67. Keith Matthew - Canada's Original Sin

Keith Matthew is a member of the Simpcw First Nation and is a former chief of the Simpcw First Nation. He served for five years as chief and five years as Councilor up until December 2010. As a Councilor and Chief with his community he was responsible for economic development and was instrumental developing a business relationship with Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing and helped negotiate ownership in a $7 million heli-skiing lodge. He was the chief negotiator with Kinder Morgan Canada and Canadian Hydro Developers and delivered impact benefit agreements to his community with those companies. He also led discussions on a forest and range agreement that provides fibre and
resources for the Simpcw First Nation and its legal entities. More importantly these agreements have provided employment and training opportunities in major projects that the community members wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to compete for and work with companies that were formerly beyond their capacity.

As chief he also was responsible for negotiations but also oversaw the successful delivery of the impact benefit agreements referendum and benefits to his community. In order to take advantage of the opportunities there was also the creation of Simpcw Resources Group Ltd. and the creation of Simpcw Heritage Trust to manage own source revenues into the future for the upcoming generations of Simpcw youth and their grandchildren. This legal instrument will allow the building of wealth for the children of our community well into the future.

The vision to create opportunities for Simpcw First Nation was understanding the Haida and Taku River Supreme Court of Canada decisions on the duty to consult First Nations communities. Shuswap Nation Tribal Council was instrumental in helping draft consultation and accommodation policies with the assistance of the West Coast Environmental Law. The building block for this was started with a consultation and accommodation framework that was passed by a majority of the Simpcw membership in a community referendum. Additional pieces to this policy framework were later developed with a map of the traditional territory and a heritage and culture policy addendum.

Currently Mr. Matthew is serving on the following committees as volunteer:

President of the Community Futures Development Corporation for Central Interior First
Nations; President of Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers; Director of the Simpcw Health Board President for the National Aboriginal Energy and Power Association; Director for the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics, Thompson Rivers University.
He has his own company Seklep Business Services and works with First Nations’ communities to negotiate agreements with companies that require certainty of tenure from major projects on unceded traditional territory. As well he has two joint venture companies and is a principal with both Skeetch Arrowhead Contracting Ltd. and Skowtum Services Ltd. He is also one of the principals of Dynamic Microgrids and looks forward to helping First Nations communities develop their own renewable sources of energy and being partners with Canada in reducing greenhouse gases.

He was awarded his Certified Aboriginal Economic Developer certification by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers at a ceremony in Winnipeg at their annual general meeting in 2013. He also successfully completed BCIT’s Associate Certificate, Venture Program, in 2012.

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