That's great.
I am the founder of a social enterprise called Canative Energy. It was founded in 2016 when I was on a trip to Ecuador. I spent three years living in the Latin American country. I was down there for a four-month project and after two months, I absolutely fell in love with this tiny country in South America.
I was there working with a national oil company on a cost subsidization project, and it was very clear to me that the indigenous communities working with or who were affected by the energy companies' activities were receiving assets such as hotels, barges, coffee roasting machines, etc., learning how to use these assets, but weren't able to monetize or commercialize the assets.
Canative Energy met with 11 different communities in Ecuador and assisted them in commercializing some of their businesses.
I understand I'm unique. I'm female. I'm indigenous. I'm a professional in the oil and gas sector. I believe that I'm able to see both sides of the industry, having spent 10 years working internationally. I'm also the first in my family to go on to post-secondary education, and the first to leave Alberta. I appreciate that I am in a very privileged position in that, hopefully, throughout my career, I'll be able to be a bridge between the two stakeholders.
It's unfortunate, and not only in Canada, that in some people's views indigenous communities and the sector are naturally opposed. I feel as if most of the conversation around the industry and indigenous communities is very binary: it's either good or it's bad. And a lot of people think they are inherently pitted against each other. But as you heard from Mr. Fox, there are examples where industry and communities can work together and achieve something better than what was before.
I often hear that oil is bad. To me, the end product is not the issue. There have been many examples of the Dene, for example, using petroleum deposits found on the North Saskatchewan River to seal their canoes. As well, the Waorani, an Ecuadorian indigenous tribe, see oil as the product of the spirit people who live beneath the crust of the earth. So the product is not the issue; it's the political economies and the imbalances in power that this industry brings to indigenous people.
I'm maybe going to be a bit controversial and acknowledge some similarities between the industry and indigenous communities. From my perspective as somebody who's worked in the industry with indigenous people, and being indigenous myself, I see three main similarities. First is that a large number of stakeholders are involved, both in indigenous communities and in the energy sector. So you have a non-homogeneous opinion among a large group of individuals. You have different values, different objectives, and that in itself is very difficult to manage.
The second is that there are some very harsh stereotypes. When I worked on the drilling rig in northern Alberta, I faced more racism than I did sexism. As a female professional working as a rig hand, it was brought up more often than not that my last name was Whitford. So there are inherent stereotypes facing indigenous people, but also for the energy sector as well. There are individuals who think the energy sector is inherently bad and can't make any valuable contribution to the world. Both are facing that.
The third is that the future for both stakeholders is very uncertain. You have indigenous communities who have had a long history of trauma; they're still facing the same difficulties, and the future looks very uncertain for them and for us. It's the same for the energy industry. With the pace of change that we're seeing in technologies, the shifts on the world stage in terms of power and the energy change, it is very uncertain as well.
I think these three factors, if you bring them together, are potentially going to result in conflict. I think it's important for us to acknowledge those and to think of them when we are beginning this conversation.
I'll give you a bit of background about Ecuador. Ecuador is a very small country in South America, with about 16 million people. It's located on the equator. It's a very cash poor country, so the country has very high levels of foreign debt. Twenty-one per cent of the country's population live in poverty and the majority of the indigenous population are within this 21%. There is a social benefit. It's a socialist country, so individuals, if they're registered with the government, may be eligible to receive a stipend of $70 a month. There are families who regularly live on less than a hundred dollars a month.
There is a high level of corruption in the country. The oil industry is very mature; they've been producing since 1970. The mining industry in Ecuador is beginning to develop, and it looks like it will be there for the long term, which is potentially good.
In my time at Canative working with the communities, getting to know the country, both the government and the individuals on the ground, I have gained three key learnings that I think translate to the Canadian context.
The first is the importance of diversification of income streams. Mr. Fox mentioned it, and I can't stress too strongly how important this is. I'll give you an example. We met with the Huataracu, a small community of about 500 individuals. They're located six hours from Quito, the capital city, and then another three hours by boat or by car.
I don't know how to say this in Canadian English, but they received what is called a “digger” in London English. They received a piece of heavy machinery from Petrobras 20 years ago and used it to gain contracts with the national oil company. They reinvested those proceeds and grew the one digger to a fleet of 11 pieces of heavy machinery. This small indigenous community was sitting on an investment of about half a million dollars, which was absolutely admirable.
The issue is that they relied solely on government contracts for road maintenance. So even though they were able to have this income stream, as soon as the oil price crashed in 2014, that activity stopped and they were left without income. That was a very big issue for them. They were left having to maintain the machinery, etc., and they really had no other way to support their people.
I was able to see communities like that, and then right next door to see other communities that not only had—sorry, the online feedback is really bad—