Aaron Joe, founder and chief operating officer at Salish Soils, might not consider himself an “awards person,” but the accolades keep coming regardless.
On June 4, Joe was named a regional finalist for EY Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 award, recognizing the achievements of more than 130 entrepreneurs.
“I found out that somebody nominated me about a month ago and I certainly don't feel like an awards kind of person,” Joe told Coast Reporter. "I guess my hope would be that it sets an example of inspiration for our young people. When I look at Indigenous people in business, we're probably 100 years behind the rest of the country, so I think these kinds of things set an example for us as innovators and collaborators and people who work in reconciliation, to be able to inspire our young people to do the same.”
Salish Soils was first created in 2010 in the shíshálh Nation swiya. Since then, the Sechelt-based company has become known for composting and recycling waste that otherwise would have ended up in the region’s landfill — diverting about 50 per cent of those waste streams. The company collects and processes materials including fish waste, food scraps and biosolids residuals within the territories of shíshálh Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, and the Tla'amin Nation. By taking organic waste and turning it into high-quality compost, topsoil, and other landscaping products, the company has been recognized as a model for Indigenous-owned green enterprises.
Joe also helped launch Salish Seas Regenerative Farm, which is expanding with a goal to create a six-acre “model urban farm utilizing organic compost and the principles of regenerative agriculture to restore local ecosystems and cultivate local healthy food on the Sunshine Coast.”
A big part of what Joe does is provide employment for locals, including young Indigenous men and women. He considers it a training ground for them to move onto larger businesses.
“We want to see our people get the training they need to be able to get the jobs they want. So, if that's what they want, then that's okay, too,” said Joe.
He notes, he got the inspiration for Salish Soils while working in the mining industry and witnessing first-hand the amount of organic waste they were producing by clearing off hundreds of acres of land. He says he felt the same way while working in the forestry industry.
“To me, back then, I didn't feel the responsible thing was just to light it all on fire and burn it all up into the atmosphere,” said Joe. “And so, we were hoping to try some different innovative techniques on how to manage that. But I think it wasn't cost-effective to the people we were working for. And then I got into that.”
He was also inspired by a news article he read, which said the local landfill was reaching capacity, so he began looking at ways to minimize the amount of waste that was being buried.
“And so, it kind of peaked an idea for me. And I thought, well, you know, 44 per cent of the materials going into the landfill were organic waste,” said Joe. “I've always wanted to build some kind of circular economy within the Nation, and as an example of what could happen. It's an interesting time, I think, for us as Indigenous entrepreneurs. There's a lot of opportunity in resource extraction, but not a lot of opportunities presenting themselves in resource regeneration so, hence, we created a solution.”
According to an EY news release, the individuals nominated for the award not only drive innovation, “they also play a crucial role in strengthening the Canadian business landscape.” The finalists were selected by an independent judging panel for their entrepreneurial spirit, leadership, community impact and purpose.
An independent panel of judges will select regional award winners and an overall winner from each Canadian region, who will be announced in October. Regional winners will then compete at the national level in November for the title of Canada’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025. The overall Canadian winner will then go on to compete in Monaco for the title of EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2026.
