Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to recognize all the members of this particular committee.
It's good to see some familiar faces from back home. Cathy is my member of Parliament for the Kamloops area, and there's Mr. Hogg. It's good to see you.
I'm from British Columbia myself. My name is Keith Matthew. I want to say just a few words in my language.
[Witness spoke in Secwepemctsin.]
[English]
I'm from the Shuswap Nation. I'm currently the president of Cando. I have with me Ray Wanuch, who is our executive director. We want to talk to you today about community capacity-building and the retention of talent in the delivery of essential services on reserve.
In particular, we want to talk to you about Cando, our organization, which serves our communities from coast to coast to coast. The question that we want to have in front of us is this: Is indigenous community economic development an essential service on reserve? To that, we say a resounding “yes”.
We have over 400 aboriginal economic development officers throughout the country who belong to our council. As Chief Clarence Louie from Osoyoos says, “the economic horse pulls the social cart”.
The very essence of a Cando-certified economic development officer, or EDO, is to work with the leadership to create a vision for the community and then use our skills in strategic and business planning, lands management and more, to create an economy that will support that very vision. Communities can use, then, profits from their many businesses to offset limited funding for essential services. That's a key point, because that's what my community is doing right now.
Since the early 1990s, Cando has been training and certifying economic development officers working within indigenous community economic development. Our mission is to build capacity, which strengthens indigenous economies by providing programs and services to community economic development officers. Our vision is to be the leading authority on indigenous community economic development. We represent first nation, Métis and Inuit EDOs from every province and territory in Canada.
The four guiding principles for education and training identified through Cando's certification process are to be relevant, accessible, affordable and certified. Currently, Cando has certified 202 technical aboriginal economic developer and 209 professional aboriginal economic developer graduates, for a total of 411 Cando-certified AEDOs from coast to coast to coast.
Our EDO technical certifications are delivered through eight accredited colleges and universities based throughout the country. Our certification consists of 11 competencies, focusing on economic development and lands management. Completing TAED through our institution equates to the first two years of a business undergraduate degree. The credits are also buildable and transferable between our accredited institutions.
Our competencies include organization and financial management, governance and leadership, community-based indigenous economic development, indigenous business development and entrepreneurship, and much more.
Along with our journal committee made up of volunteer members, many whom are the finest indigenous professors across the land, Cando annually produces its academic journal on indigenous community economic development.
Cando also delivers its courses and professional development workshops within its national annual conference and its many Links to Learning events offered in locations across Canada. Cando has hosted these events and is expanding this year.
Cando inspires success by adhering to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and hosting its annual national youth summit, which brings together four youth per 13 regions throughout the country. We ensure that there's representation from first nation, Métis, Inuit and non-indigenous youth at our national conference.
In regard to support for sectors within our community, we support our indigenous women through our women in business panel at our national conference and AGM. Women make up at least 50% of the delegates and membership of Cando. We also note that many of our EDOs are non-indigenous as well.
Cando is partnered with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to deliver its community economic development initiative, or CEDI program, which supports collaboration between a first nation and its surrounding municipality to create a joint economic development strategy for their region.
Cando celebrated its very highly successful 25th anniversary just last October, which served as an excellent opportunity for EDOs to network and learn from their peers, with generous support from Indigenous Services Canada and Western Economic Diversification. Cando communicates to its membership, educational institutions, government and industry stakeholders through its quarterly news magazine, monthly electronic brief, and social media platforms.
Social determinants of health, such as a job, are a direct indicator of health. The simple knowledge that you'll receive a paycheque in two weeks makes you a healthier person. However, we have some challenges in front of us. From our perspective, there are opportunities to support the creation of good jobs and economic development in indigenous communities. We have four points here we'd like to stress.
The first is to establish regional EDOs to serve smaller communities. Annual funding for economic development purposes within first nation communities is discretionary and based on a per capita formula. For communities with smaller populations, this means that there is not enough funding for the retention of a Cando-certified EDO. This results in the position being filled by an unqualified person who brings few, if any, results. There are economies of scale where the population of the community is so small that it would be better served by an EDO who serves several communities within a regional setting.
The second point we'd like to make is to retain high-quality EDOs. Many of Cando's certified EDOs are scooped up by companies offering higher salaries and better benefits. Rectifying this situation means increasing the annual salary and benefits. However, this may prove to be unsustainable, given the amount of funding a particular community receives on an annual basis. One solution may be to provide a small base salary with added incentives for funding brought in on an annual basis. Another solution is to create a sense of individual ownership, so community members realize a dividend on an annual basis. The EDO then realizes individual incentives along with the salary, but also realizes dividends based on the programs and services he or she delivers within the community as a whole.
The third point we'd like to impress upon you is to improve access to capital. We contracted the Evidence Network to conduct an unbiased third party analysis of the training and certification provided for EDOs, and also analyze the impact EDOs have within our communities. Their findings rate us at an eight out of 10. They found limitations in the area of lack of capital. As a result of that, our EDOs are not effective enough when it comes to dealing with community entrepreneurs.
Why train effective EDOs when there's no access to capital for the strategic plans and business ventures they've developed? Cando has now entered into a three-year agreement for its annual funding with Indigenous Services Canada because of its very low risk rating. As the next step, we need to determine where we stand now. With support from Indigenous Services Canada, Cando is currently conducting a country-wide national survey and analysis to answer the critical questions to determine how we can retain capacity within our communities and how we can serve our communities.
The final point I'd like to make to you, Madam Chair, is that the main elements of the CEDI program—our partnership with the municipalities that I talked about—are to use indigenous protocols to set the stage for relationship-building to begin, and then to begin third party intervention for a first nation to work alongside its surrounding municipality to create joint economic development strategies.
Thank you very much for this time this morning. I really appreciate the opportunity to address this committee on a really important issue. We know that we serve an under-represented area with indigenous people across Canada, and we'd be happy to answer any of those questions after our other colleague has presented.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.