Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 17th, 2020

[Éric Cardinal]

The database currently consists of more than 250 businesses, and more continue to be added to it weekly. It is managed by CANDO with the assistance of Aboriginal Business Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada.

This database is unique because it constitutes the largest database of indigenous suppliers of individual protection equipment and other products related to COVID-19, such as hand sanitizer, surgical gowns, masks, and so on. The database is public and is accessible at www.taskforce-covid19.ca. It consists of businesses that can provide their services to federal, provincial and municipal governments, and any other organization or business looking for suppliers.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

That's very interesting.

You also mentioned economic reconciliation. Can you explain to us what you mean and how this fits in the current context of the second wave?

[Éric Cardinal]

When we talk about reconciliation with indigenous peoples, we are talking about the healing of wounds related to colonialist policies. We are also talking about the recognition of aboriginal and treaty rights, as well as about repairing the education system, protecting childhood and justice. In that context, it's also a matter of working on rebuilding economies of indigenous peoples so as to reduce, even eliminate, the socioeconomic gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginal Canadians. That is what we mean by economic reconciliation.

I would like to add that, when we talk about the economic development of communities, it is important not only to talk about money or contracts, especially right now, during this second COVID-19 wave. Infrastructure is also important.

For example, in the Atikamekw community in Haute-Mauricie, Quebec, the government recently invested in the building of a fibre optic network that will give communities access to high-speed Internet. That is extremely important. This announcement has given wings to the Corporation de développement économique Nikanik, in Wemotaci. It has helped develop and start up a number of new local businesses in various activity sectors, including a gas station and a sawmill.

The Canadian economic recovery will generally rely a great deal on infrastructure. This is a golden opportunity to support indigenous communities.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Do you think the first wave taught us anything about indigenous communities, compared with the current second wave?

[Éric Cardinal]

One of the very good things we have learned is that we can trust first nations governments. As I said in my presentation, we have seen extraordinary things.

Despite their limited means, councils have taken care of their populations' safety. They have assumed their role of local government. What we must learn from this experience is that higher levels of government—federal and provincial—must recognize the role played by councils and chiefs in first nations governance, give them more autonomy and trust them in the implementation of certain policies and programs. They are close to their citizens and know what their needs are. Programs must be more flexible to adequately meet those communities' needs.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

You have spoken about the current situation, especially the procurement at 1%.

How do you think you can reach the 5%?

[Éric Cardinal]

There are many things that can be done.

The government should first finish modernizing the procurement strategy for indigenous businesses. Among the recommendations to reach 5% is a very simple idea of going from a wish to a standard. The 5% target should be set in every department and organization.

I think that 5% should be a minimum, and not a maximum.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Cardinal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you.

Ms. Blaney, I understand that IT has fixed things, so you have six minutes now.

Please go ahead.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I did the traditional log out and log back in, and it seems to have worked. Thank you for that.

I want to thank all the speakers so much for their very important testimony.

I would like to start off with Dr. Restoule. I really appreciated what you had to say and thank you so much for those very clear recommendations.

One of the things you spoke about during your testimony was the triggering of colonial trauma. I'm wondering if you could talk a little about that and how that's been brought up through our living through COVID-19.

[Dr. Brenda Restoule]

Sure. Thank you.

One of the things we heard very clearly was that communities have worked to keep COVID out by looking at lockdowns and border controls, but what that has meant is that the community members themselves don't have the freedom of movement. They talked about how that was a triggering of a past system, where they needed permission to be able to leave the community to go out to do their shopping and things like that. Those border restrictions have had the same kind of impact, because people have had to put in a request to leave the community and state why they are leaving, how long they'll be gone and where they are going.

The other thing we heard was that, because there was restriction of movement, people were feeling that it was similar to residential school, where they were required to follow somebody else's directions and were put in a position of not being able to make decisions for themselves.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much for that.

Another thing I would like to come back to you and then go to Ms. Hopkins about is the capacity for services and, of course, the challenges that folks who are giving those services are feeling. I've heard from communities across my riding—I represent over 20 indigenous communities—that sometimes they're getting services in their own communities and they're great services, but when they go out and access provincial services they're often facing systemic racism and feeling that very strong pressure.

Knowing that, I would imagine that a lot of community members don't want to access outside resources, especially because of the racism they face, so that sort of builds an obligation for the people who are providing the services. Could you talk a bit about that and the impact it's having now, especially as we're going into the second wave and people are already tired?

[Dr. Brenda Restoule]

Yes. Many of our community members have found with the services outside of the community that they're likely to face racism, and that often the services are not culturally competent. The service providers are unaware of or not equipped to talk about those colonial traumas and don't recognize intergenerational trauma.

They often feel a sense of judgment or stigma when they bring up issues and they find that they're having to explain how that reminds them of residential schools, the sixties scoop and those other things. They find that these service providers don't really provide an adequate level of support, so they end up back in the communities and looking for those types of services.

