Government Operations committee  There was a question about a task force. The task force was a temporary gathering. I was speaking today about a reference group, which is a procurement working group that's working with government. I don't think we were talking about the task force. Ms. Vignola, did you ask abou

Government Operations committee  I can jump in here. I think it's really important that it be indigenous-led. I think that's a given. I think that's the only way that we're going to go. Government keeps on talking about devolving services to indigenous people, without the resources. We all have to work together

Government Operations committee  I'd like to use an example that we heard about. Last summer, or maybe it was the fall before COVID hit, the defence department let out a 10-year clothing contract. This one would have been an ideal indigenous contract. It would have probably encapsulated a number of communities t

Government Operations committee  That would be me.

Government Operations committee  They basically said that it was national security confidentiality. They weren't able to provide any feedback to the business owner, other than to say that they weren't eligible. This was even though they had invested in a facility to be built on a first nation, hired first nation

Government Operations committee  Yes, they did.

Government Operations committee  I would like to start. During my opening remarks, I said that we're working on a business plan for an indigenous-led institution. I think that would be more of a concierge sort of service in working with the departments, understanding what's coming down the pipeline, getting the

Government Operations committee  On training specifically, for the indigenous businesses, I think we are good with the AFI network interfacing with the indigenous entrepreneur and providing training. We could use some more support to ensure that we can add to our complement so that they can do the right work. R

Government Operations committee  Rather than trying to have a paintbrush approach to it, saying that everybody is going to be fair under a system that doesn't have an indigenous procurement process is not going to work, because we are living in a discriminatory system already. There's no way that our entrepreneu

Government Operations committee  The Aboriginal Financial Institutions Network has 59 members from coast to coast to coast, and they've been doing this for more than 35 years. Rocky's got one of the first AFIs that was ever created. It's in Alberta, and they connect with their communities on a daily basis. They'

Government Operations committee  Sure. Since July 2020—

Government Operations committee  I totally forgot what the question was.

Government Operations committee  Yes. We started that in July 2020, which was far too late. This process should have started a lot earlier, because at those meetings we identified that there wasn't a lot of indigenous-led information or consultation or engagement. That's when we started the process. Now we're

Government Operations committee  Creating anything new within a colonial system in which anywhere from maybe only 10% to 15% of all employees within the government are people of colour is a big issue. When you're asking a frontline manager to go away from what he's used to—which is going with what he knows—and

Government Operations committee  Can I add one thing? I'll tell you where Australia really made the big change. They issued the targets, but the change only really happened when the government departments were transparent with how they achieved their targets and showed them to each other so that there was a com