08/12/2026
We hosted several experiences for the International Indigenous Tourism Conference in February. Since then, our relationships have changed dramatically.
When we weren't paid for months following the conference, we didn't go public right away. We spent weeks behind the scenes emailing back and forth with Indigenous Tourism Alberta, ITAC, and Explore Edmonton, trying to get answers. We couldn't. So we posted publicly.
As a business that was an original member of the Explore Edmonton Indigenous Advisory Circle, the tourism arm of the City of Edmonton, we were shocked by what followed. Not just by the silence around payment, but by what speaking up cost us in other ways.
We were told time and again that payment was coming. In the end, it wasn't ITAC that paid us. It was Indigenous Tourism Alberta. Numerous other people were left unpaid, and we kept advocating for them. Then the messages started coming in, largely supportive, but also concerning. Many told us about their own unpaid invoices with ITAC, for one thing or another. Based on the media coverage since, we believe them.
But the money was never really the hardest part. The hardest part was what happened after we spoke out.
Some close relationships turned on us. People we'd worked alongside for years told us we were being messy, unprofessional, slinging mud. We watched people who knew exactly what had happened choose silence, or worse, choose ITAC's side, because it was easier or safer than standing with the people who weren't paid. When I resigned from the Indigenous Advisory Circle in May, there was no response to my letter asking for action on the conference or on the Indigenous board seat we were promised. Just quiet. We got the sense they were relieved to see us go.
That kind of silence is its own cost. It's the friendships that go cold. It's being labeled difficult for asking where the money went. It's watching people rewrite what happened in real time, framing ITAC as the victim, while the vendors, artisans, journalists, and grantees who are still owed money become an inconvenient detail nobody wants to talk about.
In 2025, Keith Henry did a press tour announcing new private funding secured through the Passion Project Foundation in the UK, reported as roughly $35 million a year over seven years. The messaging at the time gave a clear impression: ITAC was moving away from needing federal government support. Now, Henry says it's the Government of Canada's fault that ITAC is without funding. It's fair to ask where that private funding actually is, and why, month after month, it hasn't arrived.
We're not sharing this because we enjoy the fallout. We're sharing it because staying quiet has a cost too, and for us, it's one we're less willing to pay. If losing a few friendships is the price of being honest about what happened to us and to the people around us, that's the trade we'll make.
The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is entering a new chapter, and it’s one fuelled by stability, ambition, and a $35 million-a-year investment.
