Thank you very much. Thank you again for inviting me here.

I'm a registered Indian under the Indian Act, a registered member of Ugpi’Ganjig, which is Eel River Bar First Nation, and a citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation. My family is Mi'kmaq; we were born and raised in Mi'kma'ki. In terms of my professional background, I have four university degrees, one of which is a doctorate in law that looks specifically at constitutional treaty and indigenous law issues related to Indian status, band membership and self-government citizenship. Obviously, I'm not speaking for all indigenous peoples, first nations or even Mi'kmaq people but based on my experience.

I am going to start with my summary first, in case I run out of time.

In terms of general barriers to indigenous economic development, these relate to the levels and types of funding that are allocated for individuals as well as communities. Certain industries are disproportionally supported, like oil, gas and mining—natural resources—as opposed to online content creation, online courses or education.

There is a lack of professional support included in that, such as accounting, marketing or legal support. I believe you've had many reports on the significant administrative burdens.

Access to lands is huge—lands and infrastructure for both individuals and communities. There is also a lack of education and training supports that go along with that, both the cost and the format.

Of course, the indigenous procurement policy at the federal government level is also a barrier, and I'm going to go into a bit more detail about the procurement policy.

While I understand that self-identification is one of those things that governments, universities and the arts community have done as a way of trying to be respectful and not put indigenous people through additional verification processes because of all of the impacts of colonization on our identity already and all the hoops we already have to jump through, it's very obvious that self-identification is not enough. It's very easily exploited. It's exploited at alarmingly high rates. While some might be unknowingly exploiting, I'd say that, for the most part, people know when they're exploiting that.

Having worked in government and universities, I've been around HR that has advised people to “just check the box”. Part of the problem with that is that it's confidential. There's no accountability around self-identification. You don't get to verify that; you don't get to access any of that information, whereas verification itself is relatively easy.

At the same time, in addition to verification, I think we need to have grace for people who are going through the process, and for the many indigenous women who have been excluded because of historical and ongoing Canadian laws and policies.

To make the procurement policy better, I think governments need to engage with indigenous experts on the topic. Governments and communities should have more respect for indigenous jurisdiction, law and tradition when it comes to who is indigenous and who is not and what company is indigenous and what company is not.

Ensure that human rights are respected. I think that goes without saying, but there are also best practices. For example, the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business has been in the business of verifying indigenous businesses for a very long time. I'm sure they have a lot to suggest. There needs to be an accountability mechanism and annual reporting and analysis that comes back to our communities. At this point, we really need historical investigation into how much money in total has been allocated under indigenous procurement. How much has gone to businesses we know are indigenous, and how much money has gone to businesses where we're not so sure? What should be done about that? There really need to be reparations in that area.

Those were my summary points.

I'm glad I started with those first. I can see that my time is up.

Transcript

Discussions (0)