Indigenous Partnerships

Our Approach

DWB acknowledges that we live and work on ancestral and treaty lands of many Indigenous peoples, and respects the diversity of Indigenous cultures, values, connections to the land, and their rights and title.  DWB is committed to developing and expanding meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples, communities, and businesses.

Values & Principles

DWB’s Commitment to Indigenous Relations closely aligns with our key corporate values of Integrity, Service, Generosity and Community.  Our experience has shown us that working together with our Indigenous partners, staff and clients, to exchange experience, wisdom, and issues cultivates mutual understanding and respect, and leads to mutually-beneficial projects and economic opportunities. As such, DWB is committed to Indigenous peoples inclusion strategies and practices that embrace employment including on-the-job training and mentoring, career development training; and focused subcontractor procurement, business development, shared benefits, and community investment with Indigenous Partners.

Shared Success & Economic Development

DWB’s core strategies for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in our work, and to promote equitable access to economic development, employment, and training opportunities are:

• Direct full-time or temporary employment.
• Subcontracting to Indigenous Owned Organizations.
• Limited Partnerships, Joint Ventures, Memoranda of Understandings and other agreements. 
• Relationship Building at the Community. 

Our Indigenous Partnerships

DWB has established formal relationships with individual Indigenous Nations through Memorandums of Understanding, Joint Ventures, and Limited Partnership Companies throughout BC, as well as many other long-standing Indigenous business relations and working relationships.

Our Indigenous Advisory Committee and Indigenous Coordinator

Given the importance of this Commitment to Indigenous Relations, DWB has established an Indigenous Advisory Committee (IAC), comprised of staff and management of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ancestry, to act in an advisory role to corporate management. The mission statement of the IAC is:

“To develop policy and practices that will advance cultural awareness and humility among DWB staff, build respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, and foster capacity building and economic development opportunities with our Indigenous partners.”

DWB is committed to meaningful Indigenous relationships, supported by our IAC and through various agreements with Indigenous partners. By nurturing a positive environment that embraces inclusion and respect, DWB believes that we can continue to learn and grow with our Indigenous partners.

DWB also retains full-time Indigenous Coordinators who act as a liaison between our First Nation partners and our corporate management, and sit on the Indigenous Advisory Committee.  The coordinators support the delivery of DWB’s Commitment to Indigenous Relations across operations and within Limited Partnerships, and Agreements with First Nations partners.