August 4, 2025 • 52 mins
Community and Indigenous Relations Manager Samantha Singbeil from FortisBC to explore Indigenous partnerships, energy equity, economic development and how reconciliation is shaping the future of utilities across BC with host Aaron Pete.
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Episode Transcript
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Samantha Singbeil (00:00):
Music Energy is like full of aha moments.
Aaron Pete (00:10):
How does Fortis go about engaging First Nation
communities and Indigenouscommunities?
Samantha Singbeil (00:14):
Last year, on our major projects, 24% of the
contract spend went toIndigenous business.
Aaron Pete (00:19):
What do you think some of the misconceptions of
Fortis are?
Samantha Singbeil (00:22):
Fortis is an energy provider.
We provide natural gas,electricity renewables to 58
Indigenous communities and over150 traditional territories.
Aaron Pete (00:34):
What inspires you to continue this work?
Samantha Singbeil (00:37):
I have both a ache and a joy.
Like these projects, it's hard.
Like you're talking aboutreally deep subjects.
How are we gonna address thesafety of Indigenous women and
girls?
Right now we're doing thisthing called the Long-Term
Resource Plan.
It's looking out ten years intofuture and this plan is
figuring out what does thefuture of energy look like in
the province?
Aaron Pete (01:17):
Samantha, thank you so much for coming on today and
being willing to share your time.
I'm wondering if we can firststart with an introduction.
Samantha Singbeil (01:24):
Oh, thanks, aaron, I'm really happy to be
here today too.
Well, I'll introduce myselffirst, and then a little bit
about the company I work for.
So my name is Samantha Singbiel,I'm manager of Indigenous
Relations for FortisBC and Iwork with a team that works with
Indigenous communities andpeople and organizations from
sort of the area up nearSquamish all the way out to Hope
(01:48):
area.
And you know, I do definemyself certainly by the work I
do, but also a little bit aboutwhere I come from and the people
I'm around.
And you know I'm reallygrateful to have both grown up
and I currently live on thetraditional territory of the
Hul'q'uminum-speaking people andso I live in North Delta with
my husband.
(02:08):
I've got two young daughtersand a giant dog named Eva she
turns 10 tomorrow and so that'skind of a little bit about me.
But Fortis.
Fortis is an energy providerand Fortis provides energy to
approximately sort of 1.3million British Columbians and
we provide natural gas,electricity, renewables and, as
(02:33):
I said, we provide it across BCand we provide it to 58
indigenous communities and ourinfrastructure crosses over 150
traditional territories and wework with those communities,
both who we serve and thosecommunities whose territories
overlap with our infrastructure.
Aaron Pete (02:52):
Can I ask just what does that mean to you when you
talk about some 1.4 millionpeople?
How do you take that in?
Samantha Singbeil (02:59):
Yeah, like the 1.3, 1.4 million people, I
take it that we have a lot ofconnections with our customers
and with community.
Like each one of those people,each one of those customers is a
relationship we have, which isreally neat.
So I think of ourselves as areally relationship-focused
(03:21):
organization too.
So, yeah, it holds a lot ofweight.
Aaron Pete (03:24):
I just think about the fact that, like there's so
many people impacted by thisservice and have such a tertiary
understanding of what goes intoit and the responsibilities and
I spoke to Carol earlier aboutthis idea of like we rely on
these services and we somewhattake them for granted.
(03:44):
How has it impacted you tolearn about the behind the
scenes of a system and knowingso many people don't understand
the system but rely on it soheavily, how did you take that
in as you started with theorganization and started to
learn the importance of energy?
Samantha Singbeil (04:00):
Yeah, energy is like full of aha moments,
like that's the thing.
I think it's such a reallyinteresting field to be involved
in and you learn more every dayyou're in it, like I think to
myself.
When I first started in theenergy space it was.
I've worked for Fortis forabout 16 years and I worked for
(04:20):
BC Hydro for a couple of yearsbefore that.
So it's coming up on 20 yearsand at first I was learning just
the fact of that, of how muchplanning goes into meeting the
needs long-term of customers andhow much scenario planning is
going on.
That happens every day in awhole range of ways.
So it's just such aninteresting field to be in from
(04:43):
the perspective of you'relooking at the future and
looking at the needs of yourcustomers now, but also what you
may or may not even be able topredict down the line.
Aaron Pete (04:54):
Do you feel like you knew that you were going to go
down this path at a younger age,and when did energy become
something you became passionateabout?
Samantha Singbeil (05:02):
Yeah, you know, I was lucky enough to go
to university and I had alwaysthought like I want to be a
lawyer and I thought I'm goingto be a lawyer.
And part of it was justexposure.
Like I, neither of my parents,are lawyers, but it was
something that I knew a lot ofthem did and I knew there was a
big piece of justice andequality and I really liked that
(05:22):
.
So I thought I'm going to be alawyer.
Well, I went to university andstudied political science and
studied sociology, like a goodlawyer would do, and then I
realized, oh, I don't actuallylike the idea of law necessarily
.
It's not that I don't like thepractice or what it stands for,
it's just going through theprocess of law school, really
that detailed process of like ofreally focusing on the details
(05:46):
of reading litigations and allof that like the real paperwork
of it.
That wasn't for me.
So I went into communicationsmore than anything and I and
communications and education.
So with that at Hydro, when Istarted there, it was around
education of internal employeesaround energy efficiency and
conservation, so I started froma.
It was around education ofinternal employees around energy
efficiency and conservation, soI started from a place of
(06:08):
communication and education inthe energy space and it's just
evolved over time because Ifound it so interesting and so
much I can lean into there andthat eventually, through a few
channels, took me to IndigenousRelations which kind of.
And that eventually, through afew channels, took me to
Indigenous Relations, which kindof leans into both the
political science, sociology,purpose of sort of my education.
(06:32):
I did a little bit of work, Idid a master's in intercultural
communication, so that kind offits in there as well from the
education side.
And yeah, over time I've hadjust wonderful managers and
bosses and it's been a greatorganization.
Aaron Pete (06:46):
I want to ask about some of those aha moments.
One of them for me that I'vealready described, is this
moment where I realized we're soreliant on FortisBC during the
winter and that system wasvulnerable at one point in time
it sounds like in 2023, duringan extreme cold weather event,
and it was like, oh, like Idon't understand the system and
(07:07):
yet I'm completely reliant on it.
What were some of those ahamoments for you?
Samantha Singbeil (07:12):
Yeah, I mean, when I think of aha moments for
me and the reliance on thesystem, I think what a big one
was for me was around around.
Why would we even do energyefficiency and conservation?
Why are we asking, beyond thefact that it is important to
reduce our emissions, but whyare we asking people to use less
(07:35):
and just sort of that basic?
Why would a corporation ask you?
But it's extremely importantbecause the aha moment there is
that you ask people to use less.
You don't need to build abigger system then to provide
that energy to those individuals.
So you're using that currentsystem you have in the ground as
(07:58):
efficiently as possible.
So you think of it as sort of abig pipe.
You have 500 customers and youask them all to use a little bit
less.
There's the potential, though.
You can put more customers, or,if there's population growth,
you can have those additionalcustomers.
So you fill up that space, butyou don't need to build a bigger
pipeline, using theinfrastructure we have in an
(08:24):
efficient manner and that, to me, is something I just think is
so interesting, so valuable toknow.
It's like we're aninfrastructure company as much
as an energy company, and usingit efficiently was a huge aha
moment for me.
Aaron Pete (08:45):
That's really interesting to me because and
you can correct me if I'm wrongbut I just feel like the us
maybe wouldn't be interested inin that model, that there's an
incentive built in to just wantto be as big as possible without
wanting to do it in a in aconservative way, and like I
don't know if that's the case,but when I think about the US
(09:05):
it's always expanding beyond theneed to want to be the biggest
as possible and that's just.
Maybe that's just like myunderstanding of, like what you
hear from them, and maybe that'snot how they operationalize,
but just when I think about thathaving an incentive to be to do
what you just described ishaving an effective system that
only serves the people that itneeds to serve and doesn't go
(09:28):
beyond that.
I mean there's there'sindigenous values in that idea
of not taking more than you needand and to make it as effective
as possible so you're notcreating large-scale waste.
And when you think about acompany, you think and like
people often think of companiesas just wanting to be as big as
possible, not caring about theindividuals they're serving.
(09:49):
And the model here it soundslike it's a hybrid of wanting to
be as big as it needs to be,but not bigger, and making sure
that it's getting the best usefor the individuals, which, to
your point, not all, not allMcDonald's is not thinking how
do we serve the most amount ofpeople and not cause the most?
(10:10):
Like you know, their businessmodel is as many locations sell
as much food as possible and notworrying about the customers
they're serving to that extent,and so it seems like there's a
balance there.
Samantha Singbeil (10:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's, you know the heart of it.
We're a regulated utilitybalance there.
Yeah, yeah, it's, you know theheart of it.
We're a regulated utility, sowe're regulated and and the BC
Utilities Commission, the piecethere is, like serve your
customers, serve them well.
And so, as a company thoughwe're, we're addressing that by
like, we want to address, um,and this is sort of a uh kind of
a term of like, the energytrilemma we want to serve our
(10:43):
customers sustainably, reliablyand affordably, and that
perspective there that alignswith the BC Utilities Commission
and what they're saying andwhat they're directing us to do.
So as a regulated utility, andthose sort of the idea of
serving our customerssustainably, reliably and
affordably.
I think that's a really neatplace to be as an organization.
Aaron Pete (11:07):
I agree.
I also think about as I workwith Chihuahua and we start to
try and come up with valuestatements and mission
statements.
Some of those can start to seemsurface level, not meaningful,
but when you describe yours Imean those make logical sense to
the goals of British Columbiansand to the goals of the
business is to do all of thosethings because it's good for you
(11:29):
, it's good for the communityand it's good for the
individuals using the system.
Samantha Singbeil (11:33):
Yeah, it's like language is imbued with
meaning, and sometimes these bigideas and these big topics are
so hard to figure out.
Well, what's the meaning Like?
What words do you use?
We're still always trying tofigure that out.
Energy for a stronger future iscertainly where we're at right
now, but again, what does thatmean?
So and yeah, I like and youdon't want to be performative
(11:56):
either, so you want the words tohave that meaning and want it
to be action based too.
So there's a lot ofconversations internally that we
have to make sure what we'resaying is real and actionable.
Aaron Pete (12:10):
What does that mean to you?
Energy for a better future.
Samantha Singbeil (12:13):
Energy for a better or stronger future is you
know, when I look at it?
It's a future where everybodyhas the energy they need to be
able to either build what theywant, to serve them in the way
they want.
So, whether that's say Tawathul, or say a nation that's looking
(12:33):
to embark on an economicdevelopment pathway that
requires energy, we want to beable to serve those communities.
