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 companies are currently listed on Canadian exchanges, against a proportional target of 150 to 200.

Raitt argues that the deals Indigenous communities are presenting to institutional investors are resource, energy, and infrastructure transactions evaluated on the same commercial terms as any other proponent.

The conversation covers the capital stack now forming around Indigenous projects, including federal loan guarantees, the FNFA debt programme, and the first exchange-listed equity vehicles, alongside TMX Group's reconciliation-linked index data showing 20 years of outperformance among committed companies.

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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 ‪@DownieWenjack‬
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 Chief Executive Officer of the Fund and a board director at the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, joins Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant to set out what this cultural shift means for international investors evaluating Canadian assets.
Sarah's argument for the Square Mile is direct: companies still treating Indigenous communities as stakeholders rather than rights holders are carrying unpriced execution risk. 

The Partnership Accreditation in Indigenous Relations framework, administered by CCIB, now gives Canadian boards a four-pillar measurement system. Indigenous consent and partnership, Sarah says, can determine whether a major Canadian project gets built.

Starting next week, Drumbeats publishes every Tuesday. We have an exciting new series coming — stay tuned.

Learn more about the ‪@DownieWenjack‬
Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund:
https://downiewenjack.ca

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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 Des Nedhe Group. The professional services firm supports some of Canada's largest resource companies with Indigenous engagement, communications, reporting, and reconciliation efforts, while returning profits back to the Nation and making a grassroots impact across the country.

Jordan outlines how that ownership model shapes the firm's competitive advantage, its approach to community-centred impact, and the practical work required to move reconciliation from intention to implementation.

The conversation covers reconciliation action plans that go beyond shelf documents, the commercial case for board-level Indigenous governance, equity participation models for Nations, and why Canada's fastest-growing demographic represents the country's future workforce, leadership and project partner base.

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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 Shannin notes outperforms the commercial banks. Annual lending has risen 60% since 2024.

What this episode covers:
Fund mechanics and LP access: an evergreen structure where investors are paid first, with a Canadian LP as the established entry route for UK and European institutions. Network scale and credit quality: 55,000 loans, C$3.6bn deployed, 60% annual lending growth, and OECD recognition across 80 member states as a global best practice model. Canada's major project pipeline: a C$10bn government guarantee for Indigenous community equity ownership in major projects, with the NACCA lending network as the small business supplier base those projects depend on.

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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 representing eighty-one First Nations chiefs across Canada with a mandate to defeat on-reserve poverty through major resource development.

Dale brings two decades of front-line pipeline consultation experience, including his role leading the Aboriginal Equity Partners process for the Northern Gateway pipeline. He breaks down why, contrary to the prevailing media narrative, thirty-one of forty directly affected First Nations communities signed on as supporters of that project, including a thirty-three percent ownership stake unlike anything seen on a Canadian pipeline since.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• Why Northern Gateway 2.0 will only proceed as a First Nations-led project, and what that means for the capital structure of the next generation of Canadian export infrastructure

• How the Coalition Model has produced multi-billion-dollar Indigenous asset acquisitions in upstream and midstream

• The strategic case for Kitimat over Prince Rupert as Canada's principal Pacific export terminal

• Why over half of Canadians now back domestic fossil fuel production, a sentiment shift that hasn't occurred since before 2015

• The candid investor view on regulatory ambiguity around free, prior, and informed consent legislation

This is essential intelligence for European institutional investors with allocations to Canadian energy infrastructure, critical minerals, and adjacent sectors, and for advisors structuring transactions where Indigenous participation is now a precondition rather than an afterthought.

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 hundred million Canadian dollars in SIIFC loan guarantees and targeted for operation in 2027.

The Seven Stars project is the anchor, but Cowessess Ventures runs a diversified portfolio: a separate two hundred megawatt wind project, a ten megawatt solar facility, biochar processing with the City of Regina, more than one hundred thousand acres of agricultural land, and a one hundred and fifty acre urban holding inside the City of Regina itself.

Jake holds existing equity partnerships with UK and German-based investors and is actively seeking further international capital. Recorded at TMX Studios, Toronto.

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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 year in 2026. Under Bill's leadership the trust business has grown from roughly $800 million to $1.4 billion in assets under management, and the bank's current equity raise has already exceeded its $50 million target ahead of close.

What this episode covers:

• Credit profile and partnership architecture: a near-zero default rate and a $25 million lending cap multiplied through co-financing with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, BDC, and EDC.
• The $1.5 trillion Canadian SME succession opportunity, and why First Nations economic development corporations are emerging as long-hold buyers that preserve management and legacy where private equity does not.
• Sectors moving fastest under the Carney government's major projects agenda, with Bill flagging defence as an opportunity most Nations have yet to position for.

 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 opportunity set, and what the European debt market needs to see before deploying at scale.

