You can’t beat this for sarcasm. The $76 billion the federal government has budgeted to make good on treaties made long ago is “so much money that all the bureaucrats are starting to get really antsy and upset and getting passive-aggressive about it,” said Bill Lomax, the former Goldman Sachs banker who returned to Canada last year to lead First Nations Bank of Canada.  

Lomax, a member of the Gitxsan Nation in British Columbia, was working an audience that had gathered for the Indigenous Resource Opportunities Conference earlier this year. 

No doubt many in the room had experienced their share of frustrations with distant bureaucrats in Ottawa. “They are saying things like, ‘If it weren’t for these Indians, we’d have a balanced budget.’ So we’re seeing things going the right way for us,” Lomax continued. “It’s really a good time.” 

Indeed, in the 2023 fall economic statement, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland went out of her way to point out that if not for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s willingness to put real money on the table to “resolve past injustices,” the deficit would have been the equivalent of 0.3 per cent of gross domestic product. 

To be clear, there’s little reason to think Freeland begrudges that spending. Trudeau’s current unpopularity makes it easy to forget that his tenure has included its share of legacy projects, perhaps none more important than the work he’s done on Indigenous reconciliation. It would be too much to call Trudeau’s pledges “reparations,” but it’s more than any previous government has done to make amends for the damage caused by colonialism.  

Lots of federal spending disappears into the balance sheets of large corporations. Treaty settlements should result in economic development of the sort that people will see on the ground. Lomax loved working on Wall Street. He left money on the table to lead Saskatoon-based First Nations Bank because he was excited by the prospect of scaling a business that had reached an inflection point. Canada’s First Nations are entering a phase of rapid economic growth, and First Nations Bank serves some 130 of them.  

“The bank had persevered through some tough times and become successful, but is in need of transformation in the sense [that] what we’re seeing from our clients is massive transformation,” Lomax said in an interview. “We’re really a reflection of the clients that we serve, and the clients are [becoming] far more sophisticated. The opportunity set that they have has changed dramatically in the past five to 10 years. Their capital is on a whole new plane.” 

Lomax added: “Basically, if you want to do anything in this country that involves land outside an urban centre, First Nations are going to be involved in some way, shape or form. So that creates a world of opportunity for the bank.” 

First Nations Bank is a window on the transformation that is taking place in Indigenous communities. Lomax sees the bank’s loan book ballooning to something in the range of $3 billion to $5 billion within a decade or so, from about $600 million currently. He said the bank is currently managing trust assets worth more than $4 billion, and he expects that to rise to about $5 billion by the end of the year—and then double over the next five years. 

“We have, honestly, more demand than we can keep up with right now, in terms of our lending capabilities, and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon,” Lomax said. 

The examples of First Nations becoming bigger players in the economy almost always relate to resources. The angling of Indigenous communities to purchase an ownership stake in the Trans-Mountain pipeline system and the sale of Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods to a group that included a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations often surface as anecdotal evidence of where we’re headed. 

Lomax sketched a picture of the future that is more complex than that. 

Like the broader Canadian economy, resources will be a foundation piece for many First Nations. But the deal flow at First Nations Bank shows Indigenous entrepreneurs are moving beyond exploiting the land and sea. Much of the institution’s commercial banking involves facilitating the purchase of operating businesses such as trucking companies and hotels. That includes non-Indigenous business owners coming to Lomax for help finding buyers who will keep their company going, rather than strip it for parts. 

“I don’t know about the average person on the street, but I can pretty confidently say that the business community has certainly realized that there are opportunities here in a way that they never have before,” Lomax said. “They’ve come to realize that First Nations can be great partners, especially if they want to see that business not being torn apart by a private equity firm.” 

Talent might be the biggest challenge in the short term. There aren’t a lot of Indigenous bankers and accountants and lawyers on the labour market. The population is also younger, so experience of any kind is in short supply. “Hiring people is always challenging,” said Lomax, who sees it as part of his mission to hire Indigenous candidates whenever possible. 

The skills gap will narrow over time. Meanwhile, the companies that emerge from First Nations will be built for the digital economy, meaning they’ll be positioned to capitalize on disruption, rather than being held back by old habits, such as Canadian companies’ aversion to investment. 

“We’re seeing Nations really trying to figure out the technological opportunities for their businesses to make their businesses more efficient,” Lomax said. “Certainly that’s what we’re doing.”  

Kevin Carmichael is The Logic’s economics columnist and editor-at-large. He has spent more than two decades covering economics, business and finance for outlets including Bloomberg News, The Globe and Mail and the Financial Post, where he also served as editor-in-chief.