So that's the way I look at it.
It's a stronger future, abetter future for BC.
It's like an inclusive energyfuture is the way I really look
at it.
Aaron Pete (12:53):
What is the energy used?
For which energy do you meanwhen you say chowothal?
So we've got this examplechowothle, and then it needs
energy.
Why does it need that energy,and what can it be used for?
To unlock economic development.
Samantha Singbeil (13:06):
Good question .
So when I think of energy, Ithink it could be like a range
of things.
So it could be, for example,you want to build an ice rink,
so you want to build an ice rink.
It's serving chowothle with,for example, energy to be able
to have an ice rink that maybehas an event center, that maybe
has a hotel.
(13:26):
You know, it could be a rangeof things.
Or it could be serving a nationthat wants to be also an energy
supplier.
So if they want to be arenewable natural gas supplier,
they have to be connected to oursystem.
And so that's kind of what Ilook at.
Is the connecting to our systemreally opens up this basket of
opportunities for thecommunities and people we work
(13:49):
with?
Aaron Pete (13:50):
I really like that, because those are some of the
challenges communities run intois like we're looking at a few
plots of land and we go okay, wewant to develop here.
Does it have phase three power?
Does it have a sewage system?
And those were things when Ihad written my economic
development paper in law schoolthat I didn't really think about
.
When you think about economicdevelopment as an engine, it's
(14:10):
like you do need somefoundational pieces, and energy
is one of those pieces.
Samantha Singbeil (14:16):
Yeah, that's something you're right.
I've learned that over time too.
Because you need energy, youneed access to water, to sewage
systems, and for a long timethose systems didn't necessarily
connect to everybody and didn'tnecessarily connect to
communities.
Maybe they went through them oraround them, but not to them.
So I think it's a reallyinteresting time now.
(14:38):
Those are pieces that certainlybig conversations are happening
about that think it's a reallyinteresting time now.
Those are pieces that certainlybig conversations are happening
about that, and it's important.
Aaron Pete (14:44):
Can you walk us through your role at Fortis and
how you've grown into it?
Samantha Singbeil (14:48):
Yeah, so I started with Fortis 16 years ago
.
I started doing energyefficiency conservation and then
I moved into some policy work,government relations, and then I
really, to an extent, I wasbrought in by a mentor of mine
His name's Bruce, bruce Falstead, and he brought me in to work
with First Nations along with ona large project called the
(15:14):
Eagle Mountain to Wood FiberProject.
It's a project where we wereserving a customer and we are
right in the middle of buildingthat project Wood Fiber LNG.
So he brought me on thatproject and really started
working with communitiesIndigenous communities,
indigenous people and it fitwell, like it's something that
(15:34):
felt very right, like it wassomething that it took my
background in poli, sci,sociology.
It also took a level like myfamily's been connected to
communities.
Um, since I was born.
It's a level of comfort I hadjust working in community and so
I, to an extent you know how doyou get into it?
(15:54):
Well, I somewhat was brought in, somewhat fell in, somewhat,
just enjoyed, just enjoyed itand it's developed and I have a
wonderful team I work with andwe work with communities in a
collaborative fashion and thatfashion is really focused, you
know, on creating opportunitiesfor partnerships.
It's being solutions oriented.
That's a big part of it.
Aaron Pete (16:15):
Yeah, I'm interested to understand what is unique
about working with Indigenouscommunities from your
perspective.
Samantha Singbeil (16:22):
You know, the unique part is more the
structures that are and havebeen placed on communities, and
there's so many layers to thistoo.
Every individual you work withis different.
Every individual you work withis different, but with
communities you're working froma place where, in many
(16:43):
communities, the Indian Act isstill ever-present with respect
to development of lands.
You're working with communitieswhere you know trauma and pain
is very close.
And you're working withcommunities when—and we're
working on the land.
And you're working withcommunities when—and we're
(17:03):
working on the land.
And land is so intertwined notjust with—it's intertwined with
culture, it's intertwined withrights and title, and Fortis has
an impact on lands.
So there's layers there that Ithink working with Indigenous
(17:24):
communities brings to the jobthat you need to be conscious of
.
It doesn't necessarily mean youtreat it in a way that, like
you know, I'm human, you're ahuman, we're all humans here,
and relationships matter, andthat should be the case overall.
But there's a different lensand different complexities there
because of those, I think,because of that.
Aaron Pete (17:37):
The other piece I imagine is also some communities
need this much neededinfrastructure, and so how do
you get your information from?
Like Fortis might have areconciliation plan or a
reconciliation vision.
How does that shape the workyou do?
Samantha Singbeil (17:53):
Yeah, good question.
So we have.
So over 25 years ago we builtwhat we call our Statement of
Indigenous Principles andthey're a set of principles that
really place a lens on how wework with communities and it's a
lens of respecting communitiesas individuals.
It really outlines that we workwith respect at the forefront,
(18:16):
we work to ensure inclusion,whether it's contracts, jobs,
training, the whole like it's aset of principles that guides
our organization and they weredeveloped, these principles, in
concert with leaders from acrossIndigenous leaders from across
Canada.
So that kind of provides thatframework for how we as an
organization work withcommunities.
(18:36):
And further to that, we arepart of the PAIR program.
So PAIR being ProgressiveAccreditation in Indigenous
Relations A nice little acronymthere that gets you sometimes.
But really what that is is it'sa governance structure for
actioning those principles.
So, and it's a governancestructure where it moves.
(18:58):
We have 27, 2800 employees andit's really moving the whole
organization forward withactions, and so those two kind
of provide a bit of thatbaseline framework, the baseline
sort of principles, theframework.
And we are embarking on anIndigenous relations and
reconciliation strategy Rightnow we're starting engagement
(19:19):
with communities on that draftstrategy, which is exciting over
the next little while.
But yeah, relationships arefoundational trust and treating
our interactions more than justkind of that like checkbox.
It's like you want a foundationthere, you want, you want to be
able to look someone in andthey kind of know you more than
just you're going there and it'stransactional.
Aaron Pete (19:41):
So yeah, that's key 25 years ago.
Yeah, this is before the Truthand Reconciliation Commission.
This is before the Missing andMurdered Indigenous Women's
Inquiry.
This is before it's becomeimportant to a lot of
organizations in the very recenthistory to want to start to
build relationships, and itsounds like that was happening
(20:04):
previously.
Do you think that that previousstructure helped put you in a
different, more unique, moretrusted position?
Samantha Singbeil (20:12):
I think it helps.
You can't rest on your laurels,but it certainly has helped
that we have had that there andhad those values ingrained in
our leadership, and it's reallyimportant for us as an
organization.
The need, though, to respond tothe legislation, the policies,
the huge advancement withrespect to that space of, and
(20:34):
really the reconciliation piecethere.
It's like we need to have thatstrategy to move our
organization forward and speakto those advancements, and I
think it's just really anexciting place and time to be in
right now.
Aaron Pete (20:48):
So what do you think your role like?
What does your role look likeon the day-to-day?
How are you actually actioningsome of these things?
Samantha Singbeil (20:54):
Yeah.
So when it comes to actioning,you know I'll say, starting off
it's internal and my teamfocuses primarily externally,
but we have an entire team thatfocuses on internal education of
our employees because I think,found it's really important
there that we have employeesunderstanding um, uh,
understanding indigenouscommunities as it pertains to
(21:15):
the history, the past, but alsothe present.
You know what's going onpresently.
So we have Indigenous awarenesstraining, where we have it as a
core competency or corerequirement, so to speak, for a
whole 2,700 employees.
And then there's a lot ofexperiential learning on the
land and the team does a lot ofwork around leadership exchanges
(21:36):
, leadership conversations, sobringing in chiefs internally,
but then you know, so that'sinternal but external.
Like it's so exciting becauseevery day looks different, and
every day looks different in away that you know table stakes
is ensuring that you are eitherco-developing or you're working
with communities on impactmitigation plans.
(21:56):
When it comes to, say, it'sarchaeological, are you digging
in a particular area?
Do you have a cultural monitoron site?
Are you gaining that knowledgeabout what might be in the area
that's important to be aware ofwhen it comes to the environment
, even something like a fishwindow, so the window where you
can do work in and about astream.
I learned, and I think it'skind of neat, like okay, well,
(22:18):
maybe for this particular riveror tributary they have a
slightly different fish windowthan sort of the books would say
.
But learning that and workingwith the communities to
understand that like it makesour projects, it makes our work
so much better.
And then I think that sort isthere's a huge amount of work
(22:41):
done with communities aroundenergy and whether it's serving
communities' energy, servingthem energy when it comes to
building out their projects.
We have also a cool programcalled our Climate Action
Partners Program and this is aprogram where we either fund
projects or individuals to bewithin organizations or
(23:04):
communities to help sort ofdevelop ways to reduce emissions
, to work with the communitieson implementing conservation and
energy efficiency rebates inthe community.
So my team really works withcommunities and I work with
communities to find ways to worktogether, so find opportunities
(23:27):
for partnership.
Aaron Pete (23:29):
That sounds like such a unique position when you
think about it, because so manypeople go to school to do a job,
a task but to be able to workwith communities to help them
figure out what their goals arein terms of growth, because a
lot of the energy you need tomanage some of these buildings,
you need that support in orderto get to those things, and so
(23:51):
it's very interesting to hear arole where you get to just work
with others to help them reachtheir goals that are already in
alignment.
Samantha Singbeil (23:59):
Yeah and like so right now we're and it's
kind of cool Right now we'redoing this thing called the
long-term resource plan.
It's this giant plan that goesit's a 10-year plan, I think it
is, or it's rather it's lookingout 10 years into the future.
We do this every few years andthis plan is figuring out well,
what does the future of energylook like in the province and
(24:22):
what does FortisBC need to do tomeet that future of energy?
And we're engaging withIndigenous communities,
organizations, and we're juststarting it.
So we're going to be engagingon figuring out, well, what do
communities need?
How does that fit into thisenergy picture?
Do we have 10 communities thatare looking to be energy
(24:42):
suppliers for us?
So it is a really great spaceand a really exciting sort of
space now, but again, it'sever-changing, so I don't know
what tomorrow looks likesometimes, which is both scary
and exciting, and I don't alwaysknow sometimes what we're going
to be able to do with all thefeedback we're getting.
And that's the tough part.
And those are questions we askourselves every day too, like
(25:05):
how do we translate that intothe action?
Aaron Pete (25:08):
Right, that was actually going to be.
One of my questions is whatdoes that impact look like?
What are some examples of thework you do and the impact it
has?
Samantha Singbeil (25:16):
Yeah, you know, I think, for example work
we do.
