Drumbeats: Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast

The old investment rules are no longer enough to protect capital in this new market with greater macro volatility.

With the oil crisis ongoing, the global economy continues to face rising pressure and uncertainty. Crude prices have soared up to $112 per barrel. European gas surged more than 70% in March, and TTF, the European gas benchmark, traded at €54 per megawatt-hour.

Even gold and government bonds, which investors usually trust in tough times, are no longer providing the stability they once did.

Where can investors safely put their money?

In this pre-summit episode of Drumbeats, just a few days before the 2026 Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit at the London Stock Exchange, hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant discuss what’s changed, what matters, and why Canadian Indigenous partnerships are becoming viable solutions for long-term, stable investment opportunities.

If you’re an investor, asset manager, or involved in any large-scale infrastructure or resource projects, this episode is a clear preview of where to find sustainable capital opportunities.

As global capital markets shift, Canada is emerging as a stronger solution.

In April 2025, the Premiers of Manitoba and Nunavut signed a joint declaration to create a strategic energy and economic corridor between the two jurisdictions. Manitoba repatriated expiring hydro export contracts to the US and carved out 50 megawatts specifically for the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link. 

As Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, CEO of Nukik Corporation, explains in this episode: until that moment, the project had a concept but no product to flow through the transmission line. That declaration changed everything.

In Part 2 of this two-episode conversation, Anne-Raphaëlle takes Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant inside the project itself - its full specification, its commercial architecture, and the one remaining obstacle between concept and construction.

The Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link is a 1,200-kilometre dual-use transmission and fibre optic asset running from Churchill in northern Manitoba to five of the Kivalliq region's seven communities.

Its anchor customer is Agnico Eagle Mines which Anne-Raphaelle describes as the largest Canadian gold miner and the second-largest gold miner in the world with two operating mines in the region for close to 20 years. Mining represents 75% of Nunavut's GDP. That anchor customer's long-term energy requirements are the bankable revenue that makes private capital participation viable.

In this second episode, Mark Magnacca, Rob Brant and Anne-Raphaëlle cover:
◦ Why the April 2025 joint declaration was the project's defining commercial turning point, triggering MISO certification, the transmission service request to Manitoba Hydro, and commercial agreements with Qulliq Energy Corporation.
◦ The capital structure: Canada Infrastructure Bank leading the financial workstream, senior debt market sounding currently under way, and why the federal backstop is the piece that has not yet moved.
◦ The chicken-and-egg financing dynamic and why the federal government is a key enabler.
◦ The Greenland benchmark: no engineering reason separates what Greenland has built from what Nunavut could achieve, the gap is political.
◦ The defence and Arctic sovereignty dimension, and what Canada's growing national defence budget means for projects of this kind.

Commercial close is targeted for 2026 or early 2027. 

The financial investment decision follows in 2028, with construction starting by the end of that year.

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Nunavut is 20% of Canada's landmass. It has no roads, no transmission lines and no physical connection to the rest of the nation. Every watt of electricity powering its homes, hospitals, schools and two major gold mines runs on diesel and almost all of that diesel is imported from foreign countries. Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, CEO of Nukik Corporation, is working to change that.

In this episode of Drumbeats, Anne-Raphaëlle explains the scope of the challenge, the commercial architecture of the solution, and why she believes Canada's Arctic represents one of the most compelling regulated infrastructure opportunities available to institutional investors today.

Nukik Corporation was established in 2021 by the Kivalliq Inuit Association, making it 100% Inuit-owned. Its flagship project - the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Linkis a $3 billion, 1,000-kilometre transmission line that would connect the Kivalliq region's communities, government and mining operations to the continental grid for the first time. Anne-Raphaëlle joined as CEO in 2022, bringing a career spanning environmental law, natural resources management and over a decade in the hydropower sector across Canada and West Africa.

In this first part of a two-episode conversation, Mark Magnacca, Rob Brant and Anne-Raphaëlle cover:
• Why Nunavut's 25 communities were settled artificially during Canada's Arctic colonisation in the 1950s and 1960s, and how that history shapes the infrastructure deficit today
• The energy sovereignty risk: 138 million litres of foreign diesel imported annually, with telecommunications dependent on non-Canadian Starlink technology
• Nukik's landmark MISO certification making it the first and only Arctic electricity developer accredited by a US regional transmission organisation  and what that milestone means for project bankability
• Mark Carney's Major Projects Office and why Nukik meets all five national interest criteria, yet commercial close remains contingent on federal commitment
• Why Inuit communities are pushing Nukik to build faster, and why that represents a rare and valuable social license for infrastructure investors

For UK and continental European institutional investors, the strategic parallels are direct: regulated transmission infrastructure, sovereign-backed energy security imperatives, and anchor customers in the form of major mining operations with long-term energy contracts. The project is commercially advanced. The question, as Anne-Raphaëlle puts it plainly, is who blinks first.

