June is National Indigenous History Month and to celebrate, we’re talking about Indigenous business development in Canada. Al welcomes Hosna Kadary, National Market Leader Zero Barriers to Business at BMO to talk about the support programs available for Indigenous Entrepreneurs in Canada and to share some of their success stories.
June is National Indigenous History Month and to celebrate, we’re talking about Indigenous business development in Canada. Al welcomes Hosna Kadary, National Market Leader Zero Barriers to Business at BMO to talk about the support programs available for Indigenous Entrepreneurs in Canada and to share some of their success stories.
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JGB June_mixdown
Allan: [00:00:00] It's June and so much is happening. If you're a sports fan, we're well into baseball season. NBA and NHL playoffs are coming to an end. F1 in Montreal is either about to happen or just finished. And things are gearing up for the Paris 2024 Olympics in July. If you're a small business owner, you may also be getting ready for patio or festival season or farmers markets. And don't forget Father's Day. June is also Pride Month and National Indigenous History Month in Canada. I'm focusing on the latter this month as we talk about Indigenous owned business. It's big business in Canada with a lot of opportunity for growth, so of course, we're going to talk about it. Because, it's just good business.
I'd
like to welcome back my co host and Merchant Journey partner, Sydney Lupton. Welcome back, Sydney.
Sydney: Thanks, Al. It's so great to be back for another summer.
Allan: It's great to have you back. [00:01:00] And speaking of summer, June is so busy.
Sydney: I heard your intro.
Allan: Right? So for example, I'm going to talk to Sean McCormick later about consumer spending in Canada during the NHL playoffs.
Sydney: So I'm curious, now that the Leafs are out, who are you rooting for?
Allan: Well, Edmonton, of course.
Sydney: Because they're Canadian?
Allan: No, because I'm a McDavid fan.
Sydney: Well, it doesn't hurt Canadian businesses to have a Canadian team still in it.
Allan: No, it doesn't. And Sean is going to talk about how much it actually helps.
Sydney: That sounds great. What else have you got this month?
Allan: Well, just in time for farmer's market and festival season, Moneris just launched an exciting new product.
Sydney: The top to pay on iPhone.
Allan: That's right. I hear you're working on that project as well. So I'm going to chat with Jesse Bell, whom you probably know as a senior product manager. And, uh, this is something every small business owner is going to want to hear.
Sydney: I completely agree. It's also National Indigenous History Month.
Allan: Yep.
Sydney: Did you know that in Canada, there are more than 50, 000 Indigenous owned businesses?
Allan: Yes, I read that same article.
Sydney: They contribute almost 50 billion annually to Canada's economy.
Allan: And that number could surge to 100 billion with a little more corporate and government support.
Sydney: I agree.
Allan: And [00:02:00] that brings us to our featured interview. I sat down with Hosna Kadary from BMO. She talks about the issues faced by Indigenous entrepreneurs in Canada. And what BMO is doing to support them.
Sydney: That sounds great. I can't wait to hear it.
Allan: Well, let's listen to it right now. Here's my chat with Hosna.
I'm joined by Hosna Kadary. She's the National Market Leader, Zero Barriers to Business at BMO. Hosna, thank you so much for joining me today.
Hosna: Thank you, Alan. I really appreciate it. It's actually an honor for me to be here with you. I'm very excited here today to be talking about the importance of Indigenous History Month. Because it holds a profound significance as it provides an opportunity for us to recognize and appreciate the historical and present contributions of indigenous peoples.
Allan: I just saw some interesting stats that there are more than 50, 000 indigenous owned companies in Canada. Yes. And they contribute almost 50 billion annually to Canada's economy. [00:03:00] So this isn't something where we're trying to build something that doesn't already exist. We're just talking about how we can help it grow.
Hosna: Absolutely. As you mentioned, the Indigenous economy is strong and growing, which brings the urgency to advance economic reconciliation. It's both a moral and economic imperatives. That's why, as you see our BMO, we are deeply committed to supporting indigenous entrepreneurs through our zero barriers to business initiatives.
Allan: Yeah. Let's talk about that initiative. It's very interesting. And I read about it. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Hosna: Absolutely. The zero barriers to business initiatives for indigenous entrepreneurs is part of the BMO zero barriers to inclusion strategy that reflects BMO's commitment to make a meaningful impact in the communities we serve and it's commitments to indigenous peoples. We did this commitment. We are not just taking a box. Uh, we are taking action in our commitment for truth and reconciliation, both acknowledging the gaps and barriers that indigenous entrepreneurs face, and we're taking the right steps to make an impactful change of what you've seen on economic empowerment [00:04:00] and financial education.
