“Canada Strong” Needs a Strong Indigenous Economy 

On April 28, 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won the title during a Liberal leadership race just over a month prior, pulled off the biggest political upset in Canadian history. His party, the Liberals, had trailed behind the Conservative Party by over 20 points in December of 2024, according to all major polling sites. Canadians were frustrated by the scandal-plagued Liberals under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and disillusioned by the consistent failure to deliver on big promises.  

All across the country, the Indigenous vote had an impact. The Assembly of First Nations identified 36 federal ridings “where First Nations electors could decide the outcomes [of the election].” In Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, the largest concentration of Indigenous voters in the country, outside of the territories, created a patch of red in an otherwise solidly blue territory. In Nova Scotia, Conservatives saw their three seats reduced to one and Tory candidates who felt they had a very good chance at flipping a riding or taking one of the newly created ridings during the electoral boundary redistribution were unsuccessful. As a Senator for that region, I can testify firsthand to the role the anti-Mi’kmaw fisheries rhetoric played in mobilizing the Mi’kmaw vote.   

Recognizing the Role of Indigenous Communities in Nation-Building

What does this mean for the future?

It means that as the renewed Liberal government under Prime Minister Carney begins the hard work of dealing with the immediate threat of US President Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric and mitigating the harmful tariffs being imposed on us, we need to ensure that the Indigenous voice is not forgotten. There is no “Canada Strong” without strong Indigenous communities. To “buy Canadian” is to buy Indigenous, and we must ensure that we are taking definitive actions to bolster the Indigenous economy.  

Establishing Trust and Verification in Indigenous Business

To begin, we need a stronger, more reliable way to identify who qualifies as an “Indigenous-owned” business. The Canadian Council for Indigenous Businesses (CCIB) has a certification process to identify companies that are 51% Indigenous-owned, and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) verifies the eligibility of businesses participating in the Procurement Strategy of Indigenous Business Set-aside Program, which sees a 5% carve-out of all federal procurement contracts available only to Indigenous businesses.

There are over 50,000 Indigenous businesses throughout Canada, and 1,258 were identified as certified businesses with the CCIB in 2023, while the ISC business directory had 2,939 registered businesses as of November 2024. That leaves a significant portion of businesses unregistered and unverified. There are also costs associated with CCIB certification that may cause a barrier to smaller organizations and cottage industries.

Yet, the issue of Indigenous identity fraud is so prevalent that identity fraud in relation to Indigenous Procurement was studied by the House of Commons committee in the previous Parliament. Much like with citizenship, no one knows better than Indigenous communities who belongs to them. Canada must work with local and regional organizations to certify and list Indigenous businesses, as well as collaborate to develop authenticity guidelines for locally produced crafts. Groups like the Nova Scotia Indigenous Tourism Enterprise Network work closely with producers and craftspeople and would be well-positioned to take the lead on these initiatives. 

This regional approach to certification has been successful in other parts of the country, such as Nunavut, where Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (the main beneficiary organization for Nunavut Inuit) has established and manages an Inuit Firm Registry.

Unlocking the Global Potential of Indigenous Enterprises

But the ability of the Indigenous economy to contribute to Canada’s GDP goes far beyond our domestic borders. 

Beginning in 2019, CCIB and Global Affairs Canada jointly published a series of three reports, researching Indigenous firms’ international trade: Indigenous-Owned Exporting Small and Medium Enterprises in Canada; Adàwe: Export experiences of Indigenous entrepreneurs; and Atāmitowin: Identifying and overcoming challenges facing Indigenous exporters.

Atāmitowin, in particular, includes five general priority areas that outline a path to supporting Indigenous-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in boosting their international trade capabilities. 

Addressing Labour Gaps Through Training and Experience

Firstly, the report notes that “61.8% of Indigenous SMEs face substantial challenges in finding employees with the right skills and qualifications.” Canada should work with the business community to identify specific areas of training and skills development to fill the gaps faced by employers. Despite the large number of organizations that deliver training services through the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training (ISET) Program, Indigenous peoples experience higher unemployment rates compared to the overall population. Insufficient job experience is also listed as a major barrier to employment. By structuring ISET Programs to include onsite or co-op work experience, the Government and program delivery organizations could boost the number of successful graduates who go on to gainful employment. 

Improving Access to Financing and Streamlining Support

Secondly, “Indigenous SMEs experienced obstacles to accessing financing when growing a business or exporting, and this was particularly pronounced for Indigenous businesses operating within Indigenous communities.” Government must work with financial institutions to find alternatives to traditional lending models in order to support SMEs in securing seed money, money to scale up operations, as well as capital investment dollars for required equipment and business infrastructure. Many smaller businesses find the application and reporting process for federal funding to be excessively onerous, while others have difficulty identifying funding opportunities as their capacity is already stretched between day-to-day operations. 

Better education on existing opportunities, streamlined government application and reporting processes, as well as business mentorship opportunities, are all opportunities for Canada to support Indigenous-owned SMEs.  

Closing the Infrastructure Gap

This point goes hand-in-hand with the next point related to “more pronounced” obstacles regarding “physical and digital infrastructure” deficits. In an increasingly digital world, fast and reliable internet access is key; the United Nations has long argued that access to the internet is a basic human right.  I believe that the quality of that access should be consistent throughout Canada, which can be achieved by incentivizing companies to build in rural and remote areas, as opposed to focusing all their resources on more densely populated areas. One such way would be to pass “Use-it/lose-it” legislation that closes the loopholes currently being used to neglect our rural and remote regions. 

The Complexities of Intellectual Property in Global Markets

The report goes on to point to the fact that “Indigenous SME exporters are almost 4 times more likely to report Intellectual Property (IP) protections as a barrier to exporting than the Canadian average.”  Education initiatives, as well as incorporating this feedback into international Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the work of multilateral trade arrangements such as the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA), would help federal negotiators and arrangement council participants to better advocate for measures to protect against barriers related to IP protections. 

Fostering Indigenous Business Networks and Global Connections

Finally, the report points to the need for increased people-to-people connections. “Indigenous SMEs strongly value supports that help them connect with partners, clients, and customers.” Indigenous Business-to-Business connection is a key focus of the IPETCA Partnership Council’s work; as IPETCA is Indigenous-led and government-enabled, the government should prioritize more opportunities to connect Indigenous businesses with other Indigenous businesses throughout participating economies and with other countries that Canada holds FTAs with. 

The Indigenous economy is a key factor in a stronger, healthier, more self-sufficient Canadian economy overall. 

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