Evidence of meeting #127 for International Trade in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was business.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
It's an important response we're getting from the witnesses. Absolutely.
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here this afternoon.
I'm going to start with Ms. Perron.
I would suggest that the Government of Canada has a lot of work to do when it comes to making up for lost opportunities for women-led indigenous businesses, particularly tourism opportunities and the tourism sector. We have a former minister of tourism and employment who misrepresented himself as indigenous, and then proudly proclaimed this during his time in office, particularly when they were doing consultations on the national tourism strategy. When that strategy was tabled, it included a pillar for a national strategy, including indigenous tourism. Yet, it over-promised and under-delivered, which is typical of this government's record of disappointment.
Just think: In budget 2022, the only mention of tourism was the $20 million for indigenous tourism. It was a two-year program, but the funding never flowed for, essentially, two years. Ten million dollars was promised to the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada. Yet, they had to wait two years for that funding.
The other $10 million—Ms. Perron, that's why I'm going to be coming to you—was promised to the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association. That $10 million is going to the signature indigenous tourism experiences stream. It's a pilot project with grants from $500,000 to $1.25 million, and it's going to fund from eight to 12 projects.
Now, have the criteria been developed for that, have applications been submitted and, in particular, are you seeing women-led businesses applying for it?
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
Thank you for your question.
I'm not directly involved in that project within my organization, but I am aware that we've received the funding. Applications have been received and reviewed. I believe the selected candidates have been chosen. I know we had applications from indigenous women-owned businesses, which was great to hear and see. However, I can't speak about whether the selected applicants have been notified at this point, and what percentage of those are indigenous women-owned businesses.
What I will also add is that tourism is an important industry—indigenous tourism, in particular. This is a project that we saw high demand for and that we'd like to continue to deliver in the future, because we see there's a need and an interest. We can help our communities advance in the tourism industry, and increase economic prosperity.
Thank you very much.
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Thank you for that.
However, at the same time, we have a national association that is the voice for indigenous tourism in Canada. Yet, that additional $10 million went to your corporation and not to ITAC.
Why do you think the federal government selected NACCA as a delivery vehicle for this program and not the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada?
November 20th, 2024 / 5:10 p.m.
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
I'll speak about why NACCA was selected as the delivery organization.
I think that goes back to our track record. We're a national indigenous organization. We've been around for over 35 years. We have member associations across the country that have been working with indigenous entrepreneurs and community-based businesses. We also have a high repayment rate and very few loan writeoffs and losses. We've built what I would say is a very good relationship with the federal government and established that trust to deliver results on a program like this tourism project.
Thank you very much.
Conservative
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Ms. Perron, if you could then just respond to me, what is the relationship between your organization and ITAC?
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
We maintain good relationships with various national indigenous organizations, ITAC being one of them.
I know we're short on time. Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
We'll move on to Mr. Sidhu, for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to our witnesses for being here on this important study.
I was reading on the NACCA website the importance of federal funding, and I just want to make sure I read this into the record.
It says:
The inclusion of NACCA in Budget 2024 demonstrates the government’s commitment to advancing Indigenous economic prosperity. This funding will enable us to continue our transformative work, breaking down systemic barriers and fostering economic participation aligned with Indigenous cultural values. We acknowledge and thank the Government of Canada for their strong belief, support and inclusion of NACCA and the network of IFIs as we look forward to a continuance of collaborative positive outcomes towards Indigenous Prosperity.
Ms. Perron, speaking to some of this funding that's been supportive of many indigenous entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, can you speak to what this means to NACCA, what it would mean to the hundreds of women whom you currently support through maybe micro grants or other programs that you run.
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
Thank you so much.
We were very pleased and very appreciative for budget 2024's inclusion of our organization. That funding means that we will be able to continue our indigenous women's entrepreneurship program over the next five years, so rather than winding it down this March, we'll actually be ramping it up.
What that means for the almost 30 business support officers that have been hired across the country, many of whom are indigenous women themselves, is that they have that job security to stay in their role and continue to work with indigenous women entrepreneurs. A really important part of the program is having women in client facing roles.
It also means that we'll be able to expand the programs we offer. We're looking at building a program for young indigenous entrepreneurs, youth between the ages of 18 and 39, as well as enhancing our other core aboriginal entrepreneurship program.
Thank you.
Liberal
Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON
Thank you for that.
