 Okay, so to begin, could you please state your full name? Nicole Burke-Brusche. And where were you born? Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories. And when you were little, what did your parents do? My parents were trappers, actually. So I spent the first five years of my life living on a trap line with them in the Woodbuffalo National Park. And my dad relocated the family down to Fort McMurray because he got a job with Sincere Canada. Okay, around what year was that? Well, I would have been going into grade two, which would be about six years old and I'm 40, just turned 42. So about 1982, down there. Okay, okay. So basically when there was that kind of transition in this area from a lot of trapping to a lot less to the oil sands. Yeah, I think the oil sands industry decided, especially with Sincere, that they would have a mandate to hire First Nation and Aboriginal people from the region. Okay. And my dad's from the Mikosukri First Nation in Port Chip, which I am also. Okay. And so as a child, I guess this could be two phases if you remember your life up north first. What did you do to pass the time? What were your interests? I don't remember a whole lot about growing up on the trap line because I was so young, although I hear some great stories about it. But definitely grew up in Fort McMurray and right in the heart of oil sands in my opinion. And it was interesting to come in and see a very unique, small oil sands driven town where you would go downtown and run into somebody that you knew at all times. So growing up in Fort McMurray. And over the years, I've seen Fort McMurray change. Like I remember up in Timberley, we would drive around as kids, as teenagers, and there was no homes. There was just streets that had been paved for a big boom that never came. But it was great because you'd go downtown and you run into somebody you knew all the time. And years later, 30 years later, that's not the case anymore. You're lucky if you run into somebody you know downtown. What's the, do you know what the population is now around this area? Pre-fire, I would guess it to be about 110 with the outlining camps coming in. Okay, and now has that really diminished since the fire? I think Fort McMurray as a community is really trying to get a handle on what the fire, what is the impact short term and long term right now, but it definitely has diminished. You could see that when you go downtown and you're traveling around, there's not the same level of traffic that there was before the fire. Okay. And when you went to school, were there any subjects that you really excelled at or not? What did you really like at school? The social aspect of school as most kids do. The believer and I really enjoyed chemistry. That was one of the subjects I really excelled at in high school and really enjoyed going to class every day, which looking back, I cannot figure out why, but... Well, that's funny. I've been interviewing a lot of metallurgists who are obsessed with chemistry. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't get it either. I like science, but chemistry is less of an interest. For me, it was physics. I, yeah. Okay. So, I liked physics in high school. Oh, did you go to hell? I had to drop out. Okay. So, did you, I mean, growing up in it, were you ever interested in this industry, in the mining, in the oil sands industry? Growing up, I wasn't really interested in the oil sands industry because it came from a family that had a father that was a shift worker and we may be seeing him half of the year. So, he worked 12-hour shifts, either day shift or night shift. And so, he was always the second parent. My mother was a stay-at-home mom and I remember thinking that's not a life I wanted to bring into my family as a mother when I decided to have children, so. Right, okay. So, what, after school, what, I guess maybe describe a little bit where you went, what was your path, what was your first job? I always worked since I was about 14, just as a way to keep an income going and be able to, as a teenager, buy whatever it is I want to buy gas for the car. I'm, I had some tragedy very early on in my life where I had a sister who was just a year younger than he commits suicide here in Fort McMurray. So, at that time, it was a very small community and so, it was really widely known what had happened and my parents decided I come from a family of four girls, myself being the eldest and then my sister Michelle who commits suicide and then I have twin sisters. So, my parents decided to take the entire family minus myself because I was 18 and moved back to my dad's community of Fort Chippewan. The girls were a lot younger, my twin sisters were a lot younger and they were experiencing a lot of kind of bullying at school over the event. So, they moved to Fort Chippewan and that move and the death of my sister really sent me on a completely different path. I originally wanted to be a teacher and was going to school, high school, getting the courses to then apply at U of A for a teacher and when my sister had passed, I couldn't make it to my metric courses in the morning. So, I ended up graduating grade 12 without a metric diploma. So, it had me taking my first job in the oil sands for a company called 2000 Plus, which was owned at the time by Mikosu Cree and it was a labor company providing