Empowering Indigenous clean energy- with Jordyn Burnouf

Jordyn Burnouf [preview]:

One thing that people often don’t know is that indigenous communities are leading a lot of big clean-energy initiatives—I think well over 30 to 40 per cent. And ownership and equity only goes up, the more that people are becoming aware of the impact and their voice and their power to be a part of those.

Jen Hancock:

This is Building Good. I’m Jen Hancock.

Jen Hancock:

Net-Zero Emissions by 2050. One hundred and fifty countries have committed to it. They’re just not doing a whole lot to actually get there. But it’s so important. It means we either stop emitting greenhouses gases or we offset all the ones we do emit. It’s the only way to stop the planet heating up so much that we can no longer survive. This is not a rocket science, and it’s not an abstract future issue. Over 1,000 Canadians have already lost their homes to wildfires this year; and they’re going to keep happening. People die because of climate change—right here in Canada. The hotter the climate, the drier the forest; the drier the fuel, the easier the flame catches.

Canada, with its huge and diverse geography, has a wealth of renewable resources that we can put to good use. And we are already world leaders in hydro-electric power. And yet we still lean on fossil fuels. The government says that natural gas is set to increase its share of our energy generation. Even by 2040, it looks like a third of our energy will still come from non-renewable sources. That doesn’t bode well for Canada’s commitment to Net-Zero Emissions by 2050. But we already have the solutions; and we already have the people who are putting them to use.

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Jen Hancock:

We don’t own this planet, we only look after it for the next generation. That kind of sounds like a bland aphorism, but it’s not. To a lot of indigenous people it’s an obvious truth. One that Jordyn Burnouf is applying to energy sustainability. She’s a member of the Black Lake First Nation and grew up in the Métis community of Île-à-la-Crosse in Saskatchewan. I could just give you her job title: Senior Associate at Medicine Rope Strategies. They consult on sustainable energy from an indigenous perspective. That really doesn’t cover just how impressive Jordyn is, though. She’s Co-Chair of the SevenGen Indigenous Youth Energy Summit. She’s a member of the Indigenous Clean Energies Advisory Council. She’s also a track-and-field coach, and started a non-profit supporting young people in sport. Even if she wasn’t still pretty young, her résumé would be impressive.

For indigenous people, the energy issue is even more urgent. There are still communities that aren’t even connected to a power gride, burning diesel for electricity. They’re more likely to experience blackouts, and more likely to have to deal with the immediate effects of climate change.

So I wanted to get Jordyn’s perspective on clean energy, and talk through the future of power in Canada.

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Jordyn Burnouf:

I grew up in the community of Île-à-la-Crosse, about 1,500 people, I’d say a pretty small community. The Cree name of that community is Sakitawak, and what that means is: where the rivers open up. So we’re just surrounded by water; we’re surrounded by the forest; we’re surrounded by just beauty. Right? So naturally, I think most people that I grew up with, and my family definitely, are all very outdoorsy people and very connected to the land in different ways. That’s kind of really laid out that path in terms of my appreciation for the environment, and for land-based teachings, and kind of where I am now.

Jen Hancock:

When you look at when you went to university your exposure and just kind of growing up with the land and the mentorship you had there, and in your sports and leadership, it’s no surprise that you’ve ended up where you are now and, you know, sort of your current role with Medicine Rope Strategies. Do you want to talk a little bit about maybe that as a starting point for you? What’s your role there? What does that look like?

Jordyn Burnouf:

So Medicine Rope Strategies—what we do is we’re 100 per cent indigenous-owned. We work for indigenous communities, with indigenous communities, and we try to, you know, reduce the gap in, like, education, employment, economic development opportunities. And so it’s a range of different things. Like I’m leading a housing project in energy efficiency for our community. And so, we work with the local economic development corp on that. And then we do community engagement. It keeps me on my toes, and it’s so much fun.

Jen Hancock:

A few years ago, you were part of a program in Calgary—was it the SevenGen program?

Jordyn Burnouf:

Yeah, so the SevenGen Summit.

Jen Hancock:

So, the SevenGen Summmit. That was a bit of a pivotal moment for you, was it not, in sort of that clean energy piece? Can you explore a little bit about you got invited to that event, and what did that do for you in terms of your understanding of clean energy and where you sort of went from that point in your career?

Jordyn Burnouf:

Yeah. So, my dad and I, and my brother, we got very interested in solar. And we were exploring, you know, avenues of getting into business through solar and what we could do to kind of make some change in the North and, you know, create some—a little bit of an economic boost for people up here. But. So there was that interest. And, I actually, I just saw an ad online for this Summit. And so it’s an indigenous youth energy summit called SevenGen.

