Canada’s Auditor General set to investigate Ottawa’s multi-billion dollar project Indigenous procurement program after a Global News investigation revealed concerns about abuse and “shell” companies accessing federal contracts.
Savanna McGregor, Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, told Global News on Wednesday that Auditor General Karen Hogan’s office has confirmed it will investigate the federal government’s Aboriginal Business Directory (IBD).
Hogan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ICP is where federal departments and agencies go to find Indigenous businesses from which to purchase products and services, with the goal of meeting Ottawa’s policy that at least five per cent of its purchases must be entrusted to First Nations, Métis and Inuit businesses.
A months-long investigation by Global News, in partnership with researchers at the First Nations University of Canada, found that Indigenous leaders and federal procurement officials were concerned that “shell” or “shell” companies » had been taking advantage of the program since the late 1990s.
McGregor said she hopes to “see the extent of infiltration of the (IMD) by pretenders,” referring to non-Indigenous people who claim Indigenous ancestry.
Receive national news daily
Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
“And (see) how complex their projects are to even be able to register in this system,” McGregor said, referring to non-Indigenous companies that have access to billions in federal contracts each year.
The DCI is part of the Indigenous Business Procurement Strategy, which now requires that at least five per cent of all federal contracts be awarded to businesses owned and controlled by First Nations, Inuit or Métis.
This is a substantial amount of money – around $1.6 billion a year – intended to help Indigenous-led businesses compete with more established suppliers and multinational corporations and help achieve the government’s stated objective of “economic reconciliation”.
But these established suppliers and multinational corporations don’t seem willing to part with that kind of cash. The Global News investigation found that companies are employing different strategies to qualify for PSIB, including “hire feather” programs in which an Indigenous person represents a non-Indigenous business in exchange for a percentage of the contract.
The situation has long been an open secret among companies bidding on federal contracts and is common knowledge among Indigenous businesses and community leaders. But after the Global News articles appeared, the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council — along with the Assembly of First Nations and the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador — wrote to Hogan’s office requesting an audit .
“I really hope (the federal government) will listen to us. And we have solutions that could help rectify all of that,” McGregor said in an interview.
“Just so they listen to the leaders instead of making decisions on our behalf. And build something that we can trust and that doesn’t harm our people. I don’t want (the program) to disappear at all, but it needs to be rectified… and take responsibility for it and get on the right track.”
An audit is a necessary step in revamping the program so it works as intended: growing Indigenous economies, said Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand.
“This country is really concerned about people stealing their identities and getting away with it,” he said. (Procurement opportunities) cost billions of dollars that could have been used to create so many opportunities for indigenous people.
McGregor said he expects the audit to take place as part of the auditor general’s 2025-2026 report.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.