In this episode, recorded with hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant, Darryl covers:

• Why Aviva treats Canada as a core geography alongside the United Kingdom and Ireland, and how that shapes infrastructure debt appetite

• Why investment-grade construction-phase debt, including greenfield exposure, sits well within Aviva Investors' mandate, and the conditions required to deliver it

• How the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, the First Nations Finance Authority, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and Longhouse Capital, alongside Canadian banks and specialist advisors, are building a credible institutional ecosystem for packaging Indigenous infrastructure opportunities

• The structural parallel between Indigenous infrastructure investment and earlier institutional cycles such as P3 and renewables, and why this opportunity should not be treated as a minority sport

To follow Drumbeats and access further intelligence on Canadian Indigenous investment opportunities, subscribe through your preferred podcast platform and visit the Canadian Indigenous Investment Forum online. 

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 investors. At least $10 billion of additional Canadian deployment over the next five years, with a stated intention to lift Canada's share of the portfolio meaningfully above its current 20%. OMERS is one of Canada's Maple 8, managing approximately $155 billion in equity for 665,000 Ontarians, with a global portfolio operating across 14 time zones.

In this conversation with Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant, Hutcheson sets out:

Why OMERS is finding Canada more investable than it has been in recent decades How the Bruce Power isotopes joint venture financing was priced at levels comparable to Government of Canada and Government of Ontario notes, and why this matters as a prototype for Indigenous-partnered infrastructure debt The $90 billion annual delta between current Canadian defence spend and the 2035 NATO target, and why the move from 70% foreign procurement to 70% domestic creates an addressable opportunity set across industrials and infrastructure Why First Nations are no longer accepting one-off cheques and are demanding equity positions in the businesses operating on their territories The competitive gap with the United States on corporate tax, depreciation rules, and treaty arrangements Hutcheson runs OMERS on a fiduciary mandate that he describes plainly. "If we're playing jump ball with opportunities in England or Australia or the US or Canada, we really do try to weight more heavily for Canada, but not because we're being nice about it." The math has to work first.

For UK and continental European Managing Directors in Leveraged Finance, Debt Capital Markets, Infrastructure Finance, and Industrials coverage, this is a direct read on capital allocation thinking from inside the Maple 8. 

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 with CEO Ron Hyggen about how Kitsaki reached this scale across Saskatchewan's uranium and potash sectors, and why it is now opening to external capital for the first time in its history.

You'll learn:

• How Kitsaki built a full-service platform working with Cameco, Orano, Nutrien, Mosaic, and BHP

• A governance model that keeps chief and council in the boardroom under director-level fiduciary duties

• Why Kitsaki is now borrowing externally and exploring equity participation in Canada's critical minerals strategy

• What any prospective partner needs to bring: alignment with the nation's interests, willingness to negotiate rather than dictate, and a long-term orientation

Forty years of self-funded growth. Now ready to talk to outside capital, on its own terms.

 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 trillion in assets, working to define how responsible investment in mining is properly applied and to translate those standards into investment practice.

In this episode of Drumbeats, Adam Matthews explains how institutional investors are building and applying risk and governance frameworks that shape responsible investment in mining, and how those frameworks are increasingly used to assess Indigenous partnership structures in Canada.

In this conversation, you'll learn: 

• Why mining matters more to the global economy than what most investment portfolios show • What the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030 is doing to reshape standards for responsible mining

• The difference between real Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and simple box-ticking compliance, and how investors tell them apart

• How a new Investor Mining Performance Framework is being built to link Indigenous rights and mining standards to how investments are assessed • Why Canada’s Indigenous equity partnership model is getting more attention from large global investors

• How global politics against ESG are affecting long-term investment strategies in the UK and Europe

This is why Canada’s Indigenous equity partnership model is gaining attention from global investors. It is being recognised as a practical benchmark for responsible mining, and is increasingly being built into the frameworks that shape how institutional capital evaluates mining projects. 

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 what the room revealed — the conversations that moved furthest and the intelligence that matters for institutional capital with an interest in Canada.

On energy: A major LNG project in northwest British Columbia is approaching a final investment decision. The Indigenous nation involved holds a fifty-fifty equity stake. The key insight from the session was not the project's scale. It was that the Indigenous partner has been actively lobbying the Canadian government to advance the project — not delay it. Production is targeted for around 2030.

On institutional capital: A major European asset manager moderated the infrastructure debt panel. The First Nations Finance Authority recently completed a bond financing of half a billion dollars, drawing institutional demand from investors outside Canada.

On governance: A fireside conversation explored a governance model that has built over one hundred and eighty million dollars in consolidated assets across multiple sectors over forty-four years — and what institutional due diligence should be asking about it.

On defence and the circumpolar frontier: The Canada-UK Defence and Resilience Partnership, announced in the days before the summit, shifted the weight of the Arctic Security Corridor session considerably. Canada has committed thirty billion dollars to northern defence and infrastructure. The government has set a minimum of five per cent of procurement with Indigenous partners — and Indigenous-owned enterprises have been positioning for this moment.

Summit 2027 returns to the Square Mile in April. Subscribe to Drumbeats to follow the conversations that began in that room.