About Us
Transform Data into Trust
We are an Indigenous-affiliated data science and communications firm that simplifies data modelling, collection and analytics for regulated industries. We deliver hyper-local insights on investment impacts to help de-risk projects, support advocacy, and contribute to social and climate progress.
Founded in 2014, iTOTEM brings together a diverse team of data scientists, AI engineers, mathematicians, software developers, policy experts, Indigenous relations advisors, and communications specialists, with offices in Vancouver, BC, Fredericton, NB, and Houston, TX.
Services
Shareworthy Local Insights
We turn technical data into shareworthy content and provide the necessary context for effective stakeholder engagement.
What sets iTOTEM apart is our ability to map and analyze a business or sector’s climate, social, and economic activities, offering enhanced insights localized by municipality or electoral boundary at the state, provincial/territorial, or national level.
These insights are transformed into relatable information that not only strengthens advocacy but also supports your business priorities and brand, all while aligning with local standards and international frameworks.
Data Science. No Lab Coats Required.
Rapid Response & Event-Based Surveys for Brand Enhancement
Create smart custom surveys including embedded data sets for compliance, recovery, events, or brand enhancement featuring geotagging and a quick-tap system to timestamp response, track discussions, and capture engagement with photos.
Enhanced Socio-Economic Analytics, Compliance Reporting & Granting Support
Integrate hyper-local insights into operational impacts, covering employment, economic contributions, environmental initiatives, and community development. The service also tracks ESG performance, forecasts future benefits, and assesses the impacts of capital allocation and grants, revealing local progress.
Civic Pages, Industry Association Impact Assessment & Local Content Solutions
Civic Pages generate insights on the impact of your business activities within specific electoral boundaries, enabling effective communication with elected officials on issues that matter to their constituencies. Other services include assessing Industry Impacts producing evidence-based Advocacy factsheets, and Local Content Accounting.
Database Enrichment & Data Science Challenges
Mobilize action and drive impactful advocacy results through integrated and enriched data sets. Other products include offering data wrangling services from diverse sources, processing, and generating insights for performance improvement in cost, schedule, quality, and risk management.
Insight Graphics
Combine, validate, and simplify data into compelling visual designs across various mediums. This service ensures complex information is effectively conveyed in alignment with corporate social performance and industry standards.
Our Work
Enhanced Socio-Economic Analytics, Compliance Reporting & Granting Support
Project: Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada Indigenous Tourism Fund – Micro Small Business Stream
Client: Indigenous Association of Canada, 2023-2025
Description: The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) focuses on creating partnerships between associations, organizations, government departments, and industry leaders from across Canada to support the growth of Indigenous tourism in Canada. ITAC is administering the $10M 2023 - 2025 Indigenous Tourism Fund – Micro Small Business Stream.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM is responsible to fulfill reporting requirements of the Indigenous Tourism Fund – Micro Small Business Stream Contribution Agreement. This includes:
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Receive relevant information from applicant businesses
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Allow access to representative organizations from provinces and territories
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Align with The Original Original accreditation program
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Aggregate and report key data points collected from the campaign to a dashboard and final report
Project: Rio Grande LNG Local Content Reporting
Client: NextDecade, 2024
Description: NextDecade began construction of the 27MTPA Rio Grande Valley LNG (RGLNG) facility in Brownsville, Texas in July 2023. The RGLNG project includes a Local Content program.
iTOTEM Role: RGLNG Local Content program details the employment and economic benefits to the residents of the Rio Grande Valley and Texas. iTOTEM has been engaged to manage the program namely, supporting RGLNG Contractors by:
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Providing simple to use RGLNG Local Content data collection forms
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Outlining all definitions, a list of information requirements and reporting time periods
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Notifying when reports are required
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Addressing any quality assurance issues
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Maintaining a log of a Contractor’s local content files.
Project: Scope Three Reporting
Client: South Post Oak Recycling, 2023
Description: Established in 1994, South Post Oak Recycling Center (SPORC) is a Houston, Texas based metal recycler. SPORC is committed to support the sustainability goals of its clients and the community.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM developed a summary of SPORC contributions to reduce Scope 3 emissions. This is an example of Supplier Development and a potential partner engagement opportunity.
Project: FortisBC Capital Projects Indigenous and Local Content Program
Client: FortisBC, 2024
Description: FortisBC distributes natural gas and electricity to 1.2 million customers in 135 British Columbian communities and 58 First Nations communities. As part of its annual capital investments, FortisBC delivers an Indigenous and Local Content program .
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM has been engaged to manage the program namely, supporting Contractors by:
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Providing simple to use FortisBC Local Content data collection forms
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Outlining all definitions, a list of information requirements and reporting time periods
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Notifying when reports are required
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Addressing any quality assurance issues
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Maintaining a log of a Contractor’s local content files
Civic Pages, Industry Association Impact Assessment & Local Content Solutions
Project: Our Communities Care
Client: Canadian Association Petroleum Producers, 2022
Description: Our Communities Care (OCC) was a ten-month study conducted through December 2021 to September 2022. Aligned with the best practices in Indigenous and local content reporting, as expressed by the ambitions of the ‘Mining Shared Value - Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism’ and the ‘National Indigenous Economic Strategy for Canada’, CAPP member companies provided iTOTEM with all B.C.-based procurement transactions between 2018-2021. Goods, materials, and services purchased from B.C.-based businesses working in the upstream operations of the B.C. natural gas and oil sector were included. The study's findings captured 100% of the annual B.C. upstream capital and operating budgets of CAPP members participating in OCC, which represented roughly 90% of natural gas production in the province at the time.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM designed the model, led the data collection, processing and QA and engaged member companies. This was the most detailed analysis of Indigenous and diverse supply chain participation to date.
