QUESTION PERIOD — Indigenous Services
Indigenous Business Navigator
June 22, 2023
My question is to Senator Gold, the Government Representative in the Senate. Yesterday was National Indigenous Peoples Day, a day to acknowledge and celebrate the history, resilience and diversity of First Nations, Inuit and Métis. It is also the perfect opportunity to recognize the entrepreneurship and business acumen of Indigenous peoples.
There are many programs and initiatives to help Indigenous businesses access government funding and increase their market access. Navigating all these programs is quite overwhelming. There is very limited information online on how the service works.
Senator Gold, can you provide us with an update on the launch, structure and early results of these programs to help Indigenous entrepreneurs navigate through and find these programs?
Thank you for your question. As I understand it, the navigator is meant to help connect Indigenous businesses and owners, Indigenous organizations and communities with programs and services that exist across many different departments and agencies of the federal government. Quite a number of those agencies are participating, including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions; indeed, there are over a dozen. They can be found easily.
They cover the span of this country and focus on economic development, women and gender equality and the like. The navigator process can be initiated by emailing navigator@sac-isc.gc.ca, providing certain details for one’s business community organization and information will be transmitted.
Thank you for that answer. How is the department measuring the success of the service? Are Indigenous entrepreneurs providing the department with feedback to help improve the service? Do we have performance indicators and targets in place in order to evaluate the success and effectiveness of the navigator service and manage the results and not only its funding and activities?
It’s an important question. This initiative was only launched a few months ago, in February 2023. I imagine it is somewhat premature to fully evaluate the initiative. The government remains fully committed to working, listening to feedback and continuing on improving the services that are offered to Indigenous persons and organizations across this country generally and through this program.
