More Than Profit: Sacred Waters, Accountability and the Future of Indigenous-Led Development

When Sacred Waters was created as a for-profit economic development corporation, the goal wasn’t just to generate revenue for the Nations. It was to do business differently—accountable not only to financial outcomes, but to the values, people, and places it exists to serve. This means being a company that drives not only profits for Nations, but also self-determination. 

That sense of deeper responsibility shows up in every part of how Sacred Waters works. “We’ve been told, yes, make profits, but not at the expense of doing it well,” said Leanna Grimes, who is of mixed Swiss, German, Italian and European ancestry and in the role of Director of Planning and Sustainability at Sacred Waters. “Thinking about environmental impacts, and really taking that holistic approach to how the work we’re doing is impacting the Nations in the shared territories.”

For Sacred Waters, doing it well means staying grounded in community. It means honoring the culture and priorities of the three Nations that the company serves. And it means creating space for everyone, including non-Indigenous staff, board members, and partners, to show up in ways that build trust and accountability.

Grounding Business in Culture and Responsibility

Grimes recalled an earlier point in her career when she was advocating for intergenerational housing that would serve elders and unhoused youth in community. A funder questioned the need, saying the population was "not statistically significant" and missing the cultural significance of intergenerational housing. At that moment, she asked, “Do you want to go speak to that youth and tell her that she’s not statistically significant enough for you?” The experience reinforced her commitment to centering people over numbers, and to challenging systems that prioritize efficiency or scale over human dignity.

Both Grimes and CEO Graham Wood, who is of mixed English/Scottish and Ukrainian ancestry, have seen positive change happening. Across government and industry, people are often starting to show up with different intentions. “It’s cool to be in this industry because you see the success of others,” Wood shared. “It’s a journey… I don’t know if there’s going to be an end goal where someone puts up a flag and says ‘decolonization complete,’ but through learning and through successes, incrementally we’ll get there.”

That incremental shift is already visible in how Sacred Waters approaches its projects. From real estate development to governance strategy, the company actively challenges status quo models that prioritize profit over people. Instead, it asks what the community truly needs and how those needs can be met with care, integrity, and alignment with cultural values and protocols to benefit current and future generations

Wood offered a reflection from Sacred Waters’ real estate work that parallels the story above. He noted the dominant industry trend toward smaller and smaller units to maximize revenue, and how their responsibilities have demanded that they look at whether those developments actually work for community. “Would it be appropriate for us to do what everyone else has been doing?” he asked. Instead, Sacred Waters is exploring designs that reflect cultural practices and community needs—like bringing elders and youth together, or building homes that support social connection and the vitality of the community.

Taken together, these reflections show how Sacred Waters is actively resisting models that reduce people to data points or profit margins. In their place, they are building a model grounded in culture and responsibility that listens, adapts, and remains accountable to the communities it serves.

Cultural Safety As a Precursor to Accountability

Supporting this work behind the scenes is Sacred Waters’ relationship with LPC. Cultural safety training and advisory sessions with LPC’s team have shaped how Sacred Waters does its work internally and with partners.

“We often think about really grounding the work in a good way,” said Grimes. She shared how teachings from LPC sessions continue to echo in day-to-day decision-making: “Connection before content” has become an important tool. So has the reminder that “perfection is a colonial construct.”

For Wood, cultural safety has helped him reflect more deeply on his own role as a non-Indigenous leader working on behalf of the Nations. “I was talking to Len about struggling in this position... At what point am I able to advocate, and to what level, for the Nations?” That conversation opened up new ways of thinking about allyship and raised ongoing questions about responsibility, voice, and power. “As long as we’re doing it with the best of intentions and in a good way, we don’t necessarily need someone from the Nation there. That gave us a bit of freedom to go be those advocates.” Cultural safety, in this context, is not about having the perfect answer, but about cultivating trust through relationships. It becomes the connection point that enables accountability to the Nations they serve—especially when leaders are acting in spaces where Nation voices are not directly present but where their interests should always be heard. Through relationship, trust and accountability, that sort of allyship becomes possible. The kind rooted in care, humility, and a commitment to keep showing up in a good way.

In essence, you cannot be accountable to people you are not in good relationship with. Cultural safety is the set of tools that empowers professionals to work across differences and build those relationships of trust.

Building a Foundation That Lasts Through Governance

One of Sacred Waters’ proudest collaborations with LPC is their work to support the Governance Advisory Committee. This newly formed body brings together diverse voices with varying degrees of experience working in Indigenous contexts. To help prepare the committee, Sacred Waters called on LPC for grounding support.

“Most [Sacred Waters staff] completed the cultural safety training,” Grimes shared, “and they continue to bring up teachings from that session.” It was a powerful example of how intentional onboarding can support values-aligned decision-making from the very beginning.

That foundation matters—because Sacred Waters is thinking far beyond the next quarter or project. “All of us within the company really hope that we’re able to be good stewards of this company in the time that we’re here,” said Grimes. “So that this entity can continue to exist long into the future and be that vehicle to really drive intergenerational prosperity for the Nations.”

A Call to Others: Move with Trust, Curiosity, and Care

Asked what values they would offer to others beginning this journey, both leaders pointed to mindset as the starting point.

“Trust,” said Wood. “A lot of times you just have to go into something and trust that the people or the process is going to work out.”

Grimes offered two more: humility and curiosity. “There’s always so much more to learn. And it’s an ongoing journey.”

If Sacred Waters is proving anything, it’s that meaningful decolonization is about how you get there as much as it is about outcomes. When cultural safety is practiced as a way of working and when people lead with curiosity and care, new systems start to take shape.