Indigenous Engagement Policy

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework and overarching guidelines for Calian's engagement with Indigenous clients, partners, suppliers, employees and potential employees.

SCOPE:

This policy applies to all Calian's business activities, including interactions with Indigenous partners and suppliers, engagement with existing and potential employers, and engagement with Indigenous communities.

POLICY:

Calian's Indigenous Engagement Policy is based on the philosophy of establishing meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities, suppliers, advocacy groups, business councils, and employees.

Calian will accomplish this by listening to, learning from, and leveraging capacity in Indigenous communities, engaging Indigenous suppliers, contractors and Indigenous-owned businesses whenever practical, providing the highest quality services to Indigenous clients, and seeking out joint opportunities with Indigenous partners.

Calian’s goal is to engage in meaningful collaboration, long-term partnerships, and contractual arrangements with Indigenous organizations, contractors and potential employees. Calian will quantitatively and qualitatively track its engagements with Indigenous organizations, contractors, and employees and encourage feedback to continuously improve these relationships.

PILLARS: LISTENING, LEARNING, LEVERAGING

The three key pillars of our Indigenous strategy are Listening, Learning, and Leveraging.

Listening:

In alignment with TRC Call to Action 92, Calian believes engagement is a sustained relationship between groups working towards shared goals. Calian supports the belief that is important to build healthy relationships based on rights, respect, cooperation and partnership. Real engagement requires an investment of time to build trust and find common ground in order to develop a robust working relationship.

Calian continues to build on positive relationships developed by our service lines in several regions across Canada, including relationships with First Nations and their Band Councils, Tribal councils, and non profit organizations.

Calian is committed to listening by:

• Establishing a dialogue to learn and incorporate Indigenous perspectives;
• Developing and maintain relationships and partnerships with Indigenous businesses, communities and regionally-based organizations;
• Obtaining and utilizing meaningful feedback from our partners;
• Engaging with National-level Indigenous organizations to build perspectives on cultural awareness, economic development needs, social development needs, and collaborate where mutually beneficial;
• Working with our clients and industrial partners to collaborate with our Indigenous partners, where possible.

Learning:

Calian believes education is the core of truly understanding one another.

Calian is committed to learning by:

• Implementing training within our team, validated by Indigenous partners, on Indigenous cultures, histories, and contemporary realities in order to increase our awareness of Indigenous heritage in Canada;
• Creating meaningful opportunities to discuss Calian’s work, improve working relationships, and increase capacity building and skills transfer from our areas of expertise to our Indigenous partners, including health, emergency management, systems engineering, manufacturing, and training.

Leveraging:

Calian believes leveraging means sharing our expertise with the communities to support local capacity, organizational development and self-determination. It is important that we support Indigenous-led solutions to Indigenous challenges in order to reach sustainable, thriving, and self-determined Indigenous communities, while recognizing the need for mutually beneficial business engagements.

Calian hopes to become a trusted business partner through sharing our expertise and developing new capabilities to support the community’s organizational development, while supporting existing capacity and local knowledge. Essentially, Calian would like to develop shared visions with the communities we partner with.

Calian is committed to leveraging by:

• Assisting in the development of local Indigenous companies by prioritizing the engagement with Indigenous-owned businesses to benefit all collaboration partners;
• Working with Indigenous communities to deliver emergency management services, risk management services, and where possible, partner to pursue opportunities in that domain;
• Provide health and social services to Indigenous communities, and where possible identify opportunities to hire Indigenous people to provide more culturally appropriate services to Indigenous clients;
• Work with regionally or nationally based Indigenous organizations to identify partnership opportunities for employment, mentorship, or community development;
• Working with partners to develop a shared vision to support joint business opportunities and social good.