So the first one was in Calgary. That was the one I attended. It was really incredible. It was, you know, the first of its kind where indigenous youth were, you know, put in a space—a safe space—where you could hear from other indigenous leaders from across Canada that were doing clean-energy projects. And so that really opened my eyes into, like, in terms of what is out there for clean energy. And you know, it doesn’t stop at solar, which is kind of the hot topic everyone likes to talk about. Right? It’s the sexy cool thing you can see. So.

After that point, I was, like, there’s so much opportunity here but there’s also so much, like, historically, that, you know, indigenous people were not included in good ways. And so, at that Summit, I was a part of an engagement session. I was invited by a friend. And there was five others. And it was mainly—I was the only woman. And there was a lot of people from, like, western Canada and central Canada. And it was like, okay, 15 organizations, and they want to know all about, like, indigenous youths’ perspective. And at the end of it, I was just like, “I’m sorry. Like, I don’t mean to be rude. Like, no offence. But this is not representative of indigenous youth. There’s no Inuit representation. There’s nobody from the East Coast. I’m the only woman sitting here. Like, this is—it’s just unacceptable. And we’re not even told, you know, where this is going and how it’s going to be used. So I’m just curious, you know, what’s going to happen with that?”

And it was led by folks from NRCan. And I have to say, you know, I—there was some incredible work done by that team to actually listen to the feedback that we had given. So I was very happy with the outcome. But at the Summit I was able to pitch an idea. And so what came out of that was, like, “Well, we see a need for indigenous youth voices to be amplified, and to have a platform, and to be included in a good way.” And so my friend, Nathan, and I wanted to team up and kind of come up with an indigenous youth council, where it was appropriate representation from different Nations, from every Territory and Province, and, you know, a good mix of men and women.

So from that pitch, I was invited to apply to the 20/20 Catalysts Program. And that’s kind of where that story all unfolds. And the 20/20 Catalysts Program is an indigenous energy leadership program. And that is a whole other story (laughs).

Jen Hancock:

Before we go on, I just want—because there might be people listening who don’t really understand clean energy—you already mentioned that solar isn’t the only thing, so what does clean energy mean? And what does it mean for an indigenous community?

Jordyn Burnouf:

Yeah. So clean energy, it’s, you know, an alternative method to fossil fuels. And so there’s things like hydro. Right? And even Big Hydro can be bad. And historically, a lot of indigenous communities got really the short end of the stick—or whatever the saying is. And then there’s things like geothermal, which is using the natural heat from underground. Yeah, there’s tidal. There’s all sorts of different forms of energy that use the elements.

One thing that people often don’t know is that indigenous communities are leading a lot of the clean-energy initiatives—I think well over, like, 30 to 40 per cent—which is very exciting. You know? And ownership and equity only goes up, the more that people are becoming aware of the impact and their voice and their power to be a part of those. Because I think, historically, like, you look at where I grew up, in terms of land stewardship, in our backyard there’s uranium. And so we’ve had companies, you know, everything from exploration to the actual producers of that energy that, you know, will come in. And they’ll have their form of consultation, whatever that looks like. You know, maybe they talk to a handful of people and all of a sudden they have permission to be on somebody’s land. There’s a few millions of dollars that go towards community development, but then you see billions of dollars being pumped out of our communities, exported to different countries around the world. You know? I think it’s upwards of 70 per cent of uranium energy is actually it doesn’t even stay in Canada. And so who benefits from that, right?

And that’s really kind of big topic today is energy conservation, but at the root of it lies land conservation. And so when we look at things like the Land Back movement and land management for communities, I think, you know, there’s bills being passed—new legislation—like Bill C-92 that says, you know, there needs to be prior informed consent for any new projects. But a lot of these companies find the loopholes.

And then what it means to indigenous communities is, you know, we’re at the end of the line—literally, the end of the transmission line. We’re low priority. When it comes to brownouts, when it comes to, like, power outages and that kind of stuff, and it comes to, like, new infrastructure, we are not a priority in our area. And I think a lot of other communities can relate to that. You know?

And then when you look at big projects, equity hasn’t existed; and that’s huge. It’s incredible to me that all of this money goes out and there’s so many people suffering in our communities. And that’s where my passion kind of comes from is like if we get involved in energy, there’s a lot of money. There’s a lot of economic and employment impact that can happen through that. And that’s ultimately, like, what my driver is. I want to see childhoods for kids that grow up in our communities where they don’t have to hear about suicide, and they don’t have to see alcoholism, and they don’t have to, you know, worry about when their next meal is going to come.