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For institutional investors, infrastructure fund managers, and senior advisors evaluating Canadian project opportunities, the question is no longer whether Indigenous equity participation matters - it is how the financing actually works, and what the federal government is doing to accelerate it. This episode answers both questions directly.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Jonathan Davey, Managing Director of Indigenous and Government Advisory at Scotiabank's Global Banking and Markets division, we move from the biographical to the operational. Jonathan is Haudenosaunee and a member of the Lower Cayuga Nation of the Six Nations of the Grand River. He brings a decade of Indigenous law practice, five years building Scotiabank's Indigenous financial services group, two years in the office of Scotiabank's President and CEO to a conversation that covers the full mechanics of Indigenous project finance in Canada today.

In Part 2, Jonathan covers:
• Section 89 of the Indian Act - why this single provision has historically been the greatest barrier to capital access for Indigenous communities, and the leasehold financing structures and investment vehicles practitioners use to navigate it

• Concessionary capital - what it is, where it comes from, and how forthcoming amendments to the First Nations Fiscal Management Act will allow the First Nations Finance Authority to provide low-cost capital directly to Indigenous special purpose vehicles for the first time

• Canada's $10 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation - how federal and provincial loan guarantee programmes are bringing institutional lender risk weights close to zero on qualifying transactions, and what that means for the cost of capital on major projects

• The Build Canada Act and Major Projects Office - why every project of national interest now requires Indigenous participation, what the federal permit designation programme means for project timelines, and why Jonathan describes the current moment as a massive sea change

• The investment case for partnering with Indigenous groups - beyond the financial incentives, why Jonathan argues that Indigenous business acumen, stewardship, and traditional knowledge make these partnerships operationally compelling, not just politically necessary

• What has genuinely changed in Canada - a direct answer to the question sceptical international investors are asking, from someone who has watched the shift from inside one of Canada's largest banks

The key message for UK and European investors: the structures, programmes, and federal commitment that make Indigenous equity participation in major Canadian projects financially compelling are live now. The practitioners exist, the capital is available, and the deal flow in Jonathan's own words is unlike anything he has seen before.

For senior investment bankers, infrastructure fund managers, and institutional investors building a picture of Canada's Indigenous economy, understanding who is driving change inside the country's major financial institutions matters as much as understanding policy. This episode gives you direct access to one of those people.

Jonathan Davey is Managing Director of Indigenous and Government Advisory at Scotiabank's Global Banking and Markets division- the first role of its kind at a major Canadian bank. Haudenosaunee and a member of the Lower Cayuga Nation of the Six Nations of the Grand River, Jonathan spent a decade practising Indigenous law at Canada's Department of Justice before Scotiabank asked him to help build their Indigenous financial services practice. Most recently he spent a year working directly in the office of Scotiabank's President and CEO Scott Thompson before stepping into his current role.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Jonathan covers:

• His path from Indigenous law to capital markets - why he left the Department of Justice after a decade, what Scotiabank's pitch actually was, and how a mutual investment between banker and institution built something genuinely new
• What it means to work for the Crown as an Indigenous person - Jonathan speaks candidly about the weight of representing a federal government whose decisions have historically been injurious to his community, and why moving to the private sector gave him more room to create change
• A year in the office of Scotiabank's CEO - what Jonathan observed about leadership at the highest level of a major Canadian financial institution, and how Scott Thompson's approach to Indigenous relationships shaped the bank's direction
• Cedar Leaf Capital - how client demand from a single procurement-focused corporate client led Scotiabank to help establish Canada's first Indigenous-owned broker dealer, and why Jonathan considers it one of the bank's proudest achievements
• The collegiality driving Canada's Indigenous finance ecosystem- why practitioners across competing institutions, law firms, and advisory businesses are actively supporting each other's success

The key message for UK and European investors: the infrastructure of Indigenous participation in Canadian capital markets is being built right now, from the inside, by people like Jonathan Davey. This episode introduces you to how that happened and who is doing it.

