by Karyn Pugliese | APTN News, Published April 30, 2026
Harold Calla wants First Nations leaders to walk into this fall’s meeting with the prime minister and premiers with a bigger demand than better consultation.
For Calla, executive chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board, economic reconciliation means treating First Nations as governments — with the power to raise revenue, access capital, and shape the economic decisions that affect their lands before those decisions are already made.
“We’re no longer talking about building a gas station or a grocery store on a reservation anymore,” said Calla.
“ Canada has its responsibilities, I believe, to support the Indigenous community’s evolution, to be able to sit at the table as equals with the rest of the members of the federation, to be part of the government, to address the issues that we face in our communities.”
Calla, a citizen of the Squamish Nation, traces many of today’s economic problems back to Canadian law and policy.
After years of working off reserve, he returned home in 1987 to work as an accountant for the Squamish Nation. He said he found a community with no real economy and no reliable way to generate its own revenue.
For Calla, that poverty was not accidental. It was the result of a system that broke traditional economies and trade networks, then replaced them with dependence on Ottawa.
“ We didn’t have access to capital. We didn’t even own our own land under the settlers’ laws. And so we became dependent on the federal government to care for us. We became wards of the government, “ said Calla.
“Our children were taken away and sent to school. There were several attempts at assimilation that did not work, but we found ourselves in a very difficult circumstance where we were struggling for identity. We were struggling to retain our languages and our culture and we were struggling to sustain ourselves as we had in the past.”
First Nations have also made gains since then by using the courts to force Canada to recognize rights it once ignored.
Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and treaty rights in 1982 gave those wins a stronger foundation.
For Calla, one of the most important changes since then is the growth of First Nations-led institutions.
One example would be the First Nations Financial Management Board, which Calla has led for almost 20 years. Funded by Indigenous Services Canada, it operates at arm’s length from government.
The board helps First Nations strengthen their financial systems, pass financial laws, improve reporting and earn certification.
That certification demonstrates to lenders that a Nation has strong financial systems in place, making it easier to borrow money rather than relying solely on federal funding.
Calla also points to the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia as proof that First Nations-run institutions can do a better job.
Progress is real, Calla said, but unfinished.
Calla said today, dependency on government still shows up in housing shortages, inadequate infrastructure, unsafe water and a lack of access to the kind of financing needed to build local economies.
“Our needs have far outstripped the willingness of the parliamentary appropriation process to respond to our needs. And as a result, we’ve been falling behind perpetually to the point where it’s such a significant problem today that nobody knows how to face it,” he said.
“If it were going to be faced through government transfers, I have to feel it would’ve been done by now.”
Recognition is no longer enough, said Calla. The next step is power, and he sees the upcoming meeting this fall as an opportunity for First Nations leaders to push the envelope.
He said First Nations leaders should use the meeting to lay out the tools governments need to govern, including revenue powers, access to capital, a share of wealth from their territories and a say in major projects before the decisions are already made.
In his view, First Nations cannot be treated as stakeholders in someone else’s economy. They have to be recognized as governments building their own.
“There’s no incentive for First Nations to cooperate in this new economic development venture if the benefits are going to pass us by,” said Calla. “Another one of the hereditary leaders that I took some advice from was an individual named George Watts from Tseshaht. When we were in treaty negotiations, he’d say to me, ‘Harold, I just want a piece of the trees that the forest company’s driving past my front door.’
“So that’s really what we need, a piece of everything that’s happening, and we need to find that we’re getting enough pieces that our interests, as we define them, we’re gonna have the resources to be able to meet those needs. “
For Calla, the question for the prime minister and premiers is whether they are ready to move past consultation and funding programs and recognize First Nations as governments with the authority to build their own economies.
First Nations are not just looking for a role in Canada’s economy, he said, but for the tools to rebuild economies that were restricted and destroyed by colonial laws.
“We shouldn’t find ourselves in a position where we lack resources in this country. A first-world country and indigenous communities are functioning at a third-world level economically,” he said.