Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast

Canadian Indigenous Investment Forum
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WELCOME TO DRUMBEATS Drumbeats is the must-listen podcast for investors interested in Indigenous investment in Canada. Born from the Canadian Indigenous Investment Forum, the show focuses on the nexus of Indigenous economic strategies and investment opportunities. Hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant, co-chairs of the Summit, lead engaging interviews and expert analyses that explore how these crucial conversations impact economic development within Indigenous communities and beyond.

  1. 1d ago

    One Review, One Year, and C$1 Trillion Riding on Execution

    Canada's marginal effective tax rate on new business investment has fallen to 6.4% under the Productivity Mega Deduction. Finance Canada puts the equivalent United States rate at 16.9% and the United Kingdom at 30.2%. Prime Minister Carney announced the measure to over 100 of the world's largest investors at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, which produced nearly C$500 billion in new investment commitments against a C$1 trillion five year ambition. Alongside it came private investment opening across Toronto Pearson, Montréal-Trudeau, Vancouver and Calgary airports, and a commitment to complete all regulatory reviews for major projects within one year. Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant take the week apart. The C$50 billion Maple Fund from CPP Investments and Brookfield. Bell Canada's C$50 billion Saskatchewan data centre expansion, partnered with George Gordon First Nation. Ernie Daniels of the First Nations Finance Authority among the Indigenous leaders Carney acknowledged. The Prime Minister's move on to Europe in the days that followed. Running through all of it is the question of execution, including scepticism over whether meaningful Indigenous consultation fits inside a twelve month clock.

    One Review, One Year, and C$1 Trillion Riding on Execution

  2. Sep 15

    Inside Carney's C$1 Trillion Summit, 167 Projects, One Condition

    Canada's trillion dollar investment agenda now has the prime minister's own words behind it. Opening the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto this week, Mark Carney told the room it is time to build big projects that transform and connect the economy, and that shared leadership with Indigenous peoples sits at the centre of that mission. More than 160 projects are on the table, but only 15 are described in the summit's own prospectus as shovel ready or fully permitted, among them the US$28.5 billion Ksi Lisims floating LNG terminal in northern British Columbia. Every one of those 160 projects crosses land where more than 500 First Nations hold constitutionally protected rights, and consultation with them is mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada without exception. Charles Morven of Nisga'a Lisims Government set out exactly how that consultation becomes a working partnership, alongside Ernie Daniels of the First Nations Finance Authority, Professor Michael Mainelli and Adam Matthews. Toronto has the ambition. This episode has the mechanism.

    Inside Carney's C$1 Trillion Summit, 167 Projects, One Condition

  3. Sep 8

    The Trillion Dollar Agenda Runs Through Indigenous Land

    Canada's $1 Trillion Investment Agenda Runs Through Indigenous Land. As the Canada Investment Summit opens in Toronto next week, this special episode of Drumbeats explains why. The Rt Hon Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, has called shared leadership with Indigenous peoples central to building the major projects now targeted for investment. No pipeline, mine, port or energy project can proceed without the consent and partnership of the Indigenous communities whose territories they cross, a requirement mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada without exception. This episode brings together voices recorded at the Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit, held in the City of London in April 2026: Indigenous leaders, institutional investors, senior bankers and government officials, all speaking to how Indigenous partnership actually gets structured, financed and delivered. For UK and European institutional investors watching Toronto next week, this is the other half of the story, and the one that determines whether commitments become completed projects. The Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit returns to the City of London on 27 April 2027. Registration is open at canadianindigenousinvestmentforum.org.

    The Trillion Dollar Agenda Runs Through Indigenous Land

  4. Sep 1

    Why Growth and Indigenous Rights Are Not Competing Interests

    Economic growth, investment certainty and Indigenous rights sit on one pathway, not three competing priorities to weigh against each other. In the second of two conversations, Kluane Adamek, Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Council to Canada's Major Projects Office, sets out why. Adamek also sets out what she would say to an asset manager in London, a pension fund in the Netherlands, or a corporate development team in Frankfurt approaching Canada for the first time. Community wellbeing and prosperity go together, and moving beyond consultation is where a durable partnership gets built. Indigenous nations, in her framing, are governments, investors, partners and nation builders. The first conversation established how the Council secured an extension to a proposed thirty-day engagement window, and what that means for how certainty gets built into a project timeline.

    Why Growth and Indigenous Rights Are Not Competing Interests

  5. Aug 25

    What Actually Triggers Federal Advice On A Resource Project

    Federal timelines, community readiness and investor certainty sit on one pathway, not three competing clocks. In the first of two conversations, Kluane Adamek, Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Council to Canada's Major Projects Office, sets out why. A recent piece of federal legislation shows what that pathway looks like in practice. Adamek recounts the Council pushing to extend a proposed one-month engagement period, an intervention with a direct bearing on how much trust a process can build before a decision is made. For a project finance banker in London, an infrastructure fund manager in Amsterdam, or a sector coverage banker in Paris, the lesson is that a thirty-day engagement window is a starting point for negotiation rather than a hard deadline. A nation's answer of "yes, but not right now" functions as a planning signal, and the fastest route to certainty runs through relationships and shared information ahead of a compressed timeline. The Council's role, in Adamek's own framing, is helping the government build the relationships with rights holders that create certainty and lead to better decisions. The second conversation continues with a wider view of what Indigenous partnership means for investors approaching Canada for the first time.

