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Hard Hat North Pipeline Work Guide
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Indigenous Priority Hiring on Major Pipeline Projects

Major pipeline projects back Indigenous partnership language with real commitments — hiring targets, training dollars, and sometimes equity. On Coastal GasLink, TC Energy sold a 10% stake to Indigenous partnerships representing all 20 First Nations on the route in 2022.

What “Indigenous priority hiring” actually means on a spread

Priority hiring provisions usually show up in one of three forms on a pipeline project:

  • Impact benefit agreements (IBAs) between the project proponent and specific First Nations or Métis communities along the route, which often include hiring and training commitments as a condition of support for the project.
  • Contractor-level Indigenous hiring targets, where the main pipeline contractor commits to a percentage of its workforce or spend going to Indigenous workers and Indigenous-owned businesses.
  • Equity participation, where Indigenous communities hold an actual ownership stake in the pipeline itself, not just a hiring quota.

These aren’t interchangeable. An IBA hiring commitment gets you a real shot at a job posting and sometimes a dedicated intake process; equity ownership is a longer-term financial relationship that doesn’t guarantee any specific person a job, but it does mean the community has ongoing leverage to push for local hiring over the life of the asset.

Coastal GasLink is the clearest public example of the equity model. In March 2022, TC Energy signed option agreements to sell a 10% equity interest in the pipeline to Indigenous partnerships representing all 20 First Nations along the route (Coastal GasLink / TC Energy, 2022-03-10). At the time of that announcement, the company also reported hundreds of Indigenous people had already held key roles during construction, and more than $1 billion in contracts had been awarded to local and Indigenous businesses.

The project’s own site now cites over $1.8 billion awarded to local and Indigenous businesses and more than 25,700 full-time-equivalent jobs supported in B.C. over the life of construction (Coastal GasLink, accessed 2026-09-07) — note that figure covers the whole B.C. workforce and supply chain, not an Indigenous-specific headcount, so don’t read it as “25,700 Indigenous jobs.” Construction on CGL wrapped some time ago, so treat these as historical figures from a completed build rather than current openings — useful for understanding how the model worked, not for job-hunting on that specific project today.

Trans Mountain and other projects: what to expect

Other major projects — Trans Mountain’s expansion and ongoing maintenance work, NGTL system expansions, and Enbridge’s Line 3 corridor — have their own Indigenous relations offices, procurement targets, and, in some cases, community benefit agreements, but the specific dollar figures and hiring counts change as projects move between construction and maintenance phases. Rather than repeat numbers that go stale fast, the reliable move is to go straight to the current project’s own Indigenous relations or community page and to the specific First Nation or Métis community’s economic development office, since those are the two places obligations actually get tracked and updated.

A few patterns hold across most projects:

  • Community-run employment and training coordinators are often the actual intake point — not the general contractor’s HR line — because IBAs frequently name a community liaison role.
  • Trades pre-apprenticeship and safety-ticket funding (H2S Alive, CSTS, confined space, first aid) is commonly available through the community’s own training dollars before a project even posts jobs, which is worth asking about well ahead of a hiring wave.
  • Priority doesn’t mean automatic. Most agreements commit to considering qualified Indigenous applicants first or to a hiring percentage target — you still need the safety tickets and, for skilled trades, the certification (see our wages page for what different pipeline roles typically require).

How to find and apply for these opportunities

Start with the specific project’s Indigenous relations or community benefits page for current postings and contacts, then check with your own community’s economic development or employment office — many hold direct pipelines (no pun intended) to contractor hiring coordinators that never show up on a general job board. General labour and trades postings for the same projects also run through our jobs page and the contractors named there; camp and rotation basics that apply regardless of hiring stream are on our rotations page.

FAQ

Does Indigenous priority hiring guarantee me a job on a pipeline project? No. It typically means qualified Indigenous applicants get priority consideration, or that the contractor has committed to a hiring percentage target — you still need the required safety tickets and, for trades roles, the relevant certification.

Where do I actually apply — the pipeline company or my community? Often both, but community-run employment and training offices are frequently the real intake point named in the impact benefit agreement, and they may know about openings before they’re posted publicly.

Do these programs apply to non-trades roles like camp services and labour? Yes — priority hiring provisions in most agreements cover entry-level labour, camp services, and environmental monitor roles, not just skilled trades, though the exact scope depends on the specific agreement for that project and community.