Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast

Indigenous capital markets, institutional deal flow, and a 2-to-200 listed company gap: TMX Group CEO John McKenzie and CIBC's Lisa Raitt. John McKenzie, CEO of TMX Group, and the Hon. Lisa Raitt, Vice Chair at CIBC Capital Markets, sit down with Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant during the Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit 2026. McKenzie quantifies the scale of the opportunity: two Indigenous-led c...

Over nine thousand five hundred Canadian schools, all five major Canadian banks, and over one hundred major corporates have signed up to the work of the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund, the charity that grew out of a terminally ill rock star's call to his country in August 2016 to do something about the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Sarah Midanik, President and...

Jordan Baptiste, Partner and President of Creative Fire, joins Drumbeats to discuss how a 25-year-old Nation-owned Indigenous advisory, engagement and creative agency is supporting major companies including Agnico Eagle, Ontario Power Generation and Denison Mines. Creative Fire is a Nation-owned Indigenous advisory, strategy, and creative consultancy, owned by English River First Nation through De...

Shannin Metatawabin, CEO of NACCA, on 55,000 Indigenous business loans at a 97% repayment rate and the fund that pays investors first. The National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association is Canada's national body for more than 50 Indigenous financial institutions. Over 35 years, the network has made 55,000 loans to Indigenous entrepreneurs and small businesses, with a 97% repayment rate that...

For institutional investors weighing Canadian energy and infrastructure exposure, the framing of Indigenous engagement has fundamentally shifted. The new question isn't whether First Nations will support projects. It's whether they will lead them. In this episode of Drumbeats, hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant speak with Dale Swampy, President of the National Coalition of Chiefs, a body representi...

Indigenous equity. Enbridge. 200MW wind. Six First Nations. 30% equity stake. Institutional-scale Indigenous partnership in Canada. Jake Sinclair is CEO of Cowessess Ventures Ltd and President of Six Nations Energy Development LP, the consortium that negotiated a minimum thirty per cent equity stake in the Seven Stars Wind Project, a two hundred megawatt Enbridge development backed by up to one hu...

Bill Lomax, CEO of First Nations Bank of Canada, on growing a Schedule I Indigenous-owned bank to $5.4B AUM with a near-zero default record. Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant sit down with Bill at the TMX Market Centre in Toronto during the FNMPC annual conference. Founded in 1996 with TD Bank as regulatory sponsor and now approximately 91% Indigenous-owned, First Nations Bank of Canada marks its 30th y...

Aviva Investors' Head of Infrastructure Debt, Darryl Murphy, brings nearly three decades of European institutional capital experience to a frank assessment of Canada's Indigenous infrastructure investment market. In a conversation recorded shortly after the Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit 2026 at the London Stock Exchange, Darryl explains why he believes capital is not the constraint on this...

OMERS President and Chief Executive Officer Blake Hutcheson on Canadian capital deployment, Indigenous equity structures, and the pricing case for major project debt. Recorded in front of a live audience at the First Nations Major Projects Coalition's annual event in late April. Blake Hutcheson, President and Chief Executive Officer of OMERS, has put a clear number on the page for international in...

For forty years, Kitsaki Management Limited Partnership built one of Canada's largest Indigenous enterprise groups without external debt or outside equity. Kitsaki now operates 12 companies and 21 subsidiaries, employs over 2,000 people, and has distributed $47 million back to the 12,900 members of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. In this episode of Drumbeats, hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant speak...

Adam Matthews is the Chief Responsible Investment Officer at the Church of England Pensions Board. He plays a key role in how major institutional investors assess mining companies and evaluate Canada’s Indigenous equity partnership model as part of how they allocate capital. He also chairs the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, a coalition of 125 institutional investors managing about $19...

The Port of Churchill is operational. Canada's only deepwater Arctic seaport, owned entirely by 29 First Nations and 12 northern Manitoba communities, has shipped critical minerals to European markets for two consecutive shipping seasons. Chris Avery, President and CEO of the Arctic Gateway Group, joins Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant on Drumbeats to set out the commercial case for European institutio...

Nearly two hundred investors, lenders, and project principals gathered at the London Stock Exchange for the third annual Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit — and nobody left the sessions. One of Canada's Maple Eight pension funds noted that the corridors were empty all day: a small detail, and a precise one. In this post-summit debrief, Drumbeats hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant go through wha...

In 2025, the Bank of Montreal elevated its Indigenous banking operation from a specialist unit into a dedicated enterprise-wide function - the BMO Office of Reconciliation. The decision came after more than three decades of building what is now Canada's most established Indigenous financial services programme, and it signals something important: Indigenous participation in Canadian capital markets...

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...

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, th...

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 Dru...

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, Managi...

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 Advisor...

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 framewor...

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 Reconc...

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 c...

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 Par...

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 fas...

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 th...