Government Operations committee  Oh, I like this question. This is so important. When you think about creating an entrepreneur, you have to start at the very beginning. This starts with the children. I was speaking with Chris Googoo today from Ulnooweg. They have a whole pathway of learning whereby they ente

Government Operations committee  If we take it back a little bit further, a number of barriers were created for indigenous people placed in reserves, away from the market. We have legislation in the Indian Act that prevents us from using our house as security. We don't have any wealth generation within our commu

Government Operations committee  I would like to add that if we viewed investing in indigenous businesses as an investment, we'd see that the social impacts for an indigenous-owned business in the community include a 72% increase in life satisfaction, a 52% increase in mental health indicators and a 19% increase

Government Operations committee  I'm going to refer to something I have in front of me here, which says that in 2019 and 2020, Australian indigenous procurement outcomes had a target of $195 million. The results were $854 million. The results exceeded the target by about 4.3%. Also, Saskatchewan Power in 2019

Government Operations committee  A big problem with procurement over the past 25 years is that only $1.6 billion has been allocated to all indigenous procurement opportunities—

Government Operations committee  —and that's only 0.8% of all opportunities. We need to make wholesale changes. Australia has shown that they had a target, and then they increased it fourfold. Saskatchewan has done it, but it's only because there's a will. If there's a will, then there's a way. The only way yo

Government Operations committee  I just want to acknowledge that I'm taking this call on the Mi'kmaq territory of beautiful P.E.I. NACCA represents a national network of 59 indigenous-led institutions. Our members work with first nations, Métis, and Inuit businesses on a daily basis. NACCA is also one of six o

Government Operations committee  Thank you. My name is Shannin Metatawabin. I am the CEO of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, or NACCA. I'm also a member of the Fort Albany First Nation of the Mushkegowuk nation. Thank you for the invitation to speak to your committee’s study of federal

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is an important subject. Our AFIs had a survey done right after the pandemic hit, within the first week, and 95% said our businesses were going to be impacted. We were actively trying to plan with government to ensure that we had supports in place for them. Fortunately, for

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Drinking water is integral to human life. The government has responded to this emergency, this pandemic, with billions and billions of support for Canadians all across the country, but that same support is not afforded to indigenous people when we can't even get drinking water. T

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's an example of where the indigenous community is going. This is a $1-billion transaction where the indigenous community is now part of their traditional harvesting livelihood, so they will maintain ownership of that livelihood. In Canada right now, you now have the AFI netwo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The important thing to know is that to enable capital to be deployed, you need to enable it with something. The same thing happened with the Business Development Bank of Canada. When it was first launched, it had tax incentives, it had equity and it had different levers to ensure

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Supporting our institutions fully, so that Ray, Tabatha and I through our organizations can support our community, is a good start, as is dealing with the Indian Act. It prevented us from starting a business, from buying machinery and farming and all these things so that we're in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The funding has experienced some competition from other measures of delivery, namely the CF network, which has some better conditions than the AFI network. Half of our members are CFs and aboriginal capital corporations, so it's inequitable already. Some of them can access the CF

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the important things to know is that the AFIs have been delivering support to indigenous businesses for 35 years now. They know what their businesses need, but they need the flexibility. When they are put into this little box of $40,000 and $10,000 non-repayable, it doesn'