We do a lot of work also aroundinclusive contracting, and so
inclusive contracting andinclusive socioeconomic benefits
you know you can use all thesebig terms, but really it's
making sure our contractors, oursupply chain, we're not just
(25:37):
using who, for example, thecompany's always used, it's
ensuring that we're providingpathways and supports to
businesses that want to be partof that supply chain.
So in our case it means ensuringlanguage, for example in our
contracts, is promoting orsupporting the use of Indigenous
businesses, indigenous-ownedand affiliated businesses.
(25:59):
And we've really focused onthat a lot over the last five
years on that inclusivecontracting piece.
And you know, last year it wasneat to see the fruits of that
because what we're doing, we'rebringing in contractors, we're
introducing them to ourprocurement managers, we're
getting language in our contract, like that's what our team all
(26:20):
does.
We're supporting that.
And last year on our majorprojects, 24% of the contract
spend went to Indigenousbusiness, 24%, 24% Indigenous
and Indigenous affiliatedbusinesses.
So it's not that people go well, are there Indigenous
businesses out there?
Absolutely, and they can do thework and they can do it well.
Aaron Pete (26:46):
That's really good news.
What other projects are goingon where you get to see?
Samantha Singbeil (26:49):
that overlap with First Nation communities
and Indigenous communities.
Yeah, I mean, I think thatlately.
So there's lots of ways and italmost gets overwhelming how
much there is.
But in the fall last fall wedid what we call an RFEOI, so
Request for Expression ofInterest and really what it was
is that we were looking forprojects electric projects at
(27:10):
that time in the southerninterior of BC and electricity
projects that we could really bebuying energy so electricity
from, and we were looking forthose projects to have an
Indigenous equity component orreally really strong involvement
from Indigenous communities.
So for the company it wasreaching out either suppliers or
the like that will have a very,very strong Indigenous, either
(27:44):
ownership or equity component.
Why, why is it important?
It's a good question that youknow.
It's to me and this is to meand to our organization.
The importance here of havingIndigenous communities as part
of the energy picture isbaseline Like, why not Like?
Why are we excluding?
(28:05):
That's the system that was inplace for a long time, that
we've got to move forward pastthat.
So that's a big part of it.
It's like why, why not Like?
I don't have an answer otherthan like.
Well, why wouldn't you?
So, yeah, because have ananswer other than like well, why
wouldn't you so yeah.
Aaron Pete (28:22):
Because you see the reserve system and it's almost
like they've been put on islandsin a lot of regards with the
Indian Act and how it is, and soyou're starting to see
Indigenous businesses come up.
But I'm curious as toIndigenous businesses aren't,
say, the reserve or something.
So what's the impetusspecifically for First
(28:43):
Nation-owned businesses andIndigenous-owned businesses to
get them involved on projectsthat might not be on reserve?
Samantha Singbeil (28:51):
Well, I mean, in that case it's also
community-owned businesses.
So it's if an entire communitywants to get involved.
I think that economic inclusionis core to where we need to go
as a country and where we are asa province.
It just hasn't been there, likethe inclusion of Indigenous
(29:16):
communities just hasn't beenthere for decades.
So I think it's reallyimportant that we do place a
focus on that.
And if it's on reserve or not,like why should we, why should
we say you should be on reservedoing that, why shouldn't it be?
Those are sort of artificiallycreated, so I kind of look, I'm
(29:36):
like, well, they should be, itshould be everywhere.
Aaron Pete (29:38):
Yeah, I think about this because I wrote a paper in
law school focused on economicdevelopment and one of the
comments that's been made bycommunity members and by people
over the past hundred years isIndigenous people aren't
entrepreneurs and there's reallyno evidence of that.
It's something that's said thatI don't think is true, because
there's fur trading, there'sfishing, there's building canoes
(30:02):
and so like those were allbusinesses that existed.
So I wrote a paper kind ofoutlining the history of
Indigenous entrepreneurship andhow that's faded away in recent,
in the last hundred years, andso trying to revive that idea of
sovereignty, of independence,of the ability to grow your own
work, of independence of theability to grow your own work.
And I'm very excited to seethat, because I know different
(30:27):
political parties have differentperspectives on the importance
of economic reconciliation, butI really like it because it
creates independence for thatperson.
Businesses often createrelationships of individuals you
need to work with in order forthat business to grow.
And just even within my owncommunity, getting to see that
it's like 67% of our communityis either open to starting their
own business or committed tostarting their own business, and
(30:50):
so you have a lot of people whoare coming from impoverished
circumstances that are veryeager to share their gifts,
their ideas, their passions.
And you have partners likeFortis that are at the door,
going like we're ready to workwith you when you reach that
point, and I think that gives alot of hope and optimism to
people who want to do that,because so often starting a
(31:11):
business is a lonely endeavorwhere it sounds like a pipe
dream.
When you say you want to createyour own space or you want to
do something yourself becauseyou have to have capital,
infrastructure and you have tohave partners and you have to do
all of these things thatsomebody coming alongside you
and saying like we want to finda way to support you.
I think that's important forentrepreneurship.
Samantha Singbeil (31:31):
I do too, and I mean I would push back.
I mean no, I shouldn't say I'dpush back.
Everybody has their opinions onsort of what people should be
doing or not.
It's not for me to say.
But we we like Fortis supportsand I believe strongly in like
youth entrepreneur training,youth bootcamps.
We're supporting one and wehave with Seabird for quite a
number of years.
They're running it again, Ithink, with Bears Lair this
(31:51):
summer, which is really excitingbut providing youth in
particular, sort of exposure toopportunities, what's possible,
giving training on what you needto be an entrepreneur, the
steps, just marketing plans.
I'm lucky I've got a lady who'son my team who is an
entrepreneur as well.
(32:12):
We have a wonderful group offolks on my team and she's been
a satellite, she's been a coachon that youth boot camp in the
past.
So I think it's such a greatarea to focus on and say, and I
do think, why not, saul, why notCan?
Aaron Pete (32:28):
you tell us more about that?
Samantha Singbeil (32:28):
program.
Yeah, so Seabird Island inparticular they've run.
It's called YEI I think it'sthe Youth Entrepreneurship
Initiative and Seabird and it'sreally inviting many Stolo
nations to this youth bootcampand they take a weekend.
It was in the past, it was inOctober and Florida supported it
and we've done it for a fewyears and it brought youth in to
(32:49):
teach them how do you build abusiness and how do you grow
that business from the ground up, and they have coaches talking
about, say yeah, whether it'smarketing or financial planning,
budgeting.
And then this last year whatthey've done is that Bears Lair
has been really big in thisspace.
(33:10):
They have these youth boothcamps going across the province
and it's a two or three-daysession where it's training
youth on how to build a businessand how to accelerate that
business.
Wow, so I'm excited to see thepossibility on that one too.
It's just huge collectiveopportunities.
Aaron Pete (33:28):
I agree, because then people are following
through on where they want to go, where the previous model from
my perspective is you graduatedhigh school, you went to
university, you tried to fitinto a box, try and take a
program.
Maybe your parents took thatprogram, so you're taking the
same program and this reallyremoves some of those barriers.
So people can start to thinklike what do I want to do, Like
(33:50):
who do I want to be, where do Iwant to be, how do I want to go
about living my life?
And then you have school thatfits into that and careers that
fit into that, and then maybeneither of those properly fit,
so you create your own businessor you go to school to create
that business, and so it reallyunlocks that door.
So because we've done the 40hour work weeks, where everybody
does the job for 35 years andthey don't move within the
(34:13):
organization, and they do thatand then they retire.
But I think we're moving beyondthat now People want to
contribute, they want to knowthe work they're doing is
meaningful and impactful andthat they're sharing their
passion with the world, and Ithink that really unlocks that.
Samantha Singbeil (34:27):
Yeah, I agree , I think it's that idea of like
.
I think it's the idea offlexibility not just the idea,
but the opportunity forflexibility, the opportunity to
lean into what you bring to thetable and having supporters
there, like again Fortis andothers supporters there saying,
(34:48):
yes, you are good at that, andthat is a great idea.
How huge is that for someone tosay, I like that idea, like,
that's a.
I think we all need coaches andsupporters in our corner.
Aaron Pete (34:58):
Absolutely, and I think the other piece that I
wanted to get your perspectiveon is there's this relationship
that I've been very interestedin between Western culture and
Indigenous culture and how thetwo can complement each other.
Culture takes care of theirelders because we have this
growing amount of seniors carehomes and those seniors are left
(35:26):
alone.
And then reports are coming outnow that show that people with
dementia do worse when they'rein a seniors care home than when
they're at home with the family, because they have those touch
points with their community andand people remember and they're
reminded of all the things thatmade them who they were.
And when you put them in a, anenvironment where they're
completely disconnected with whothey were and where they lived,
(35:46):
then they start to forget evenfaster and that deterioration
happens faster.
So I'm always interested inlike what can both cultures
learn from each other?
Have you gone through thatsimilar experience as well of
being able to hear those storiesfrom Indigenous communities and
go?
That's very useful and it helpssolve this problem over here.
Samantha Singbeil (36:05):
Absolutely.
I mean, I think about itpersonally too and I think about
it so, for example, mygrandfather was part of a group
of folks who started the NativeEducation College.
It's an adult education centerat the time and he started it in
around the 60s and 70s and abig part of the reason for that
like a big facet of, and areally or a key piece of that
(36:28):
college was ensuring peopledidn't have to leave who they
were at the doorstep.
When you go into school, bringyour culture, bring even your
baby like, bring who you are, soyou can participate in your
full self.
Furthermore, it was that ideathat you didn't have to enroll
in September.
(36:48):
It's constant enrollment so youcould go If you were just
coming down, if you moved downfrom, say, prince Rupert down
the city, you could start inNovember.
And so it is the intersection.
When I think of Western values,when I think of Indigenous
values, I think it's reallyimportant to look back at family
(37:10):
and family structures and theimportance of being together as
a family and bringing your wholeself to the table.
Those, I think, are things thatwe can continue to learn from,
and I think we're way better offwhen we bring our whole self
and we really connect ourselvesback to family as much as we can
continue to learn from, and Ithink we're way better off when
we bring our whole self and wereally connect ourselves back to
family as much as we can.
Aaron Pete (37:29):
I couldn't agree more.
The other piece I wanted tounderstand is many Indigenous
communities, particularlyindividuals living on reserve.
The socioeconomic conditionsthey're under aren't always
great Many people living inpoverty.
Relying on social assistanceand energy seems like one of
those kind of pillars In orderto be able to start to pay your
(37:51):
bills and move out of poverty.
Is you need to have that piecemanaged and in an affordable
state?
We had members come forward andthey were like I'm paying $600
a month in the middle of summerfor my air conditioning and for
the cooling of my system.
So you think about how muchthat removes their ability to
invest that $600 a month in themiddle of summer for my air
conditioning and for the coolingof my system.
