The new office, located at Buffalo Run on Tsuut’ina Nation, is AIOC’s second office to open on a reserve
Article by Devon Dekuyper, Calgary Herald
Hank Shade, Ward Sutherland, Chana Martineau, Stephen Buffalo and Jim Boucher participate in a ribbon cutting for the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation’s new offices on Tsuut’ina First Nation on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. Brent Calver/Postmedia
The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC) opened a new office on Tsuut’ina Nation Tuesday afternoon — a move that will bring more opportunities for Indigenous groups in southern Alberta to invest in major projects.
AIOC, a Crown corporation started by the provincial government in 2019, facilitates Indigenous investment and partnerships in Alberta’s major sectors, from agriculture and natural resources to technology and tourism.
Due to restrictions in the Indian Act, Indigenous groups are not able to use traditional forms of collateral in order to be approved for a loan. AIOC acts as a guarantor, providing up to $3 billion in loan guarantees to mid- to large-scale projects, allowing Indigenous groups to access loans more easily and at preferred rates.
Stephen Buffalo, AIOC’s board chair, described the organization as “by far, probably one of the biggest game-changers” for Indigenous people in Alberta.
“When our communities and settlements do well, the municipality does well,” Buffalo said. “When the municipality does well, the province does well — and that’s one goal, right there. But when the province does well, our country does well.”
The new office, located at Buffalo Run on Tsuut’ina Nation, is AIOC’s second office to open on a reserve — the first opened earlier this year on Enoch Cree Nation in Treaty 6.
“We are an Indigenous-led, Indigenous-staffed organization here to support Indigenous investment in our province,” said Chana Martineau, CEO of AIOC. “So it’s really important that, both in fact and in reality, that we walk amongst the people that we serve every day.
“We want Indigenous people to feel at home here, for them to come talk about the most pressing issues in their communities, and their dreams and hopes for the future, in an environment that is welcoming for them.”
Martineau said AIOC’s ability to provide investment opportunities that didn’t previously exist to Indigenous communities has been “really transformational.”
“We’ve closed nine deals, north of $740 million in loan guarantees — but that’s supported north of $1.5 billion in Indigenous investment,” she said. “Those investments are driving real returns into 43 communities in our province.”
‘A lot of economic opportunity ahead of us’
In addition to boosting local economies, facilitating Indigenous investment also allows for more independence for those communities.
“This mechanism gives the opportunity for First Nations to get off the dependency of federal funding under the Indian Act,” Buffalo said. “I hope that this continues to go in a positive direction . . . and that they’re generating their own wealth and building their communities as they see fit.”
Buffalo said he’s thankful for the support of the provincial government.
“They’re trying to bridge a gap,” he said. “I think it’s tremendous.”
Alberta’s rapid growth has created opportunities locally, as well, and those opportunities span beyond Alberta’s major cities.
“The Alberta government, led by both Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith, really recognized the economic power of that — to drive activity beyond the centres, into areas that really desperately need more economic growth — and that has caught the imagination of the country, and actually the globe,” Martineau said.
“Our momentum is putting pressure on everybody else to actually translate into action, and we’ve seen that followed on by the federal government and others,” she said. “We are at the forefront of a wave of momentum that I think is almost unstoppable at this point.”
Both Buffalo and Martineau said they hope that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly-launched Major Projects Office will provide more opportunities for Indigenous groups.
“There’s a lot of economic opportunity ahead of us,” Martineau said. “The major projects that are coming from a nation-building perspective will provide opportunity, as well as challenge.
“I hope that these nation-building projects are an ability for us to transform our economy in a way that Indigenous people are fully at the table, and we all thrive together.”
Link to original publication: https://calgaryherald.com/business/local-business/alberta-indigenous-opportunities-corporation-creates-investment