Mike McDonald, KC

Director, BC Hydro

Appointed May 21, 2024

Mike retired from full-time law practice on December 31, 2022. Throughout his professional life, he has been a trusted legal advisor to Indigenous and other business leaders in forestry, energy, mining, construction, environmental, and real estate sectors. Mike was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 2017. He became a national leader in the development of Impact Benefit Agreements while acting on some of Canada’s largest projects. He was a leading lawyer in the Indigenous Business, Indigenous Law and Governance, and Environmental Law contexts and ranked nationally by Lexpert for his expertise in Indigenous Law and Mining law. Throughout his legal career, Mike also led innovative work at the BC Law Society in creating and implementing a Reconciliation Plan and bringing in mandatory Indigenous intercultural competency training for all lawyers in B.C.

Mike currently sits as a member of the Board of Governors of Simon Fraser University.

Mike is of Cree descent and is a member of the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba through his father who was a BC Hydro employee from the mid 60s to the early 1980s. His mother is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba.