Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast · Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit

Bernd Christmas KC On 30 Years of Law, Leadership, and Billion-Dollar First Nations Projects

·33 min·2 clips

At Membertou, revenue rose from about $4.2 million to $76 million and staff grew to over 700.

1. Drumbeats features Bernd Christmas, KC, discussing Indigenous partnerships in Canadian natural resource and infrastructure investment. 2. Mark McNack and Robert Brant host Bernd Christmas, a Mi'kmaq lawyer and principal at Bernd Christmas Law Group, because he has spent decades on Indigenous business and legal files. 3. The episode asks how Bernd moved from community legal work to negotiations on projects such as the Port of Churchill, the Ring of Fire, and Ontario Power Generation. 4. Bernd says he is from Queenston, Ontario, and identifies himself as Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia and a member of a First Nation with 36 communities. 5. He describes the Battle of Queenston and says Indigenous forces, mostly the Iroquois, helped push back American forces in the War of 1812. 6. Bernd says he worked as a court worker in Toronto before law school, bridging people in court with lawyers, judges, and social agencies. 7. He says a professor, Alan Hutchinson, pushed him to think about Indigenous land claims and the business side of large settlements. 8. Bernd says he shifted his courses toward business because he kept asking what happened to the money in claims worth hundreds of millions and billions. 9. He describes his articles at Blaney McMurtry and says Bill McMurtry, Bill Henderson, and Alan Pratt were early figures in Indigenous law. 10. Bernd says he was not hired back, then Lang Michener recruited him to take over Aboriginal files, including work that had been handled by Jean Chrétien before he became prime minister. 11. He says his first file at the firm involved Shoal Lake 40 and the water situation with the City of Winnipeg. 12. Bernd recalls working on Bay Street with an assistant, a stack of files, and an early appreciation that firms wanted an Indigenous lawyer for these matters. 13. He says Chief Terry Paul asked him to return to Membertou, even though the community could not match Bay Street pay. 14. Bernd says Membertou was in rough shape with a small budget, bank debt, and a need to rebuild its business systems. 15. He says the community used ISO 9001 registration to answer skepticism about Indigenous governance and business capacity. 16. Bernd says national attention after the ISO announcement brought calls from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Eurocopter. 17. He says one opportunity involved military procurement work and another possible contract was valued at about $400 million for systems integration. 18. The hosts describe the Membertou turnaround as moving from about $4.2 million in revenue and 20 employees to about $76 million and more than 700 employees. 19. The interview style is conversational, reflective, and personal, with Mark McNack and Robert Brant drawing out career milestones and project details. 20. People interested in Indigenous business, law, and major Canadian projects will get the most from it, while listeners wanting a light or purely entertainment-focused show may skip it.

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