road maintenance to Syncrude site. And so, I would go and work with ladies at the site cutting the grass and weed whacking the ditches. That's a tough job. It was, very tough, yeah. How'd you find the change of you staying here and your family going back up? Yeah, my family going back up, going up and then me staying here was very short-lived because then I realized the struggles of having a labor job, making only a certain amount of money and having to support yourself. So, I quickly followed them, although I was not used to a small community like Fort Chippewan. Although I grew up understanding I was of Aboriginal descent, I had not really understood what that meant and moving up to Fort Chippewan put me into the center of an Aboriginal community of both First Nations and Macy people. And so really quickly I got to learn what my heritage was all about and what the Aboriginal culture is all about. Okay. So, I guess from there, what did you do? I actually went up to Fort Chippewan and ended up upgrading up to Cannell College. So, Cannell College is a local community college here in Fort McMurray and they've always had a satellite office or school in Fort Chippewan. So, I went back and graduated or upgraded to get my matric diploma and during my time in Fort Chippewan I met an instructor who got me into the field of computers. And that time, which would have been about 1994-95, computer information systems was kind of the way of the future and you had a lot of people going to school to become programmers or hardware and software developers. And so, I ended up applying at Nate's from Fort Chippe and then moved over to take computer systems technology and then shortly after came back to Fort McMurray and graduated in that field from Cannell College itself. Okay. And then did you stay here from then? I did. I got my first job at Syncrude as most of us do as a summer student in computers and it was during my time being a summer student and of course my parents were still living in Fort Chippe that I came across a bit of another life-changing event in my life and that the boyfriend I had at the time had just found out he had a five-year-old baby and so he wanted me to help raise the child and so I actually quit my job at Syncrude and decided to go back to school to finish my schooling and take care of his son at the same time and ended up adopting his son who's now 20 years old and my oldest. But so that kind of got me away from the little sands for a little while, got me back into post-secondary education and then once I was done that I went back to Syncrude but this time I went back into public affairs. So I really got to learn about stakeholder relations and how oil sands has to consult and communicate with Aboriginal communities or key stakeholders in the region and it was through working at Syncrude and learning stakeholder relations and public affairs I ventured off onto my own to start my own consulting company in a similar field where I would offer services as a consultant to do some stakeholder database management, work with Aboriginal organizations from an admin point of view and then eventually got my way to an oil sands company again called True North Energy. So they were owned by Koch Exploration out of the States and they had acquired the Fort Hills lease. So that's the lease that's currently owned by Suncor and they made me a job offer as a manager of Aboriginal Affairs so I could see them through the regulatory process for the site and by that time in my personal life I was a single mom of two boys so I decided to take the job offer and then I got the great phenomenal experience of seeing an oil sands plant from its exploration stages to regulatory approval of the government and got to really understand what it meant to consult with key stakeholder groups in the region and what kind of agreements and commitments were Aboriginal organizations looking for from industry in order to be able to sign off on a project. Can you give examples of what key agreements, what are the, yeah, what do stakeholders ask for or demand or require, things like that? You know, we've been fortunate in this region that we had really led by Fort McKay themselves. Fort McKay was the first First Nation in the region to actually strike up what was called then an industry relations corporation and it was led by a gentleman by the name of Ken Shipley and he worked with two key Fort McKay community members, one from a socioeconomic perspective and one from an environmental perspective and the three of them formed a division of Fort McKay and their sole purpose was to work liaison with industry and the community to decide on what those commitments would look like and be the voice for the Fort McKay community to be able to say if this project is going to go ahead then from a socioeconomic point of view, Fort McKay wants to ensure A, B, C, and D and from an environmental point of view which is usually a lot more in-depth, Fort McKay wants to ensure that these things happen. And then agreements would get signed up where it would show an understanding in a relationship between the proposed project and the community on how they're going to work together and steward the land going forward. And generally, from your experience, was it rather positive or rather negative most of the time? You know, I think