Thank you for inviting us here to speak to your standing committee today on your study on how the federal government can improve access to federal procurement opportunities.
My name is Ginny Flood, and I'm the vice-president for government relations. Howard McIntyre is our vice-president for supply chain and field logistics.
My remarks will provide an overview of how Suncor is working with aboriginal peoples, whereas Howard will focus on the procurement approaches and the relationships.
We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather here in Calgary is home to many aboriginal peoples and is the traditional territory of Treaty 7, which includes the Stoney Nakoda, Tsuu T'ina, and Blackfoot, including the Siksika, the Kainai, and the Piikani.
Suncor is Canada's largest integrated energy company, contributing significantly to Canada's economy and jobs. We are best known for our oil sands production, but we also operate three refineries in Canada, in Edmonton, Sarnia, and Montreal. We have 1,800 Petro-Canada retail and wholesale locations. We have four wind farm power projects, and we have Canada's largest ethanol production facility. Many of our operations are located right across Canada. We operate on the traditional territories of 140 aboriginal communities across Canada, so we hope we can share some of our experiences.
Suncor strives to be a leader with respect to environmental, social, and governance matters, and it is with this concept in mind that we recently created the position of chief sustainability officer, who has a strong accountability for our relationships with aboriginal people. That's where we'll focus today's conversation.
While our company has worked with aboriginal communities for more than 40 years, we recognize that sometimes our approach has been colonial rather than collaborative—we wanted to “do” or “fix” things rather than seeking to understand the interests and the needs of the communities.
This has been a journey and a learning experience. As you can see from the slide that we provided with the text, this has been a work in progress from 1999.
In 2016, we launched our first social goal within our company, declaring our intent to do things differently. We're choosing a new path that focuses on strengthening relationships so that aboriginal peoples can play a larger role in how energy is developed from project conception through to reclamation. It reflects our commitment to change the way we think and act as an organization.
Howard will speak specifically about procurement, but I first want to highlight a number of ways that Suncor is working with aboriginal people.
An important learning is that if you listen and if you are maybe creative, you can probably find other mutually beneficial arrangements that go beyond just procurement. We'd encourage you to put procurement within that broader context. I'll just give you a few examples of where our journey has taken us.
We have 26 Petro-Canada stations that are first nations owned. Fort McKay First Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation purchased 49% equity position in a billion-dollar oil sands infrastructure project. The Aamjiwnaang First Nation, whose reserve is adjacent to our refinery in Sarnia, holds a 25% interest in the Adelaide wind power project near Strathroy, Ontario. As well, Suncor purchased a 41% stake in Petronor, which is operated and owned by the James Bay Cree.
I'm going to turn the presentation over to Howard so he can give you a few examples of our procurement.
Howard.