So you think about how muchthat removes their ability to
invest that in other things andto start to grow.
(38:11):
What is your experience withthat type of work been like?
Samantha Singbeil (38:13):
I mean, energy poverty is one of those
pieces where you don't like tohear, but you don't want to hear
someone saying, well, I caneither get food for the week or
I can pay my bill, like that'snot something you want to hear
about, but I know it does happen, and so I think it's a place
like for Fortis.
It's one of those places wherewe can't solve all the.
(38:36):
We can't solve certain thingsthat I'd love us to solve, but,
at the same time, that's wheredeveloping our infrastructure,
providing energy in a way that'saffordable for the long term,
is really important, and thatalso means ensuring homes are
safe, ensuring that they'reusing that energy efficiently
(38:59):
and that we are like.
That is something we do.
We provide a huge amount ofsupport and incentives there to
make sure homes and the use ofenergy is as efficient as it can
be and keep costs down, and sothat, to me, is, I think, one of
those key areas in the rolesthat we can play is we can help
(39:20):
support communities, homeowners,in reducing their energy bills,
keeping their homes safe,keeping it comfortable.
Aaron Pete (39:27):
I'm also really interested to understand the
process of engagement.
I think that's a reallyimportant piece that I've become
really passionate about myself.
When I ran for council, Ididn't have a deep understanding
of the role of communityengagement, but there's
something really important andunique about engagement so that
you're bringing everyonealongside and you're making sure
(39:48):
everything's adapted.
How does FOREST go aboutengaging First Nation
communities and Indigenouscommunities?
Samantha Singbeil (39:54):
Yeah, engagement is certainly core to
what we do every day and the waywe do it is every nation is
different.
And so when we talk aboutengagement, sure, we certainly
need to follow formal channels,where you send out a letter and
you say, ok, am I going to get aresponse?
But like that's, that'sbaseline.
(40:15):
What you're doing is you'regoing I know this counselor,
really I know this counselor.
Well, I know they're going topick up the phone.
We're going to chat about this.
We're going to figure out doesit make sense to talk about this
topic now, or maybe it'ssomething two months into the
future?
Should we have a communitymeeting?
Should we support, you know,maybe it's an open house, it's
(40:40):
tailoring it to the community,tailoring it to the timeframe,
doing it in the time frame.
Um, doing it in a way that ummeets the needs of those
communities.
Um, and also having the likelistening with purpose, like if
if someone says something to methat sort of gives me an inkling
, like they're not right, thisis not a topic we can talk about
now.
Maybe there's been deaths inthe community.
(41:02):
We've got to listen withpurpose and listen to hear what
is not being said that mightaffect that engagement timeline
and that approach.
People can handle the truthboth internally in our
organization and externally.
So that's our role take backthat truth, or take back that
(41:23):
knowledge and share itinternally to help shape our
processes for engagement.
Aaron Pete (41:28):
That's an interesting point and maybe you
just said something that sparkedsomething in me, that a death
in the community is perhapsdifferent for Indigenous
communities than othercommunities, and of course the
impact for individuals remainsthe same, but the understanding
that it's a community experiencelike that it's impacting more
(41:51):
than just the immediate family,like these are the types of
things, when I think about thedifference between western
culture and like first nationsculture, that you start to see
there's values there and thereis a community.
When you're in just a regularmunicipality, you have just
these different blocks of peoplewho all are independent
(42:12):
individuals that may not beconnected to their neighborhood
or something, but for a FirstNation community on reserve,
they are all on the samewavelength in regards to that.
Samantha Singbeil (42:22):
Yeah, I mean we go back to family, like there
are families there and familyand there's connection and deep
connection.
So I absolutely like I do thinkit's different, but also, would
it be so bad if we, you know,respect like why not 100%?
I agree, like this is why whynot?
Like I want someone to respectIf I've had a really challenging
(42:43):
time and, you know, maybethere's a loss in my family and
the community perhaps that I'mwith.
I think that's good respectfulpractice across the board.
Aaron Pete (42:54):
But for sure, when you think of you're working at
an organization and they're like, okay, you had a loss in your
family, you get three days, andit's like that approach versus
just it's a more human approach.
These are the types of thingswhere I'm like is there
(43:14):
something western culture canlearn from first nations culture
?
And there are things firstnations culture that can learn
and those those are alwaysinteresting to me because it
feels like the first hundredyears Western culture was like
this is in our way, and nowwe're much more in a place where
we're more open to learningfrom each other, and I wish it
(43:35):
was that way the whole time.
But it is interesting to seewhere the two can kind of
collaborate and where we canhave a more meaningful life as a
consequence.
Samantha Singbeil (43:44):
Yeah, and I and I think it's still hard.
This goes back to the educationpiece.
You scratch below the surface.
People are still.
There's still a lot ofentrenched views and and
thoughts of like, well, why, whywould we do it any other way?
Yeah, that doesn't.
I don't want to change andpeople don't like change, and
this for this, for some peoplewould be seen as change.
But look at the world in a wayof like, how listen to that
(44:07):
voice of like what would bebetter, like what would make us
feel right here?
Aaron Pete (44:13):
so, yeah, what do you think some of the
misconceptions of fortis aresome of the misunderstandings
you hear.
What are some of those?
Samantha Sing (44:20):
misunderstandings .
Well, I, I mean a lot of peoplethink we're BC Hydro, which,
hey, that's fine, so we're not,but that's okay, Like we were,
long ago, BC Gas, BC Hydro werethe same company.
So my grandfather worked for BCGas and also the same guy as a
chemist long ago, I don't know,50s, 60s so but yeah, so thinker
(44:45):
hydro, they think it's that.
You know, we're really justfocused on the gas system, which
a huge part of it is, but wehave so much other that we serve
and I think a lot of peoplejust think the only the jobs in
the company are trades, and wedo have a large number of folks
who work in the trades, butthere's a huge number of others
who are everything fromdesigners, um, to project
(45:07):
managers, to communicationsfolks, um, long-term I don't
know long-term planning folks.
How do you become a long-termplanning folks?
There's a whole range of thingsthere, but yeah, it's.
We are a large organizationwith a broad range of of skill
sets and individuals.
Aaron Pete (45:21):
What inspires you to continue this work?
Samantha Singbeil (45:27):
I love change , like I love seeing evolution
for the better, like I likeseeing systems where I'm like
that doesn't seem like that's agood idea and just tweaking it a
bit, trying something out andgoing like, oh, that worked out.
Like we worked on the ourselvesand Wood Fiber were part of the
(45:50):
two projects, like we were twoprojects that worked with
Squamish Nation on their firston their environmental
assessment process.
So basically, as I said longago, we were working to serve
wood fiber LNG with natural gasand we worked with some really
astute leaders at the time thatsaid the BC environmental
(46:12):
assessment process that's notgoing to work for us.
So, fortis and Wood Fiber, wewould like you to move through
the Squamish Nationenvironmental assessment process
.
That process really putSquamish forward as the
regulator and the regulator onthat project.
And yes, we worked withcertainly, other nations in a
(46:32):
really deep, deep way in termsof engagement, but with Squamish
Nation they wanted to ensurethat they were also a regulator
on that project and so ourcompany took that as an
opportunity, sort of with Vibersand we went through both the
BCEA process and the SquamishNation EA process, achieving EA
(46:54):
certificates at the end.
Now, where I'm going with thatis like that shifted the entire
EA process for the province.
So the BCEA process now has aton more consensus building with
nations embedded in it.
It's deeply collaborativebetween the nations and so when
I look at like wow, like I wantto keep doing that, like I want
(47:16):
to keep being part of a companythat supports change in a way
that evolves systems that thatsupport better decision-making
and better outcomes, what doesit mean to you to see a project
go through like that?
Aaron Pete (47:30):
Because there's like in a regular job, you're done
at the end of the day and youmove on.
But when you're part of alarge-scale project that takes,
I imagine, years to get throughand there are so many little
steps along the way, what is thegratification at the end of
such a project?
Samantha Singbeil (47:47):
And you know some communities and some
members would say like itshouldn't go through, like
everybody has a diverse opinionon that.
I think, and I think of this asreconciliation.
In general, I think I have bothan ache and a joy.
Like these projects, it's hard.
Like you're talking aboutreally deep subjects.
It's the land impacts You'retalking about sometimes.
(48:07):
You know you've got work campson this, like how are we going
to address the safety ofIndigenous women and girls?
So you're bringing up deeptopics and I ache when I'm
sometimes going through thesebecause you're bringing these
home.
You're talking about it withfolks.
It's ever-present.
I don't turn off that easily andthe folks I work with are all
(48:30):
very passionate.
We don't turn off.
Equally, there's a huge amountof joy about advancing work with
community and collaborationwith community.
That has made real meaningfulchange.
You know you're seeing fish andfish habitat in spaces that are
coming back.
You're seeing herring spawning.
You're seeing all of fishhabitat in spaces that are
coming back.
You're seeing herring spawning.
You're seeing all of thesereally interesting things
happening because of the goodwork that you're doing around
impact planning, mitigation andyou're seeing huge investment in
(48:55):
terms of economic or hugeeconomic empowerment from those
contractors who maybe startedout small contractors one truck
or whatever.
Contractors who maybe startedout small contractors one truck
or whatever and now they'regrowing their business and
really benefiting from theseprojects, not just for that
project but longer term growingtheir businesses.
Aaron Pete (49:12):
So yeah, that was beautiful.
Samantha Singbeil (49:15):
Oh, thank you , that was beautiful.
Aaron Pete (49:24):
What does your role mean?
Samantha Singbeil (49:25):
to you and the impact that it has on
Indigenous communities.
What is your legacy?
That's not a nice question.
How old am I?
No, I'm kidding, I don't have alegacy.
I'm so proud to work with thepeople I've gotten to work with.
So I hope my legacy is not withthe people I work with as like
a reasonable person, a niceperson, to work with someone
(49:45):
who's collaborative.
I hope my legacy is around whoI am as a person.
I don't, I can't, I mean, butit's really.
My team has done a ton.
It's that I hope.
I set a great foundation forand value system for us to move
forward all our work.
So yeah.
Aaron Pete (50:03):
I love it.
How can people connect withFortis and learn more about the
work that you're doing?
Samantha Singbeil (50:08):
Well, you can certainly go to our website, so
fortisbccom, but you can always.
We have Indigenous RelationsCommunity Indigenous Relations
Managers across the provincereally wonderful people and
folks can connect with them too,whether it's folks in
municipalities, whether it'sfolks in municipalities, whether
folks indigenous communities.
Certainly you can connect witheach of those managers who are
(50:30):
pretty well known in amongsttheir communities because, as
you said, relationships are key.
So, either through our websiteor specifically through our
community indigenous relationsmanagers beautiful.