Our government remains focused on growing trade, unlocking doors and giving Canadian products access to new markets around the world. We recently announced a Canada-Indonesia trade agreement that would help give access to over 200 million people, 200 million more consumers for Canadian products in Indonesia.
Where do you see trade fit in with indigenous entrepreneurs, especially women? Is there a focus on that by your organization going forward maybe five, 10 or 15 years from now, or is that something that you want to prioritize now?
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
Trade is an important part of the entrepreneurial journey. Our current IWE program, as I mentioned, is focused more on micro-lending, so we're supporting women with smaller, part-time, home-based types of businesses. However, the intention is to help them grow their business, expand on the type of capital they are able to access by building that track record with our financial institutions and, hopefully, being able to grow, expand, export and trade internationally. That's certainly on the horizon for us for our indigenous women entrepreneurship program.
Then, of course, for NACCA more broadly and all the indigenous entrepreneurs we support, that's an important part of what we do and what we want to support our members with.
Liberal
Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON
Thank you for that.
Maybe I can turn to Ms. Nepinak, and maybe, Ms. Perron, you can comment on this as well.
What more can the government do to assist women entrepreneurs and women in trade? From your perspective, what more can we do in the coming years?
President, Native Women's Association of Canada
I would recommend to continue doing what you're doing with increased resources so that we start women from the very developmental stages. Women are using their savings. They continue to look after their children or other family members.
How do we do that step-by-step process? I believe that, with every step, there would be funding, support and wraparound services. What is international trade? How do I access that? What is the coaching? What is the mentoring that should be involved in that process as well? Indigenous women are very interested in being part of that entrepreneurship, but without the supports.... In many cases that support has not been there, and we have to ensure the continuity and build on that.
Liberal
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Perron, let's turn to the supply chain.
Right now, companies have to register. Regular businesses have to do so in order to get a business number. For example, Quebec businesses have a Quebec enterprise number, also known as the NEQ. I'd imagine every province has something similar. For an indigenous business to access certain benefits, it has to register with the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council.
How is that going? How straightforward is it? As we know, some articles have documented cases where non-indigenous businesses have accessed funding.
I'd imagine this must be upsetting for first nations people.
Indigenous Women and Youth Program Manager, National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association
I have some examples of entrepreneurs who have experienced this type of activity in terms of businesses approaching them simply because they have an indigenous business, wanting to partner on a bid for a procurement opportunity, but they're not meaningfully involved or are not benefiting from the project.
There's a specific example, when they were initially approved for the project, where they had an indigenous partner, and the contract was continuously renewed year after year. However, the indigenous partner was dropped and was no longer part of the project. That non-indigenous business was still benefiting from the contract that was put aside for an indigenous business.
These types of scenarios continue to happen. We need to have a mechanism in place to prevent it. Prevention needs to be our focus going forward. We're seeing that those businesses, which truly aren't indigenous, are facing some consequences in terms of being removed from the directory, but further action will need to be taken.
Liberal
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you again to the witnesses for being present in this study. I really thank you for your contribution related to this idea of companies partnering with indigenous companies simply for the purpose of accessing procurement opportunities.
When it comes to a person who's pretending to be indigenous, we call them a "pretendian". This is more colloquial, in a way, where we say “rent a feather”. You've probably heard this before, the idea that you can rent a feather and can get access to any procurement you want.
We dealt with this issue when there was a company, federally, called Dalian. Dalian was a company that we had to stop giving money to through the ArriveCAN scenario—the big issue. The company had to admit that it didn't even know the indigenous procurement standards in the federal government. Worse yet, it didn't have 50% indigenous control. Then the owner himself didn't know if he was indigenous. Therefore, I really take what you're saying about this idea of renting a feather for the purpose of advancing one's own interests very seriously.
I want to ask you a question related to the fact that you are leaders in this space. Women and a lot of indigenous people look up to you. I know a lot of indigenous women who have—and you mentioned this at the onset—built these companies with their own money, and then they find it difficult to commercialize what they've built. What's your message to women who are in that position today, Ms. Nepinak?
President, Native Women's Association of Canada
I think my message to them would be that, despite all the colonial constructs that have been a part of our lives, we're breaking down those barriers. We are strong. We are resilient, and we can do this. Let's do it. Let's be a business. Let's do what we can to gain that self-sufficiency.
Thank you.