negotiations themselves are always difficult but overall, I think it was really positive because it gave a conduit for industry to go in and to be able to start to communicate with communities. A lot of times when you're going into a new community especially a First Nations community you're not really sure where to go. Do I go to the chicken council? Do I go to the band manager? Do I go to the school? And Fort McKay said here's the body that you're going to because they represent to us and they're here to work with industry, right? So from there, keep going with your career. From True North, I got through the regulatory process with them. They were able to get approvals for the project and then Kyoto came about and Fort Hills or True North could not land the investors that they needed to fund the project. So they ended up shelving the project and packaging the few of us that were on the payroll out but before I was even done with them I was made a job offer by Shell Canada at their Muskeg Ripper mine site in a very similar capacity. I was senior advisor of external affairs I think is what my title was and went over to Shell to work with them for a couple of years. Again, learning more about stakeholders, more about public affairs and it was during that time that I met my husband David who worked for Fort McKay directly and worked on that site kind of leading the site. And the project he worked on was, in my opinion, one of the strongest partnerships you've seen between an industry partner and a First Nation group. Shell really put a lot of effort into working with Fort McKay and ensuring that they had a substantial piece of work on their site. In this case it happened to be what we called the BGX and it had them having to go out and purchase triple sevens and large excavators, big mining equipment in order to perform the work on the site. And it also meant that they really brought Fort McKay in as part of their management group really invested in ensuring to ensure their success. There was a lot of emphasis put on employing Aboriginal people from the region and so it was a really, really successful partnership. And, you know, as David and I got to know each other I realized that he had a small little company on the site. I of course had given up my consulting company and he had a couple pieces of equipment that he worked in winters at Canadian Natural Resources who had the horizon site and they were going through regulatory approvals again and we kind of seen a bit of a niche there to grow his company. And so in the fall of 2004 we both made the decision to leave our jobs because I was holding two jobs that time. I was doing the external affairs stuff during the day and going home and doing the payroll and the bookkeeping and the invoicing for David. So I moved over thinking, oh, this will be great. I'll spend more time with my kids and I'll do the books for him. And it never worked out like that. Yeah, especially a start-off when you start out a private company. I'll never forget the first time he drove me to a site because of course it was really quiet at the site. And we were putting in a temporary access road for a scene around which meant we had to put this little bridge in and we had some rock trucks running and everything was rented and we had just hired a handful of employees from Fort McKay for the project and he drove up kind of like a dirt path but I had no idea where we're going. We stopped at the tiniest little trailer and he said, oh, that's your office and I went inside and there was time sheets all over the place and there was limbs all over the place and somehow I had to learn it all and piece it all together to figure out who needed to be paid and who needed to get an invoice and I was from that point forward there was never any looking back. Totally self-taught. I did not have any knowledge of accounting, contract management, construction. I mean, I came from a corporate environment in public affairs, right? So it was a steep learning curve for me to be thrown in with a hard hat and steel-toed boots into a construction site and a new one at that and try to find my way out. I bet. Now what does, for those of us who don't necessarily are from here, what does Boucher do? So Boucher is a site services support company and we have two main streams that we work on that we're known for and then a third that we're starting out. So the first one is road maintenance and construction, so civil works, and that really is kind of where we started and that's with the heavy equipment there and we have numerous road maintenance contracts across all sand sites, but we also do a lot of civil projects across all sand sites and we work within the community of Fort McMurray itself during road maintenance. And then about five years ago, we started up a second company, geared more towards facility maintenance and general site services around the lines of security, medical, fire. But over the years, we've really backed away from some of those other elements that are more focused on the facility maintenance. And about a year and a half ago, we received our first new contract was included for an NPC contract. So we now have engineers on board and we're able to take a project now from an engineering design perspective to procuring the good right through to construction. And so that was a big