Fort William First Nation’s Peter Collins honoured with Excellence in Leadership award
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Fort William First Nation’s Peter Collins was recognized with the Excellence in Leadership award at the 34th Annual Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund (NADF) Awards, held October 22 at Delta Hotels Thunder Bay. The other award recipients were Savion Nakogee with the Startup Business of the Year award, Delores Wesley with the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, Marie Burke-Lecours with the Small Business of the Year award, ThawiKayhiGan Group with the Business Excellence award, and HT Group with the Partnership of the Year award.
“I really appreciate them recognizing the work and the contributions I’ve made,” says Collins, CEO at Chi Mino Ozhitoowin and a former Chief and current Councillor at Fort William First Nation. “I still continue to look at economic opportunities today. First Nations need to be at the forefront of those economic prosperity opportunities.”
Collins says he began his CEO role at Chi Mino Ozhitoowin in September 2022.
“It has been a very exciting and rewarding opportunity,” Collins says. “Our main objective right now is building the transmission line from Thunder Bay to Dryden; it’s 358 kilometres of transmission line. Our priorities on that line are community engagement, training, and economic prosperity.”
Collins says they also have many different projects and opportunities in the queue.
“The one big one we’re working on is we’re trying to develop an energy corridor from Hardisty, Alberta to Thunder Bay, which means the communities would take control of the right-of-way, the communities would be stewards of the environmental process and have equity stake in the line itself,” Collins says, noting that the project could include First Nations from Treaty #3, Robinson Superior, Robinson Huron, and other treaty areas. “We’re hoping we can integrate everyone into the plan so they all have ownership, they have stake in the game.”
Collins says they will have the opportunity to challenge Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford about what they do as First Nations organizations.
“You hear a lot from the prime minister and the premier about economic prosperity and economic opportunities, but where do we fit in the game,” Collins says. “We need to make sure we’re leading this project, developing this project, [and] stewardship of the environmental process.”
Collins says he served as Chief of Fort William First Nation for 11 terms, or 22 years.
“I worked hard on trying to develop economic opportunity in our community too,” Collins says. “We do have some major projects that are on the ground, we have two hockey arenas now, we have a state-of-the-art stud mill that we own the property, we own the building — we lease it back to Domtar, it used to be Resolute and before that, Great Lakes Paper. That one has a really good return to the community every year, but also job opportunities are prosperous to our members and one of our business [owners], Dallan Forestry, who is a member of Fort William.”
Collins was previously recognized with the 2024 Anishinabek Nation Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2026 Confederation College Community Partner of the Year Award.
Brian Davey, CEO at NADF, says NADF is very proud of what the award recipients have done throughout the year.
“The whole idea is to spread the news that we’re there to assist, whether it be grants or loans, training, webinars, presentations,” Davey says. “Our mission is prosperity, that’s what we want, is Indigenous prosperity and we do whatever is necessary to make it happen.”
Davey says the best way to contact NADF is to go to nadf.org or to call 807-623-5397.