Government Operations committee  Certainly. Thank you. Initially, the first program under CEBA was designed for access through traditional financial institutions. We know that only about 33% of indigenous-owned businesses have relationships with traditional financial institutions. There was further funding prov

Government Operations committee  For some we have seen an uptake of those funds. However, we do see a significant number of businesses that did not access the programs. Part of that is because of the various bureaucracies and understanding whether the programs did fit for the business. We also see that with addi

Government Operations committee  That's okay.

Government Operations committee  To my knowledge, under PPE and procurement under COVID, there were not set-asides specifically for indigenous businesses. There was one RFP specific to indigenous business for the non-surgical masks, as I spoke about before, but there weren't set targets specifically in response

Government Operations committee  I don't believe I am. I'm aware of the PSAB program, which has employment requirements to be determined as an indigenous business.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  We have seen some situations in which small and medium-sized, indigenous-owned businesses have partnered to meet these contracts. One concern that we're currently looking at is whether the benefit actually results in supporting the indigenous business or if it's a numbers game,

Government Operations committee  I think one thing we definitely need to look at is, first, the definition that's used for indigenous business under the PSAB criteria. That definition requires that a business demonstrate that 33% of its staff are indigenous under the Indian Act. That requires a business to obtai

Government Operations committee  We do definitely see, when we compare the results of our first survey to the Stats Canada and the CFIB surveys, that there has been more impact on indigenous business. Part of that is because there's a larger portion of indigenous businesses that are small and medium entrepreneur

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry. No. That first press release came out. We've looked into those businesses and, as we've looked into the publicly available data on PPE, we have seen that there have been more outside of that RFP, but the significant number of businesses that were able to answer that sp

Government Operations committee  We did, yes. I don't have a specific position at this time, but I wouldn't have a concern with it being public that we signed a conflict of interest.

Government Operations committee  My recollection, and I actually in preparation for this went back to look, is we had four scheduled meetings, one of which I was unable to attend, during the course of the supply council.

Government Operations committee  [Witness spoke in Ojibwa and provided the following text:] Aanii, Tabatha Bull n'indignikaaz, Nipissing n'indoonjibaa, Migizi dodem. [Witness provided the following translation:] Hello, my name is Tabatha Bull. I am from Nipissing First Nation, and I belong to the Eagle Clan.