Jen Hancock:

Yeah. So the energy piece isn’t just an energy piece; there’s a much broader implication for the health and wealth of the community.

You’re working on a project right now in your home community. Can you talk a little about what you’re doing with that?

Jordyn Burnouf:

Yeah. So Île-à-la-Crosse, we’re—we’re going to be the greenest community in Canada (laughs). I was joking. I was a part of a project in Regina, and they were like, “We’re going to be the greenest community, greenest city in Canada.” I was like, “I will race you.”

(laughter)

Jordyn Burnouf:

But what we’re trying to do is, you know, look at homes—the health of homes—and the health of communities and say, “Look. Our homes are in dire need of not only renovation but retrofits.” So while we’re doing this work, while we’re improving living conditions for people, we’re going to impact the bottomline for each home. People will have more money to take home and more expendable income, where families can take care of each other that way and our communities can have, you know, our community facilities, the energy consumption goes down therefore more money in our communities to offer more things like sports programs, and mental health supports, and all of those—the social stuff that we need, the social impact that we want to see.

So, I think we have about close to 400 homes, and we’re looking to retrofit each of those. So that’s deep retrofits—everything from the building envelope, to the windows, the doors, down to the appliances. And you know, at a community level, talking to people about energy literacy: What is conservation; What is energy efficiency? Right? It’s not something you can see and feel. It’s a concept that people need to understand. So that—that has been my hardest sell, I think, but the most fun.

Jen Hancock:

Also, the way you’re doing this, you’re building in jobs and training so that the community is self-sufficient in terms of energy audits and the work that would need to happen to do the retrofits. Like this is partnership, from the very beginning thought, right, from all the benefits staying within the community and being able to then anyone who gets some of the training might be able to go not only work in the community but outside of it if that opportunity presents itself.

Jordyn Burnouf:

Definitely. I think, you know, that’s all a part of sustainability. And sustainability for this project is building capacity. And we have so many skilled people in our communities. And with projects like efficiency and retrofit programs, like, you have an opportunity to improve building standards and, you know, go above the national code, which is pretty poor.

You know, we have a new building standard where our local contractors—everyone from, you know, the electricians to the carpenters—can go now and find work. And we want to train—like, there was just the federal announcement to have 1,200 people trained as energy auditors. And I think that’s huge, right? That’s a huge market. Like, so over the course of three years, we’re looking to have, out of those three years, the first two we’re going to try and accomplish all of our audits. So those audits being, you know: where is your energy flowing; where are we losing energy; how can we save?

And when you talk about economic development in the energy sector, I think energy efficient is where it’s at. You know? You look at—and nothing against renewables but this is, like, you know, you look at a solar project—and they’re part of the mix, right. That’s kind of our end goal is to be able to get to a point where we reduced our consumption so that we don’t have to build such a huge renewable project. But with renewables that’s like you’re only hiring a handful of people. Right? But with an energy-efficiency program, it’s a long-term, multi-year project where, you know, you’re increasing the standard and skill of those people that—those jobs that already exist in community.

Jen Hancock:

I think you’re right that most people sort of just, again, go right to the solar panel. But, so your approach is let’s look at the buildings we have—houses and community buildings—let’s make them as energy-efficient as possible. Let’s try to solve as much of the problem at the source as we can. And then once we get there, then we can look at what kind of renewables do we need to add into the mix—whether you can get to a net-zero community or not. But you’re solving the problem at source before adding that technology piece in.

Jordyn Burnouf:

Exactly. Just doing a renewable project off the bat, it kind of works but, I mean, why buy more infrastructure than you need if you can reduce your consumption? Right? And I think the idea of conservation and efficiency is something that everybody needs to understand. If we’re going to start acting on climate change, we need to adapt those practices. And it’s not simply changing lightbulbs and changing your appliances; it’s actually waking up in the morning and seeing the sun shining and realizing you don’t have to turn on your lights. You know? Taking shorter showers. Buying less clothing; oh my god, the clothing industry, you know? Like, we don’t look at the full, like the grand scheme of things. We live pretty luxuriously here in Canada. And it’s a state of mind, and it’s our mentality in terms of our relationship with energy that we really need to start changing. And that’s like at an individual level that’s a huge impact.

Jen Hancock:

Since you’ve done an amazing job in your life of sort of paying forward the leadership pieces, as you’ve been mentored over time, how do you see taking the work you’re doing on this project in your home community, paying that forward to other communities—both indigenous and non-indigenous communities? Like, how do you see that—what do you see yourself doing in the teaching space there? Because I imagine that’s got to be on your mind: how you’re going to scale this up once you, you know, get it going in your community.

