Speech from Minister Jane Philpott at Canada 2020 – Indigenous Economic Development Symposium

April 25, 2018 – Fairmont Château Laurier – Ottawa, ON
 
AS DELIVERED

Good morning.  I am so happy to start my day with all of you.  Thank you for getting up early and being here for this very important conference.  I want to thank the Algonquin People – and Claudette is here to represent the Algonquin People – for allowing us the privilege of gathering on this unceded Algonquin Territory.  It's a great privilege to gather in this place today.  Thank you, Elder Claudette, for opening our gathering, leading us in a prayer and a blessing upon the day, and we're thrilled that you've joined us here.  

There are many special guests here.  I will get in trouble if I really start acknowledging lots of them, but I must, of course, honour the Right Honourable Paul Martin, who I can't spot right at the moment, but I saw him when he came in.  So I think he hasn't snuck out to escape my speech.  (Laughter)  And I see my colleague, Minister Carr here.  I don't know whether there are any other Ministers around, but lots of Chiefs and very important people.  So thank you all for coming today.  

I am honoured to be here as the first Minister of Indigenous Services.  This is a complex and challenging file, but I see hope every day. In spite of many generations of social and political structures that neglected and discriminated against Indigenous peoples, the First Nations, Inuit and Métis persevered, demonstrating the resilience and dignity of first peoples in Canada. It is now our collective duty to ensure that Indigenous peoples have the opportunities, space, and respect they deserve, in order to heal spirits, revitalize cultures, and exercise rights.

Thank you to Canada 2020 and Tim, for the invitation to be here.  Thank you for acknowledging – and I am sure that the Right Honourable Paul Martin smiled when you called me an economic minister, because indeed I am, and there should be no distinction between social policy and economic policy.  They are intricately linked and we will not have economic success and prosperity without social success.

So let's continue in that spirit.  I happen to think that I have the best job in government.  We’ll maybe argue about that with my colleagues later, but I have this incredible privilege.  I get to visit some of the most remote and beautiful parts of this amazing country and I get to witness the countless examples of Indigenous-led innovation on education and health and infrastructure, on child welfare and job creation.  This is indeed an Indigenous-led transformation of our country and it's based on the implementation of rights.  It's the key to improving the quality of life of Indigenous peoples, but let there be no mistake, the marvelous side effect that takes place when we recognize rights and we enable this Indigenous-led transformation of our society, is that it has a positive impact on the entire economic, the entire social fabric of our country.  

So today, we're talking about Indigenous economic empowerment.  I would suggest that it is one of the least widely understood or acknowledged opportunities to spur our Canadian economy.  The National Indigenous Economic Advisory Board, of which I suspect there are members here today, have estimated that engaging Indigenous Canadians in the economy at the same rate as non-Indigenous Canadians would boost Canada's GDP by 1.5% and create almost $28 billion of economic growth.  And several others have suggested that the number is actually much higher.  

Some of you may read from time to time the work of a wonderful First Nations business leader, Carol Anne Hilton, from British Columbia.  She recently wrote a piece for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, in which she suggested that Canada should be preparing for a $100 billion Indigenous economy.  And she questions whether this is finally the time that Canada will understand that Indigenous peoples are integral to the value chain of this country.  

The fact is that Indigenous businesses, many of which are represented by people in this room, are imaginative, diverse and growing.  According to Industry Canada's key small business statistics, Indigenous businesses outperform average Canadian businesses writ large in two specific areas.  Number one, they are more innovative and number two, they are more likely to export, a fascinating statistic.  So we know that there are now over 40,000 Indigenous small and medium enterprises in this country, and the mix includes a whole range. It includes complex ventures like food franchises, high-tech start-ups, renewable energy projects; such a broad range.  It includes, of course, Indigenous tourism, a growing sector that now claims $1.4 billion of Canada's annual GDP and employs more than 33,000 people.  

So before I go into some more specific detail on how I think we can better empower Indigenous economic prosperity, permit me to clarify one thing.  In order for Indigenous peoples to prosper, the way forward has to be grounded in the recognition of Indigenous rights.  This is a conversation that we're having nationally.  The Prime Minister gave a very important speech on this matter on February 14th in the House of Commons.  It is something that people in this room will understand and we all have an obligation to make sure that we share this foundation with our colleagues.  

Indigenous peoples have inherent rights.  They have, in many cases, treaty rights.  These are grounded in international law, laid down in documents like the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous People, of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They're also clarified in our Constitution and often, as I say, in treaties. We must acknowledge those rights and in fact, we must ensure the implementation of those rights, including the inherent right to self-determination.  

