Advisory to First Nations · Calgary, Alberta
For First Nations building toward self-determination, Wakiya Solutions is the independent advisor that takes a project from idea to shovel-ready and leaves behind the capacity to run it.
We are small enough to be in the room.
We have no product we need the answer to be.
We can carry the thing we funded all the way to the ground.
What we work on
What matters to the community. Both halves of it.
Wakiya Solutions works with First Nations on what matters to their communities. We plan it, cost it, find the funding, and build the capacity in the Nation to run it. Sovereignty is the point. Everything else is how we get there.
Built
The physical things a community depends on.
Whatever a Nation has decided it needs to own, assessed, structured, costed, funded and carried to the point where it can be built. The subject is the Nation's call; the method is ours.
Capacity
The people who decide on, run and maintain it.
Education and training. The tools, models, data and licences to keep doing the work. Mentorship of named people, through the project rather than at the end of it.
What the work does
Whatever is built, it does at least one of four things. Which one it is, is the Nation's call, not ours.
- Turns a cost into a choice.A bill that only ever moved one way becomes money the Nation decides how to spend, for as long as the thing lasts.
- Keeps something running that otherwise would not.A disruption stays an inconvenience instead of becoming an emergency, and people stay home.
- Brings an essential service under the Nation's own control.Who connects, what it costs here, and where the revenue goes.
- Puts something needed within reach.Somewhere to gather, a way to get there, food that does not arrive on somebody else's terms.
Work to date has included power generation and storage, community facilities, active transportation and food production. That is history, not a limit: the method is the same whatever the subject.
How we work
Five steps, in order, on every engagement.
The subject changes; the method does not. One contract covers the whole chain, with one point of accountability, so the Nation is not reconciling the assumptions of four advisors.
| Number | Step | The question it answers | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assess | Is this real, and is it worth doing? | Site and need assessment, options review, order-of-magnitude cost, and an honest answer when the answer is no. |
| 2 | Structure | What has to exist for the Nation to own it? | The entity, the licence, the governance and the agreements. Whatever has to exist before the Nation can hold it. |
| 3 | Model | What does it cost, what does it earn, what breaks it? | Performance modelling, financial and economic analysis, sensitivities, and a stated basis and confidence on every number. |
| 4 | Fund | Where does the money come from, and does it survive an audit? | Program fit and strategy. Grant writing is our own work, not a referral. Eligible-cost discipline, and reporting written in the funder's own format and cycle. |
| 5 | Carry | Who keeps it moving, and who runs it after? | Permitting and environmental support, utility and regulator engagement, community communication, project management. Mentoring the Nation's own people throughout, not at the end. |
Capacity is not step six
It runs through all five. A Nation person is named to each step and works it alongside us, so that by the end the knowledge is in the community rather than in our files. On every engagement:
- Education and training. What the named people need to hold the work, including specialist courses brought in from a third party where that is the honest answer.
- Tools. The models, spreadsheets, data, drawings and licences, handed over in a form that can still be used and edited after we leave.
- Mentorship. Named people, through the project, not a handover session at the end.
- Unrestricted reuse. The Nation can use, adapt and republish everything we produce for future projects and future funding applications, without asking us.
Who does what
Wakiya Solutions holds the five steps and stays accountable for the whole of them. Specialists are brought in as a project needs them, from people we trust, and coordinated by us: engineering, environmental, geotechnical, legal, and equipment from suppliers. The Nation gets one point of accountability rather than a list of contractors, and it always knows which parts were done by whom.
Who is reading this
You are deciding something. Here is what we put in front of you.
Chief and Council, the administration, an EcDev board, community members and a funder do not want the same document. Pick the seat you are in.
What you are deciding
Whether to commit the Nation's name, land and matching funds to this.
What worries you
Being blamed for a stranded asset. A consultant who talks past them. A project that serves the consultant's pipeline.
What we put in front of you
One recommendation, the two options rejected and why, the decision needed and the date it is needed by. Never more than one page before the appendix.
What you are deciding
Whether the numbers hold and whether the claims will survive the funder.
What worries you
Ineligible costs clawed back. An invoice you cannot reconcile. A schedule that slips into the wrong fiscal year.
What we put in front of you
Itemised figures, assumptions stated, sensitivities shown, fiscal-year alignment explicit, every number traceable to a source. Progress reports inside 15 days of quarter end.
What you are deciding
Whether this stands up as a business the corporation can run and defend to its board.
What worries you
Being handed a project the Nation wants politically but the corporation cannot operate profitably. Mandate creep between Council and the board.
What we put in front of you
A commercial case in its own right: revenue, operating cost, staffing, risk. Not a community-benefit case with a budget attached. Explicit about which decisions sit with the board and which with Council.
What you are deciding
Whether to support this at a meeting, and whether to trust who is doing it.
What worries you
Being told after the fact. Land and water. Outsiders profiting. Jargon used to end a conversation.
What we put in front of you
Plain language, scale in something you can picture, what happens next, who to ask, and what has not been decided yet. No acronym without its plain meaning.
What you are deciding
Whether the claimed costs are eligible and the reporting is defensible.
What worries you
An audit finding. A report that does not map to the contribution agreement.
What we put in front of you
Reporting in your format and cycle, costs tied to eligible activities, variances explained with cause and effect, nothing rounded away. Section headings that mirror the agreement's own.
What you are deciding
Whether this application is complete enough to be worth your technical review time.
What worries you
An underspecified request. Being drawn into a political process.
What we put in front of you
Complete technical submissions, correct terminology, a realistic schedule, no advocacy language. Engineering by a licensed firm, coordinated by us and identified as theirs.
What we will not claim
The fastest way to keep this honest is a list of things we are not.
- Not the decision-maker.Wakiya Solutions recommends. Council decides. Nothing we publish should read as if the choice has been made for them.
- Not a guarantor of outcomes.A feasibility study is professional judgment on the information available at the time, not a promise of approval, funding, savings or any economic result.
- Not the specialist.Engineers, environmental consultants, geotechnical drillers and legal counsel are brought in as a project needs them and coordinated by us. We do not perform the parts that need somebody else's licence.
- Not a vendor.No product line, no inventory, no manufacturer's target to hit. Equipment is sourced through trusted, likeminded suppliers on the Nation's behalf.
- Not a spokesperson.Wakiya Solutions does not speak for a Nation, for a community, or for Indigenous peoples generally. Not in a report, not at a conference, not online.
- Not a repository of traditional knowledge.Anything shared in confidence stays confidential with no expiry, and is never reused as a case study, a methodology or a credential.
About
A Calgary-based advisory. One point of accountability.
Geordie MacPherson, Consultant
Geordie leads every Wakiya Solutions engagement and is the person a Nation deals with from the first conversation to construction readiness. He holds the five steps, brings in the specialists a project needs, and stays accountable for the whole.
Wakiya Solutions Ltd. is a corporation under the Canada Business Corporations Act, with its registered office in Calgary, Alberta. Work to date with First Nations in Western Canada has included power generation and storage, community facilities, active transportation and food production.
Contact
Bring us the idea, the study, or the funded project that needs carrying.
Two ways in. Call or write directly, or fill in the project brief below and send it when your Council or board is ready. Nothing on this page is stored or sent anywhere until you send it.
Office
We travel to the community. First conversations are usually 30 minutes, by phone or video, at no charge and with no obligation.