The Canadian government is offering Indigenous groups along the Trans Mountain pipeline route a collective 15 per cent ownership stake in the federally owned infrastructure, moving forward with a plan that has been under discussion for years.
The proposed investment would be divided equally among participating Indigenous groups and financed through a low-cost loan provided by the federal government, according to a letter from a Department of Finance official reviewed by The Canadian Press.
The offer follows consultations and discussions involving 129 First Nations potentially affected by the Trans Mountain project, said John Fragos, spokesperson for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
Ottawa is now assessing the level of interest among Indigenous nations before establishing the remaining terms of the arrangement, including the size of individual ownership positions and the conditions for purchasing into the project.
“The government’s position on economic reconciliation is long-standing and clear: Indigenous communities must be able to participate in and directly benefit from the projects shaping Canada,” Fragos said in a statement.
Each Indigenous nation that chooses to invest in Trans Mountain is also expected to receive $2.5 million. The payment is intended to compensate for revenue the groups might have earned had Indigenous ownership been introduced earlier.
“We’re making up for lost time,” Fragos said in a followup call.
The federal government is also offering eligible groups up to $100,000 to cover participation costs. According to the offer, those funds can support expenses such as travel, office space and equipment through March 2028, while Ottawa will separately cover the cost of independent advisers to help participating groups conduct due diligence.
More details are expected to be presented during a series of in-person meetings scheduled for late October in Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops and Edmonton.
A long-planned Indigenous ownership model
Ottawa acquired the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, its expansion project and related assets for $4.5 billion in 2018 after Kinder Morgan investors raised concerns about regulatory uncertainty and the risks surrounding the investment.
The federal government subsequently committed to exploring opportunities for Indigenous economic participation in the expansion with the 129 Indigenous communities potentially affected by the project.
The Trans Mountain expansion entered service in 2024, increasing the system’s capacity to approximately 890,000 barrels per day from about 300,000 barrels per day.
Finance documents released in 2024 had already indicated that Ottawa intended to provide Indigenous groups with access to capital so they could acquire an ownership interest in Trans Mountain.
Those documents also outlined the possibility of holding the Indigenous stake collectively through a special-purpose vehicle. Such an arrangement would provide participating groups with governance rights as well as a share of the cash generated by the pipeline.
Until the latest offer, however, the federal government had not publicly disclosed the percentage of Trans Mountain ownership it was prepared to make available to Indigenous investors.