Aaron Pete (50:42):
Thank you so much, samantha, for being willing to
join us today.
Samantha Singbeil (50:44):
Thanks for having me today.
Music Energy is like full of aha moments.
Aaron Pete (00:10):
How does Fortis go about engaging First Nation
communities and Indigenouscommunities?
Samantha Singbeil (00:14):
Last year, on our major projects, 24% of the
contract spend went toIndigenous business.
Aaron Pete (00:19):
What do you think some of the misconceptions of
Fortis are?
Samantha Singbeil (00:22):
Fortis is an energy provider.
We provide natural gas,electricity renewables to 58
Indigenous communities and over150 traditional territories.
Aaron Pete (00:34):
What inspires you to continue this work?
Samantha Singbeil (00:37):
I have both a ache and a joy.
Like these projects, it's hard.
Like you're talking aboutreally deep subjects.
How are we gonna address thesafety of Indigenous women and
girls?
Right now we're doing thisthing called the Long-Term
Resource Plan.
It's looking out ten years intofuture and this plan is
figuring out what does thefuture of energy look like in
the province?
Aaron Pete (01:17):
Samantha, thank you so much for coming on today and
being willing to share your time.
I'm wondering if we can firststart with an introduction.
Samantha Singbeil (01:24):
Oh, thanks, aaron, I'm really happy to be
here today too.
Well, I'll introduce myselffirst, and then a little bit
about the company I work for.
So my name is Samantha Singbiel,I'm manager of Indigenous
Relations for FortisBC and Iwork with a team that works with
Indigenous communities andpeople and organizations from
sort of the area up nearSquamish all the way out to Hope
(01:48):
area.
And you know, I do definemyself certainly by the work I
do, but also a little bit aboutwhere I come from and the people
I'm around.
And you know I'm reallygrateful to have both grown up
and I currently live on thetraditional territory of the
Hul'q'uminum-speaking people andso I live in North Delta with
my husband.
(02:08):
I've got two young daughtersand a giant dog named Eva she
turns 10 tomorrow and so that'skind of a little bit about me.
But Fortis.
Fortis is an energy providerand Fortis provides energy to
approximately sort of 1.3million British Columbians and
we provide natural gas,electricity, renewables and, as
(02:33):
I said, we provide it across BCand we provide it to 58
indigenous communities and ourinfrastructure crosses over 150
traditional territories and wework with those communities,
both who we serve and thosecommunities whose territories
overlap with our infrastructure.
Aaron Pete (02:52):
Can I ask just what does that mean to you when you
talk about some 1.4 millionpeople?
How do you take that in?
Samantha Singbeil (02:59):
Yeah, like the 1.3, 1.4 million people, I
take it that we have a lot ofconnections with our customers
and with community.
Like each one of those people,each one of those customers is a
relationship we have, which isreally neat.
So I think of ourselves as areally relationship-focused
(03:21):
organization too.
So, yeah, it holds a lot ofweight.
Aaron Pete (03:24):
I just think about the fact that, like there's so
many people impacted by thisservice and have such a tertiary
understanding of what goes intoit and the responsibilities and
I spoke to Carol earlier aboutthis idea of like we rely on
these services and we somewhattake them for granted.
(03:44):
How has it impacted you tolearn about the behind the
scenes of a system and knowingso many people don't understand
the system but rely on it soheavily, how did you take that
in as you started with theorganization and started to
learn the importance of energy?
Samantha Singbeil (04:00):
Yeah, energy is like full of aha moments,
like that's the thing.
I think it's such a reallyinteresting field to be involved
in and you learn more every dayyou're in it, like I think to
myself.
When I first started in theenergy space it was.
I've worked for Fortis forabout 16 years and I worked for
(04:20):
BC Hydro for a couple of yearsbefore that.
So it's coming up on 20 yearsand at first I was learning just
the fact of that, of how muchplanning goes into meeting the
needs long-term of customers andhow much scenario planning is
going on.
That happens every day in awhole range of ways.
So it's just such aninteresting field to be in from
(04:43):
the perspective of you'relooking at the future and
looking at the needs of yourcustomers now, but also what you
may or may not even be able topredict down the line.
Aaron Pete (04:54):
Do you feel like you knew that you were going to go
down this path at a younger age,and when did energy become
something you became passionateabout?
Samantha Singbeil (05:02):
Yeah, you know, I was lucky enough to go
to university and I had alwaysthought like I want to be a
lawyer and I thought I'm goingto be a lawyer.
And part of it was justexposure.
Like I, neither of my parents,are lawyers, but it was
something that I knew a lot ofthem did and I knew there was a
big piece of justice andequality and I really liked that
(05:22):
.
So I thought I'm going to be alawyer.
Well, I went to university andstudied political science and
studied sociology, like a goodlawyer would do, and then I
realized, oh, I don't actuallylike the idea of law necessarily
.
It's not that I don't like thepractice or what it stands for,
it's just going through theprocess of law school, really
that detailed process of like ofreally focusing on the details
(05:46):
of reading litigations and allof that like the real paperwork
of it.
That wasn't for me.
So I went into communicationsmore than anything and I and
communications and education.
So with that at Hydro, when Istarted there, it was around
education of internal employeesaround energy efficiency and
conservation, so I started froma.
It was around education ofinternal employees around energy
efficiency and conservation, soI started from a place of
(06:08):
communication and education inthe energy space and it's just
evolved over time because Ifound it so interesting and so
much I can lean into there andthat eventually, through a few
channels, took me to IndigenousRelations which kind of.
And that eventually, through afew channels, took me to
Indigenous Relations, which kindof leans into both the
political science, sociology,purpose of sort of my education.
(06:32):
I did a little bit of work, Idid a master's in intercultural
communication, so that kind offits in there as well from the
education side.
And yeah, over time I've hadjust wonderful managers and
bosses and it's been a greatorganization.
Aaron Pete (06:46):
I want to ask about some of those aha moments.
One of them for me that I'vealready described, is this
moment where I realized we're soreliant on FortisBC during the
winter and that system wasvulnerable at one point in time
it sounds like in 2023, duringan extreme cold weather event,
and it was like, oh, like Idon't understand the system and
(07:07):
yet I'm completely reliant on it.
What were some of those ahamoments for you?
Samantha Singbeil (07:12):
Yeah, I mean, when I think of aha moments for
me and the reliance on thesystem, I think what a big one
was for me was around around.
Why would we even do energyefficiency and conservation?
Why are we asking, beyond thefact that it is important to
reduce our emissions, but whyare we asking people to use less
(07:35):
and just sort of that basic?
Why would a corporation ask you?
But it's extremely importantbecause the aha moment there is
that you ask people to use less.
You don't need to build abigger system then to provide
that energy to those individuals.
So you're using that currentsystem you have in the ground as
(07:58):
efficiently as possible.
So you think of it as sort of abig pipe.
You have 500 customers and youask them all to use a little bit
less.
There's the potential, though.
You can put more customers, or,if there's population growth,
you can have those additionalcustomers.
So you fill up that space, butyou don't need to build a bigger
pipeline, using theinfrastructure we have in an
(08:24):
efficient manner and that, to me, is something I just think is
so interesting, so valuable toknow.
It's like we're aninfrastructure company as much
as an energy company, and usingit efficiently was a huge aha
moment for me.
Aaron Pete (08:45):
That's really interesting to me because and
you can correct me if I'm wrongbut I just feel like the us
maybe wouldn't be interested inin that model, that there's an
incentive built in to just wantto be as big as possible without
wanting to do it in a in aconservative way, and like I
don't know if that's the case,but when I think about the US
(09:05):
it's always expanding beyond theneed to want to be the biggest
as possible and that's just.
Maybe that's just like myunderstanding of, like what you
hear from them, and maybe that'snot how they operationalize,
but just when I think about thathaving an incentive to be to do
what you just described ishaving an effective system that
only serves the people that itneeds to serve and doesn't go
(09:28):
beyond that.
I mean there's there'sindigenous values in that idea
of not taking more than you needand and to make it as effective
as possible so you're notcreating large-scale waste.
And when you think about acompany, you think and like
people often think of companiesas just wanting to be as big as
possible, not caring about theindividuals they're serving.
(09:49):
And the model here it soundslike it's a hybrid of wanting to
be as big as it needs to be,but not bigger, and making sure
that it's getting the best usefor the individuals, which, to
your point, not all, not allMcDonald's is not thinking how
do we serve the most amount ofpeople and not cause the most?
(10:10):
Like you know, their businessmodel is as many locations sell
as much food as possible and notworrying about the customers
they're serving to that extent,and so it seems like there's a
balance there.
Samantha Singbeil (10:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's, you know the heart of it.
We're a regulated utilitybalance there.
Yeah, yeah, it's, you know theheart of it.
We're a regulated utility, sowe're regulated and and the BC
Utilities Commission, the piecethere is, like serve your
customers, serve them well.
And so, as a company thoughwe're, we're addressing that by
like, we want to address, um,and this is sort of a uh kind of
a term of like, the energytrilemma we want to serve our
(10:43):
customers sustainably, reliablyand affordably, and that
perspective there that alignswith the BC Utilities Commission
and what they're saying andwhat they're directing us to do.
So as a regulated utility, andthose sort of the idea of
serving our customerssustainably, reliably and
affordably.
I think that's a really neatplace to be as an organization.
Aaron Pete (11:07):
I agree.
I also think about as I workwith Chihuahua and we start to
try and come up with valuestatements and mission
statements.
Some of those can start to seemsurface level, not meaningful,
but when you describe yours Imean those make logical sense to
the goals of British Columbiansand to the goals of the
business is to do all of thosethings because it's good for you
(11:29):
, it's good for the communityand it's good for the
individuals using the system.
Samantha Singbeil (11:33):
Yeah, it's like language is imbued with
meaning, and sometimes these bigideas and these big topics are
so hard to figure out.
Well, what's the meaning Like?
What words do you use?
We're still always trying tofigure that out.
Energy for a stronger future iscertainly where we're at right
now, but again, what does thatmean?
So and yeah, I like and youdon't want to be performative
(11:56):
either, so you want the words tohave that meaning and want it
to be action based too.
So there's a lot ofconversations internally that we
have to make sure what we'resaying is real and actionable.
Aaron Pete (12:10):
What does that mean to you?
Energy for a better future.
Samantha Singbeil (12:13):
Energy for a better or stronger future is you
know, when I look at it?
It's a future where everybodyhas the energy they need to be
able to either build what theywant, to serve them in the way
they want.
So, whether that's say Tawathul, or say a nation that's looking
(12:33):
to embark on an economicdevelopment pathway that
requires energy, we want to beable to serve those communities.
So that's the way I look at it.
It's a stronger future, abetter future for BC.
It's like an inclusive energyfuture is the way I really look
at it.
