Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast · Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit

$10B Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programme Fuels Major Capital Access For Nation-Led Projects

·41 min·2 clips

Canada’s 2023 budget set aside $5 billion for Indigenous loan guarantees, later doubled to $10 billion.

1. Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast centers on the $10 billion Canadian Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation and its role in major capital access for nation-led projects. 2. Host Mark McNacken and co-host Robert Brant speak with Michael Bonshor, CPA, CMA, the inaugural board chair of the Canadian Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation, whose background spans more than 20 years in Indigenous economic development. 3. The episode asks how Indigenous loan guarantees can reduce borrowing costs and let First Nations own more of the projects and infrastructure in their territories. 4. Michael Bonshor says he is from the Muscomog Zawadeenuk tribe in the Zawadeenuk First Nation on the mainland coast of British Columbia. 5. He describes early work with Bank of Montreal on the T'shat Reserve on the west coast of Vancouver Island and later running a branch serving First Nations communities. 6. He says he later worked with a group of 19 First Nations and their development corporation east of Vancouver, where treaty work and Supreme Court cases were reshaping economic rights. 7. Michael explains that in 2020 he started the BC First Nations Business Development Association with three development corporations, and that it now includes just over 90 BC First Nations-owned development corporations. 8. He says the association focuses on capacity, governance, partnerships with government and industry, and a term he uses as “economic reconstruction” rather than only “economic reconciliation.” 9. He also serves on the National Indigenous Economic Development Board and has sat on BC boards related to gaming revenue sharing and health governance. 10. He says the Canadian Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation is a subsidiary of C-DEV, the Canadian Investments Development Corporation, which the federal government uses for business ownership and investment vehicles. 11. Michael defines a crown corporation as a company owned by the federal government with its own board, staff, and governance structure. 12. He says the new corporation exists because Indigenous nations have often lacked affordable capital, even where court cases recognize economic attachment to lands and resources. 13. Michael gives a simple example: if capital costs 10% and the return is 8%, an equity deal becomes hard to justify for Indigenous investors. 14. He says the 2023 federal budget earmarked $5 billion for loan guarantees, and the program was later doubled to $10 billion by Prime Minister Mark Carney. 15. He notes that the initial $5 billion was limited to energy and natural resource projects, while the expanded mandate now covers almost every sector except gaming. 16. Michael says the corporation has already deployed $400 million to support 28 First Nations in British Columbia taking a 12% ownership stake in an Enbridge asset. 17. He says the asset sits in their territories and has not produced an economic relationship for about 40 years, which makes the first deal especially meaningful. 18. He explains that the guarantee structure lowers risk for private lenders, can attract foreign lenders, and may fit longer-term financing than some Canadian banks usually offer. 19. The conversation is measured and policy-focused, with Mark and Robert translating concepts like crown corporations, treaty rights, and capital markets for a UK audience. 20. Listeners interested in Indigenous finance, project ownership, and Canadian capital markets will get the most from it, while people wanting light banter or short-form news may skip it.

As heard by us

A steady look at how a loan-guarantee program can turn policy into Indigenous ownership.

Drumbeats frames a federal loan-guarantee program as a straightforward business story: how the Canadian Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation can reduce lender risk, lower borrowing costs, and help Indigenous nations secure ownership stakes in major projects.

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You want the mechanics behind a $10 billion Indigenous capital shift.

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