Group calls on government to boost procurement spending with Indigenous businesses
'We're not asking for handouts. We want to have our businesses get their foot in the door'
A group that advocates for Indigenous businesses is calling on the federal government to buy more goods and services from those companies.
On Thursday, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business released its Industry and Inclusion report, which says the federal government allocates less than one per cent of its procurement spending on Indigenous businesses.
"We would like to see that come up in line with the national demographic representation of Indigenous people, which is around five per cent," said Max Skudra, director of research and government relations at CCAB.
Procurement spending is the name given to the purchasing of goods and services on behalf of the government.
CCAB's report, released at the fifth annual Aboriginal Economic Development Conference in Calgary, says the government could support Indigenous-owned businesses without increasing its procurement costs.
'Opportunity and prosperity'
"It's hugely important for Indigenous people, because if they were able to do more in the federal supply chain, they would generate jobs, it would generate wealth and generate opportunity and prosperity," Skudra said. "Not dependent on anything else except the hard work of Indigenous entrepreneurs across the country."
Skudra says his group is challenging the government to increase procurement spending on goods and services provided by Aboriginal people by at least one per cent a year for the next four years.
One challenge is that some think there aren't many Indigenous-owned businesses, when there are actually tens of thousands, and they are thriving, says Philip Ducharme, director of innovation and entrepreneurship with CCAB.
"Alberta actually has a lot of Indigenous businesses.… I mean, it's incredible the amount of work that has happened with Indigenous-owned businesses," he said.
"We're not asking for handouts. We want to have our businesses get their foot in the door," he said.
The report says the federal government's procurement spending totalled $14.6 billion in 2017.