Aaron Pete (12:53):
What is the energy used?
For which energy do you meanwhen you say chowothal?
So we've got this examplechowothle, and then it needs
energy.
Why does it need that energy,and what can it be used for?
To unlock economic development.
Samantha Singbeil (13:06):
Good question .
So when I think of energy, Ithink it could be like a range
of things.
So it could be, for example,you want to build an ice rink,
so you want to build an ice rink.
It's serving chowothle with,for example, energy to be able
to have an ice rink that maybehas an event center, that maybe
has a hotel.
(13:26):
You know, it could be a rangeof things.
Or it could be serving a nationthat wants to be also an energy
supplier.
So if they want to be arenewable natural gas supplier,
they have to be connected to oursystem.
And so that's kind of what Ilook at.
Is the connecting to our systemreally opens up this basket of
opportunities for thecommunities and people we work
(13:49):
with?
Aaron Pete (13:50):
I really like that, because those are some of the
challenges communities run intois like we're looking at a few
plots of land and we go okay, wewant to develop here.
Does it have phase three power?
Does it have a sewage system?
And those were things when Ihad written my economic
development paper in law schoolthat I didn't really think about
.
When you think about economicdevelopment as an engine, it's
(14:10):
like you do need somefoundational pieces, and energy
is one of those pieces.
Samantha Singbeil (14:16):
Yeah, that's something you're right.
I've learned that over time too.
Because you need energy, youneed access to water, to sewage
systems, and for a long timethose systems didn't necessarily
connect to everybody and didn'tnecessarily connect to
communities.
Maybe they went through them oraround them, but not to them.
So I think it's a reallyinteresting time now.
(14:38):
Those are pieces that certainlybig conversations are happening
about that think it's a reallyinteresting time now.
Those are pieces that certainlybig conversations are happening
about that, and it's important.
Aaron Pete (14:44):
Can you walk us through your role at Fortis and
how you've grown into it?
Samantha Singbeil (14:48):
Yeah, so I started with Fortis 16 years ago
.
I started doing energyefficiency conservation and then
I moved into some policy work,government relations, and then I
really, to an extent, I wasbrought in by a mentor of mine
His name's Bruce, bruce Falstead, and he brought me in to work
with First Nations along with ona large project called the
(15:14):
Eagle Mountain to Wood FiberProject.
It's a project where we wereserving a customer and we are
right in the middle of buildingthat project Wood Fiber LNG.
So he brought me on thatproject and really started
working with communitiesIndigenous communities,
indigenous people and it fitwell, like it's something that
(15:34):
felt very right, like it wassomething that it took my
background in poli, sci,sociology.
It also took a level like myfamily's been connected to
communities.
Um, since I was born.
It's a level of comfort I hadjust working in community and so
I, to an extent you know how doyou get into it?
(15:54):
Well, I somewhat was brought in, somewhat fell in, somewhat,
just enjoyed, just enjoyed itand it's developed and I have a
wonderful team I work with andwe work with communities in a
collaborative fashion and thatfashion is really focused, you
know, on creating opportunitiesfor partnerships.
It's being solutions oriented.
That's a big part of it.
Aaron Pete (16:15):
Yeah, I'm interested to understand what is unique
about working with Indigenouscommunities from your
perspective.
Samantha Singbeil (16:22):
You know, the unique part is more the
structures that are and havebeen placed on communities, and
there's so many layers to thistoo.
Every individual you work withis different.
Every individual you work withis different, but with
communities you're working froma place where, in many
(16:43):
communities, the Indian Act isstill ever-present with respect
to development of lands.
You're working with communitieswhere you know trauma and pain
is very close.
And you're working withcommunities when—and we're
working on the land.
And you're working withcommunities when—and we're
(17:03):
working on the land.
And land is so intertwined notjust with—it's intertwined with
culture, it's intertwined withrights and title, and Fortis has
an impact on lands.
So there's layers there that Ithink working with Indigenous
(17:24):
communities brings to the jobthat you need to be conscious of
.
It doesn't necessarily mean youtreat it in a way that, like
you know, I'm human, you're ahuman, we're all humans here,
and relationships matter, andthat should be the case overall.
But there's a different lensand different complexities there
because of those, I think,because of that.
Aaron Pete (17:37):
The other piece I imagine is also some communities
need this much neededinfrastructure, and so how do
you get your information from?
Like Fortis might have areconciliation plan or a
reconciliation vision.
How does that shape the workyou do?
Samantha Singbeil (17:53):
Yeah, good question.
So we have.
So over 25 years ago we builtwhat we call our Statement of
Indigenous Principles andthey're a set of principles that
really place a lens on how wework with communities and it's a
lens of respecting communitiesas individuals.
It really outlines that we workwith respect at the forefront,
(18:16):
we work to ensure inclusion,whether it's contracts, jobs,
training, the whole like it's aset of principles that guides
our organization and they weredeveloped, these principles, in
concert with leaders from acrossIndigenous leaders from across
Canada.
So that kind of provides thatframework for how we as an
organization work withcommunities.
(18:36):
And further to that, we arepart of the PAIR program.
So PAIR being ProgressiveAccreditation in Indigenous
Relations A nice little acronymthere that gets you sometimes.
But really what that is is it'sa governance structure for
actioning those principles.
So, and it's a governancestructure where it moves.
(18:58):
We have 27, 2800 employees andit's really moving the whole
organization forward withactions, and so those two kind
of provide a bit of thatbaseline framework, the baseline
sort of principles, theframework.
And we are embarking on anIndigenous relations and
reconciliation strategy Rightnow we're starting engagement
(19:19):
with communities on that draftstrategy, which is exciting over
the next little while.
But yeah, relationships arefoundational trust and treating
our interactions more than justkind of that like checkbox.
It's like you want a foundationthere, you want, you want to be
able to look someone in andthey kind of know you more than
just you're going there and it'stransactional.
Aaron Pete (19:41):
So yeah, that's key 25 years ago.
Yeah, this is before the Truthand Reconciliation Commission.
This is before the Missing andMurdered Indigenous Women's
Inquiry.
This is before it's becomeimportant to a lot of
organizations in the very recenthistory to want to start to
build relationships, and itsounds like that was happening
(20:04):
previously.
Do you think that that previousstructure helped put you in a
different, more unique, moretrusted position?
Samantha Singbeil (20:12):
I think it helps.
You can't rest on your laurels,but it certainly has helped
that we have had that there andhad those values ingrained in
our leadership, and it's reallyimportant for us as an
organization.
The need, though, to respond tothe legislation, the policies,
the huge advancement withrespect to that space of, and
(20:34):
really the reconciliation piecethere.
It's like we need to have thatstrategy to move our
organization forward and speakto those advancements, and I
think it's just really anexciting place and time to be in
right now.
Aaron Pete (20:48):
So what do you think your role like?
What does your role look likeon the day-to-day?
How are you actually actioningsome of these things?
Samantha Singbeil (20:54):
Yeah.
So when it comes to actioning,you know I'll say, starting off
it's internal and my teamfocuses primarily externally,
but we have an entire team thatfocuses on internal education of
our employees because I think,found it's really important
there that we have employeesunderstanding um, uh,
understanding indigenouscommunities as it pertains to
(21:15):
the history, the past, but alsothe present.
You know what's going onpresently.
So we have Indigenous awarenesstraining, where we have it as a
core competency or corerequirement, so to speak, for a
whole 2,700 employees.
And then there's a lot ofexperiential learning on the
land and the team does a lot ofwork around leadership exchanges
(21:36):
, leadership conversations, sobringing in chiefs internally,
but then you know, so that'sinternal but external.
Like it's so exciting becauseevery day looks different, and
every day looks different in away that you know table stakes
is ensuring that you are eitherco-developing or you're working
with communities on impactmitigation plans.
(21:56):
When it comes to, say, it'sarchaeological, are you digging
in a particular area?
Do you have a cultural monitoron site?
Are you gaining that knowledgeabout what might be in the area
that's important to be aware ofwhen it comes to the environment
, even something like a fishwindow, so the window where you
can do work in and about astream.
I learned, and I think it'skind of neat, like okay, well,
(22:18):
maybe for this particular riveror tributary they have a
slightly different fish windowthan sort of the books would say
.
But learning that and workingwith the communities to
understand that like it makesour projects, it makes our work
so much better.
And then I think that sort isthere's a huge amount of work
(22:41):
done with communities aroundenergy and whether it's serving
communities' energy, servingthem energy when it comes to
building out their projects.
We have also a cool programcalled our Climate Action
Partners Program and this is aprogram where we either fund
projects or individuals to bewithin organizations or
(23:04):
communities to help sort ofdevelop ways to reduce emissions
, to work with the communitieson implementing conservation and
energy efficiency rebates inthe community.
So my team really works withcommunities and I work with
communities to find ways to worktogether, so find opportunities
(23:27):
for partnership.
Aaron Pete (23:29):
That sounds like such a unique position when you
think about it, because so manypeople go to school to do a job,
a task but to be able to workwith communities to help them
figure out what their goals arein terms of growth, because a
lot of the energy you need tomanage some of these buildings,
you need that support in orderto get to those things, and so
(23:51):
it's very interesting to hear arole where you get to just work
with others to help them reachtheir goals that are already in
alignment.
Samantha Singbeil (23:59):
Yeah and like so right now we're and it's
kind of cool Right now we'redoing this thing called the
long-term resource plan.
It's this giant plan that goesit's a 10-year plan, I think it
is, or it's rather it's lookingout 10 years into the future.
We do this every few years andthis plan is figuring out well,
what does the future of energylook like in the province and
(24:22):
what does FortisBC need to do tomeet that future of energy?
And we're engaging withIndigenous communities,
organizations, and we're juststarting it.
So we're going to be engagingon figuring out, well, what do
communities need?
How does that fit into thisenergy picture?
Do we have 10 communities thatare looking to be energy
(24:42):
suppliers for us?
So it is a really great spaceand a really exciting sort of
space now, but again, it'sever-changing, so I don't know
what tomorrow looks likesometimes, which is both scary
and exciting, and I don't alwaysknow sometimes what we're going
to be able to do with all thefeedback we're getting.
And that's the tough part.
And those are questions we askourselves every day too, like
(25:05):
how do we translate that intothe action?
Aaron Pete (25:08):
Right, that was actually going to be.
One of my questions is whatdoes that impact look like?
What are some examples of thework you do and the impact it
has?
Samantha Singbeil (25:16):
Yeah, you know, I think, for example work
we do.
We do a lot of work also aroundinclusive contracting, and so
inclusive contracting andinclusive socioeconomic benefits
you know you can use all thesebig terms, but really it's
making sure our contractors, oursupply chain, we're not just
(25:37):
using who, for example, thecompany's always used, it's
ensuring that we're providingpathways and supports to
businesses that want to be partof that supply chain.