Jordyn Burnouf:

Oh, definitely. And that’s—that’s a big part of, in writing, when we’re applying for federal dollars. Right? They—you know, you like to hear about scalability and sustainability. That’s a big part of it is can we pull this plan and go in and unfold it another community right next to us, or across Canada? You know, we’re a majority indigenous people in my community but we’re a Métis community and we’re a municipality. So in terms of jurisdiction and, you know, the different programs that we can access, it’s very different than a First Nation.

The Mayor and Council, our provincial government, our federal government—like, it all works a little bit different. Right? And then you go to a First Nation, and then there’s, you know, Section 95 and all these other things that we have to start thinking about in terms of what we can access and the pathway to doing that. Right? But I think the concept, itself, is applicable anywhere. You know, looking at homes as a solution to—or part of the solution for energy, energy access, and economic development.

So one of the ways, actually, that’s really interesting is I’ve reached out to the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. You know, this is something in our region there’s about—I think there’s 10 communities in our region. And they’re like, “Okay. Jordyn, I like this plan you’ve got with your community. Let’s go do it in all other nine communities.” (laughs) I’m like, “Slow your roll. This is a lot of work. (laughing) Like one at a time.” So it’s really cool to see that, you know, before it’s even being really rolled out fully, they see the potential and know the impact that this will have. And other communities are kind of gung ho to start adapting what we’re doing in Île-à-la-Crosse. It’s exciting.

Jen Hancock:

That’s amazing, now. Yes. So that work has already started. The storytelling that you’re doing, and the work that you’re laying, you know, sort of groundwork is now rippling out. You’re seeing it.

So you are growing some other young individuals and doing some work. How are you growing that community of clean energy and sustainability people in the indigenous communities?

Jordyn Burnouf:

I’m actually, I’m doing a little bit of energy literacy work. I’ve just kind of started to wet my feet on that bit. But the perspective I think you’re talking about is from SevenGen. So you know, some of the things that we’re doing through SevenGen is, obviously, it’s the Summit. And so that’s the event bringing 200 youths from across Canada together to kind of learn together, hear about, you know, what’s going on in Canada in terms of indigenous clean energy. You know, the huge driving force behind SevenGen is actually Student Energy. And Student Energy is a global—a global organization that gets youth involved in the energy system. And another partner on that is Indigenous Clean Energy. That ecosystem is really cool. We have a lot of support for our youth to—to do projects in clean energy and water.

Jen Hancock:

So when it comes to an ideal project that has equity with indigenous communities, equity partnership from the very beginning, what does that look like?

Jordyn Burnouf:

The way I see things is if we’re doing work with communities in Canada that impacts indigenous land. When you’re talking about equity and you’re talking about projects, and the direction that those move in, I think majority ownership needs to go to communities. That’s a hard thing for companies to accept and to even offer. There’s infrastructure. And there’s a lot of work that’s involved in building companies up to that point. But a lot of these projects wouldn’t happen without the consent and the partnership with communities. And I think the only reason that a lot of these projects have happened historically is because, you know, our treaties weren’t upheld, and those partnerships and those relationships weren’t respected. And that’s changing.

Jen Hancock:

If you could make one final statement about clean energy, the work you’re doing in indigenous communities, and what would be a take-away for people listening in terms of our go-forward plan?

Jordyn Burnouf:

Yeah. I think one of the biggest things is there’s space for everybody to be a part of the energy transition. Right? And that’s what we’re going through, whether or not we want to accept it: looking at yourself at your life personally, and how you can start to make those changes and, you know, be a part of that positive impact. That’s a huge thing. But also professionally, you know, teachers: think about how you can incorporate some of those teachings and those values about energy and conservation into your classrooms. Lawyers: think about, you know, how this plays a role and what legislation is; how to educate yourself about that. And everybody—from every different sector—there’s ways that we can look at our organizations, look at, you know, where we’re going, how we’re going forward, and what corporate values are, and does that include energy and the environment?

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Jen Hancock:

That was Jordyn Burnouf, Senior Associate at Medicine Rope Strategies.

Thanks for spending some time with myself and Jordyn today. I thought she was so impressive—and her perspective is so important—and I hope you did too. There’s lots more Building Good to come, so hit the “Follow” button. And if you like what we’re doing here and want to help us build good, leave a rating or a review, or just tell a friend about the show. It helps other people find us, and we love reading your reviews.

Building Good is a Vocal Fry Studios production. The executive producer is Jay Cockburn. Our associate producer is Kattie Laur, with production assistance from Jessica Loughlin. I’m Jen Hancock. Thanks for listening.