step for us and a new area for us. Together we have about 200 pieces of heavy equipment, a fleet of about 200 light vehicles and about 850 employees that work for us. And that's been since the fall of 2004 to today. So I think we're just going to be entering our 13th year of business. Correct. Thank you. So if I understand, you guys could do anything from clearing seasonal snow off certain streets to, a second year has been a while ago, to actually making ice roads or clearing roads for new developments or things like that. But now you could also be kind of subcontractors or manage a project from a large company, Oil Sands Company, for example. Yeah. SYNCrew's given us a great opportunity to work with them on a design of a research project in which we'd be able to do the design alongside them with their approval and then procure the goods needed to carry out the work and then actually go in with our equipment and carry out the construction of the work. Okay. So I guess in the end you get more freedom to operate. Yeah. Yeah. And it's another service offering. And I think as a company, Aboriginal or not, just as a company in these hard economic times, you have to continually be looking for ways to diversify your service offering and to be able to say, you know, we could do this and this and that's what we're known for. But here's other areas of interest and what we have now in terms of just general maintenance. I mean, to be able to maintain assets such as roads and assets such as building, that's a big service offering in the Woodbuff-Williams region. Right. And have you seen, I mean, this is a recurring theme in any natural resource world or company, really. It's cyclical, whether it's with gas prices here, things like that. Or even with the fire now lately. Yeah. Does that affect you guys directly? Does it affect you directly? Yeah, tremendously. The first thing we did coming, I mean, the last two years have been just different, completely different. We went through numerous rounds of cost reductions with our clients. A lot of them were just forced. The client had to, you know, obviously when the price of oil is where it is, I mean, if you're not making money, what's the use of being in business, right? So that gets pushed down to the contractor. And again, it doesn't matter if it's a local contractor or not, we all feel it. So we've had to definitely redefine ourselves from that maintenance perspective. And we've had to look at, okay, so the net profit we made four or five years ago just is a thing of the past. And we're just not going to be able to do that going forward. And then you throw the wildfires in on top of that. And so I don't think there's a company in our area that hasn't taken a large hit at both work. I know companies that are a third of the size this year as they were last year, just because of the economic downturn in the oil sands. Wow. Throughout your career, what has been the most difficult project thing that you've done? I think when you're an entrepreneur in the oil sands, being female and being Aboriginal, I think I would have to refer to that. I don't think Boucher has done one project that sticks out and saying, goodness, we got through that. We could get through anything. I think it was just the general way on how I was able to find my way through, because it was very often, and still is the case sometimes today, where I'll get in the room and I'll be the only female sitting around the room, let alone an Aboriginal female sitting around a room of hard hats. So to be able to find my voice and find my place throughout that I think was probably the largest obstacle that I overcame over the last 12 years. A great question is, how present or absent have women been throughout your career? And then I guess the second one would be, you might have alluded to it a bit, but as a woman, have you had difficulties or has it been surprisingly positive? I don't know. So in the workforce right now for Boucher itself at head office, females make up a majority and that's by design, because I have spent the last 12 years in the field where you would come across a female in an office environment, but to sit around on a project or a construction table, there would be no females in the room. And quite often it was extremely difficult, because quite often I was there alongside my husband and he knew how to move the dirt. I was just figuring things out alongside the group and people would just talk over you or not even look at you and it was nothing to get comments like on your David's wife, you must help him out in the office, you must do the book work. It's just an assumption that as a female I didn't have the ability to actually run the company or run a project or did a job but I was okay to be in the office, right? And has that changed though? Now that especially you clearly know the ropes now and you've been running your own business for 13 years, has that changed and do people, do you get the same kind of reaction or different kind of respect? Yeah, no, I think respect is definitely earned and you have to prove yourself and I think over the last 12 years I like to think I have because it's different now when I'm in the room and just industry in general is changing though because now I'm usually not the only female in the room, it's very seldom I am. There usually is a few others in the room and just the sheer amount of female Aboriginal business owners are in the region is increasing also. Another link to another question, how present or absent we're indigenous people throughout your workplace and not necessarily just this workplace, you've alluded to how Syncrude and Shell, all these companies seem to have initiatives where they hire at least a percentage of the workforce is indigenous. Yeah, how has that changed? