House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade: Summary

Patrick Watson, Director Public Policy, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business

Since 1982, CCAB has been committed to the full participation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian economy. Our work is backed by data-driven research, recognized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as the gold standard for Indigenous business data in Canada… As a lesson learned, resulting from our efforts to ensure Indigenous inclusion, the CCAB has repeatedly highlighted the need for a navigator function specific for Indigenous business to assist with the understanding and uptake of various programs, including those designed to support exporters, Indigenous businesses have found navigating the bureaucracy, which often does not consider their unique legal and place-based circumstances, a significant barrier to accessing the support necessary to keep their business alive and maintain the well-being of their communities.

What we have taken away from this experience is that programs of general application are often not well designed to meet the unique needs of Indigenous businesses. The lack of targeted assistance for Indigenous businesses to utilize these Government supports further adds to the frustration and distrust that is the result of the history between the Crown and Indigenous peoples. This underlines the need for an Indigenous Economic Recovery Strategy that is Indigenous-led, builds Indigenous capacity and is well resourced to support Indigenous prosperity and well-being. This is one of the recommendations found in the Senate Committee on National Finance’ Report on Bill C-9, which notes that “the Federal government should consider adopting a government-wide strategy to support Indigenous businesses, similar to its women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Black Entrepreneurship Program.” Access to external markets would be an important part of this government-wide strategy, including the need to support Indigenous exporters as part of the recovery.

Such a strategy was not mentioned in the recent Speech from the Throne nor the Fall Economic Statement. Although we acknowledge the number of important renewed commitments made in the Speech from the Throne and the Fall Economic Statement, I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment that there was no mention of efforts to support the economic empowerment of Indigenous peoples, businesses or communities. This was a missed opportunity for the Government to signal to Canadians that Indigenous prosperity and economic reconciliation matters.

Short and Medium Term Solution

In the immediate term what is needed to support Indigenous exporters is a 5% set-aside, with a navigator service, across all four CanExport programming streams:

• CanExport SMEs,
• CanExport Innovation,
• CanExport Associations and
• CanExport Community Investments,

for Indigenous businesses, organizations and Aboriginal Economic Development Corporations, also known as Dev Corps. Taking the CanExport SMEs stream as an example, a 5% set aside for First Nations, Métis and Inuit businesses would represent a meaningful investment in Indigenous exporters and Indigenous economic recovery. This proposal is aligned with the Government of Canada’s procurement set-aside commitment which is reflected in the Mandate Letter of the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada.

In the medium term, what we would like to see in the upcoming Budget is a plan for the Government of Canada to build the capacity of Indigenous organizations to deliver export opportunity awareness, export readiness training and exporter business missions, in a good way that, draws upon the lessons learned of the recent OECD Report: Linking Indigenous Communities to Regional Development in Canada, to ensure that these supports are culturally appropriate, placed-based and are meaningful for Indigenous businesses.

The CCAB would welcome the opportunity to work with this Committee and Global Affairs Canada on its efforts to build Indigenous capacity. In the last 3 months alone, CCAB has:

1. hosted and participated in a series of export webinars, with the Trade Commissioner Service, Export Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada, focused on Indigenous businesses,
2. developing a unique export readiness training opportunity with World Trade Centre-Vancouver for early 2021, and
3. co-hosted a Canada Australia Indigenous Business Export Dialogue on December 3^rd, 2020, which provided a business mission for Indigenous exporters from both countries. Our next Indigenous Business Export Dialogue will take place on January 14^th, 2021, this time with Indigenous business from the United States of America.

I would like to leave you with this point for consideration: Too often Indigenous business concerns are an afterthought, resulting in Indigenous organizations like CCAB, working to prove to the Government that their responses have not met the needs of Indigenous peoples. A reasonable starting point to support Indigenous economic recovery would include set-asides and a navigator function of CanExport programming for Indigenous businesses and communities.