning (and sometimes self-serving) supporters and promoters: government officials, environmentalists, politicians and a growing number of self-appointed advocates. Edwards saw his role differently; he was an ally in service to the Nations.
His life’s work is the antidote to the many naysayers who believe, despite the growing evidence to the contrary, that economic and social reconciliation is not possible. He demonstrated, through a career of real and transformative impact, that non-Indigenous peoples can truly work co-operatively and successfully with Indigenous peoples when they come from a place of deep respect for Indigenous nations. He further showed that the dominant society’s tools and mechanisms could be adapted and adjusted to serve Indigenous interests.
Edwards is gone, and as his longtime friends and collaborators, we join with many others in mourning Canada’s great loss. But we celebrate, even more, his vast contributions to the development of pathways to economic reconciliation with First Nations. These arrangements — multimillion-dollar investments, collaboration agreements, creative funding agreements, and, most importantly, the development of a large and growing community of Indigenous Nations and business leaders — will last for generations.
This is the legacy of Niilo Edwards and a testament to his remarkable abilities. His life is, furthermore, an illustration of how a personal commitment to reconciliation with First Nations people can change one life and, in the process, transform a nation.
Ken Coates is a distinguished fellow and the director of Indigenous affairs at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
JP Gladu is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
