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CALGARY – When Annie Korver sits down with a new corporate or small business client, she encourages them to focus first on the “truth” part of Truth and Reconciliation.

Organizations often hire Korver to help them develop a reconciliation action plan — the term for a formal document laying out what a company plans to do to improve its relationship with Canada’s Indigenous people.

But the Fernie, B.C.-based founder and principal of Rise Consulting says companies first have to grapple with the reality of this country’s painful past.

“I’ll ask them, ‘What experiences have you had? Have you read some books? Have you been in (an Indigenous) community?’ And that helps me be able to shape recommendations for how we might walk together,” said Korver.

“We always start at the beginning with the history of colonial harm, because a lot of folks, they still don’t know. That’s the norm, actually. They will say, ‘I wasn’t taught this.'”

It’s been almost a decade since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report summarizing the legacy of residential schools in Canada. As part of its report, the commission included a call to action for corporate Canada to make commitments to Indigenous people in a variety of areas, including consultation, relationship building, jobs and training.

And as businesses work to address that call, it has created opportunity for Indigenous-led companies like Korver’s. At Rise, Korver and her associates offer everything from advice on how to “decolonize” a company’s brand to how to develop an Indigenous procurement strategy.

Another consulting company, Eagle Spirit Business Development, counts cultural awareness training among the services it offers to its corporate clients. Founder Jeremy Thompson, whose office is located on the Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary, said he helps clients recognize that some of the day-to-day phrases and terms they use in their business may be offensive to Indigenous Canadians.

“One of the most common ones is ‘totem pole,’ as in, ‘I’m the low man on the totem pole,'” Thompson said.

“And a lot of the time, people are using ‘pow-wow’ to refer to a meeting of co-workers.”

Thompson also often works as a go-between for businesses and Indigenous communities, helping to make introductions when companies want to do business or build a project on First Nations land.

This kind of role isn’t new — corporations have long hired Indigenous relations advisers to help smooth their path, especially since Indigenous consent has become a must-have when it comes to getting regulatory approval for major projects such as oil pipelines or power transmission lines.

Thompson said while some companies still see Indigenous engagement as a box they must check, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action has prompted others to genuinely try to do better.

“There are some companies that are still doing the minimum requirements because they have to for regulatory or project status,” he said.

“But there are some, and I’m working with one company like this today, that are genuinely going above and beyond … they’re doing things because they want to, not because they have to.”

Some of Canada’s largest corporations have both in-house and external experts to help them with their reconciliation goals. At the Bank of Montreal, an external Indigenous advisory council provides advice, but the bank also has dedicated in-house roles.

For example, Clio Straram — BMO’s head of Indigenous banking — leads a team dedicated to offering financial services to Indigenous communities, while Amanda Ens works to improve the bank’s recruitment practices as head of Indigenous talent strategy.

“As an Indigenous woman whose family has been directly impacted by residential schools, I am very glad that my voice now contributes to decisions that support Indigenous peoples,” said Ens.

Straram said she feels her job is one of the most rewarding roles at the bank.

“The most common thing we do, which is lending to First Nations and Indigenous governments for infrastructure building on reserve and in their communities … just has such an impact on people’s lives.”

Korver of Rise Consulting said one of the best parts of working with corporate clients on Indigenous issues is witnessing what she calls “a-ha” moments. These often come when she is leading a workplace training session for non-Indigenous employees, many of whom have never given serious thought to issues like economic reconciliation or decolonization.

“You might see it in the form of goosebumps on their skin, or maybe their eyes get tears in them. They’ve made a small change, and because of that they will use their agency and influence in a bigger way to support the advancement of Truth and Reconciliation,” she said.

“I love those moments.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first publishedSept. 29, 2024.

REGINA – With the writs expected to drop this week for the Saskatchewan general election, political experts say Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party is on track for a fifth majority government but will lose seats to Carla Beck’s NDP.

Tom McIntosh, a political scientist at the University of Regina, said recently Moe’s strength in the rural ridings should help him keep his job as premier when voters go to the polls on or before Oct. 28.

He said Beck could pick up seats in the province’s four largest cities — Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw — to significantly grow her Opposition ranks, but it will be an uphill battle to win a majority.

“It’s an odd election where I think everybody is pretty certain of the outcome. It’s just the exact nature of the seat split that is still a bit uncertain,” McIntosh said.

It takes 31 seats to win a majority government in Saskatchewan’s 61-seat legislature. There are 29 rural seats, 30 urban and two northern constituencies.

The NDP hold 14 seats and the Saskatchewan Party has 42. There are four independents and one seat is vacant.

This is Beck’s first attempt at the premier’s job, while Moe has held that position since 2018. The Saskatchewan Party has won four large consecutive majority governments since 2007.

Beck has said it’s time for change, promising to suspend the 15-cent-a-litre gas tax for six months and scrap the provincial sales tax from children’s clothes and ready-to-eat grocery items, while not raising other taxes.