Our goal here is to work directly with Indigenous communities to provide them with our Indigenous banking services and support, facilitate financial education and resources, to empower Indigenous entrepreneurs with financial knowledge, to help them achieve their financial goals and succeed.
Allan: Okay, very cool. So let's talk a little bit about some of these support programs that you've created.
Hosna: This includes a range of services, such as financial tools, like BMO Smart Progress that was recently created. We have mentorship opportunities and binary services designed to meet the unique needs of Indigenous businesses through our different community organizations.
Allan: How long has the program existed?
Hosna: The program for indigenous entrepreneurs was launched October of last year. We had actually launched a project pilot a few months prior and we had great success.
Allan: I hear you've already got some really cool success stories you can share.
Hosna: Absolutely. For instance, there is a road maintenance contractor in remote areas of British Columbia. Unfortunately, they often face challenges with managing cash flows, as we all know, due to the allied payments [00:05:00] on complicated contracts. So they have been relying heavily on personal credit cards. Unfortunately, many small business entrepreneurs have the same challenge. So to bridge the financial gaps, we were able to support him through capital, through our removal line of credits, through our program.
On the Manitoulin Island, we have a determined entrepreneur who dreams of upgrading her gas station, and she transformed her gas station inconvenience so to better serve her community through our program. And in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we also have a dedicated entrepreneur who started transportation business after her maternity leave, which is a very inspiring story, as also she was frustrated with the cash flow challenges. We were able to support her to manage better her expenses while waiting for payments and clients and navigating complexities of cash flow in the industry of transportation.
Allan: So, uh, already the, this program is making some huge differences for, uh, indigenous entrepreneurs.
Hosna: Exactly. But I would say despite his successes, indigenous entrepreneurs still encounter significant [00:06:00] barriers, particularly in accessing capital and credit due to systemic barriers. So it's clear that a comprehensive support system, including education, mentorship, and community networking. Are essential to address these barriers effectively
Allan: looking ahead. What else can be done?
Hosna: Yes. Looking ahead. There are a lot to do. We are progressing. That's why I'm not there yet. So, um, I think that's there. The thing that's very important. So looking ahead to build a better future for indigenous entrepreneurs and communities is to collaborate, collaborate more between financial institutions, a governance bodies and indigenous communities. Which is a paramount to creating sustainable opportunities for indigenous entrepreneurs, also empowering indigenous youth through financial education and entrepreneurial opportunities is equally vital.
I believe that, uh, while collaborating with, uh, organizations that support indigenous business owners can offer additional support. And guide the entrepreneurs with additional supports, uh, like financial counseling when it's [00:07:00] required. So, uh, community organizations play a vital role in supporting these initiatives and acting as a crucial partners in nurturing the growth of Asian businesses.
I could give you an example that we're working with, uh, CCAD, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Businesses, and also, uh, with the NACA. So the success of this, uh, program underscores. The importance of building strong relationships and also working closely with these organizations.
Allan: That's great. Collaboration, empowerment and commitment to change all very important points for sure. Now, if folks wanted to learn more about what BMO is doing and the support that's available to them. Where would they go?
Hosna: We have our own website, zero barriers to business for indigenous entrepreneurs. And we also have created an email address called zero barriers to business CA at PMO. com. And we'll be able to connect them to their original dedicated banker.
We'll be able to support them and guide them through the process.
Allan: That's great. I'll post both the link and the email address to the show notes of this podcast for those who are [00:08:00] listening. Do you have any final message for our listeners?
Hosna: Absolutely, uh, since we are. Highlighting the indigenous history month. We should all act by educating ourselves about indigenous histories and supporting indigenous businesses in our communities. And I want to thank you and thank the listeners for the opportunity to discuss these important issues. At BMO, we will always remain committed to breaking down barriers and fostering an inclusive economy that benefits everyone so much
Allan: Thank you so much your time today, Hosna.
Hosna: Thank you so much.
Allan: I'm joined by the director of business development, Sean McCormick. Sean, thank you so much for joining me today.
Sean: My pleasure. I'll always love doing this.
