Three Fires Group and Dillon Consulting Limited Announce Joint Venture Arrangement

CHIPPEWAS OF KETTLE and STONY POINT FIRST NATION, ON, Dec. 5, 2022 – The Three Fires Group (TFG), a First Nations-owned economic development corporation, is proud to announce a joint venture agreement with Dillon Consulting Limited (Dillon), a leading professional consulting firm specializing in planning, management, engineering and environmental science. This partnership will advance economic development while delivering projects that positively impact the lives of Indigenous people.

Through their new relationship, TFG and Dillon will significantly expand upon their ability to offer targeted support and provide clients with established professional services in order to optimize the outcomes of major business and investment opportunities. The agreement will also see enhanced collaboration with SOAR Professional Services – an Indigenous led, owned and staffed organization currently partnered with Dillon.

“This collaboration enables all three parties to further improve their services and reach. Dillon and SOAR have unique reputations, services, and expertise in the market, and in joining forces, everyone will benefit,” said Vince George, President and Chair of the Board of Three Fires Group. “Our organizations look forward to enhancing our ability to support clients across Canada through this new and increased sharing of knowledge and skills, while remaining true to the principles of Indigenous knowledge.”

The parties are committed to “Two-Eyed Seeing” a concept developed by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall in 2004 which seeks to reconcile the use of Western method and theory with Indigenous knowledge. According to Marshall, Two-Eyed Seeing is “learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of mainstream knowledge and Western ways of knowing and learning to use both of these eyes together in order to produce more fulsome and sustainable solutions for the benefit of all.”

“This is an exciting collaboration. We are committed to supporting the empowerment of Indigenous communities. Further, the expertise and passion that SOAR will bring to this relationship enhances opportunities for meaningful progress in Indigenous communities across Canada. Together with the resources and knowledge of TFG, we can really accelerate service provision while learning from, and with, Indigenous communities.” – Sean Hanlon, Chief Executive Officer, Dillon Consulting Limited

About the Three Fires Group

www.threefires.com

The Three Fires Group is focused on generating wealth and prosperity from economic and infrastructure opportunities for current and future generations. We lend our business capacity and technical expertise to fellow Nations within the Three Fires Confederacy traditional territories and external partners. Through investments and partnerships in major development projects, we support communities and industry to thrive in a modern and sustainable economy and advance reconciliation.

The Three Fires Group provided technical and investment assistance for the recently announced Three Fires Nations-Ontario Southwestern Ontario Infrastructure and Economic Opportunities Table – a joint Crown-Indigenous effort to develop clean energy infrastructure in Southern Ontario, including a $5 billion investment to build Ontario’s first large-scale electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant, five new regional transmission lines, and a forthcoming fleet of battery energy storage systems.

Our mission: Generating wealth and prosperity from economic and infrastructure opportunities for current and future generations.
What We Do:

• We advance historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy projects.
• We align with seasoned and highly qualified industry and investment partners to drive economic dividends and ecological stewardship.
• We build opportunities for First Nations providers of goods and services to take active, generational roles in major projects.
• We accelerate necessary critical Infrastructure projects to ensure First Nations, municipalities, and Crown treaty partners can build healthy communities and regions for the generations that follow us.
• We work alongside our partners to accelerate critical infrastructure projects, clean energy project investments, and planning surrounding environmental priorities and joint land use decisions.
• We move at the speed of business while supporting the clean energy renaissance and the ecological restoration and protection priorities of our peoples.
• We are dedicated to working with our current and future shareholder First Nations to grow Indigenous economies into world class business destinations where success is measured through both economic prosperity and ecological stewardship.

About Dillon Consulting Limited

www.dillon.ca

Dillon Consulting Limited (Dillon) is a proudly Canadian, employee-owned professional consulting firm with over 1,000 employees specializing in planning, engineering, environmental science and management. We partner with clients to provide committed, collaborative and inventive solutions to complex, multi-faceted projects.

With over 20 office locations across Canada, Dillon is founded on the knowledge, passion and relentless pursuit of the best solution for our clients, and the communities in which we work and live. Since being founded in 1946 in London, Ontario, we have never stopped innovating, growing, building and leading towards a better tomorrow.

Dillon understands what it takes to develop and nurture healthy, livable communities. At Dillon, we are not only committed to sustainability and the environment, we also care about how a project engages communities and the people affected by it. We look for leading-edge approaches to building a livable and supportable community with social diversity, economic stability and environmental sustainability.

Indigenous, stakeholder and public consultation and engagement is one of Dillon’s core service areas. Dillon has had the privilege of working with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities for decades. Our time spent working with Indigenous communities has provided valuable insight and a critical understanding of community dynamics, challenges, and aspirations. It is this first-hand knowledge, experience and cultural awareness that we continue to draw and build upon in our project work.

We synthesize insights from a wide range of stakeholders while taking economic, environmental, infrastructure and social considerations into our plans and policies. The result: superior solutions, effective projects, and stronger communities.

For further information: Media Contacts: Media Relations Office, Three Fires Group, Contact@threefires.com, 226-706-9779 Ext. 101; Dillon Consulting Limited: Ina Toso, Manager, Marketing, itoso@dillon.ca, 416.229.4646 Ext. 2420

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