ICE is a unique, not-for-profit platform that advances Indigenous inclusion in Canada’s energy futures economy through Indigenous leadership and broad-based collaboration with energy companies, utilities, governments, development firms, clean tech innovators, the academic sector, and capital markets. The clean energy efforts of ICE include renewable energy, energy efficiency, green energy infrastructure, and advanced energy opportunities.
Through ICE’s efforts, Indigenous communities are meaningfully involved in over 197 medium-to-large scale projects creating an estimated $295 million in annual revenues for Indigenous communities.
The goal of EleV includes access to education for Indigenous young people as well as supporting pathways to meaningful employment for Indigenous youth. This partnership with ICE (administered through Ottawa Community Foundation) will advance both objectives. ICE provides tailored training and instruction in clean energy and creates pathways to employment for program participants by matching Indigenous people with clean energy employers for paid work experience.
In 2021, the Mastercard Foundation entered into a 30-month commitment with Indigenous Clean Energy.
This partnership includes:
• Significant employment experiences in the opportunities clean energy sector for 80 Indigenous young people, enabling them to pursue longer-term employment in a sector that is key to the future of Indigenous economies.
• Supporting ICE’s Generation Power program, a new twelve-month training program for Indigenous young people that provides as an entry point into careers in clean energy. By the end of the partnership, the ICE program will be an accredited program with a Canadian university. The program involves culturally relevant learning about clean energy, including an on-the-land camp; job placements with clean energy employers who will receive cultural sensitivity training; one-on-one mentorship in clean energy; and the creation of a fund that supports youth-led projects in clean energy.
• Supporting ICE’s 20/20 Catalysts program, a nine-month program that focuses on capacity building for Indigenous learners interested in exploring the clean energy sector. Four program spots in each of the next three cohorts will be fully funded for young Indigenous participants.
• Creating a media campaign to raise awareness of Indigenous youth leadership in the clean energy sector, contributing to a new narrative of Indigenous youth as essential agents and drivers of change in this sector.