Allan: We're going to have some fun today talking about the NHL playoffs. Is there a better time of the year for hockey fans than right now? I can't think of one.
Sean: The stakes are extremely high right now. And these teams are all really, really good. Any one of these four teams left would be a fine Stanley [00:09:00] cup champion. That's exciting. I love this hockey right now.
Allan: I'm just excited that there's a Canadian team left. And although I might not, you know, being a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, I wouldn't cheer for maybe an Ottawa or a Montreal I have no problem cheering on Edmonton, but let's talk. I mean, people are listening to this going, what did I stumble on a sports podcast? I thought this was a business related podcast. So what about this has anything to do with business? It has a lot to do with business, especially in this country.
Sean: It has a ton to do with business. These are billion dollar operations and a big reason that they have the support. And remember, these teams are reliant on the economies of the city to support 750 tickets for the third round of the playoffs or more.
Allan: Yeah.
Sean: So we, we actually did a little bit of research. We put our data scientists to work to look at consumer spending around the arenas of all of the Canadian teams that were involved in the first round of the playoffs. And we looked at bar and restaurant spending on game nights versus non game nights. And we separated into two cohorts. First cohort were bars and restaurants. Near the [00:10:00] arena and the second cohort were bars and restaurants citywide. And we saw a really interesting trend, which was the Leafs didn't really move the needle.
And when I say didn't move the needle, there was one game where there was a decent lift. It was game four. That was a Leafs home game where near the arena spending was up 19 percent versus non game day. but All of the other games in the series, Home and Away, the spending change was flat or near flat. It was single digits compared to the other markets like Winnipeg, for example, game one of the Jets first round series near the arena, spending in bars and restaurants was up 90%.
Allan: Whoa.
Sean: Nine zero.
Allan: Yeah.
Sean: Which is just enormous. The Canucks near the arena in game one was up 72%, near the arena game two was up 52%, near the arena in game five, [00:11:00] which was a home game up 58%. So what could be happening there? I'll tell you exactly what's happening there. Toronto is a massive city. Downtown is a thriving metropolis. Entertainment is not hard to find in Toronto. It is very difficult to compete. If you are an entertainment provider, it is hard to compete with everything that's going on. So what's happening is, on any given night, there's tons of entertainment options in downtown Toronto. So even God's team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, when they're playing, it barely moves the needle.
Allan: Right.
Sean: In and around the arena in downtown Toronto, whereas the other Canadian cities, like, you know, let's go with the smallest Canadian city that was still around, in round 1. So the Winnipeg Jets, much smaller city, fewer entertainment options. We still love Winnipeg. We're not saying it's not a city of entertainment, but there's just fewer options because it's smaller. You got that 90 percent bump. So that was the one really pronounced [00:12:00] takeaway when you compared each of the cities to each other. Yeah. Yeah, NHL good for business not saying the NHL isn't good for business in Toronto.
Allan: Yeah.
Sean: it's just comparatively speaking to the total spend the lift, which is probably like in terms of dollars spent in and around the arena, it could very well have been very comparable to Winnipeg, but the size of the pie in Toronto is so much bigger that that lift. Is incrementally smaller
Allan: as a long suffering leaf and I can also say we've been here so many times before make it to round two and then we'll come out.
Sean: Yeah, maybe except that the Oilers have been in the playoffs for like five straight years or six, whatever it is, and the fans in Edmonton still the numbers still jumped off the page for the home games.
Now, to your point, though. The away games, the Oilers only played five games in the first round against LA. The two away games were really flat. So it was the home games where there was a really [00:13:00] nice lift, both near the arena and around the city. The around the city numbers, so city wide numbers for bars and restaurants in round one for the Oilers.
Game one, 15 percent bump game to 16 percent bump, and then the only other home game was game five. That was a 13 percent bump. So when the Oilers were at home citywide.
Allan: Right.
Sean: People are going out. Bars and restaurants are throwing the McDavid Draisaitl jerseys on. They're going out with their buds.
Allan: Yeah.
Sean: The road games. Very different story. Flat citywide in game three and four. Was we say flat minus 2 percent and minus 4%. Anything that's single, low single digits is basically flat. There's a bit of a variance there and even near the arena, even though in the ice district, they were having the game day watch parties down there near the arena was still plus 4 percent in game three and minus 8 percent in game four. So.
