Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast · Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit

$200M Indigenous Growth Strategy: Scaling Beyond Oil Sands with Nicole Bourque-Bouchier

February 19, 2026·36 min

Nicole Bourque-Bouchier, CEO of the $200M Bouchier Group, continues her conversation on Drum Beats discussing how Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission transformed her company's identity — from hiding its Indigenous roots to proudly centring them. She covers how ExxonMobil's 2024 International Diverse Supplier Award validated Bouchier's approach, why she is deliberately slowing growth to 5% at the $200M mark to reinvest and diversify beyond oil sands, and what non-Indigenous investors consistently misunderstand about working with First Nations communities. The episode is equally a masterclass in female Indigenous entrepreneurship, including raw advice on resilience, the hard lessons from a UK minority-stake partnership with Carillion, and the emotional weight of running a family business that has survived personal tragedy.

As heard by us

A grounded business story about scale, community, and deliberate restraint.

This episode presents Indigenous partnerships as a real driver of resource and infrastructure investment in Canada, with enough concrete detail to make the case feel grounded.

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Why you'd press play

For a grounded look at Indigenous growth strategy in the oil sands, and why slowing down can open room for diversification.

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