Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I want to commend you on one thing you said in your speech that really struck home with me—namely, that you'll add a focus in the strategy on SMEs owned by underrepresented groups like women and indigenous Canadians. That was supported today by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In their “Ten Ways to Build a Canada that Wins”, they identified that there's great untapped potential among aboriginal entrepreneurs, many of whom face unique challenges in attracting capital for their businesses. The chamber is calling on Ottawa for special help for indigenous entrepreneurs.
You talked about partnering and critical partner organizations. I appreciate your identifying them, but I talked to some of those organizations. The Aboriginal Women's Business Entrepreneurship Network of Canada, for example, gets about $400,000 a year for funding to serve the most marginalized entrepreneurs in the country. There's also the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada. You and I were there, Minister, at the tourism meeting of all the tourism ministers across Canada. We heard their call for long-term stable funding and new investment in that area. They've received $4 million so far and their ask is $13 million. We've seen tourism grow. When people are looking for tourism, for cultural tourism in particular, it's gone from one in seven people seeking a cultural experience to one in three. We know that every dollar spent in tourism will have a high return with aboriginal entrepreneurs.
We also read in Maclean's magazine that Canada is missing out on $27.7 billion annually because of its underutilized indigenous workforce. A lot of indigenous people are entrepreneurs. I think this is a very important place for investment. Aboriginal Tourism B.C. applied for $4 million over four years in 2016 and they were declined. They're looking for long-term stable funding. They're a very successful organization. They had a program where they were an incubator for over 20 businesses a year. Really, they're a landmark in B.C. of how you can do it. When we take away funding from organizations that have been great partners, it's really disappointing.
Minister, maybe you can break down—