Good afternoon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to provide an overview and update on the procurement strategy for aboriginal business.
Before I go further, I would like to acknowledge that the land on which I work and live is the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg people.
My name is Jessica Sultan, and I am the director general of the economic and business opportunities branch at Indigenous Services Canada.
Federal procurement is a powerful catalyst for economic development. Since 1996 the procurement strategy for aboriginal business managed by Indigenous Services Canada has been instrumental in encouraging indigenous businesses to procure with the federal government.
Indigenous Services Canada last appeared before this committee in November 2017 to provide an overview of the procurement strategy for aboriginal business. That appearance was included as part of a June 2018 committee report on modernizing federal procurement, which contained 40 recommendations, eight of which were aimed specifically at the procurement strategy for aboriginal business.
Since the release of this report, Indigenous Services Canada has continued with an indigenous procurement modernization initiative. As part of this initiative, Indigenous Services Canada has engaged with numerous stakeholders, including but not limited to indigenous economics development organizations and their members, national and regional indigenous organizations, organizations that represent modern treaty rights holders, and various levels of government in Canada and internationally. The feedback from these engagements was summarized in a discussion paper that was posted on the public-facing ISC website in mid-2019.
In December 2019, the Prime Minister made a commitment to have at least 5% of federal contracts awarded to businesses managed and led by indigenous peoples. The Department of Indigenous Services Canada, along with Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, have been working collaboratively to implement this 5% commitment, while concurrently pushing forward with the modernization of the procurement strategy for aboriginal business.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous Services Canada supported the establishment of an indigenous business COVID-19 task force, which brought together the leadership of indigenous business organizations to provide the Government of Canada with a single, unified indigenous business voice during this time of crisis.
Also of note, in December 2020 the deputy minister of Indigenous Services Canada sent letters to 92 federal departments and agencies requesting that they set multi-year indigenous procurement objectives as required by the procurement strategy for aboriginal business.
In January 2021, the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada sent letters to their counterparts again reiterating the importance of these multi-year indigenous procurement objectives.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide opening remarks. It is a pleasure to be here with you today.