Canada has a housing crisis in its Indigenous communities that has run for fifty years. The federal government's social housing programme - capped at $150 million annually - produces fewer than one home per community per year across 630 First Nations. The major banks, operating on policies written in the 1960s, have largely refused to lend on-reserve. And yet the infrastructure, the legal frameworks, and the investor appetite to solve this problem exist today.

Tracee Smith, President and CEO of Keewaywin Capital Inc., is the private credit fund manager who is stepping into that gap and building a compelling investment case in the process.

A Missinaibi Cree entrepreneur, former Bay Street lender, and founder of the nationally recognised Outside Looking In youth charity, Tracee brings a rare combination of community credibility and institutional financial fluency to an underserved market. Keewaywin's model is methodical: advance construction capital to First Nations communities, partner with CMHC's Section 95 social housing programme as a near-guaranteed takeout mechanism, and deploy funds at the point where traditional lenders refuse to go - the design-to-completion construction phase.

In this episode, Rob Brant speaks with Tracee about:

• Why Canada's major banks have structurally failed on-reserve communities - and why that represents a private credit opportunity
• How Keewaywin's partnership with CMHC provides investors with a near-sovereign-backed repayment structure
• The fund's first major deployment: a $25 million deal in Manitoba delivering 30 modular homes and infrastructure for 200 units
• Why UK and European pension capital is beginning to look seriously at Indigenous private credit funds
• The systemic policy failures - from siloed government programmes to discriminatory lending practices - that make private capital essential

For UK and continental European institutional investors, Keewaywin represents something increasingly rare: a private credit fund with quantifiable social impact, a defined security structure, and access to a Canadian market that remains almost entirely overlooked by international capital.

Canada Indigenous business growth, oil sands investment opportunities, and Truth and Reconciliation economic impact explained by Nicole Bourque, CEO of Bouchier Group.

UK and European investors gain insight into how a $200M Indigenous-owned industrial company is scaling, winning ExxonMobil recognition, and building institutional-grade growth platforms.

Part 2 explores how Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission became an unexpected catalyst for Indigenous business competitiveness, unlocking new commercial pathways for Indigenous-owned companies operating at scale. In this continuation of our conversation, Nicole discusses Bouchier's transformation:

• Nicole explains how Bouchier Group integrated Indigenous identity with operational excellence.

• Nicole reveals why her company achieved 25% growth in peak years and why she's now deliberately slowing to 5% growth at the $200 million threshold to explore diversification beyond oil sands.

• What international investors misunderstand about Indigenous partnerships in Canada’s resource economy.

An Indigenous female CEO whose company proves Indigenous-led businesses succeed on merit, alliances, and good partnerships.

ABOUT NICOLE BOURQUE: Nicole Bourque serves as CEO and Co-owner of The Bouchier Group, one of Canada's largest Indigenous-owned companies with $200+ million annual revenues, 1,400 employees from nearly 100 First Nations, and major contracts with CNRL, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy. Recent recognition: December 2024 Member of the Order of Canada, December 2024 ExxonMobil International Diverse Supplier Award

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Why UK and European investors are re-evaluating Indigenous partnerships in Canada

00:13 - Scaling a $200M Indigenous-owned industrial services company in Canada’s oil sands

00:45 - Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a catalyst for institutional investment

01:48 - Indigenous culture, ESG, and operating in Canada’s energy and infrastructure sectors

04:50 - Competing on commercial merit: Indigenous enterprises and global capital expectations

08:53 - ExxonMobil’s global supplier award and what it signals to international investors

10:39 - Diversification beyond Alberta: national expansion and infrastructure opportunities

12:29 - Governance, systems, and capital discipline to scale from $200M to $400M

19:03 - What UK and European investors misunderstand about Indigenous partnerships

20:15 - Lessons from a UK minority investment partnership and institutional governance

30:43 - How international investors should engage Indigenous communities in Canada

33:45 - Relationship-led capitalism as Canada’s strategic advantage in global markets

In this first part of our conversation, Nicole Bourque-Bouchier walks through a story that starts with checking her company's first year-end financials on her honeymoon. After the hardest working year of her life, she scrolled to the bottom line: minus $250,000.

That was 2005. Bouchier just closed 2025 at $200 million.

Nicole is CEO of Bouchier, one of Canada's largest privately-owned Indigenous companies in Alberta's oil sands. She's Mikisew Cree, raised on the trapline before her father took a Syncrude job and moved the family to Fort McMurray. She worked through Syncrude, ran her own consulting business, then joined Shell - where she met David, who had a small contracting operation on the side.

