How Employers Can Act on TRC Call to Action 92: A Practical Guide

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released 94 Calls to Action. Most of them are addressed to governments, churches, and public institutions. One of them is addressed directly to you, if you run or help run a business in Canada: Call to Action 92, the one about corporate Canada's role in reconciliation.

A decade later, many employers have heard of it, fewer have read it, and fewer still have turned it into something practical. This guide is for the employers who want to actually do the work: what Call to Action 92 asks, what it looks like in a real workplace, and where to start if your company is small and your resources are limited.

What Call to Action 92 actually asks of business

Call to Action 92 calls on the corporate sector to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for how business relates to Indigenous peoples and their lands. In plain terms, it asks companies to commit to three kinds of action:

• Meaningful consultation and respectful relationships. Building real relationships with Indigenous communities, and obtaining their free, prior, and informed consent before proceeding with projects that affect their lands and rights.
• Equitable access to jobs, training, and education. Ensuring Indigenous peoples have fair access to employment and advancement in the corporate sector, and that Indigenous communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.
• Education for management and staff. Training for leadership and employees on the history of Indigenous peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the Declaration, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations. The Call specifically names skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Notice what the middle point means for hiring: equitable access to jobs is not a nice-to-have appended to reconciliation. It is one third of what corporate Canada was directly asked to do.

Why this matters beyond principle

The business case stands on its own. Indigenous people are the youngest and fastest growing demographic in Canada, at a time when many industries face chronic labour shortages. Statistics Canada data has consistently shown that when Indigenous people hold post-secondary credentials, their labour market participation approaches parity with non-Indigenous Canadians. The gap is not about capability; it is about access, networks, and whether employers show up where Indigenous job seekers actually are.

Companies that build genuine Indigenous hiring practices gain access to talent their competitors are missing, strengthen their standing with Indigenous communities and partners, and are better positioned for procurement and project opportunities where Indigenous participation matters.

What implementation looks like, sized for a real company

If you are a small business

• Start with where you post jobs. The simplest equitable-access step is making sure Indigenous job seekers actually see your openings. Posting on a dedicated Indigenous job board puts your role in front of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit candidates directly, rather than hoping they find it in a general pile.
• Look at your job requirements honestly. Strip out credential requirements that are not genuinely needed for the work. Every unnecessary "degree required" line screens out capable people.
• Do the learning. Free and low-cost Indigenous awareness training exists across Canada, including university open courses on Indigenous history. Leadership goes first.

If you are a mid-sized or large employer

• Set real targets and report on them. Measure Indigenous representation in hiring, retention, and advancement, not just applications.
• Build relationships before you need them. Connect with friendship centres, Indigenous employment and training organizations, and education institutions in your regions. Recruitment built on relationships outperforms recruitment built on postings alone.
• Invest in retention, not just hiring. Mentorship, cultural safety in the workplace, and flexibility for community and cultural obligations are what turn a hire into a career.
• Fund the pipeline. Apprenticeship positions, paid internships, and partnerships with Indigenous training institutions create the long-term sustainable benefit the Call describes.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating it as a statement instead of a practice. A land acknowledgment on the website with no change in hiring is the pattern Indigenous candidates notice first.
• One-time gestures. A single hiring event or a June announcement is not a strategy. Consistency over years is what builds trust with communities.
• Putting the whole burden on Indigenous employees. Your first Indigenous hires should not be expected to run your reconciliation program, educate their coworkers, and do their actual job.
• Skipping the education piece. Hiring into a workplace where management knows nothing of the history creates the conditions for the hire to fail. The training component of Call 92 exists for a reason.

Where to start this month

Pick three actions and do them: read the full text of the Calls to Action (it is short and freely available from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation), book Indigenous awareness training for your leadership team, and put your next opening in front of Indigenous job seekers. That last one takes minutes: post your role on Aboriginal Hire, where more than 500 employers have posted over 5,000 jobs to reach First Nations, Metis, and Inuit candidates across Canada, and where every posting also travels through our Community Connect network of 124 Indigenous community and employment organizations.

Reconciliation in employment is not a single decision. It is a series of ordinary business decisions, starting with where your jobs go and who gets a fair shot at them.

Common questions

Is Call to Action 92 legally binding for businesses?

No. The Calls to Action are a framework, not legislation. Federal law has since committed the Government of Canada to implementing the UN Declaration, but Call 92 asks businesses to act voluntarily, which is exactly why individual employer choices matter.

We are a five-person company. Does this really apply to us?

The Call is addressed to the corporate sector as a whole, and small businesses employ most Canadians. Where you post jobs, what you require in postings, and how you welcome new hires are decisions of the same kind at any size.

What is the single highest-impact first step?

Make your jobs visible to Indigenous candidates and remove unnecessary barriers from your postings. Access is the step everything else builds on.