Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've been actively delivering the money that was announced by the government since June. It was two and a half months after COVID hit. It's going to take us to March 31, 2021. As far as adequacy goes, we can use that money to put it out to the community. If we can improve the fl

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. Businesses are still planning. They're all readjusting to this new world that we're living in. A lot of them are going online. They're definitely marketing and providing more website and online services. Businesses are creating online types

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When I first presented in June, I outlined a couple of areas that would be positive. Those were to improve the conditions to the current emergency program; undertake an assessment of what we need to get back to business, so engage our community; return AFI funding to historical l

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When our program was launched, we found it was two and a half months after the Canadian response, right around the same time that the Community Futures network launched their programs. The RDAs were not all aligned on how they delivered it, so we had some discrepancies. Some RDAs

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can start. This is Shannin Metatawabin from NACCA. We are delivering the emergency response program for indigenous businesses. The program was a full two and a half months later than that for regular businesses, so we definitely have lost businesses. The current increase in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch. Waciye. Hi, my name is Shannin Metatawabin. I'm the CEO of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association. I'm a member of the Fort Albany First Nation of the Mushkegowuk nation. Before I start, I wish to acknowledge that I am taking this call on the tradit

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I also think there's a bit of missed opportunity in communities specifically. You'll have a first nation economic corporation that has the ability to build a water treatment plant bid on a project and not win that contract because of the processes and the eligibility requirements

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We'll be launching the emergency response program. It's going to be a $30,000 loan with a $10,000 non-repayable portion. However, already in our survey, 46% of the businesses surveyed said they could not afford a loan because they're going to have to earn revenue to repay it and

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Who are you asking?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think this is the biggest opportunity for low-hanging fruit for the indigenous community right now. The government, for the past 30 years, has been below 1% as far as a target is concerned, and mostly because it's a cultural change that's required in government. It will take an

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I really appreciate that. What I wanted to cover is that we have to recognize that indigenous people face unbelievable barriers. If we're talking about a back-to-business strategy when we flatten the curve and the economic downturn plateaus—we're talking about a rebound—we don't

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, we have been engaged with Indigenous Services Canada since the very beginning. I think we met with them for the first time on the 17th to talk about how we were going to respond to the impact that we knew was going to be coming. We have been engaged with them all along. It

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I think we've started to talk about that, because we identified that what we just went through was an emergency response, but we now have to collect the data. We've been involved with the task force to collect data. We're probably going to have another survey done to ensure

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Can I jump in?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I used to work with your dad, actually, 25 years ago at the Aboriginal Business Canada office.