So in our case it means ensuringlanguage, for example in our
contracts, is promoting orsupporting the use of Indigenous
businesses, indigenous-ownedand affiliated businesses.
(25:59):
And we've really focused onthat a lot over the last five
years on that inclusivecontracting piece.
And you know, last year it wasneat to see the fruits of that
because what we're doing, we'rebringing in contractors, we're
introducing them to ourprocurement managers, we're
getting language in our contract, like that's what our team all
(26:20):
does.
We're supporting that.
And last year on our majorprojects, 24% of the contract
spend went to Indigenousbusiness, 24%, 24% Indigenous
and Indigenous affiliatedbusinesses.
So it's not that people go well, are there Indigenous
businesses out there?
Absolutely, and they can do thework and they can do it well.
Aaron Pete (26:46):
That's really good news.
What other projects are goingon where you get to see?
Samantha Singbeil (26:49):
that overlap with First Nation communities
and Indigenous communities.
Yeah, I mean, I think thatlately.
So there's lots of ways and italmost gets overwhelming how
much there is.
But in the fall last fall wedid what we call an RFEOI, so
Request for Expression ofInterest and really what it was
is that we were looking forprojects electric projects at
(27:10):
that time in the southerninterior of BC and electricity
projects that we could really bebuying energy so electricity
from, and we were looking forthose projects to have an
Indigenous equity component orreally really strong involvement
from Indigenous communities.
So for the company it wasreaching out either suppliers or
the like that will have a very,very strong Indigenous, either
(27:44):
ownership or equity component.
Why, why is it important?
It's a good question that youknow.
It's to me and this is to meand to our organization.
The importance here of havingIndigenous communities as part
of the energy picture isbaseline Like, why not Like?
Why are we excluding?
(28:05):
That's the system that was inplace for a long time, that
we've got to move forward pastthat.
So that's a big part of it.
It's like why, why not Like?
I don't have an answer otherthan like.
Well, why wouldn't you?
So, yeah, because have ananswer other than like well, why
wouldn't you so yeah.
Aaron Pete (28:22):
Because you see the reserve system and it's almost
like they've been put on islandsin a lot of regards with the
Indian Act and how it is, and soyou're starting to see
Indigenous businesses come up.
But I'm curious as toIndigenous businesses aren't,
say, the reserve or something.
So what's the impetusspecifically for First
(28:43):
Nation-owned businesses andIndigenous-owned businesses to
get them involved on projectsthat might not be on reserve?
Samantha Singbeil (28:51):
Well, I mean, in that case it's also
community-owned businesses.
So it's if an entire communitywants to get involved.
I think that economic inclusionis core to where we need to go
as a country and where we are asa province.
It just hasn't been there, likethe inclusion of Indigenous
(29:16):
communities just hasn't beenthere for decades.
So I think it's reallyimportant that we do place a
focus on that.
And if it's on reserve or not,like why should we, why should
we say you should be on reservedoing that, why shouldn't it be?
Those are sort of artificiallycreated, so I kind of look, I'm
(29:36):
like, well, they should be, itshould be everywhere.
Aaron Pete (29:38):
Yeah, I think about this because I wrote a paper in
law school focused on economicdevelopment and one of the
comments that's been made bycommunity members and by people
over the past hundred years isIndigenous people aren't
entrepreneurs and there's reallyno evidence of that.
It's something that's said thatI don't think is true, because
there's fur trading, there'sfishing, there's building canoes
(30:02):
and so like those were allbusinesses that existed.
So I wrote a paper kind ofoutlining the history of
Indigenous entrepreneurship andhow that's faded away in recent,
in the last hundred years, andso trying to revive that idea of
sovereignty, of independence,of the ability to grow your own
work, of independence of theability to grow your own work.
And I'm very excited to seethat, because I know different
(30:27):
political parties have differentperspectives on the importance
of economic reconciliation, butI really like it because it
creates independence for thatperson.
Businesses often createrelationships of individuals you
need to work with in order forthat business to grow.
And just even within my owncommunity, getting to see that
it's like 67% of our communityis either open to starting their
own business or committed tostarting their own business, and
(30:50):
so you have a lot of people whoare coming from impoverished
circumstances that are veryeager to share their gifts,
their ideas, their passions.
And you have partners likeFortis that are at the door,
going like we're ready to workwith you when you reach that
point, and I think that gives alot of hope and optimism to
people who want to do that,because so often starting a
(31:11):
business is a lonely endeavorwhere it sounds like a pipe
dream.
When you say you want to createyour own space or you want to
do something yourself becauseyou have to have capital,
infrastructure and you have tohave partners and you have to do
all of these things thatsomebody coming alongside you
and saying like we want to finda way to support you.
I think that's important forentrepreneurship.
Samantha Singbeil (31:31):
I do too, and I mean I would push back.
I mean no, I shouldn't say I'dpush back.
Everybody has their opinions onsort of what people should be
doing or not.
It's not for me to say.
But we we like Fortis supportsand I believe strongly in like
youth entrepreneur training,youth bootcamps.
We're supporting one and wehave with Seabird for quite a
number of years.
They're running it again, Ithink, with Bears Lair this
(31:51):
summer, which is really excitingbut providing youth in
particular, sort of exposure toopportunities, what's possible,
giving training on what you needto be an entrepreneur, the
steps, just marketing plans.
I'm lucky I've got a lady who'son my team who is an
entrepreneur as well.
(32:12):
We have a wonderful group offolks on my team and she's been
a satellite, she's been a coachon that youth boot camp in the
past.
So I think it's such a greatarea to focus on and say, and I
do think, why not, saul, why notCan?
Aaron Pete (32:28):
you tell us more about that?
Samantha Singbeil (32:28):
program.
Yeah, so Seabird Island inparticular they've run.
It's called YEI I think it'sthe Youth Entrepreneurship
Initiative and Seabird and it'sreally inviting many Stolo
nations to this youth bootcampand they take a weekend.
It was in the past, it was inOctober and Florida supported it
and we've done it for a fewyears and it brought youth in to
(32:49):
teach them how do you build abusiness and how do you grow
that business from the ground up, and they have coaches talking
about, say yeah, whether it'smarketing or financial planning,
budgeting.
And then this last year whatthey've done is that Bears Lair
has been really big in thisspace.
(33:10):
They have these youth boothcamps going across the province
and it's a two or three-daysession where it's training
youth on how to build a businessand how to accelerate that
business.
Wow, so I'm excited to see thepossibility on that one too.
It's just huge collectiveopportunities.
Aaron Pete (33:28):
I agree, because then people are following
through on where they want to go, where the previous model from
my perspective is you graduatedhigh school, you went to
university, you tried to fitinto a box, try and take a
program.
Maybe your parents took thatprogram, so you're taking the
same program and this reallyremoves some of those barriers.
So people can start to thinklike what do I want to do, Like
(33:50):
who do I want to be, where do Iwant to be, how do I want to go
about living my life?
And then you have school thatfits into that and careers that
fit into that, and then maybeneither of those properly fit,
so you create your own businessor you go to school to create
that business, and so it reallyunlocks that door.
So because we've done the 40hour work weeks, where everybody
does the job for 35 years andthey don't move within the
(34:13):
organization, and they do thatand then they retire.
But I think we're moving beyondthat now People want to
contribute, they want to knowthe work they're doing is
meaningful and impactful andthat they're sharing their
passion with the world, and Ithink that really unlocks that.
Samantha Singbeil (34:27):
Yeah, I agree , I think it's that idea of like
.
I think it's the idea offlexibility not just the idea,
but the opportunity forflexibility, the opportunity to
lean into what you bring to thetable and having supporters
there, like again Fortis andothers supporters there saying,
(34:48):
yes, you are good at that, andthat is a great idea.
How huge is that for someone tosay, I like that idea, like,
that's a.
I think we all need coaches andsupporters in our corner.
Aaron Pete (34:58):
Absolutely, and I think the other piece that I
wanted to get your perspectiveon is there's this relationship
that I've been very interestedin between Western culture and
Indigenous culture and how thetwo can complement each other.
Culture takes care of theirelders because we have this
growing amount of seniors carehomes and those seniors are left
(35:26):
alone.
And then reports are coming outnow that show that people with
dementia do worse when they'rein a seniors care home than when
they're at home with the family, because they have those touch
points with their community andand people remember and they're
reminded of all the things thatmade them who they were.
And when you put them in a, anenvironment where they're
completely disconnected with whothey were and where they lived,
(35:46):
then they start to forget evenfaster and that deterioration
happens faster.
So I'm always interested inlike what can both cultures
learn from each other?
Have you gone through thatsimilar experience as well of
being able to hear those storiesfrom Indigenous communities and
go?
That's very useful and it helpssolve this problem over here.
Samantha Singbeil (36:05):
Absolutely.
I mean, I think about itpersonally too and I think about
it so, for example, mygrandfather was part of a group
of folks who started the NativeEducation College.
It's an adult education centerat the time and he started it in
around the 60s and 70s and abig part of the reason for that
like a big facet of, and areally or a key piece of that
(36:28):
college was ensuring peopledidn't have to leave who they
were at the doorstep.
When you go into school, bringyour culture, bring even your
baby like, bring who you are, soyou can participate in your
full self.
Furthermore, it was that ideathat you didn't have to enroll
in September.
(36:48):
It's constant enrollment so youcould go If you were just
coming down, if you moved downfrom, say, prince Rupert down
the city, you could start inNovember.
And so it is the intersection.
When I think of Western values,when I think of Indigenous
values, I think it's reallyimportant to look back at family
(37:10):
and family structures and theimportance of being together as
a family and bringing your wholeself to the table.
Those, I think, are things thatwe can continue to learn from,
and I think we're way better offwhen we bring our whole self
and we really connect ourselvesback to family as much as we can
continue to learn from, and Ithink we're way better off when
we bring our whole self and wereally connect ourselves back to
family as much as we can.
Aaron Pete (37:29):
I couldn't agree more.
The other piece I wanted tounderstand is many Indigenous
communities, particularlyindividuals living on reserve.
The socioeconomic conditionsthey're under aren't always
great Many people living inpoverty.
Relying on social assistanceand energy seems like one of
those kind of pillars In orderto be able to start to pay your
(37:51):
bills and move out of poverty.
Is you need to have that piecemanaged and in an affordable
state?
We had members come forward andthey were like I'm paying $600
a month in the middle of summerfor my air conditioning and for
the cooling of my system.
So you think about how muchthat removes their ability to
invest that $600 a month in themiddle of summer for my air
conditioning and for the coolingof my system.
So you think about how muchthat removes their ability to
invest that in other things andto start to grow.
(38:11):
What is your experience withthat type of work been like?
