Substantial activity addresses both parts of Call 28. On the measurement side, Statistics Canada’s Indigenous Peoples Economic Account (IPEA), launched as a pilot project in 2022 and regularized as a standing program in 2024-2025, provides the first nationally consistent measure of Indigenous contribution to Canada’s economy in terms of gross domestic income (GDI) and jobs. As of the 2023 reference year, Indigenous GDI reached $63.7 billion, representing 2.3 percent of total Canadian GDI and reflecting a decade-long growth rate of 57.6 percent, which outpaced the broader Canadian economy’s 37.6 percent growth over the same period. The National Indigenous Economic Development Board’s 2024 Indigenous Economic Progress Report provides a parallel measurement framework, estimating Indigenous GDP growth from $81.9 billion in 2012 to $97.0 billion in 2020, an 18.5 percent increase.
On the growth side, federal and provincial governments have launched a series of loan guarantee programs and equity-ownership financing vehicles designed specifically to increase Indigenous economic participation in major projects. The Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation (CILGC), a subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation, launched the federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program in December 2024 at $5 billion; in March 2025 the program was doubled to $10 billion and expanded to all sectors of the economy with the exception of gaming. These federal measures sit alongside provincial loan guarantee programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association’s Indigenous Growth Fund ($153 million), and the federal Social Finance Fund’s $50 million allocation to the IGF. The First Nations Major Projects Coalition estimates that major natural resource and energy projects with potential for Indigenous equity participation could reach $525 billion in capital investment over the next decade.