    What Actually Triggers Federal Advice On A Resource Project

  6. Aug 18

    Interprovincial Transmission: Indigenous Ownership and Grid Modernisation

    Thirty First Nations along a transmission line. Kwatuuma Cole Sayers, co-founder and executive director of the Indigenous Power Coalition, explains how coordinated collective ownership de-risks major infrastructure. Canada is entering one of the largest electricity infrastructure build-outs in its history. Major transmission projects cross dozens of First Nations territories. Historically, projects stall because sponsors negotiate with ten, twenty, thirty separate Indigenous counterparties instead of one aligned owner. Kwatuuma convenes First Nations as collective owners in major transmission infrastructure, moving them from passive participants to project proponents on their own terms. This changes the capital structure. When First Nations sit as coordinated equity holders, execution risk for sponsors shifts dramatically. Capital providers see governance aligned with long-dated pension fund thinking. Interprovincial transmission coordination barriers that have stalled projects for years become solvable. The episode covers how First Nations collective ownership de-risks transmission projects, why counterparty alignment matters more than capital availability, and the Western Transmission Catalyst Initiative's approach to provincial coordination problems. For DCM originators, leveraged finance teams, infrastructure fund managers, and transmission project sponsors, this addresses how Indigenous partnership structures become deal enablers rather than project complications. Explore the Indigenous Power Coalition: www.indigenouspowercoalition.ca

    Interprovincial Transmission: Indigenous Ownership and Grid Modernisation

  7. Aug 11

    Arctic Infrastructure: $32B, Indigenous-Led, and Canada's First Deep-Water Port

    Arctic infrastructure: $32B in defence spending meets Indigenous-led road to Canada's first deep-water port. Two CEOs from the Northwest Territories. Canada's Arctic is entering a multi-decade infrastructure cycle. The federal government has committed $32 billion in defence spending across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Labrador, while the proposed Arctic Economic Security Corridor would build the first all-season road from Yellowknife towards the Arctic coast, connecting to the Grays Bay Road and Port Project to establish Canada's first deep-water port on the Northwest Passage. Paul Gruner, CEO of the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation, and Mark Lewis, President and CEO of Det'on Cho Management LP, lead the economic development arms of the two Indigenous nations co-leading the Arctic Economic Security Corridor. In this episode, recorded live at the London Stock Exchange during the third annual Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit, they explain how the closure of the Diavik diamond mine has concentrated Northern economic strategy, why Indigenous proponents accelerate rather than impede major project timelines, and what the convergence of defence, critical minerals, and infrastructure means for institutional capital. Subscribe to the Canadian Indigenous Investment Forum newsletter for weekly intelligence on Indigenous investment opportunities across Canada

    Arctic Infrastructure: $32B, Indigenous-Led, and Canada's First Deep-Water Port

  8. Aug 4

    North America's First Indigenous Bond: $200M, New Asset Class, New Capital Stack

    BMO's $200M indigenous bond was materially oversubscribed. A $10B federal loan guarantee is reshaping Canada's project capital stack. Two architects explain. BMO Capital Markets issued the first labelled indigenous bond by a North American bank, a CAD $200 million instrument that was materially oversubscribed and has since won Environmental Finance's Social Bond of the Year. In this episode, John Uhren, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at BMO, explains the investor demand and what it means for future issuance. Jolain Foster, Managing Partner of Nation Building at Deloitte Canada, describes how her practice prepares Indigenous nations to reach final investment decisions as equity partners, not consultation participants. She outlines the capacity-building roadmap that proponents are now funding directly. Recorded in the City of London during the Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit 2026, this conversation covers: the $10 billion federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programme and the provincial programmes operating alongside it; why proponents increasingly treat Indigenous communities as preferred co-investors; how Indigenous equity participation de-risks permitting and accelerates project timelines; and the emerging structures through which nations are accessing international capital markets.

    North America's First Indigenous Bond: $200M, New Asset Class, New Capital Stack
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About

WELCOME TO DRUMBEATS Drumbeats is the must-listen podcast for investors interested in Indigenous investment in Canada. Born from the Canadian Indigenous Investment Forum, the show focuses on the nexus of Indigenous economic strategies and investment opportunities. Hosts Mark Magnacca and Rob Brant, co-chairs of the Summit, lead engaging interviews and expert analyses that explore how these crucial conversations impact economic development within Indigenous communities and beyond.

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