Allan: Interesting.
Sean: To your point, maybe that novelty in those markets where the team is in the playoffs every year, it wears off a little bit.
Allan: I can't wait to see what happens in these playoffs, [00:14:00] especially, I know you're wearing your Edmonton Oilers shirt, so I know where your allegiencies lie. And now I'm an Oilers fan too, because who else am I going to cheer for? So go Oilers. Alright, so much, Sean. And if anyone wants a more in depth look at these numbers that Sean just shared with us, you can check it out. At monerisdataservices.com, uh, there's a blog post that just went up today.
Sean: Yes.
Allan: Thank you so much for your time today, Sean.
Sean: No problem Al.
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Allan: I'm joined by Jessie Bell. She's a Senior Product Manager at Moneris. Jessie, thank you so much for joining me today.
Jessie: Hey, thanks for having me on, Al.
Allan: I hear that your team has been really busy lately and some exciting news just came out. One of the latest products to launch, Tap2Pay on iPhone.
Jessie: Yes, we are a week into the launch of this brand new solution. We are one of four businesses to launch with Apple in Canada. So this is great news. Really intended for the smallest of Canadian businesses out there.
Allan: This is exciting news. Explain exactly what does this mean? Tap to pay.
Jessie: Sure. So tap to pay on iPhone is an exciting way that merchants can accept contactless and in person payments. Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Interact, simply by tapping those onto an iPhone device.
Allan: Wow.
Jessie: And they do this using our Monerisco app. So the Monerisco app is free to download. It's available on the app store. Merchants sign up and then their phone becomes the terminal.
Allan: I [00:16:00] mean, so they don't need a terminal. All they need is an iPhone. The Moneris app, which you can download for free right now. And obviously in a Moneris account.
Jessie: Yes. Uh, with that, there are no monthly fees, so you're really paying as you go with the solution. You're just paying for the payments that you process.
Allan: Wow. I mean, I can imagine this in like farmer's markets. I can imagine this at like trade shows. Like there's so many different implementations for this.
Jessie: Yeah, absolutely. This is really meant for those businesses out there that maybe haven't been able to afford a terminal before they've accepted debit or e transfers. And the idea of carrying around a clunky device for, you know, pop up events isn't attractive to them. So this really allows, you know, side hustlers, small businesses, just starting up, um, to accept payments in a professional way, but from their own device,
Allan: I imagine, uh, TAP rules are in place. So in terms of maximum amount that you can charge would be, I think it's 250, right? That's just,
Jessie: it's 250 for physical cards. And then there are some different limitations when it comes to cards loaded into digital wallets. So those can be higher, but yes, in general, 250,
Allan: [00:17:00] 250. And that's just across the board. That's the tap limit for even if there was a terminal, right and I guess it's also important to note, this is only for tap functionality.
Jessie: That's right. This is for tap functionality. Uh, merchants right now will have access to go portal where they would be able to do some of those manually keyed in transactions or sending an invoice. But those are features we're looking to deliver later on down the road in the app.
Allan: And I guess it's iPhone because it needs to use the, is it the NFC reader that it uses too?
Jessie: That's correct. Yeah. So iPads and other tablet devices right now don't have the right capabilities for the NFC reader, but iPhones have an NFC reader and, and that's what allows us to, to tap and accept payment.
Allan: So this is really exciting because it is Apple but for those of us who are Android users, such as me, do we have any plans for an Android version of this?
Jessie: We do. We have it in the works that we will be delivering tap to pay on Android with the Moneris Go app in the future.
Allan: Very good. Thank you so much for your time today.
Jessie: Thank you.[00:18:00]
Allan: And that's all we have time for this month. Sydney, did you learn anything new today?
Sydney: Yeah, actually. I learned that Indigenous owned business is a big business in Canada.
Allan: You? Me too. And I think there's still potential for so much more. Now, if anyone wants to read more about BMO's zero barriers to business, consumer spending around the NHL playoffs, or time to pay on iPhone, I'll post links in the show notes to all of those.
And if you're listening right now and you have any questions about anything business related, you can email us at podcast@moneris.com. And we'll try to answer them in future episodes. Sydney, thank you so much for co hosting this month.
Sydney: You're welcome, Al. I had a great time.
Allan: And on behalf of Sydney, myself, and the rest of Moneris, it's just good business saying thank you for listening.
See you in July.