The proposal of the Enbridge pipeline has spurred opposition from not just environmental activists, but also from groups of First Nations.  The Yinka Dene Alliance claims that the proposal encompasses building on their land.

The impact of the tribes’ opposition on Enbridge’s business model can be viewed as an external factor.  But I struggled to find a category that represented the pillars of a culture’s values. The closest category I found was “societal and cultural”, under “key external trends”.  Yet it didn’t seem right.  How can I label a culture’s values as a trend?  A trend suggests a fleeting, a craze-filled sensation.  But values important to the First Nations are exactly the opposite.  Stewardship, reciprocity, and gratitude, (among other facets) are not fleeting trends.  They are embedded in the culture, in the history of the people.

It is always difficult incorporating cultural values into business models: their impact is much greater than a simple number or statistic.  Sure, one could argue a particular value, for example, the dollar amount to which certain tribes agreed in exchange for approval in the building of the pipeline.

But cultural values are worth more than that: they represent the stories passed down from the elders, the native dances, languages, and art, the pain from the settlers’ desecration of sacred relics, and the horror of residential schools.

The First Nations’ cultural values represent the rich history of their legacy entwined with the birth of Canada.