In 2004, they both quit their corporate jobs and went all in. Nicole admits she \"didn't know what a dozer or excavator was\" when she started. Everything about running this business, she taught herself.

In this episode, Nicole explains:

$250,000 first-year loss to $200 million, what financial discipline actually looks like

Fort McKay First Nation, Finning Canada, Alberta Treasury Branch extended payment terms - still partners decades later

28-year relationships with CNRL, Suncor, Imperial Oil, how partnership economics drives client retention

Self-taught CEO scaling three divisions with zero business training

99 Indigenous communities, 39% Indigenous workforce, 41% Indigenous leadership

Seven Sacred Teachings in daily operations - values as performance framework

$12 million community investment, zero-default performance record

In December 2024, Nicole received the Order of Canada and ExxonMobil's International Diverse Supplier Award - validation that relationship-based Indigenous business models deliver sustained client retention and performance through cycles.

ABOUT NICOLE BOURQUE-BOUCHIER: Nicole Bourque-Bouchier serves as CEO and Co-owner of Bouchier, one of Canada's largest Indigenous-owned companies with $200+ million annual revenues, 1,400 employees from nearly 100 First Nations, and major contracts with CNRL, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy. Recent recognition: December 2024 Member of the Order of Canada, December 2024 ExxonMobil International Diverse Supplier Award

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Why Indigenous partnerships are central to Canadian natural resource and infrastructure investment

00:12 - Building one of Canada’s largest Indigenous-owned companies in the oil sands

00:51 - Global recognition: Order of Canada and ExxonMobil’s international supplier award

02:49 - Understanding Canada’s oil sands geography for UK and European investors

03:17 - Indigenous land stewardship, traditional economies, and modern resource development

07:48 - Education, oil sands entry, and early engagement between industry and First Nations

10:32 - From side business to full commitment: entrepreneurial risk in capital-intensive sectors

12:21 - Winter roads, exploration logistics, and how oil sands projects are actually built

14:25 - Long-term contracts, zero-default performance, and operational credibility

17:03 - Scaling to $200M revenue with Indigenous leadership and workforce participation

18:59 - First-year losses, capital discipline, and financial resilience

21:04 - Governance lessons every entrepreneur and investor must learn early

23:10 - Strategic partners, banks, and suppliers who enable Indigenous enterprise growth

25:35 - Expansion beyond oil sands: facility maintenance, infrastructure, and national growth

27:21 - Embedding Indigenous values into corporate culture and operational performance

This episode breaks down Indigenous investment, global capital markets, outcomes financing and where the next wave of Indigenous-led impact is heading.

🎧 Jeff Cyr: Founder & Managing Partner, Raven Indigenous Outcomes Funds; CEO, Raven Indigenous Impact Foundation, returns to explain how outcomes-based financing is scaling across Canada and capturing international investment attention.

In Part Two, Jeff goes deeper into how Raven’s model differs from other outcomes funds in the UK, US and Australia—centering community decision-making, prioritizing Indigenous leadership on every project, and designing investments that deliver both measurable societal benefit and fair investor returns.

You’ll hear how Raven’s model is:

• Reshaping the perception of Indigenous economies
• Structuring returns that look and feel like fixed-income products
• Attracting capital from Switzerland, Germany and the United States
• Scaling impact by running multiple $5–$10M investments rather than chasing mega-projects
• Working with governments to shift how public dollars are deployed

Jeff also shares what’s coming next: A national pipeline of First Nations projects, partnerships with governments seeking to accelerate outcomes rather than react to crisis, and a growing international awareness that Indigenous-led funds are delivering both impact and market returns.

Whether you’re an investor, policymaker, development leader or a member of an Indigenous community exploring capital partnerships, Part Two shows the scale of what’s possible—and why Indigenous leadership is shaping Canada’s most exciting economic opportunities.

OUTCOMES FINANCE | INDIGENOUS INVESTMENT | COMMUNITY CAPITAL This episode breaks down how Indigenous communities are accelerating infrastructure, financing clean energy, and reshaping the investment landscape through outcomes-based financing.

Guest: Jeffrey Cyr, Founder & Managing Partner, Raven Indigenous Outcomes Funds.