Project: Explore our Economy
Client: Association of Mineral Exploration, 2022
Description: Explore our Economy (EOE) engaged more 80 small and mid-size mineral exploration companies to determine Indigenous-affiliated participation and local benefits.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM designed the model, led the data collection, processing and QA and engaged member companies.
Project: BC Works Community Social Performance Annual Report (Rio Tinto, 2023)
Description: Rio Tinto BC Works provides an annual report to Indigenous and local communities in Northwest BC, detailing regional and province-wide contributions in community investments, supply chain, workforce development, and climate and biodiversity initiatives.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM was responsible for developing and managing the data model, overseeing data collection, processing, and quality assurance, and coordinating digital design, copywriting, and creative execution to deliver localized insights.
Project: Civic Pages’ Advocacy Report Builder allows companies to tailor the insights on the benefits of your business activities within an elected official specific constituency / electoral boundaries.
The Builder also allows for flexible boundary setting. If a company has no benefits directly linked to an elected official’s constituency, Civic Pages will automatically default to the closest regional area with benefits to visualize the nearest impact.
This feature ensures that the impact of business activities is effectively communicated, even if direct connections to a specific constituency are absent.
Rapid Response & Event-Based Surveys for Brand Enhancement
Project: Natural Resource Trust Index
Client: iTOTEM, 2024
Description: The Natural Resource Trust Index (NRTI) aimed to gauge, and benchmark trust within British Columbia's natural resource sector in 2024. 26 different organization types from five Provinces and Territories were represented by ~380 survey participants. 15% of participation was Indigenous.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM developed NRTI to align with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines on Measuring Trust. In calculating trust in the Natural Resource sector, the NRTI weighted the following attributes against the survey questions: Cohesive commitment - Ethical conduct - Inclusivity - Reliability - Responsiveness - Transparency. Indigenous peoples and stakeholders were consulted ensuring that the Trust attributes selected were inclusive and reflect the concerns and values of all parties. Survey questions were then categorized into five dimensions:
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Leadership
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Shared value creation and community progress
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Indigenous participation and economic reconciliation
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Government collaboration
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Climate and resiliency
Project: Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association Annual Industry Outlook 2024
Client: Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association, 2024
Description: The Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA) is spearheading an industry outlook project through a nationwide survey of Industry, not-for-profits, academia and community to be completed by June 2024. The survey aims to gather valuable data on industry engagement, operational regions, market prospects, and existing challenges.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM is leading the project from data model design to processing to insight generation to branding. Through its social media channels, iTOTEM is promoting the project as a unique opportunity to contribute to the narrative that will steer the country’s hydrogen and fuel cell advancements.
Database Enrichment & Data Science Challenges
Project: Categorization of Community-based Partners
Client: iTOTEM 2024
Description: By using data from ~5000 community-based organizations from across North America from iTOTEM's past projects as a foundation, we've organized these into several community investment categories. We assign each category a unique numeric identifier—a process called vectorization. For new organizations, machine learning helps us transform their names into these numeric values. iTOTEM then use various data science techniques and the prediction of the trained model to identify if a new organization fits into one of our existing community investment categories.
Insight Graphics
Project: Nechako Watershed and Water Engagement Initiative Community Video
Client: Rio Tinto, 2023
Description: Developed to reach people of all ages and knowledge-levels, a short video to explain the basic operations of the Nechako reservoir in Northwest B.C.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM focused on building a clear and accurate data model, gathering and checking facts and content creation addressing sensitive cultural issues such as reparation of historical grievances. We also created straightforward content explaining how things like rainfall, snow levels, and real-time and historical data are factored considering impacts on dam safety, flooding, erosion and fish and wildlife and habitat and the energy needed to power the Rio Tinto BC Works’ smelter.
Project: Invest in our Future Government of Canada Update
Client: Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, 2022
Description: The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) focuses on creating partnerships between associations, organizations, government departments, and industry leaders from across Canada to support the growth of Indigenous tourism in Canada. ITAC has Contribution Agreements with the Government of Canada and is responsible to fulfill compliance reporting requirements.
iTOTEM Role: iTOTEM engaged Indigenous tourism operators to determine the infrastructure and fiscal supports necessary to support sector recovery post-Covid.
Our Clients Do Good Work
Industry Associations
Not For Profits
Regulated Entities
Government
Address
Vancouver: WeWork Tower
555 Burrard St, 2nd Floor
Vancouver, BC
V7X 1M8
Houston: C/O The Ion
4201 Main Street, Ste 200
Houston, TX
77002
Phone
604.365.8313