Business Lifetime Achievement Recipient

Michael McDonald is a recently retired Indigenous rights and business lawyer, having specialized in major projects throughout Canada since 1990. Throughout his professional life, he has been a trusted advisor to Indigenous and other business leaders in the forestry, energy, mining, construction, environmental, and real estate sectors. McDonald was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 2017. He became a national leader in the development of Impact Benefit Agreements while acting on some of Canada’s largest projects. He was a leading lawyer in the Indigenous Business, Indigenous Law and Governance, and Environmental Law contexts and ranked nationally by Lexpert for his expertise in Indigenous Law and Mining law. Throughout his legal career, he also led innovative work at the BC Law Society as a member and Co-chair of the BC Law Society’s Truth & Reconciliation Working Group which resulted in creating and implementing an Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan and bringing in mandatory Indigenous intercultural competency training for all lawyers in B.C.  In 2018 the University of British Columbia awarded McDonald the Alumni Builders Award and recently the Aboriginal Lawyers Forum of the Canadian Bar Association granted him the Special Contribution Award for his decades of support to Indigenous law graduates and lawyers in mentorship and support.

McDonald currently sits as a member of the Board of Directors for BC Hydro, the Board of Governors of Simon Fraser University, Jameson Resources and NWP Coal Canada Ltd. He is also a former director of the Indigenous Bar Association and World Vision Canada.

McDonald is of Cree descent and is a member of the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba through his father. His mother is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba. McDonald currently lives in Naramata, BC with his wife Leanne.