Fort McKay-Suncor deal opens path to Indigenous oil sands ownership

By James Calloway

More than 90 per cent of Fort McKay First Nation members backed developing oil sands resources on Reserve 174C, land the Nation holds under a 2003 treaty land entitlement agreement. The vote has not yet produced a mine. It has produced an agreement with Suncor Energy Inc. signed in October 2025 that lets the company take overburden and reclamation materials from part of the reserve.

That distinction matters for anyone tracking Canadian oil sands development. The Fort McKay–Suncor agreement does not authorize an oil sands mine on Reserve 174C. It does mark another step in a working relationship that Chief Raymond Powder dates back to the Great Canadian Oil Sands era, and it places the Nation's own development company inside the supply chain of an existing operation.

What did the Oct. 26 meeting produce?

First ministers and First Nations leaders met on Oct. 26 and agreed to develop new revenue-sharing mechanisms, including the possible creation of a First Nations Sovereign Wealth Fund. No size, timetable or terms attached to the proposal yet. For operators, the funding design carries more weight than the announcement itself: a sovereign fund decides who holds the cash flow from a resource project, and therefore who has a reason to sign for it.

What does the Fort McKay–Suncor model look like?

The mechanics came out at the Spark Indigenous Energy Summit, hosted by the Tsuut'ina Nation at the Grey Eagle Convention Centre in Calgary. Jean-Paul Gladu, founder and principal of Indigenous-owned consulting firm Mokwateh and a member of Suncor's board of directors, moderated a panel with Chief Raymond Powder of Fort McKay First Nation and Peter Zebedee, president and chief financial officer at Suncor.

Gladu set the frame: companies need to understand a First Nation's priorities before they make investment decisions, not after the decision has been made. Powder credited Suncor with the willingness to listen to the Nation's concerns and to discuss economic opportunities, and he argued that early dialogue keeps disagreements from hardening into prolonged disputes.

Zebedee described what trust actually buys. "It doesn't happen just because we want it to happen," he said. "It happens because we develop relationships as we do in normal life, and it happens because when we speak words, they're met with actions."

He placed the progression in sequence: consultation first, then employment and procurement, then equity partnerships in which First Nations acquire an ownership stake in the project. The first two stages buy access and contracts. The third buys revenue.

Takeaway: The ladder from contracts to equity runs on follow-through, and Suncor's board seat for Gladu shows how tight the loop has become between operator and community.

What has the partnership already paid for at Fort McKay?

Powder tied development revenue to community infrastructure: paved roads, sidewalks and newer buildings, including 49 homes built over four years. He also tied it to the land itself. "How do we actually preserve the moose, the fish, and all that we sustain?" he asked. "We do it through our land management, and that's how we actually address the impacts."

Takeaway: Fort McKay uses resource revenue for housing and roads while managing impact through its own land authority, which is the community case ownership advocates cite.

Where does Reserve 174C actually stand?

The Nation established the Fort McKay Oil Sands Development Company to pursue development on the reserve. Preliminary assessments showed a stand-alone mine would not be economically viable, so development would require a partnership with an existing operation. That requirement is why an overburden and reclamation materials agreement, however narrow, matters: it puts the Nation's company alongside Suncor's mine without committing either party to a mine decision.

What still blocks Indigenous ownership?

Zebedee named financing as the barrier. Indigenous loan guarantee programs can help communities secure financing to acquire ownership stakes, and could move more First Nations beyond employment and procurement into a project's long-term economic success. Absent that capital, the equity step on the ladder stays theoretical.

Gladu also sits on the Indigenous Advisory Council of the federal Major Projects Office, which co-ordinates federal approvals and financing for major projects. The council advises on Indigenous perspectives and economic participation — one more place where First Nations have a seat rather than a sign-off.

Takeaway: Loan guarantees, not consultation, are the piece that turns Indigenous interest into Indigenous equity.

How do partnerships survive disagreement?

"You have to have a forum to generate the appropriate dialogue and to ensure that where there are concerns, they are brought forward to the table and they are discussed and resolved mutually," Zebedee said. Powder described the same preference from the other side: dialogue over litigation when dealing with governments and stakeholders.

What to watch

• Design and funding of the First Nations Sovereign Wealth Fund agreed on Oct. 26.
• Suncor's overburden and reclamation work on Reserve 174C, and whether it progresses to a mine decision.
• Uptake and capitalization of Indigenous loan guarantee programs.
• Any Fort McKay–Suncor decision on a mine — preliminary work ruled out a stand-alone project without a partner.

Zebedee framed the ambition plainly: "I think the future is really up to us. What more is possible? How can there be more Indigenous leadership in the future of Canada and the development of the resource that is so precious to all of us?" The Fort McKay file shows what a long partnership yields when commitments turn into action; the test ahead is whether federal follow-through matches local patience.