Samantha Singbeil (38:13):
I mean, energy poverty is one of those
pieces where you don't like tohear, but you don't want to hear
someone saying, well, I caneither get food for the week or
I can pay my bill, like that'snot something you want to hear
about, but I know it does happen, and so I think it's a place
like for Fortis.
It's one of those places wherewe can't solve all the.
(38:36):
We can't solve certain thingsthat I'd love us to solve, but,
at the same time, that's wheredeveloping our infrastructure,
providing energy in a way that'saffordable for the long term,
is really important, and thatalso means ensuring homes are
safe, ensuring that they'reusing that energy efficiently
(38:59):
and that we are like.
That is something we do.
We provide a huge amount ofsupport and incentives there to
make sure homes and the use ofenergy is as efficient as it can
be and keep costs down, and sothat, to me, is, I think, one of
those key areas in the rolesthat we can play is we can help
(39:20):
support communities, homeowners,in reducing their energy bills,
keeping their homes safe,keeping it comfortable.
Aaron Pete (39:27):
I'm also really interested to understand the
process of engagement.
I think that's a reallyimportant piece that I've become
really passionate about myself.
When I ran for council, Ididn't have a deep understanding
of the role of communityengagement, but there's
something really important andunique about engagement so that
you're bringing everyonealongside and you're making sure
(39:48):
everything's adapted.
How does FOREST go aboutengaging First Nation
communities and Indigenouscommunities?
Samantha Singbeil (39:54):
Yeah, engagement is certainly core to
what we do every day and the waywe do it is every nation is
different.
And so when we talk aboutengagement, sure, we certainly
need to follow formal channels,where you send out a letter and
you say, ok, am I going to get aresponse?
But like that's, that'sbaseline.
(40:15):
What you're doing is you'regoing I know this counselor,
really I know this counselor.
Well, I know they're going topick up the phone.
We're going to chat about this.
We're going to figure out doesit make sense to talk about this
topic now, or maybe it'ssomething two months into the
future?
Should we have a communitymeeting?
Should we support, you know,maybe it's an open house, it's
(40:40):
tailoring it to the community,tailoring it to the timeframe,
doing it in the time frame.
Um, doing it in a way that ummeets the needs of those
communities.
Um, and also having the likelistening with purpose, like if
if someone says something to methat sort of gives me an inkling
, like they're not right, thisis not a topic we can talk about
now.
Maybe there's been deaths inthe community.
(41:02):
We've got to listen withpurpose and listen to hear what
is not being said that mightaffect that engagement timeline
and that approach.
People can handle the truthboth internally in our
organization and externally.
So that's our role take backthat truth, or take back that
(41:23):
knowledge and share itinternally to help shape our
processes for engagement.
Aaron Pete (41:28):
That's an interesting point and maybe you
just said something that sparkedsomething in me, that a death
in the community is perhapsdifferent for Indigenous
communities than othercommunities, and of course the
impact for individuals remainsthe same, but the understanding
that it's a community experiencelike that it's impacting more
(41:51):
than just the immediate family,like these are the types of
things, when I think about thedifference between western
culture and like first nationsculture, that you start to see
there's values there and thereis a community.
When you're in just a regularmunicipality, you have just
these different blocks of peoplewho all are independent
(42:12):
individuals that may not beconnected to their neighborhood
or something, but for a FirstNation community on reserve,
they are all on the samewavelength in regards to that.
Samantha Singbeil (42:22):
Yeah, I mean we go back to family, like there
are families there and familyand there's connection and deep
connection.
So I absolutely like I do thinkit's different, but also, would
it be so bad if we, you know,respect like why not 100%?
I agree, like this is why whynot?
Like I want someone to respectIf I've had a really challenging
(42:43):
time and, you know, maybethere's a loss in my family and
the community perhaps that I'mwith.
I think that's good respectfulpractice across the board.
Aaron Pete (42:54):
But for sure, when you think of you're working at
an organization and they're like, okay, you had a loss in your
family, you get three days, andit's like that approach versus
just it's a more human approach.
These are the types of thingswhere I'm like is there
(43:14):
something western culture canlearn from first nations culture
?
And there are things firstnations culture that can learn
and those those are alwaysinteresting to me because it
feels like the first hundredyears Western culture was like
this is in our way, and nowwe're much more in a place where
we're more open to learningfrom each other, and I wish it
(43:35):
was that way the whole time.
But it is interesting to seewhere the two can kind of
collaborate and where we canhave a more meaningful life as a
consequence.
Samantha Singbeil (43:44):
Yeah, and I and I think it's still hard.
This goes back to the educationpiece.
You scratch below the surface.
People are still.
There's still a lot ofentrenched views and and
thoughts of like, well, why, whywould we do it any other way?
Yeah, that doesn't.
I don't want to change andpeople don't like change, and
this for this, for some peoplewould be seen as change.
But look at the world in a wayof like, how listen to that
(44:07):
voice of like what would bebetter, like what would make us
feel right here?
Aaron Pete (44:13):
so, yeah, what do you think some of the
misconceptions of fortis aresome of the misunderstandings
you hear.
What are some of those?
Samantha Sing (44:20):
misunderstandings .
Well, I, I mean a lot of peoplethink we're BC Hydro, which,
hey, that's fine, so we're not,but that's okay, Like we were,
long ago, BC Gas, BC Hydro werethe same company.
So my grandfather worked for BCGas and also the same guy as a
chemist long ago, I don't know,50s, 60s so but yeah, so thinker
(44:45):
hydro, they think it's that.
You know, we're really justfocused on the gas system, which
a huge part of it is, but wehave so much other that we serve
and I think a lot of peoplejust think the only the jobs in
the company are trades, and wedo have a large number of folks
who work in the trades, butthere's a huge number of others
who are everything fromdesigners, um, to project
(45:07):
managers, to communicationsfolks, um, long-term I don't
know long-term planning folks.
How do you become a long-termplanning folks?
There's a whole range of thingsthere, but yeah, it's.
We are a large organizationwith a broad range of of skill
sets and individuals.
Aaron Pete (45:21):
What inspires you to continue this work?
Samantha Singbeil (45:27):
I love change , like I love seeing evolution
for the better, like I likeseeing systems where I'm like
that doesn't seem like that's agood idea and just tweaking it a
bit, trying something out andgoing like, oh, that worked out.
Like we worked on the ourselvesand Wood Fiber were part of the
(45:50):
two projects, like we were twoprojects that worked with
Squamish Nation on their firston their environmental
assessment process.
So basically, as I said longago, we were working to serve
wood fiber LNG with natural gasand we worked with some really
astute leaders at the time thatsaid the BC environmental
(46:12):
assessment process that's notgoing to work for us.
So, fortis and Wood Fiber, wewould like you to move through
the Squamish Nationenvironmental assessment process
.
That process really putSquamish forward as the
regulator and the regulator onthat project.
And yes, we worked withcertainly, other nations in a
(46:32):
really deep, deep way in termsof engagement, but with Squamish
Nation they wanted to ensurethat they were also a regulator
on that project and so ourcompany took that as an
opportunity, sort of with Vibersand we went through both the
BCEA process and the SquamishNation EA process, achieving EA
(46:54):
certificates at the end.
Now, where I'm going with thatis like that shifted the entire
EA process for the province.
So the BCEA process now has aton more consensus building with
nations embedded in it.
It's deeply collaborativebetween the nations and so when
I look at like wow, like I wantto keep doing that, like I want
(47:16):
to keep being part of a companythat supports change in a way
that evolves systems that thatsupport better decision-making
and better outcomes, what doesit mean to you to see a project
go through like that?
Aaron Pete (47:30):
Because there's like in a regular job, you're done
at the end of the day and youmove on.
But when you're part of alarge-scale project that takes,
I imagine, years to get throughand there are so many little
steps along the way, what is thegratification at the end of
such a project?
Samantha Singbeil (47:47):
And you know some communities and some
members would say like itshouldn't go through, like
everybody has a diverse opinionon that.
I think, and I think of this asreconciliation.
In general, I think I have bothan ache and a joy.
Like these projects, it's hard.
Like you're talking aboutreally deep subjects.
It's the land impacts You'retalking about sometimes.
(48:07):
You know you've got work campson this, like how are we going
to address the safety ofIndigenous women and girls?
So you're bringing up deeptopics and I ache when I'm
sometimes going through thesebecause you're bringing these
home.
You're talking about it withfolks.
It's ever-present.
I don't turn off that easily andthe folks I work with are all
(48:30):
very passionate.
We don't turn off.
Equally, there's a huge amountof joy about advancing work with
community and collaborationwith community.
That has made real meaningfulchange.
You know you're seeing fish andfish habitat in spaces that are
coming back.
You're seeing herring spawning.
You're seeing all of fishhabitat in spaces that are
coming back.
You're seeing herring spawning.
You're seeing all of thesereally interesting things
happening because of the goodwork that you're doing around
impact planning, mitigation andyou're seeing huge investment in
(48:55):
terms of economic or hugeeconomic empowerment from those
contractors who maybe startedout small contractors one truck
or whatever.
Contractors who maybe startedout small contractors one truck
or whatever and now they'regrowing their business and
really benefiting from theseprojects, not just for that
project but longer term growingtheir businesses.
Aaron Pete (49:12):
So yeah, that was beautiful.
Samantha Singbeil (49:15):
Oh, thank you , that was beautiful.
Aaron Pete (49:24):
What does your role mean?
Samantha Singbeil (49:25):
to you and the impact that it has on
Indigenous communities.
What is your legacy?
That's not a nice question.
How old am I?
No, I'm kidding, I don't have alegacy.
I'm so proud to work with thepeople I've gotten to work with.
So I hope my legacy is not withthe people I work with as like
a reasonable person, a niceperson, to work with someone
(49:45):
who's collaborative.
I hope my legacy is around whoI am as a person.
I don't, I can't, I mean, butit's really.
My team has done a ton.
It's that I hope.
I set a great foundation forand value system for us to move
forward all our work.
So yeah.
Aaron Pete (50:03):
I love it.
How can people connect withFortis and learn more about the
work that you're doing?
Samantha Singbeil (50:08):
Well, you can certainly go to our website, so
fortisbccom, but you can always.
We have Indigenous RelationsCommunity Indigenous Relations
Managers across the provincereally wonderful people and
folks can connect with them too,whether it's folks in
municipalities, whether it'sfolks in municipalities, whether
folks indigenous communities.
Certainly you can connect witheach of those managers who are
(50:30):
pretty well known in amongsttheir communities because, as
you said, relationships are key.
So, either through our websiteor specifically through our
community indigenous relationsmanagers beautiful.
Aaron Pete (50:42):
Thank you so much, samantha, for being willing to
join us today.
Samantha Singbeil (50:44):
Thanks for having me today.
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