AS RBC builds upon its leadership role in fostering economic reconciliation with First Nations across Canada, it’s leaning heavily on its strong and growing bench of Indigenous experts and employees.
After all, they don’t just know the challenges and opportunities of the bank’s portfolio of Indigenous business, they’re living them.
Canada’s largest bank sees Indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast as partners, so it continues to take steps to earn the right to collaborate authentically through employee education, Listening Circles with Indigenous communities, collaborative initiatives, and consultation. Core to these efforts is participating in culturally relevant programming, supporting economic reconciliation, and ensuring meaningful RBC presence in First Nations communities.
It’s only fitting that Herb ZoBell is part of the team leading the bank’s charge. The vice-president of commercial financial services for Indigenous Markets and North of 60 for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Western Ontario, and a member of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, says having Indigenous people among RBC employees at all levels is, “The right thing to do, and it also pays dividends because they understand the journeys and culture of our clients and prospective clients,” he says.
“If somebody is inexperienced with culture, our clients know pretty quickly. It makes good business sense to have people who understand the market,” he says.
There’s virtually no limit to the kind of business RBC will do with Indigenous groups.
“We’ll explore providing lending for almost anything a First Nation wants to build. It could be buildings, housing, infrastructure in the community or equipment. You name it, we’ll try to finance it,” he says.
“We want to thank these communities. We become their bankers, manage their investments and provide products and services that First Nations can utilize. We support them by investing in their communities.”
RBC has been involved in Indigenous banking since the 1980s. Focus started to pick up about a decade later when the bank hired specialized commercial relationship managers dedicated to the market. Previously, relationship managers would have a handful of First Nations accounts among the rest of their portfolio.
Also in the 1990s, the bank opened its first branch on a First Nation at Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario, near Hamilton.
Since then, eight more full-service branches have been added on reserve, including Enoch Cree First Nation near Edmonton earlier this year.
RBC also has commercial banking centres on Fort William First Nation in Ontario, Muskeg Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan and Swan Lake First Nation in Manitoba.
“The First Nations own the office space and we rent from them. The offices we have on reserve show support and our unwavering commitment to communities. By having an on-reserve presence, it also enables us to identify and hire First Nations talent to work with us,” says ZoBell, one of several vice-presidents managing teams who work with First Nations across the country.
“Commercial Indigenous Markets is a significant and influential market across the country. Being involved in this market, supporting economic growth, and investing in the ideas of Indigenous entrepreneurs is also the right thing to do,” he says.
“The number of investments flowing to Indigenous communities is only going to increase. We need to be there to support the journey and ambitions of these communities. We haven’t seen this level of investment and opportunity previously,” he says.
ZoBell takes on additional roles at RBC as he’s also the national executive advisor of RBC Royal Eagles, the bank’s employee resource group for Indigenous-identifying employees and allies. He’s also a member of RBC’s Elder Council, a team of Indigenous employees who provide the bank with advice and counsel on a wide range of matters.
“Ensuring Indigenous employees have strong voices at the table matters to our journey as an organization. At RBC, our voices are represented and consulted throughout the organization including on RBC’s Board,” shares ZoBell. “While we may not always get it just right, we are committed to learning.”
ZoBell understands the necessity of reconciliation and healing, having first-hand experience with one of the cruelest policies inflicted on Indigenous people living in Canada – the Sixties Scoop, where provincial child welfare authorities took Indigenous children from their families in the thousands, and sent them to be adopted by non-Indigenous families across North America, completely cutting them off from their culture, their families and their communities. ZoBell’s biological parents died when he was a young adult, but he has recently reconnected with a number of his siblings in Saskatchewan.
ZoBell shares that we all have a role to play in reconciliation and RBC is leaning into that role. In May this year, RBC launched RBC Origins – a new Truth & Reconciliation Office dedicated to drive solutions, investments, and corporate actions to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples and develop a reconciliation action plan.
The first major bank in Canada to do so, ZoBell explained that RBC wants to continue to learn and further its partnerships building on its long history of serving Indigenous communities through dedicated teams and specialized programs that also include scholarships, career planning, and culturally relevant financial literacy.
“Our Indigenous strategy is focused on the Indigenous economy, people, and community through progressive and inclusive businesses. We have an extensive understanding of Indigenous governments across Canada, which is present through relationship managers and senior leadership within Indigenous Financial Services,” he says.
“We are dedicated to being on the path with Indigenous peoples and communities through our commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action No. 92, which calls on corporate Canada to work towards reconciliation with Indigenous people.”
To learn more about the path RBC is on, visit www.rbc.com/indigenous/
