Testimonials

My name is Christa Bruneau-Guenther proud owner of Feast Café Bistro; a neighbourhood cafe located in Winnipeg’s historic West End. Feast Café Bistro offers breakfast, lunch, dinner and catering, serving modern dishes rooted in traditional Indigenous foods.

I pride myself on serving seasonal, fresh and local ingredients with unique dishes like Manitoba Bison Burgers, the famous Pow Wow Taco, Pickerel Sliders, Blueberry Bison Ribs, Salads with Wild Rice, Seeds & Berries, Roasted Butternut Squash, Bannock Pizza, fresh baked goods, bannocks, desserts, and more!

I've spent over 15 years refining my cooking skills and expanding my knowledge of our Indigenous foods. My creativity and passion also stems from gardening, teaching, owning and operating a licensed daycare for 9 years and, of course, cooking for friends and family.

Discovering there are only a handful of restaurants across the country focusing on First Nation foods and culture, I took a leap of faith and Feast Café Bistro was born in 2015.

I found First Peoples Economic Growth Fund (FPEGF) on the internet and was pleased to discover the many resources offered to First Nation entrepreneurs. I spoke with FPEGF staff and they were very excited to hear about my business idea which was very encouraging.

This began the application process. I received the business plan support which was very helpful to take my business to the level it needed for success.

FPEGF staff were both positive but very realistic, they asked me tough questions that needed to be asked to understand the hard work it was going to take to open a restaurant.

The support and dedication all the staff at FPEGF provided is a definite result of my success. I am grateful and blessed that they believed in my abilities and business.

My staff mean the world to me, my priority is to hire Indigenous peoples, who currently comprise 80% of all the staff at Feast Café Bistro. I want all our customers to feel the spirit of our culture through the food, seasons and enjoy the abundance that our land has to offer.

Feast Café Bistro has become a pillar in the community through local initiatives, business tours, the arts, training and mentorship for student practicum needs, just to name a few. I feel a responsibility to inspire and empower people in the areas of business, education, Indigenous food sovereignty, and to restore pride in culture.

Having received extensive local, provincial and national press coverage Feast Café Bistro has been welcomed with rave reviews.

I look forward to a continued relationship with FPEGF as Feast Café Bistro continues to grow and evolve.

My name is Gary Freeman, and I am the owner of Gorilla Fries. Gorilla Fries is a food truck that has been serving delicious food at various venues throughout the province of Manitoba since 2018. I expressed my interest in purchasing a food truck to Debbie McElhinney from the Surrender Claim Trust in Peguis. She suggested I contact First Peoples Economic Growth Fund in Winnipeg about their zero interest loans for businesses.

I contacted FPEGF and they set up an appointment with the loans manager, Tom Thordarson. Tom was very supportive of my business idea, and he explained what FPEGF needed from me to get approved for a loan and what grants might be available to me as well. You do not just apply, and it is approved, you must supply lots of information with supporting documents and a business plan.

I hired a consulting company to prepare the business plan for Gorilla Fries and that made the process much easier. Once all the documentation and the business plan were submitted it didn’t take long for the loan to be approved.

Tom even assisted me with applying for a grant from Surrender Claim Trust to offset the amount of loan I needed to apply for. Gorilla Fries had only been in operation 1½ seasons when COVID-19 hit. Operating a food truck during covid was a financial struggle to say the least. There were no rodeos, fairs, pow wows, markets, music festivals at all in 2020 and most of 2021, so our major revenue sources were gone. This coupled with the increase in fuel and food costs made the struggle even more challenging.

I tried other ways to generate revenue, but I could not generate the revenue needed to cover the operating costs and long-term liabilities. If it wasn’t for my FPEGF loans officer, Tiffany Monkman telling me about the COVID-19 Contingency Funding and helping me with the application, Gorilla Fries probably would not have survived. I am very thankful for the support I received.

Gorilla Fries is a seasonal business that my wife and I operate from June 1st until October 31st. Even though Gorilla Fries has not financially recovered from the pandemic we are optimistic that 2023 will be a good year. We really enjoy taking our food truck to pow wows and rodeos, and we are hopeful that we will get more bookings for Gorilla Fries at these types of venues.

My name is Nicole Schnell, and I am the proud owner of Schnell Construction Incorporated. We are a small company that offers excavation services of any size, aggregate hauling, snow removal, landscaping, lot clearing, shoreline stabilization, septic tank installation as well various skid steer work. We started our business in May 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and it was a challenge due to having to do everything online, and not meet with people in person.