As a practising psychologist, one of the things I have noticed is that over time we've seen far more complex needs of our members. They often come in talking about a simple issue like depression or anxiety, say, but once you start talking to them, they start bringing up substance misuse, violence, their own traumas and the traumas within their families. That complexity then requires a more wraparound approach to care.

I think that places a greater burden on our community services, which sometimes don't have enough people to do the work. Also, some of the people in the community sometimes don't have the requisite knowledge, let's say, from a wellness perspective, across education, employment, social services, housing and those other types of services, in order to help support people who need them to come with a trauma-informed care approach, I would say, recognizing that people need to be met where they're at and that they need the support in a way that helps them to move forward.

For example, they might be coming in and saying that they need housing, but we know that they have significant substance use issues, so departments will say they can't help with housing until they deal with their substance misuse. I think helping to get our workers on the same page, to come from that trauma-informed care approach, is one of the critical challenges, which I think overburdens us because we're seeing those inequities.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you. That's a great answer.

Ms. Hopkins, could you answer?

[Carol Hopkins]

Yes. I would add that from a systems level we know that mental health is a responsibility of provinces and territories and, through health authorities, those mental wellness or mental health services reach the citizens of Canada. For first nations, who rely on that partnership with provincial or territorial health systems, we don't always see access to services.

There are two examples that I provide in my slide deck. One is talking about opioids and methamphetamines. That's a program that was initiated amongst the Independent First Nations Alliance of northern Ontario. They did create a good partnership with the local health authority, and they did create rapid access to addictions medicine. They ensured that there were community outreach workers.

However, they did that through time-limited funding, which now is available to first nations and was not in the past. That's from the substance use and addictions program, which is managed through Health Canada. That's time-limited funding, and in three years' time, they're not going to be able to solve the methamphetamine and opioid crisis. There has to be sustainable funding. These are virtual services at this moment in time, as well as on-the-land services.

Another example is the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Hope program. Again, it's a virtual services program, but they did not receive any support from the province to establish these virtual services. They had to look within, to their own resources, to establish enough to put together this program that was so vitally needed amongst the communities. They talk about the access to services, the preference for culturally based services. Again, building on what Brenda said, outside of first nation communities, there isn't always that cultural safety or cultural relevancy.

These are two examples of where communities have reached out to other sources of funding, but they're temporary and they need sustained stability.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much.

Thanks to all of you, our guests in the first round of our meeting today—Mr. Cardinal, Dr. Restoule and Ms. Hopkins—for your excellent testimony and for your participation today.

I'm going to suspend the meeting for just a couple of minutes while we set up our next panel. We should be able to get two rounds of questioning in beginning at 12 noon. We'll suspend now for just a couple of minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I call this meeting back to order. We'll begin with the first two witnesses, and hopefully in the next 10 or 15 minutes Shannin's technical issue can be cleared up.

Our first witness in this hour is the representative of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business Tabatha Bull, president and chief executive officer.

Tabatha, please go ahead for six minutes.

[Tabatha Bull, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business]

[Witness spoke in Ojibwa as follows:]

Aanii Tabatha n’dizhnikaaz. Nipising ndo njibaa. Migizi ndodem.

[Ojibwa text translated as follows:]

Hello, my name is Tabatha. I am from Nipissing. I am of the Eagle clan.

[English]

As president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, I want to thank you, Mr. Chair and all distinguished members of the committee, for the opportunity to provide you with my statement and to answer any of your questions.

Speaking to you from my home office, I acknowledge the land as the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.

As Chief Poitras shared with this committee on November 3, 2020, “This pandemic has highlighted the inequities in this country and exacerbated existing challenges.” This statement underlines how, more than any other time in history, indigenous issues need to be top of mind for the Government of Canada and the Canadian public.

Since 1982, CCAB has been committed to the full participation of indigenous peoples in the Canadian economy. Our work is backed by data-driven research, recognized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as the gold standard for indigenous business data in Canada.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Canada introduced efforts to build supports for businesses. A number of those supports were required to be remedied to include indigenous businesses, and while access is now available, CCAB has repeatedly highlighted the need for a navigator function specific to indigenous business to assist with the understanding and uptake of the various programs. Indigenous businesses have found navigating the bureaucracy, which often does not consider their unique legal and place-based circumstances, a significant barrier to accessing the supports necessary to keep their businesses alive and maintain the well-being of their communities.

The lack of targeted assistance for indigenous businesses to utilize these government supports further adds to the frustration and distrust that is the result of our history. This underlines the need for an indigenous economic recovery strategy that is indigenous-led, builds indigenous capacity and is well resourced to support indigenous prosperity and well-being. Access to external markets would be an important part of this work, including the need to back indigenous exporters as part of the recovery.

