Mark Podlasly has played a transformative role in reshaping how Indigenous communities interact with the mining industry. As CEO of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC), his work focuses on moving First Nations from being sidelined stakeholders to becoming decision makers, partners and owners in major resource projects.

A member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation, Podlasly’s home First Nation is near Merritt, B.C. After starting his career in natural gas, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard and worked on major infrastructure across Asia.

Podlasly returned to B.C. in 2008; at the time, the province was going through a natural gas boom, particularly in liquefied natural gas (LNG). “The senior Indigenous leadership called me in and said, ‘You’ve worked in this sector, you’ve worked overseas with a lot of these energy companies now trying to build in the province, and you’re one of us. What is going on?’” he said.

While attending a meeting in 2010 between First Nations and a pipeline company, Podlasly recognized that Indigenous leaders needed technical literacy to negotiate more effectively. “Our people needed a primer on how world energy markets worked, how Indigenous people fit into that and what is required to get [project] approval,” he recalled. “We nicknamed the report ‘LNG for your Granny’; it put the information in a sense that our people would understand, and we had massive uptake in the community.”

In 2011, a group of 11 First Nations in B.C. negotiated a 30 per cent equity stake in a $5 billion natural gas pipeline, but could not secure affordable financing; in 2013, they lost the investment opportunity due to lack of capital access. The experience convinced the nations that they needed an organization dedicated to overcoming barriers to Indigenous investment in major projects. “That’s where the coalition started,” he said.

FNMPC was officially established in 2017, and Podlasly, who has held senior roles since the beginning and became CEO in 2024, said its original goal was securing a federal loan guarantee program. Today, the coalition has 204 First Nations members across Canada.

“Companies find this of use too, because we are a neutral non-profit organization,” he said. “We don’t take a finder’s fee—we are a free service to the nations. We have no skin in the game. We will get questions from communities that they would not feel comfortable asking a proponent [or] raising with the government.”

The coalition built on Podlasly’s experience in demystifying complex topics, and releases reports on subjects such as capital markets, regulated rate utilities and small modular reactors. Its latest report on the critical minerals value chain was published in April and highlighted opportunities for First Nations participation in the sector. “We present [information] in such a way that communities who are generally not from these sectors can take the information, and then decide to participate or not,” said Podlasly. “Consent will not happen unless people understand what’s being proposed.”

The launch of the federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program in 2024 was a proud moment for Podlasly. In the future, however, he hopes Indigenous nations will be able to access capital markets directly without government backing.

For Podlasly, the case for Indigenous participation has evolved beyond fairness or consultation; he contends that it is now “imperative” for Canada’s economic competitiveness and ability to develop major resource projects.

“If we don’t have Indigenous people participating, we won’t get to world markets in a timely manner, and then economically, we’re held captive to our largest customer in the United States,” he said. “Indigenous economic reconciliation now is about Canada’s sovereignty.”