Legacy of Niilo Edwards will live on as a beacon of co-operation and reconciliation: Ken Coates and JP Gladu in National Newswatch – MLI
January 15, 2025
First Nations in Canada have lost a major ally. Niilo Edwards, founding CEO of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, was a key force behind the multibillion-dollar development of Indigenous businesses and natural resources.
He worked with his First Nations colleagues and friends — initially in northern British Columbia, and eventually across the country — to develop the idea that collective capitalism, the union of many First Nations to make a more formidable economic force, held great promise for Indigenous economic renewal.
Edwards died Dec. 16, 2024, from complications of a kidney transplant. He was only 37 but he achieved so much.
Starting out with a limited budget and no promises of long-term support, the First Nations Major Project Coalition brought together a few dozen — now over 170 — Indigenous nations across Canada to collaborate on economic development and investment projects.