Moe has touted his government’s record as one that has grown the economy, created jobs and increased the population.

Daniel Westlake, a political studies professor at the University of Saskatchewan, said the Saskatchewan Party is the favourite heading into the campaign. But he said there is still a path for the NDP.

He said if the NDP starts to campaign outside Saskatoon and Regina, that could show evidence of breakthroughs in Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.

“Can the NDP get out of Saskatoon and Regina? That’s the question,” he said.

Charles Smith, a professor of political studies at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, said it’s the first time in 17 years Saskatchewan has been in a competitive political environment.

He said support from the 29 rural seats gives the Saskatchewan Party better odds, but he’s also watching the right-of-centre Saskatchewan United Party, which could chip away at Moe’s support outside the cities.

He said the Saskatchewan United Party has already had some sway on the governing party. For example, the Saskatchewan United Party made pronoun use and sexual education at school an issue last year in a rural byelection en route to a second-place finish behind the Saskatchewan Party.

Soon after, Moe introduced rules requiring parental consent for children under 16 wanting to change their names or pronouns at school.

Moe has also warned about splitting the vote on the right.

“The concern on the right is you’ll get a 2015 repeat of what happened in Alberta,” Smith said.

That year, Rachel Notley’s NDP formed a majority as the then-Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties split the vote in multiple constituencies.

McIntosh said he isn’t sure the Saskatchewan United Party can pull enough support away from the Saskatchewan Party for the NDP to come up the middle.

“They would have to have a massive surge in support, which I’ve not seen any indication of in any of the polling,” he said.

He said if the Saskatchewan Party forms a smaller and mostly rural government caucus, divisions in the province will intensify.

“That just poses a host of challenges and issues for what the priorities are,” he said.

“Who gives a voice to the large cities in a government that has very little representation in those cities?”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.

EDMONTON – Kim Ruether lifted her son’s eyelid and saw his still, dilated pupil staring at the ceiling as he lay on a stretcher in a northwestern Alberta hospital hallway a decade ago.

She says she didn’t need a doctor to tell her the boy was dead.

“I just looked at his little face and I thought, ‘How could this big, beautiful 16-year-old boy be in this situation?'” she says.

“Then the doctor came over and he said, ‘I’m sorry, but we are not going to be able to save your son’ … I remember pinching my stomach so hard, thinking I just need to wake up.”

Ruether’s son, Brock, stopped breathing and collapsed that day while playing volleyball in his high school’s gym. An autopsy found it was due to cardiac arrest.

She later discovered the device that could have saved his life sat unused beside him during what would be his final moments.

Ruether heard the recording of the five-minute call his peers made to 911 and learned an automated external defibrillator, or AED, was hanging steps away, next to the gym’s doors.

But she said it would have only been helpful had the dispatcher told Brock’s peers how to use it while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

“(The dispatcher) said, ‘Get it in case we need it later,'” Ruether said.

“So they got it and they put it right beside him on the floor and then just never used it.“

Reuther has since become a staunch advocate for dispatchers around the world to learn how to walk callers through how to use defibrillators within seconds of someone going into cardiac arrest.

She is to be recognized for her work during a ceremony in Edmonton in October, when she is to receive the Alberta Order of Excellence from Lt.-Gov Salma Lakhani.

Lakhani says the Alberta Order of Excellence celebrates people who “have contributed so much for the greater good.”

“While the recipients this year have made stellar contributions to many different fields, what they share is a dedication and commitment to service and leadership. May they inspire us all to build compassionate and thoughtful communities,” she says.

Emergency dispatchers in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and parts of Asia now teach people how to use AEDs.

Ruether also goes to schools across Canada teaching students how to use them.

“I pretend that I have a cardiac arrest, I’ll flop down on the floor, I’ll say, ‘OK, I’m timing you,’ and the kids have to run to wherever the AED is, come back running as fast as they can, put two patches on my chest and prepare to shock me,” she says.

She says she teaches kids the shock can revive a heartbeat, and the defibrillator won’t work if the patient’s heartbeat is normal and they’ve collapsed for other reasons.

Ruether says she’s been told her work saved the life of a boy who collapsed while playing basketball in British Columbia.

“The call-taker called me to let me know that she right away recognized the similarities between that call and Brock’s call,” Ruether says.

“It was profoundly lovely to know there’s a boy walking around now because of the education that Brock provided.”

Ruether grew up in a town north of Fairview, and also currently works as a senior X-ray technologist and operates a farm with her husband.

She has three other kids.

She says she’s still in disbelief and “it’s insane” that she’s getting the Order of Excellence.

She says her work with emergency dispatchers across Canada and the world has taught her how difficult their jobs are and that they need to be celebrated, too.

“Life is chaos. You have bumps and bruises along the way and, despite that, they are extraordinary people who are trying really hard to do good things and make positive changes.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.