How We Work
These are not marketing statements. They are how we contract.
Willow-ICS operates from a set of structural commitments that determine how we engage, price, deliver, and report — on every file, whichever side of the table retains us.
The structural commitments.
Nation-directed from the first conversation.
Every engagement begins with understanding what the Nation or organization wants to achieve — not what Willow-ICS thinks they should want. The client sets the direction. We provide the capacity, structure, and delivery.
We move at the pace your governance requires.
First Nations governance operates on its own timeline. Chief and Council decisions require consultation. Community processes take the time they take. Willow-ICS does not impose external timelines on community governance — and we teach our industry clients why that discipline is what makes their projects succeed.
Strategy and delivery are not separate.
Most consultants hand off the work after the strategy. Willow-ICS delivers the strategy and the systems together — the business case and the digital infrastructure, the joint venture structure and the communications system, the plan and the execution.
Alongside, not in place of.
Willow-ICS works alongside First Nation leadership and staff. We do not replace Band or Nation staff. We do not compete with Nation-owned businesses. We do not take over community projects. Every engagement is designed to leave more capability behind than it found.
Whole-hearted for our client — like counsel.
When Willow-ICS takes a mandate — a Nation's or a proponent's — we work it the way good counsel works a file: our client's best outcome is the objective, pursued with full commitment. We will push back and advise candidly from thirty years of experience, and we hold one limit that protects every client we serve: we do not secure a deal today that creates problems tomorrow. The test we apply to every file is not ours to judge alone — it is a deal both sides would sign again in ten years, and we decline the work that fails it. That discipline is not divided loyalty. It is why our advocacy is worth retaining.
Honest about what we are.
Willow-ICS is not Indigenous-owned. We are a non-Indigenous services partner that works with Indigenous clients — First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. We do not provide legal, tax, investment, securities, or accounting advice — we navigate those landscapes alongside clients and connect them to qualified specialists, and structural work is executed by the client's own counsel.
Both sides retain us. Here is how that works — in writing.
Working for Nations and for industry only earns trust if the rules are explicit. These are ours.
Willow-ICS is not a law firm, and these are not professional legal duties — they are business-conduct commitments we write into our engagement letters and hold ourselves to contractually.
Never both sides of the same file.
Willow-ICS never acts for a proponent and a Nation on the same project, transaction, or negotiation. Ever.
Conflicts are checked at intake.
Before any engagement letter is signed, we check the mandate against every current and recent client relationship — and decline where a conflict exists.
Who retains us is disclosed at first contact.
When Willow-ICS arrives at a Nation's table as a proponent's advisor, we say so plainly, in the first conversation — and we encourage the Nation to retain its own independent advice.
The judgment travels. The information does not.
What a client tells us stays with that client. Experience and judgment carry between engagements; confidential information never does.
The walk-away right is in the engagement letter.
Our right to decline or withdraw from a deal we could not defend at both tables — one that fails the ten-year test — is written into our engagement terms, with notice, and with confidentiality that survives withdrawal.
How engagements are structured.
Discovery conversation.
A thirty-minute call to understand your situation, identify the right service, and determine whether Willow-ICS is the right fit. No commitment required.
Scoping and pathway identification.
If the fit is right, we scope the engagement — the specific work, the funding pathway (grant-funded, partner-funded, government-funded, or fee-for-service), and the timeline.
Engagement letter and kickoff.
A simple engagement letter confirms scope, deliverables, timeline, and terms. We move quickly from agreement to action.
Delivery and reporting.
We deliver the work and report progress at the pace your governance requires. Deliverables are structured for use — not for filing.
Capability transfer.
Every engagement ends with a deliberate transfer of capability — systems, documents, processes, and knowledge your team can use independently going forward.
Pricing is not published. Here is why.
Engagements are scoped and priced based on the specific need, the funding pathway, and the client's direction. For Nations, many engagements are funded through federal or provincial programs, industry partnership contributions, or grant mechanisms — which means the cost to the Nation may be substantially lower than a standard fee-for-service rate. We never charge a percentage of grant or program funding secured, and we never accept industry contributions toward an engagement where that proponent sits across the table from our client. For proponents, engagements are structured as defined scoping mandates — typically in the low-to-mid five figures — followed by monthly liaison retainers with milestone-based success components.
A discovery call is the right place to discuss budget, funding pathway, and scope.