At Energy Disruptors United in Calgary, I sat down with Chana Martineau, CEO of Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC), to discuss economic reconciliation. Chana is uniquely qualified to help unlock economic opportunity for Indigenous communities and her background as a woman of First Nations heritage with 30 years of experience in banking and consulting has made her a bridge builder between private enterprise and Indigenous communities. Her cross-functional team of capital markets professionals, Indigenous relations specialists, and engagement professionals enables the AIOC to be a role model for strong governance and professional management. Chana has some advice for companies that want to build ties with Indigenous communities:
- Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation is a breakthrough organization that’s a model for the rest of the country, demonstrating the power of mobilizing capital through Indigenous communities for opportunities. Can you tell us the story of AIOC?
- It’s amazing to think that you’re just coming up to your fifth anniversary because you’ve got such an impressive track record already. And several other provinces are modelling what you’ve built. What advice do you have for them?
- So, governance is critical. And then entrepreneurial spirit and support from your “shareholders”. It seems like a lot can be solved with these partnerships. Why hasn’t the market solved it then?
- So being a bridge builder is very powerful. What else is critical for these corporations to understand?
- The seek-to-understand approach takes time, and that often doesn’t compute with a corporate mindset. How have the successful companies adjusted their notions and approach to time?
- Let’s look at the Indigenous community’s viewpoint. What are some of the signs of success in communities. How do they view these corporate partners and the structures that you’re helping to create?
- How are you helping communities that don’t have capital markets or financial expertise to move at pace with some of these opportunities?
- Success for both corporates and communities in these deals must equate to more than just the money, doesn’t it? You’ve got human and cultural capital also on the table.
- What do all of us, but especially those involved with businesses and governments, need to consider to augment what you are doing?
- Thinking about the AIOC journey – If we’re back here in a year, what’s one or two things you hope will have advanced or changed?
In 2019, the Alberta government fulfilled a campaign promise to bring to life an organization that would facilitate investment and participation by Indigenous groups in commercially viable projects – groups who had previously been held back from participating in the economy due to restrictions in the Indian Act. AIOC was set up to remove the barriers – to provide that capital that would allow full participation in the economy, while creating a replicable model that could be accessed for future projects to come. We’re coming up on 5 years next month and are seeing so much come through the pipeline we can’t keep up sometimes. It’s an exciting time for us and demonstrates the critical need for this program.
I am impressed with the Alberta Government’s entrepreneurial spirit and their passion. They came to us and said, “What do you need to make this happen?” Our governance model is incredibly important. Our board consists of five First Nations members, two Metis members and two allies. It’ a mix of people that really understand Indigenous business and capital markets. You need the right skills at the table to protect the provincial loan guarantee and to understand the intersection of the Indigenous Nations and groups’ interests. We talk a lot about Canada’s productivity crisis. Well, it doesn’t make any sense for each jurisdiction to have a different program that doesn’t work together. When we look at big infrastructure projects that are multi-jurisdictional, we want to make sure the different programs can work together. We have been an open book in terms of helping the new programs learn from our journey. We’re here to help Indigenous peoples and Canadians understand and unlock the benefits from these partnerships.
Corporations want to bring in Indigenous partnerships, but those relationships have been contentious for hundreds of years. Some corporations don’t want to make a mistake. And some recognize we’ve all made mistakes and that’s what the journey toward reconciliation is about. Now they want to help. Our team straddles both worlds. We understand capital markets, publicly traded companies, and pressures of shareholders. We also understand Indigenous ways and its history, so we can help bring that together in a way that the values are shared and guide both sides. It’s about learning how to speak with each other, helping people connect and giving them a safe place to have those conversations – that’s when the magic can happen.
I believe you need to be firmly rooted in your values. Thinking about our corporate partners who have executed successful transactions, they have a leadership commitment to making it happen. Their corporate development teams and legal teams are used to doing things a certain way, where time is money. It doesn’t start from a “seek-to-understand” point of view. Indigenous communities are different. The conversation is different. What I really encourage those organizations to do, and the successful ones really understand this, is to take that “seek-to-understand” approach. It’s going to look different than any transaction you’ve done before, and that’s a good, healthy thing. It takes real leadership from the very top, and commitment to following it through, because it’s a new way of doing business.
Patience, perseverance, and creativity. Those are three key elements to these kinds of transactions. Creativity is a big one. It’s not just to engage with First Nations partners – there are certain parameters of a loan guarantee that make it challenging. At AIOC, we are responsible for $3 billion of the Alberta government’s balance sheet. That’s a big responsibility. If you’re a taxpayer in this province, you don’t want me to tell you we’ve made a bad call. These deals are not easy to do. The bar is high. We have some creative credit structuring to protect the loan guarantee because if the province has a $150 million loan guarantee called, we’ve got less money for roads, schools, housing and health care. We all know the challenges there. Our credit underwriting needs to be prudent, and we need all three parties to collaborate around what works for the communities, the corporate partners, and the loan guarantee.
I think we’re on a journey and some have already seen the benefits. We’re seeing corporate and Indigenous partnerships changing contentious relationships into ones of mutual respect, understanding and collaboration. And we’re also seeing a massive unlocking of economic activity within these communities. They’re able to rebuild gathering places and all the things that go along with that – the contracting, the construction. It’s jobs, it’s income. All that drives economic activity and builds a healthy heart and connections to the community. Multiply that over 43 Nations and Settlements that have participated in our transactions. These are invaluable to the fabric of the lives in those communities. We’re just starting to see the positive economic impacts grow.
There’s a lot to learn in a short period of time. We do that through our capacity grant funding, which provides advisors and/or funding for advisors. Our corporate partners also help fund that stream. Members of Indigenous communities can see the full lifecycle of the transaction – be at every single meeting, witness all the due diligence and take the site tours. Understand the journey start to finish, equipping them with the tools to engage with industry. Empowering them to say “Why are you here to talk about consultation? Why are you not here offering us equity share partnership?” The entire conversation has changed. They are not subservient to industry anymore, and I am so proud of that.
You need to understand what these transactions bring to you. When it’s all about money, I don’t care who it is sitting on the other side of the table. And if it’s all about money, you’ll see what you get. When you’re in the trenches of those negotiations, if you haven’t spent the time to “seek-to-understand” and build trust upfront, Indigenous partner or not, that’s when you’re really going to feel it.
AIOC is one part of the equation, and we’re not all things to all people. We have the loan guarantees delivered, but that does not replace procurement, contracting, relationships and hiring. We need organizations and governments to start thinking differently about how these relationships are formed. If you’re trying to increase Indigenous participation in your workforce but can’t get anyone out to your job fairs – change the narrative. What if you started with an economic partnership? What does the recruiting funnel look like now? It’s a different way of approaching the issue. I think a lot of people are thinking, “How can we do this?” “How can I bring this to life for my company?” Talk to your Indigenous neighbours. Start the conversation and you will move along with that journey.
I hope we’ve supported more partnerships. I hope we’ve broadened our scope of deals. I hope we’ve done one or two big game-changing deals across jurisdictions. And I hope the other programs are up and running.
John Stackhouse is Senior Vice President, Office of the CEO, RBC.
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