We first heard about First Peoples Economic Growth Fund from a relative. The process of applying for financing was daunting at first, facing a lot of paperwork, but with so much help and friendly assistance it was made much easier. Help was always a quick phone call away.

If we did not have the financing from FPEGF we would not be able to offer the services we currently do, and we would not be as successful. We were able to buy the equipment to meet our customers needs and expand the services we can now offer. Our business is having a very successful year and we are happy with our growth.

Recently, we were able to thank our customers by offering a weekend of skid steer services for free. We donate prizes annually to the community and run the annual kids beach games, donating food and prizes as well and our time. It feels amazing to give back a small part to the community that has helped our business grow.

We would apply for financing from FPEGF in the future. The COVID-19 Contingency Fund was a huge help financially during the pandemic. We owe so much of our success to FPEGF. The financing from FPEGF has enabled us to grow and meet our customers needs in a competitive market during challenging times. We are grateful and humbled by the help that we have received, and the support has touched our hearts and been our backbone.

The staff and FPEGF are so kind and knowledgeable. FPEGF has given us our dignity in asking for help when we needed it. We are so proud of our accomplishments thus far and are excited for the future.

Tansi, my name is Kaeden Merasty, and I am the Founder and CEO of The Indigenous Marketing Company (IMC) and a proud member of Flying Dust First Nation. My vision is to guide Indigenous Peoples towards achieving full economic independence that aligns with their cultures, values, and beliefs. As a Cree First Nations businessman, I established this agency to work with aspiring entrepreneurs and Indigenous business professionals just like you.

Over the years, I have held numerous roles, working closely with executives and CEOs on developing business strategies, executing sales and marketing initiatives, and managing client relationships.

Utilizing this knowledge and experience, IMC was created to produce desirable outcomes for Indigenous Peoples through its holistic digital marketing solutions. It is my mission to empower Indigenous Peoples by providing equal opportunities and the support systems needed to achieve economic success.

I would not be where I am today without the help I received from First Peoples Economic Growth Fund (FPEGF). FPEGF played a significant role in making my business vision a reality. Through essential start-up funding, FPEGF enabled me to purchase the required equipment for myself and my team to begin growing the company.

Tiffany Monkman, the Senior Loans Manager at FPEGF, was very helpful throughout the application process. She responded to my questions in a timely manner and ensured that I followed the necessary steps to meet all the application's requirements. If you are a First Nations person looking to start or grow a business in Manitoba, FPEGF is there to support you. 

We are Priscilla Sternat-McIvor and Lisa Manaigre – the partners of Sternat Manaigre Law Corporation. We opened our female, indigenous-owned law firm in March 2017, with the help of the First Peoples Economic Growth Fund. We were lucky enough to learn about FPEGF through our former law firm.

Without the lending and grant opportunities afforded to us by FPEGF, it is doubtful that we would have been able to open our firm within a relatively short time frame (under six months). We were able to quickly access the funds that we needed to start our planning, purchase our equipment, and set up a full office in months. We were able to start our operation with the technology needed for remote work from day one, with the idea in mind that this kind of flexibility was important in supporting women working in private legal practice.

Little did we know that this would also make it easy for our team to transition to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic without skipping a beat. Since our initial loan was granted to us, we have been able to work with our account manager to foresee changes to our business and adapt to them before they happen. We have found the account managers at First Peoples to be responsive and agile in helping us to meet our business’s needs.

The support that we have received from FPEGF has helped our firm grow from four lawyers to nine lawyers and from three full-time staff to four full-time staff. We are proud to support indigenous hiring wherever possible and we are constantly finding ways to support the greater community through our lawyer volunteer hours, supporting many boards and organizations, giving to those less fortunate with our annual Christmas hampers and offering flexible payment arrangements to our clients who require competent and compassionate legal services but are not able to access Legal Aid.
We look forward to a continued, strong relationship with FPEGF as we continue to grow our firm. Chief Dennis Meeches
President, Arrowhead Development Corporation

My name is David Kobliski, General Manager for NCN Development Corporation. We began negotiating a 10 year lease with the owners of the Thompson Plaza in 2012 for a 24,000 square foot space to own and manage a grocery store which we were successful in acquiring.

Our goal was to provide employment, product and service to the City of Thompson and surrounding communities. And whatever profits made would go to reinvesting in new opportunities or programing for the Community of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation.

The store had its grand opening July 19, 2013, and is doing very well now that we have gone through our growing pains. There are currently 30-40 employees from the City of Thompson and surrounding communities.

We would like to thank FPEGF for providing an interest free loan of $300,000 for this project.