Fostering growth, reconciliation

Shelly Bulycz is good at many things, but retirement is not one of them.

Last August, Bulycz retired from her job as manager of community based programming at University College of the North and moved from The Pas to Winnipeg. She soon grew restless and by the end of October, she’d landed a job as the executive assistant at the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.

In April, the chamber appointed her to be its second-ever chief executive officer.

“I enjoyed retirement for a month and a half, two months, and then decided I needed a job,” Bulycz said. “The rest is kind of history.”

Raised 600 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg in Barrows, Bulycz’s educational background includes management, administrative law, governance, human resources, labour relations and organizational behaviour.

A member of the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, Bulycz brings more than 15 years of leadership experience supporting governance within Indigenous, non-profit and community organizations to her new role.

The 56-year-old talked about her personal and professional background at the chamber’s annual general meeting Thursday at Red River College Polytech’s Notre Dame Avenue campus.

After looking back, Bulycz turned her attention to the future and outlined the chamber’s priorities for the coming months.

“Our main goal is to engage with our members,” she said. “My main goal as the CEO is to help that membership grow (and) help our current membership (access) any opportunity that is presented to the ICC.”

Those opportunities will include online training sessions the chamber is organizing in partnership with the City of Winnipeg that will instruct members on how they can procure work from the city, Bulycz said.

The chamber is looking at hosting new networking events and exploring how it might revamp its membership package, she added.

Connecting with businesses in northern Manitoba and encouraging them to join the chamber is also a priority.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Bulycz said. “We’re strengthening our governance, we’re strengthening our operations (and) we’re working within our strategic plan. All the while, we’re expanding opportunities for our members in networking, learning, collaboration and business growth.”

Bulycz’s appointment as CEO comes during a period of transition for the chamber, which was established in 2004 and currently counts around 200 members. In recent years, the chamber’s board of directors has been transitioning from a working board to a governance board.

As part of that transition, they hired the organization’s first CEO, Renee Greyeyes, in May 2024. She left the organization in October 2025 and took the helm of the Manitoba Prospectors and Developers Association a month later. Board member Chris Henry took a leave from his position as treasurer to serve as the chamber’s interim chief executive until Bulycz was hired.

Bulycz’s extensive experience with board governance made her a great choice for the role, said Adam Nepon, board chairperson.

“It was a natural fit,” he said. “We’re resetting that foundation of how we are going to move forward sustainably, efficiently and effectively.”

Statistics Canada forecasts that in the next 10 to 15 years, one in five people in Manitoba will be Indigenous. Nepon said the chamber wants to see Indigenous representation in the province’s business community grow at the same rate.

Economic reconciliation must involve Manitobans from all walks of life, he said, adding that non-Indigenous businesses and individuals are welcome to join the chamber.

“We’ve got to climb that road and understand what it takes to meet the demands of what Manitoba’s economy needs for growth,” he said.

Meanwhile, the chamber is in a good financial position, Phil Cavey reported at the AGM.

Cavey, a business adviser with MNP, noted that the chamber ended its most recent fiscal year with a surplus of $20,942, bouncing back from a deficit of $6,753 the previous year.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca