ID: 1636
Presenting Author: Charlie Ursell
Session: 749 - Engaging Indigenous Nations for Inclusive Impact Assessments and Misinformation Response
Status: pending
IAMC-TMX 'What’s Next and Beyond' Gathering: Indigenous-led, decolonized convening advancing the shift from oversight to Indigenous decision-making.
The Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (IAMC-TMX) is redefining how major project governance in Canada can evolve toward true Indigenous decision-making. Nearly ten years after the project’s approval, the IAMC-TMX convened its 2025 What’s Next and Beyond Line Wide Gathering, bringing together participants from 129 First Nation and Métis communities. This system-wide convening created space to reflect on lessons from nearly a decade of joint oversight and to co-envision a next phase - one where Indigenous leadership moves from advisory participation toward shared and ultimately independent decision-making authority. This presentation shares insights from that Gathering and explores how the IAMC-TMX model is informing a broader movement within Canada’s regulatory and policy landscape: a shift from shared monitoring to shared power. It highlights emerging frameworks that embed Indigenous rights and knowledge systems into decisions about development, cumulative effects, and long-term stewardship, while challenging and decolonizing the institutional formats in which such decisions are made. By situating these developments within global impact assessment and governance debates, this session invites dialogue on how regulatory and licensing bodies can evolve beyond oversight to enable Indigenous-led, legally recognized decision-making. The IAMC-TMX story offers a practical and globally relevant example of how convening diverse worldviews within a shared structure can strengthen environmental outcomes, reconciliation and trust.
Charlie advances decolonized, collaborative design to help governments, industry, and Indigenous Nations work better, together.
Coauthor 1: Raymond Cardinal