Reinventing with Confidence: Building a Purpose-Driven Business

When Sylvie Mazerolle joined the Comité Francoqueer de l’Ouest’s Fierté d’entreprendre program, she was in the midst of a professional transition. She was working to clarify her services, refine her vision, and define the identity she and her partner wanted for their new consulting agency. 

The Challenge

As an Acadian and queer entrepreneur based in Western Canada, Sylvie did not easily see herself reflected in existing English language entrepreneurship programs, which she described as having a more traditional corporate culture. 

Instead, they were looking for a space that aligned with their values, identity, and collaborative approach to working with many different communities. 

The Experience

Through Fierté d’entreprendre, Sylvie found a program that better reflected her reality. Its Francophone, queer, and Western-rooted intersectional approach created a sense of belonging that had been missing elsewhere.  

The program helped them better define their practice, positioning, and business direction for their agency, L’agence Osa Consulting. It also enabled Sylvie to quickly build connections with a supportive network at a pivotal moment in her journey. 

“I discovered the Fierté d’entreprendre program at such a perfect, pivotal time, literally just weeks after I left my former career as a school principal and began reinventing myself. It validated my decision and instantly gave me a community and support network that felt like a safety net. 

It’s the reason I did the program—being Francophone, queer, and on the West Coast.”  

— Sylvie Mazerolle

The Growth

Since participating in the program, Sylvie has achieved several tangible outcomes: 

• Secured new clients, including the Association francophone des Kootenays Ouest for an equity-focused ecosystemic audit, and Réseau-Femmes C.-B. for work on courageous conversations. 
• Extended her design and teaching of online courses for Queen’s University on restorative justice and expressive arts-informed education. 
• Built a complete brand identity with startup funding, including logo, colour palette, typography, a professional website, and business cards. 
• Accessed professional headshots through the hosted trade mission. 

According to Sylvie, the startup funding was “another game changer,” giving them access to resources that are often difficult to obtain in the early stages of building a business. 

Community Impact

Sylvie has also helped strengthen the Franco-queer entrepreneurial ecosystem around her by: 

• Building relationships with the Compassionate Systems BC around education, training, and systems change, opening the door to future collaborations. 
• Being invited to write a chapter for an upcoming pedagogy manual for new teachers in Ontario. 
• Developing relationships with Hello Gender Diversity Centre in Acadie, helping foster stronger connections between franco-queer communities in Western Canada and Acadie. 
• Contributing to the TransÉquité project through Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta. 

Today, her network spans British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and the Atlantic provinces. 

Looking Ahead

Guided by a strong commitment to equity and community, Sylvie continues to create new mandates, partnerships, and collaborations that strengthen connections across regions. This month marks another milestone as L’agence Osa Consulting completes their CQCC certification, formally recognizing their business as queer-owned. Through this work, they remain focused on bridging ecosystems and creating opportunities for learning, connection, and collective growth.

learn more about CFQO

The Comité FrancoQueer de l’Ouest is a primary ressource for French-speaking 2SLGBTQIA+ people in British-Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest and Yukon Territories’ linguistic minority communities. They lead the conversation on the challenges faced by gender and sexually diverse people to raise awareness of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities in francophone minority settings.

Through support of the Ecosystem Fund*, CFQO launched a new initiative, Fierté d’entreprendre, designed to support French-speaking 2SLGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs and allies through two programs: Diversité en affaires, and Oser avec Fierté. Through this initiative, they also led a domestic trade mission to Montréal in February 2026.

*The Ecosystem Fund is a pillar of the 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program, an initiative supported by the Government of Canada and led by the Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce (CQCC).