Thank you, Madam Chair.
Aanii, Patrick Watson n'indignikaaz. Hello, my name is Patrick Watson and as the director of public policy for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, CCAB, I would like to thank you, Madam Chair and all distinguished members of this committee, for the opportunity to provide you with my testimony and to answer your questions today.
Speaking to you from my home office, I acknowledge the land as the traditional territory of many nations, including the Algonquin, the Anishinabe and the Haudenosaunee peoples, and now home to many diverse first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. I would like to recognize and hold up their elders past, present and emerging.
As Chief Poitras stated to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs 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 peoples 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 and recognized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, as the gold standard for indigenous business data in Canada.
From the beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Canada introduced efforts to provide support for businesses. As the CCAB's president and CEO, Ms. Tabatha Bull, stated in recent appearances before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs and the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance, the unique circumstances facing indigenous businesses were not initially taken into account when forming the eligibility of the Canada emergency business account or Bill C-14, which initially left large indigenous-owned businesses ineligible for the wage subsidy. We appreciate that these gaps were remedied; however, we must not forget the additional burden that the nearly month-long gap placed 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 indigenous businesses. However, with Bill C-9, which extended the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency rent subsidy, a number of questions remain unanswered concerning the eligibility of indigenous businesses, which the CCAB has submitted to ISED and CRA. We are waiting on responses to these questions.
As a lesson learned, resulting from our efforts to ensure indigenous inclusion, the CCAB has repeatedly highlighted the need for a navigator function specifically for indigenous businesses to assist with the understanding and uptake of various programs, including those designed to support exporters. 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 support necessary to keep their businesses alive and maintain the well-being of their communities.
In order to support sound federal public policy development and effective interventions during the pandemic, and in collaboration with leading national indigenous organizations, CCAB undertook a COVID-19 indigenous business survey 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.
As we dug deeper into this research, we found that indigenous women disproportionately bore the brunt of the negative effects of COVID-19. For example, more indigenous women-owned businesses reported very negative outcomes to their businesses: 61% for women-owned compared to 53% for men-owned businesses. Women-owned businesses experienced higher revenue drops as a whole compared to men-owned businesses: 36% of women-owned businesses, compared to 26% of men-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 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 would welcome a future opportunity to present our findings to this committee.
What we have taken away from this experience is that programs of general application are often not well designed to meet the specific needs of indigenous businesses. 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 the history between the Crown and indigenous peoples.
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. This is one of the recommendations found in the Senate Committee on National Finance’s report on Bill C-9, which notes that the federal government should consider “adopting a government-wide strategy to support Indigenous businesses, similar to its Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Black Entrepreneurship Program”. Access to external markets would be an important part of this government-wide strategy, including the need to support indigenous exporters as part of the recovery.
Such a strategy was not mentioned in the recent Speech from the Throne, nor in the fall economic statement. Although we acknowledge the number of important renewed commitments made in the Speech from the Throne and in the fall economic statement, 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. That was a missed opportunity for the Government of Canada to signal to Canadians that indigenous prosperity and economic reconciliation matter.
In the immediate term, what is needed to support indigenous exporters is a 5% set-aside with a navigator service across all four CanExport programming streams—CanExport SMEs, CanExport innovation, CanExport associations and CanExport community investments—for indigenous businesses, organizations and aboriginal economic development corporations, also known as dev corps. A 5% set-aside for first nations, Métis and Inuit businesses would represent a meaningful investment in indigenous exporters and indigenous economic recovery. This proposal is aligned with the Government of Canada’s procurement set-aside, which is reflected in the mandate letter of the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada.
In the medium term, what we would like to see in the upcoming budget is a plan for the Government of Canada to build the capacity of indigenous organizations to deliver export opportunity awareness, export readiness training and exporter business missions in a good way that draws upon the lessons learned of the recent OECD report “Linking Indigenous Communities with Regional Development in Canada”, to ensure that these supports are culturally appropriate, place-based and meaningful for indigenous businesses.
The CCAB would welcome the opportunity to work with this committee and Global Affairs Canada on its efforts to build indigenous capacity. In the last three months alone, CCAB has hosted and participated in a series of export webinars with the trade commissioner service, Export Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada, focused on indigenous businesses.
We have been developing a unique export readiness training opportunity with the World Trade Centre in Vancouver for early 2021, and we co-hosted a Canada-Australia indigenous business export dialogue on December 3, 2020, which provided a business mission for indigenous exporters from both countries. Our next indigenous business export dialogue will take place on January 14, 2021, this time with indigenous businesses from the United States of America.
I would like to leave you with this point for consideration. Too often, indigenous business concerns are an afterthought, resulting in indigenous organizations like CCAB working to prove to the Government of Canada that their responses have not met the needs of indigenous peoples. A reasonable starting point to support indigenous economic recovery would include set-asides and a navigator function for the CanExport programs for indigenous businesses and communities.
CCAB is committed to continue to work in collaboration with the Government of Canada, our members and partners to help rebuild and strengthen the path forward towards a healthy and prosperous Canada.
Thank you all very much for your time. Meegwetch.