Reconciliation Action Plans and Indigenous Reporting Products
In recent years, Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) and other Indigenous Reporting Products (IRPs) have become increasingly common across corporate Canada. Originally developed as voluntary tools to articulate and operationalize commitments to reconciliation, RAPs have grown in the absence of common standards, oversight, or accountability mechanisms. While these reporting tools present opportunities to advance reconciliation, Indigenous leaders, investors, and legal experts have raised concerns regarding the extent to which they meaningfully recognize and address the impacts of corporate activities on title, rights, and interests.
Recognizing both the opportunities and challenges posed by RAPs and broader corporate Indigenous relations reporting, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) in partnership with the Reconciliation and Responsible Investment Institute (RRII), Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), and West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL), have undertaken multi-year work grounded in resolutions passed by the UBCIC Chiefs Council.
This work is supported by three unanimously adopted UBCIC Resolutions:
- Resolution 2021-52, Engagement with Canadian Financial Institutions to Implement the UN Declaration, directing engagement with financial institutions to advance the implementation and operationalization of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration).
- Resolution 2024-46, Engaging with Reconciliation Action Plans and Indigenous Relations Reporting Products to Uphold the UN Declaration, which recognized growing concerns of RAPs and directed the development of clearer standards and accountability mechanisms.
- Resolution 2026-17, Adoption of Baseline Expectations and Good Practices for Corporate Reconciliation Action Plans, formally endorsing Indigenous-led guidance for assessing and engaging with corporate RAPs and related reporting products.
The UBCIC, SHARE/RRII, and WCEL engaged with rightsholders and issue-experts, focused on strengthening corporate accountability and advancing reconciliation grounded in the recognition and advancement of title, rights, and interests. This collaborative work has produced three key resources:
Reconciliation Action Plans in Canada: Origins, Issues and Opportunities
- Explores the emergence and growth of RAPs in Canada and identifies key challenges and opportunities.
- Serves as the foundational discussion paper for subsequent rightsholder engagement.
- View paper here.
Living in a Material World: Turning Corporate Indigenous Relations Communications from Token to Tangible
- Examines the relationship between voluntary Indigenous reporting and mandatory securities disclosures and makes recommendations to securities regulators regarding accountability, transparency and the materiality of Indigenous relations on corporate risk and operations.
- It highlights the need for criteria and regulatory guidance co-developed with rightsholders.
- View paper here.
Baseline Expectations and Good Practices for the Development and Assessment of the Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) of Companies in British Columbia (Paper 3 PDF)
- Developed through engagement with rightsholders and issue experts with feedback from the UBCIC Chiefs Council.
- Provides Indigenous-led baseline expectations and good practices across the five key areas of Truth-Telling; Education; Indigenous Rights and Rightsholder Engagement; Economic Reconciliation; and Environmental Stewardship.
- View paper here.
The lhílhló:ya (dragonfly) is presented as a way to show themes of adaptability, manoeuvring between worlds and togetherness. The root word of lhílhló:ya is lhílt, which is to weave, as the body of the dragonfly looks similar to a needle for weaving. The lhílhló:ya navigates between the air and water, as well as between the spirit and physical worlds, with speed and precision – a gift that can translate to metaphorical values. lhílhló:ya reflections in our work can be related to weaving together input from multiple views and directions. This piece pairs Coast Salish design elements and contemporary colours, portraying the lhílhló:ya with human hands in the place of wings, reminding us of the possibilities when we weave together our own views, from many angles. (from RAP Paper 2)
About the Artist
Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor (Stahlo Coast Salish, mixed European) is based in XwChí:yóm (Cheam), S'ólh Téméxw (“our land”). She is a descendant of Coast Salish ancestors that have been sustained by S'ólh Téméxw since time immemorial and Western European ancestors that settled around northern Turtle Island beginning in the 1600s. Carrielynn was born and raised in S'ólh Téméxw and nurtured by many parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Along with owning an art practice, Carrielynn maintains communal roles as a linguist and plant practitioner.