I started in 2016, and the first priority they gave me was access to capital. The first thing I did was retain a consultant, and Isabel Metcalfe has been helping us since the beginning. We were the best-kept secret for the government. An investment of $240 million made 35 years ago has been recycled 15 times to $3.3 billion in lending to indigenous people across Canada
We are essentially the indigenous version of the Business Development Bank of Canada. Our lobbying efforts brought us into rooms and allowed me to tell the story of the network, which enabled us to create and launch an indigenous growth fund that is an institutional-grade investment tool that allows the private sector to invest in our community. We are able to lend that to our members who, in turn, lend that to the community in business loans. It is providing more loan portfolio for our members to provide larger loans, whereas they had maintained the same level of loan for 35 years. Now this allows them to move at the speed of business and to the size of business.