Such a strategy was not mentioned in the recent Speech from the Throne. Although we acknowledge the number of important renewed commitments made in the Speech from the Throne, I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment that there was no mention of efforts to support the economic empowerment of indigenous peoples, businesses or communities. This was a missed opportunity for the government to signal to Canadians that indigenous prosperity and economic reconciliation matters.

As this committee is aware, in order to support sound federal policy development and effective interventions during the pandemic and in collaboration with leading national indigenous organizations, including my colleagues here today, CCAB undertook a COVID-19 indigenous business survey, as was discussed in the last session, as part of a COVID-19 indigenous response task force. The goal of the survey was to understand the unique impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on indigenous-owned businesses in Canada, and to encourage the Government of Canada to support indigenous businesses through purchasing PPE from them.

As we dug deeper into our research, we found that indigenous women disproportionally bore the brunt of the negative affects of COVID-19. More indigenous women-owned businesses reported very negative outcomes to their business—61% of women-owned, compared to 53% of men-owned. Women-owned businesses experienced higher revenue drops as a whole—50% or more—compared to 36% of men-owned. In addition, Inuit businesses are most likely to have experienced a revenue drop of 50% or more, compared with Metis-owned and first nation-owned businesses.

The CCAB appreciates the indication provided to us by Indigenous Services Canada that they will fund a second COVID-19 indigenous business survey this fall, and a further survey in the spring of 2021, to assess the impacts that the first and second waves of COVID-19 have had and are having on indigenous businesses.

It is our hope that the results of both surveys will inform effective policy and programmatic interventions to support indigenous business recovery and, in turn, support indigenous prosperity and well-being. We welcome an opportunity to provide that data to you in the future.

During my last appearance before this committee on May 29, I pointed out that the unique circumstances facing indigenous businesses were not initially taken into account when forming the eligibility of CEBA or Bill C-14. That initially left many large indigenous-owned businesses ineligible for the wage subsidy. We appreciate that these gaps were remedied. However, we must not forget the additional burden the close to a month-long gap had on many indigenous businesses.

Furthermore, with an understanding that there were on-reserve businesses that could not access the programs available due to unique taxation and ownership structures, the government announced the distribution of $133 million to support those indigenous business. Analogous to the work currently being done to extend CEWS and CEBA and the remediation of the rent assistance program, investigation and consideration must be given to the extended needs of the same businesses that were not eligible for that funding.

I would like to underline that indigenous businesses have repeatedly told us that they are not in a position to take on any more debt.

I also mentioned in my last appearance that numerous indigenous businesses were prepared to readily provide supplies or equipment to meet Canada's medical needs and the capability to rapidly scale up or pivot production to PPE. CCAB and other organizations, as discussed earlier, have provided lists of such indigenous businesses to numerous federal departments and through the task force database, but only a small fraction of the over $6 billion of federal procurement contracts for PPE have been awarded to indigenous businesses.

An announcement on September 21 noted a total contract of $2.5 million to seven indigenous businesses. This represents only 0.04% of the federal spend on PPE, nowhere near the 5% commitment made last year in Minister Anand’s mandate letter and the Speech from the Throne. The commitment is a target of at least 5% of federal contracts to be awarded to indigenous businesses, and in the throne speech, a support of supplier diversity. The frustration on the lack of progress on this 5% target has been evident in our discussions with our members and at our public Business Recovery Forum on September 16.

I would like to leave you with this point for consideration.

Too often, indigenous business concerns are an afterthought, resulting in indigenous organizations such as CCAB, NACCA and Cando working to prove to government that their responses have not met the needs of indigenous people. There is no better example of that than PPE, as 0.04% of federal spend on PPE is not a genuine effort to achieve economic reconciliation. A reasonable starting point to support indigenous economic recovery would include procurement and infrastructure set-asides for indigenous businesses and communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm sorry, Ms. Bull, but we're way over time. I need to keep the timing so that we can get all of the statements and the question rounds in. Perhaps the rest of your remarks will occur throughout our talk.

[Tabatha Bull]

It was only to say thank you for your time. Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you.

We will go now to the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers.

Raymond Wanuch, executive director, you are up now, for six minutes. Please go ahead, sir.

[Raymond Wanuch, Executive Director, Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers]

I'm trying to start my video, but it says that the host has stopped.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We can hear you. Your sound is loud and clear.

[Raymond Wanuch]

Perfect.

Thank you for allowing me to present today.

I'm coming to you from amiskwaciy-wâskahikan . That's the Cree name for Edmonton.

My wife is currently a counsellor at Enoch Cree Nation. Her late mother was from Blood Tribe, one of the largest first nation communities in Canada. My late mother was from Ermineskin Cree Nation, and I am a board member of their economic development investment group.

Am I still good to go?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You're sounding great and looking great. Carry on.