[Witness spoke in indigenous language]
[English]
Good morning.
Thank you for the opportunity to be before you today.
When I appear before your committee, I'm always reminded that the FMA legislation, which created the finance authority, tax commission and the financial management board, was passed with all-party support. We have enjoyed the support of this committee since 2005 in hearing about the work we do and the things we have learned from our clients over the years.
FMB can now offer services to clients from offices in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal. It's important to also remember that there 321 Indian Act bands across the country that have scheduled themselves to the act. The success our clients have achieved through using the tools provided by the FMA are apparent. The three institutions have all done their jobs, and have proved that indigenous-designed solutions work.
You have been provided with a PowerPoint deck on an initiative we are calling “RoadMap”. It represents our thinking on what economic and fiscal reconciliation implementation strategies should be designed to achieve. It addresses the more significant issues we see and have been advised of by our clients. “RoadMap” identifies the barriers to economic development and makes suggestions on how to overcome these barriers. There is no stand-alone, single step that will fix the problem. It will take many steps, which will require changes in attitudes, policy, legislation and regulations. We will be breaking “RoadMap” down into chapters, which we intend to release monthly for review and comment over the next six months.
These chapters are statistics and data; infrastructure; economic development; expanding jurisdiction and fiscal powers; strength through working together, which is talking about aggregation; and enhanced governance to manage risk. These six topic areas reflect where we believe impediments exist that need to be addressed. We will we welcome the opportunity to present these chapters to you directly. We'll ensure you receive a copy of each chapter as they are released.
The barriers to economic development remain. These are limited jurisdiction and fiscal powers; revenue sharing; poor infrastructure in our communities; limited access to monetization of revenue streams; the need for modern-day transfer arrangements between Canada, the provinces and first nation governments; and the need to modernize our administrative capacity to respond to the economic and governance matters that communities find themselves having to deal with.
On an optional basis, we need to allow the creation of a critical mass of communities to achieve the economies of scale that can offer the front and back-office capacities required to secure the information needed to meet the standard for demonstrating that FPIC has been achieved.
Capacity-building needs to be supported through emerging first nations institutions and organizations.
I think Canada needs to recognize that it can, itself, advance economic development in business communities through its approaches to procurement. The Trans Mountain project is a good example. As a member of the board, I can tell you that $2.7 billion in contracts have been awarded to indigenous joint ventures and businesses. That's 3,682 contracts awarded to 71 groups. Eleven per cent of the employees are indigenous. That's 2,064 hires. The value of MBAs is $619 million, or 68 agreements with 74 nations along the route.
Indigenous inclusion in all aspects that drive an economy needs to be encouraged. This knowledge transfer will facilitate a risk-based approach to economic development.
Thank you.