How do Indigenous Nations deploy housing, energy, and infrastructure faster while delivering investor returns and community impact? Jeffrey Cyr, Founder and Managing Partner of Raven Indigenous Outcomes Funds, breaks down how outcomes-based financing moves projects out of government bottlenecks, channels capital directly into communities, creates measurable public savings, and repays investors from those savings with verified returns.

Jeffrey has spent 20+ years advancing self-determination from negotiating land rights to designing policy systems, leading the National Association of Friendship Centres, and launching the first globally Indigenous-led VC firm.

In this episode, Jeffrey explains:

• How outcomes contracts pool federal and provincial programs into scalable capital pipelines
• Why blended finance unlocks projects that foundations, private equity, or governments can’t fund alone
• How Raven structures returns (4–7%) while keeping wealth inside communities
• How geothermal and solar projects lower housing costs, cut emissions, and keep skilled jobs local
• Why Canada has become a global leader in Indigenous economic development
• Where the next wave of investable projects will emerge housing, clean energy, health, diabetes reduction, and workforce development

You’ll learn why outcomes financing is more than a funding model it’s a tool for redistributing power, capital, and decision-making back to Indigenous communities.

Whether you’re an Indigenous leader, policy-maker, or investor exploring Canada, the UK, the U.S., or Europe, this episode reveals how First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities are moving from surviving to thriving and what opportunities exist for aligned capital.

This episode breaks down Indigenous investment strategy in Saskatchewan’s critical minerals and nuclear sector—including uranium, small modular reactors (SMRs), and Nation-owned economic development models. We explore how First Nations are securing supply chain opportunities in the mining sector, pursuing a diversified investment. Saskatchewan holds 20% of the world’s known uranium reserves and the province’s new focus of also on deploying small modular reactor is creating new opportunities in the nuclear supply chain for Indigenous-led economic development organizations.

Our guest Alex Fallon, CEO of Birch Narrows Dene Nation Development Inc., explains how First Nations are partnering with mining companies like NexGen through Mutual Benefit Agreements to create investment and employment opportunities..

Alex brings a rare threefold perspective:

• A Saskatchewan mining sector focus with his role as CEO Birch Narrows Dene Development Inc.

• Knowledge and opportunities across Canada through his role as Founder & Chair of the Western Canada Economic Forum.

• International investment bridge-building as British Honorary Consul for Saskatchewan for the past 14 years.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Birch Narrows Dene Nation is positioning itself beside one of Saskatchewan’s next major uranium mines

• Why First Nations are pursuing early-stage equity in critical minerals rather than waiting for projects to mature

• Lessons from the Sparrowhawk and Roal Helium MOU

• How loan guarantee programmes can unlock Indigenous ownership in emerging resources

• Saskatchewan’s fast-moving SMR roadmap, including leadership from Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation

• What UK and European investors should understand about working with Indigenous partners in Canada’s natural resource sectors

We also explore the important role of Western Canada Economic Forum plays in bringing key stakeholders from industry, provincial government, and federal government together to spur greater collaboration across Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) in energy and mining, agriculture, and supply chain development.

Whether you’re a Nation building your economic development strategy or an investor looking to partner respectfully and effectively, this episode offers clear, practical insights into where the opportunities are emerging and how Indigenous Nations are positioning to lead them.

This episode examines Indigenous investment in Canada, institutional capital, and Indigenous partnerships, as well as why Indigenous-led finance is now central to infrastructure, energy, and natural resource investment outcomes. Under Dawn Madahbee-Leach leadership a $150,000 First Nation–owned loan fund scaled to more than $170 million, supporting more than 4,000 projects across Canada. In this episode of Drumbeats, she joins Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant to examine what that growth reveals about Indigenous-led capital, governance, and long-term economic value creation. Recorded on the 10th anniversary of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this conversation offers a rare, inside perspective on the National Indigenous Economic Strategy for Canada a landmark framework authored by Indigenous leaders and 25 national organisations, outlining 107 calls to economic prosperity across four pathways: people, land, finance, and infrastructure. Dawn explains how corporations, institutional investors, and government agencies are already implementing elements of the strategy, reshaping procurement, equity participation, and significant project development in the energy, infrastructure, mining, and trade sectors. She also shares what senior decision-makers should watch for ahead of the 2027 progress report and why Indigenous partnerships are no longer optional but foundational to successful investment in Canada. This episode is essential listening for institutional investors, policymakers, corporate leaders, and Indigenous economic leaders as they navigate the future of capital, reconciliation, and economic sovereignty.