Question Period Note: Support for Indigenous Businesses

• We recognize that Indigenous businesses face unique challenges and may be disproportionately affected by this pandemic.

• On June 11th, we announced $117 million to help Indigenous communities support their local businesses and economies, and a $16 million stimulus development fund to support the Indigenous tourism industry.

• This funding builds on the $306.8 million we announced in April to help Indigenous businesses and ensure business owners have access to the support they need to get through this crisis.

• We are committed to helping Indigenous businesses through the pandemic and into recovery.

The Indigenous Community Business Fund is an emergency measure to meet the needs of Indigenous community businesses located in the provinces which are unable to access other federal business supports in response to the economic impacts of the pandemic, due to their structures and inability to take on debt. It does not duplicate other federal business support measures.

The fund is needs-based and modelled on other federal business support measures, such as the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Those measures were introduced in the spring of 2020 and some are close to exhausting their funding. The volume of unmet needs by Indigenous community businesses is still being assessed, particularly for collectively-owned businesses by the Métis.

Some of the funding is being transferred directly to communities and collectives to address their COVID-19 economic priorities including supporting micro-businesses that could not access other federal programs. The balance of the funding is proposal-based for community or collectively-owned businesses.

As of October 22, 2020, a total of 584 First Nation and Inuit communities in the provinces have received funding transfers to address the economic impacts of the pandemic and 19 proposals by community-owned businesses have been funded. For the Métis portion of the fund, five funding agreements have been signed, or are in the process of being signed, with organizations selected by the Governing Members of the Métis National Council. Funding, which began to flow in November, will continue to be provided to Métis collectives and communities and to collectively-owned businesses over the coming weeks.

Funding for an additional 678 proposals to support Indigenous tourism is being provided through the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada.

If pressed whether the funding is flowing
• We recognize that Indigenous businesses face unique challenges in addressing COVID-19.

• Funding for eligible Indigenous Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises started to flow on June 1st through the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, the network of Aboriginal Financial Institutions, and Métis Capital Corporations.

• Community funding for 584 eligible First Nation and Inuit communities started to flow in August, while funding to eligible Métis communities and collectives started to flow in November.

• We will continue to work with Indigenous partners to implement community-led solutions.
If pressed on the Wage Subsidy
• We have confirmed that First Nation sole proprietors and incorporated businesses are able to access a wide range of supports.

• However, we recognize that community-owned unincorporated businesses and microbusinesses with very low revenue, are not able to access many of the announced measures such as the wage subsidy.

• The $117 million announced on June 11, addresses this gap. The Indigenous Community Support Fund supports Indigenous community-owned businesses which are not eligible for existing business support measures.

• We will continue to help Indigenous businesses mitigate the hardships created by the pandemic.