Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), aboriginal economic growth projects must address one or more of the following: supporting greater aboriginal participation in natural resource development opportunities and increasing capacity to capitalize on these opportunities; strengthening aboriginal business development and entrepreneurship; and involving aboriginal groups and partners to increase skills development, technical training and trades training.
With regard to (b), WD does not exclude any industry sector in this category.
With regard to (c), six aboriginal economic growth projects were approved in the initial call for proposals intake. The successful applicants include not-for-profit organizations, aboriginal community-led organizations and educational institutions.
With regard to (d), WD reached out to aboriginal communities regarding the program availability and was not made aware of any particular application-related challenges faced by aboriginal economic growth project applicants.