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think in respects to Aboriginal people in the workforce I think it's only getting better and better. I really do. I think you had companies early on like Syncrude jumping on board saying here's our target. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with targets. So I think if you don't know where you're going how are you going to ever get there? There's a lot of companies that won't put targets out. They always did. I think it was the right thing to do. And as a result people followed suit to other oil science companies followed suit and said okay well this is what this operator is doing in the region. We need to do better. We need to, okay it's not about just Aboriginal employment anymore now it's about Aboriginal business too. So or it's about giving back to the community or it's about being good neighbors in the community. So I think you're seeing a great deal of the emphasis put on working with Aboriginal people whether it be employment, business suppliers, or community. Okay. A little change of topic here. Have you ever had a mentor or looking back is there one or a few people that really think they're great mentors to you? I have a lot of mentors. I really have used my time to say I really like what this person does and I'm willing to try to learn what they do in this respect but then this person in this respect and my dad's been a huge mentor to me in the field. My husband David's been huge in terms. He's really been the one to encourage me to, I didn't go into this experience thinking I was an entrepreneur. I really went into this experience thinking I was David's wife and helping the entrepreneur out and it was through his encouragement and his guidance that I've learned I actually am an entrepreneur and that makes lots of sense when I ran my own company years ago when I was a single mom and through his mentorship I found my way through and I've learned to find that voice and not be afraid to ask the questions. Now, especially with this company, do you think you played a role in linking Indigenous communities with specific industry groups or companies? Yeah, and if so, could you expand? You know what? I think the biggest thing we have done is the more recent partnership we have with Crillium. So, if I'm going down the wrong path, but four years ago I ventured out to say it's too stressful. I want to sell the company or I want to find a partner who would add enough value that we could grow faster because what was happening is as a small business I felt like we were kind of getting shut out and a lot of industry was going to really large EPC firms and they would do a really good job of coming in and getting regulatory approvals and working with communities to say, yeah, we'll do this, this and this but then they handed over their construction to an EPC firm who didn't know anything about our region or anything about our communities at all. Crillium. Yeah, so Boucher was looking at finding a partner or selling and I actually picked two companies and I phoned my lawyer and said, here's two names and the reason why I decided on them is because we delivered road maintenance and if I had to make a pitch to a client that they should keep working with us but now we had the backing of a large company I wanted it to be a road maintenance company. So I looked at the two that provided the road maintenance services on the Alberta Highways. The first group wouldn't even talk to us at all. They actually laughed at the lawyer and said, it's way too small, not even interested and then our lawyer picked up a phone called Crillium and they said, well, as a matter of fact we are coming up to the area as a way to look at diversifying into oil sense so why are we there? We'd love to come in and see your clients and talk to them about what they're interested in and I had two gentlemen from Crillium come in and right away what they did from a service offering point of view, not only the roads, but I didn't know they also did the facility maintenance and the general site services lined up with where we were as a company right away. The values lined up right away. We were able to really kind of hit it off and so we went through a year of negotiations with them to buy 49% of our company and it was extremely tough year. I mean negotiating was really, really difficult especially when you're giving away kind of your pride and joy. Yeah, but in December 11th of 2012 we announced the partnership and that Crillium had acquired a minority in Tabusha and so I've spent the last four years managing the relationship and alongside the Crillium Raps really focused on ensuring we're doing something that hasn't been done in this region before because you have a lot of big companies coming in and they partner with Aboriginal groups but I think they do it just to get the name just to say that they're Aboriginal