Phillip Jerry Asp (b. 1948)

Jerry Asp was born in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. He has been involved in the mining industry for over sixty years doing everything from working diamond drills to chairing meetings related to economic development. In the 1970s and ‘80s he spent seven years working underground at the Tantalus Butte coal mine. He became captain of the underground rescue team and served as president of the only all-Indigenous United Steelworkers local in North America. In 1983, Asp created the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) and was CEO and president until 1993. He started the corporation in response to a need for modern houses in Telegraph Creek. The corporation created opportunities for local employment and education.¹⁾ The group negotiated partnerships with mining companies, starting with Golden Bear mine, that required access roads. It was the first Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) in British Columbia’s history. TNDC went on to sign other contracts and became the largest First Nation-owned and operated heavy construction company in Western Canada. The area unemployment rate fell to near zero as TNDC diversified into road maintenance, hydroelectric power lines, and green energy projects.²⁾

Jerry Asp co-founded the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association and was vice-president for more than twenty-three years. He helped set up the British Columbia Aboriginal Mine training Association and chaired the Yukon Mine Training Association. In the early 2000s, Asp was chief of the Tahltan Band Council but was removed in 2006 following an Elders’ protest over development in Tahltan territory. He co-founded the Global Indigenous Development Trust and in 2019 was CEO and chair of the board. He runs his own consultation company, Gray Wolf Solutions.³⁾

Jerry Asp has been a major builder of bridges between the mining sector and indigenous people and a strong advocate of skills training and apprenticeship programs. In 2007, he helped develop the Aboriginal Toolkit for Mining which won a United Nations award as the best educational document of its kind.⁴⁾ He won the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s Skookum Jim Award in 2011, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013, the Inspire Award for business and commerce in 2017, and was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2020. ⁵⁾