Bernd Christmas helped turn Membertou into an economic powerhouse. Now, Squamish Nation hopes he can replicate that success

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For much of his working life, Bernd Christmas was based in Eastern Canada, where his roles included 11 years as chief executive officer of Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia, during a period when Membertou became an economic powerhouse, with interests in fisheries, tourism and casinos. He then worked as a lawyer and negotiator for several First Nations bands.

In 2021, he shifted to the West Coast when he was named chief executive officer of Nch’kaỷ Development Corp., the economic development arm of the Squamish Nation. Formed in 2018, Nch’kaỷ is pursuing big ventures ranging from a proposed LNG project near Squamish, B.C., to Senakw, a high-profile real estate development in Vancouver.

The past two decades have also brought a sea change in attitudes toward Indigenous-owned business and that, along with the size and scope of projects on Nch’kaỷ’s radar, added up to an opportunity Mr. Christmas didn’t want to miss.

“Back in Membertou days, you were kind of asking people, ‘Do you want to do stuff with us?’, versus here, where you’re getting people coming to you on a regular basis,” Mr. Christmas said in an interview.

Part of his role will be assessing those pitches – some 1,500 to 3,000 a year, Mr. Christmas says – to determine which ones align with Squamish Nation’s desire to create income and opportunities for its members while protecting its traditional territory, which consists of about 6,700 square kilometres in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.

The nation has a registered population of about 4,000 people, with nearly half of those members living on reserves in and around Vancouver and Squamish, north of the city, and it is involved in businesses that include forestry and real estate development. Along with the neighbouring Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil’wat nations, the Squamish Nation is also part of a potential bid with Vancouver-Whistler for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Through Nch’kaỷ, the nation is positioning itself for growth, which is where Mr. Christmas comes in. He was CEO of Membertou from 1995 to 2006, when Membertou positioned itself as a business partner, owner and investor through initiatives that included opening a corporate office in Halifax and pursuing ISO certification.

John Risley, co-founder of Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods Inc.. recalls meeting Mr. Christmas in the 1990s, in the years leading up to the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark Marshall decision. That 1999 ruling, stemming from the prosecution of Membertou member Donald Marshall Jr. for catching and selling eel without a licence, affirmed First Nations’ treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather in pursuit of a moderate livelihood.

After the decision was released, one of Mr. Christmas’s first calls was to Mr. Risley, to discuss how Membertou and Clearwater could work together.

“I remember Bernd calling me and asking me to come and see him – which I was happy to do,” Mr. Risley said in an interview, adding that Membertou was “way out ahead of the game” in forging business ventures and relationships.

Those talks set the stage for ever-bigger transactions, including a 2021 deal in which a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations, including Membertou, and partner Premium Brands Holdings Corp. acquired Clearwater Seafoods Inc. in a transaction valued at about $1-billion, including debt.

Mr. Christmas had moved on by that time and Membertou’s long-time chief, Terry Paul, closed the deal. But Mr. Risley said Mr. Christmas had an important role in Membertou’s growth, describing him as a “fair-minded guy, who wants to do deals that work for both sides.”

Legislation and governance trends have evolved considerably since Mr. Christmas worked with Membertou. The B.C. government, in 2019, and the federal government, in 2021, passed legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On the governance side, environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards are changing the way corporations do business, including how they negotiate with Indigenous peoples, Mr. Christmas said.

“Economic reconciliation is definitely one of the reasons I came here, among others. … The mentality of a corporation has changed,” he said.

“You have the whole notion of ESG in the corporate business world, and companies like BlackRock saying you have to deal with it. It’s a facet that in Canada, at least, or wherever Indigenous peoples are, cannot be ignored.”

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Starting in his 2020 annual letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, chairman of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, has been telling corporate leaders they need plans to operate in a low-carbon economy to avoid potential proxy votes against management or disinvestment. On the social and governance side, there is increased scrutiny of how corporations deal with Indigenous peoples.

For Nch’kaỷ, that trend is playing out in its relationships with companies such as Woodfibre LNG, which has acknowledged the Squamish Nation, as well as the B.C. and Canadian governments, as a regulator on its project.

Woodfibre is a proposed LNG export facility near Squamish on the site of a former pulp and paper operation. If the project goes ahead, the Squamish Nation expects to have a significant role, including a potential equity stake, Mr. Christmas said.

“There’s so many deals where you saw, ‘Okay, we’ll hire [Indigenous people] as security guards, we’ll hire them as flag people’ … and the project’s worth $3-billion, and the nations or the people that it affects directly are making, you know, maybe a million dollars from it,” Mr. Christmas said.

“It’s just so sad – I can honestly say, with Woodfibre, it’s a different story.”

Woodfibre has gone through several delays but hopes to start construction in 2023.

Mr. Christmas is also focused on Senakw, which his nation is working on with Westbank Corp., a Vancouver developer.

Senakw is a proposed 12-tower residential-commercial development that would be clustered near the south end of Burrard Bridge and include 6,000 residential units.

The mixed-use project will be impossible to overlook, given its prominent waterfront location.

That is by design.

“We think that at the end of the day, over the life of the deal, it will be very, very successful for Nch’kaỷ – and it’s not just monetary. I think it’s the fact that it becomes like a beacon for the nation.

“We’re always looking for ways to show the world that we’re here … to create these economic beacons that will shine the light and say, ‘Come to us, we have lots of things we want to work on with you.’”

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