and they don't really... check a box, right? That's right, that's right and I didn't want to be like that. I really wanted the value to be brought to the company. I wanted the company to grow and I wanted to be able to do it on our terms and I think we've been able to do that. We've doubled the size of the company since we've done the partnership. So we started off at about the 75 million level and this going into this year we're forecasted in the 165 million level. Now we alluded to it a little bit when we talked about you, I guess your family, your father moving you guys initially here to Fort McMurray but how initially how was the relationship between the community of Fort Macai and the oil and sand industry in the region and has that changed? I am not directly from the community of Fort Macai so I'd only be speaking from what I've heard David talk about or members of the community talk about. It's definitely my understanding that the relationship was not strong on the onset and that it was a past chief by the name of Dorothy McDonald that actually took a stand alongside the now chief, Chief Jim Boucher, to say that as a community in the heart of the oil sands if you're not going to work with us then we're going to work with you too. And I believe it was that event and I believe they actually put up a road block and I believe it was that event that we started to have industry thinking a different way and then again they set up their industry relations corporation and gave a venue for industry to go to to say how can we work with you and I think that's what started to slowly change things. I think the relationship is it perfect? Probably not. I don't think it ever will be but there's definitely a willingness to work with the community of Fort Macai. I would see them as probably the key stakeholder group in this area for sure. So you'd say I guess every day that goes by it gets better. It gets better. Yeah, it gets better. Just the fact that there's a common knowledge now that if you're going to come and work in this area you need to go talk to Fort Macai, right? Right. Yeah. Now you're also president and member of the Northeastern Alberta Business Association. Northeastern Alberta Aboriginal Business Association. Aboriginal Business Association. Sure, yeah, the NAABA. Yeah. Yes, my apologies. So what has been your proudest work as president? I think the amount of members and assertion members overall. I mean, here's an organization that started 20 plus years ago with a few local entrepreneurs sitting around a restaurant table with an Afghan, myself not included, just to talk about how as Aboriginal business owners they are being looked over by industry. So how do we start getting the attention of industry? And let's reach out, let's form an organization. So we all come together with one voice and we have a way of reaching out to industry. And I mean, we're talking five members to start and today we're at 120 full members, 130 somewhat associate members. And every time I go to a monthly meeting, I mean the list to approve is about this thick. So there's a definite interest in the organization. Now we'll just move into a segment where it's, these are questions and no wrong answers once again, but really your opinion. So do you believe there's a disconnect? And this will be a two-parter. Do you believe there's a disconnect between the natural resource industry and Indigenous communities in this area being a good example for you? So has that changed through the decades or not? I think there was a huge disconnect originally through the natural resource industry and Aboriginal communities for sure. I think we are, especially this area, is probably leading edge in terms of how we're progressing the relationship. I think this area alone has done a lot of great, successful things in order to advance the relationship. If you look back even 10 years ago, we did not have the same opportunities as an Aboriginal community that we do today because of the interest in advancing the relationship. And the second part would be the same question, but do you think there's a disconnect between the natural resource industry and the general public in Canada? In Canada, I think there's a huge disconnect between the natural resource industry. I'll just ask that again. Okay. Do you believe there's a disconnect between the natural resource industries in Canada and its general public, general population? I do believe that there's a huge disconnect between the natural resource industry and the rest of Canada. And I think it's very evident just in the hit that the Woodbuffville region takes and the community of Fort McMurray and hear it all over the news all the time about the doom and gloom of Fort McMurray, but having lived here and grew up here, it's quite the opposite. And the biggest thing people say when they visit is, I didn't expect Fort McMurray to be like this. And it's one of those things that, you know, quite often media reports the negative. And so you don't get to hear the great things that we do. Yeah. It's not as sexy, right? Positive stuff is not. No, never is. Never is. Ironically. In your opinion, and this long question, in your opinion, are there any events, people, inventions, contributions, disasters, anything whatsoever that you believe must be mentioned when talking about the recent history of the natural resources in Canada? Oh, for sure. You know, hands down, I think that the, again, using our region as the example, but I think about the relationships that have been built between the oil sense industry up here and the First Nations communities. I have people who come over from England, from the UK, through the Carillion partnership that we have, who didn't understand the way First Nations people live up here and how much they've progressed. You know, a lot of people think that, and it's the news and media that you hear all over the world, a lot of people think that Aboriginal people are still living in tepees up here and big industries coming in and throwing them out of their land. And when you get here, you realize that's not the story at all and that there is a progressive relationship that exists and that there are a lot of good news stories coming out of the relationships that have been built. I have an extra question, I guess. I'm not sure how to frame it, but is there, there's a lot of, if we look at the 80s, there was a switch from your traditional trapping life with now having to really a new life which would be employed by the oil sense industry. Is there still kind of a sort of a battle between how to live as a First Nations member here? Even as a business owner, there's a battle on what you do every day and I think you always walk that fine line because if it all went away to moral, we would be okay with that because it means going back to living off the land, it means enjoying traditional activities that we enjoy, that a lot of what we do outside of work involves traditional activities and enjoying the lands with our children. However, we always say that for Dave and I and for our company, Boucher, we always say that we're making the best of the situation we've been provided and I mean the truth is we're in the heart of oil sands and so why would we want to sit back and not be involved meaningfully into the development of just that? So I think we've definitely made the best that we could with the situation. And are there still, are there people in the region that do still push back? Yeah, and I think we need those people. I think we need people who challenge the natural resource industry. I think it's healthy. I think you're going to have a mix of everyone and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think those people are doing what they think is right and equally so we have people who are starting organizations locally, some of them being Aboriginal who are completely pro oil sands and pro pipeline and their big voices in the community too. So it really is just part of the community's dynamics. Now last question in this section, how do you see the future of Canada's resources and its relationship with its people and industry? Are we on the right track? Have we been doing well or not so much? What are your thoughts? I think the future will change. I think it has to. I think because of climate change and where we're going, I think as a general population we would be naive not to try to change it. I do think though it will take time to change and we have to figure out what will be alternative methods and until we do we have to keep doing what we're doing now. And last but not least a few closing questions. First one is what are you proudest of in life? And I often divide this to be in life and professionally. Okay, well definitely proudest of my family for sure. And as a business owner, I see so many entrepreneurs that forget about family and get caught up in the business and I've been very fortunate to have family members that remind me about the importance of family and that really is what keeps me balanced as an entrepreneur. And professionally? Professionally I think I'm most proudest about bringing a voice to female Aboriginal business owners throughout Canada. I've been fortunate enough to be able to take my story and share it throughout numerous parts of Canada and I like to think that I'm able to help raise the awareness of achievements for female Aboriginal women. And last question, if you were to speak to someone much younger like a child or a student, what would be the one important life lesson or piece of advice you'd give them looking forward to their career or their future as an adult? I'm really big on quotes. Sure. But you know, one of the things I was taught by my parents very early on in life because they don't come from a lot of education, neither does Dave, neither do I. We were taught very early on that anything's possible and that it doesn't matter if you're a doctor, a lawyer, a janitor, you're just as important as the next person. And I think that has always got me to a place where when I step into a room with people who might and usually do have a lot more education than myself, I still know that I'm just as good and I'm still able to do just as much, if not more. And so, you know, we so often put so much emphasis on a title or on a degree. And I just think as people, life experiences are what we learn from the most. And I would just really offer words of advice on to do what you want to do and to not limit yourself by a title or by a piece of paper, but just go after your dreams. Well, thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to add? No, I'm good. I talked enough. I need water. That's good. Thank you.