What Indigenous peoples need was laid out for us very clearly in the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples over 20 years ago that said Indigenous peoples need control over their own lives.  The Prime Minister said the federal government's absence over generations in recognizing and implementing Indigenous rights has resulted in social and economic exclusion, uncertainty and litigation when our shared focus should have always been on creating prosperity and opportunity for everyone.  

So our collective work toward the full participation of Indigenous peoples in the economy is grounded in an economic imperative and a legal imperative, not to mention the moral imperative. So as Tim said, I like to focus as much as possible on good news stories.  People describe it as a strengths-based approach because there's lots of things to be discouraged about, but we also, I think, do ourselves a favour when we look at the opportunities.  

And so I want to share with you some of the things that our government is working on alongside Indigenous peoples to support economic development, and I'm going to focus on three specific enablers that I think that we can influence.  One is institutions, the second is partnerships and the third is education.  

And, as Tim has already said, I am going to do something a bit different. I am going to invite Clint Davis, Partner and Managing Director of Acasta Capital Indigenous, to join me onstage to hear his perspective. The voices of Indigenous business leaders like Clint are essential to set the agenda for economic development, as we move forward on the path to reconciliation.

So let's start with the first enabler: institutions.  In every sector of public life, there is a need to expand the work of Indigenous institutions, including funding mechanisms that provide momentum to move their work forward.  I'll start by pointing to, for example, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association – I meant to ask somebody whether Shannin is here today – Shannin Metatawabin, who is the CEO of NACCA.  I don't see him in the room.  

But the National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association has played a role in working with 50 plus Aboriginal financial institutions, so has had tremendous success in providing loans and grants and business advice to budding Indigenous entrepreneurs.  
They have supported nearly 1,400 businesses every year and have provided over 41,000 loans, totalling $2.3 billion over the past 30 years.  Institutions like NACCA play a critical role as an enabler.  

I also want to point to the institutions that I hope you're aware of and if not, I encourage you to look into what's going on with the institutions that were founded under the First Nations Fiscal Management Act and that would be the First Nations Tax Commission, the First Nations Finance Authority and the First Nations Financial Management Board.  These fantastic institutions bring together First Nations to share expertise and to build a broader First Nations’ government public service.  And it's been a very effective approach.  

You look, for example, to the First Nations Finance Authority. Just last fall, they completed their fourth successful debenture issuance on the financial markets. They raised $126 million of new funding to benefit participating Indigenous communities, and in fact, the demand from investors was twice that which was available.  So I'm happy to note that in Budget 2018, we announced an investment of a further $50 million over the next five years to strengthen these particular institutions.  

We're also looking at things like Canada's Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Businesses.  Over the past 20 years, registered Aboriginal businesses have been successful in winning government contracts totalling over $5.2 billion and while we know that those who apply are often successful, we also know that there are barriers to procuring with the Government of Canada.  And so we've started an engagement process with Indigenous businesses to modernize our strategy.  And I think that Clint may share some thoughts on the topic of procurement when he joins me a little later.
 
Let's turn to a second enabler, that of partnerships.  I would say one of my very favourite Indigenous business examples of the power of partnerships is this one.  It is the work of Wataynikaneyap Power Corporation in Northern Ontario.  And in Thunder Bay in March, I announced $1.6 billion in federal support to Watay Power. So Watay Power is a First Nations partnership.  Twenty-two First Nations have joined together to form Wawaynikaneyap Power, and they are going to do the work in partnership now with Canada's Fortis Inc. to connect 16 communities to the provincial electricity grid, a fantastic project.  

And one of the things I love about this project – there are many – one of the things I love is the way that our Finance Department, that innovative department of government, was able to come up with a fantastic new way for us to be able to come up with our federal contribution by booking savings in advance, recognizing that if we look at what we would be spending over the next 40 years on diesel, for communities that are dependent on diesel, which is not sustainable for a whole range of reasons, that we could actually book those savings in advance and recognize those savings in order to make a federal contribution.  

The other thing that I love about this is that First Nations investors of Watay Power are going to use a portion of their profits over the years to increase their equity share over time so that ultimately, they will be full owners of this transmission corridor.  So I hope we see many, many more such projects in the future.  

Some of you may be familiar with the fact that this is something that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked for.  Call to action number 92 addresses the role of business in reconciliation and it calls on the corporate sector, people like you in this room, to ensure that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.  Partnerships like these between and among Indigenous businesses and all orders of government and the private sector are critical for the promotion of economic prosperity.  These partnerships, as I said, have to be grounded in the recognition of rights of Indigenous peoples.  

Let me give you some examples of how the federal government is fostering partnerships for economic development. The Government has made good progress with the Strategic Partnerships Initiative, which assists Indigenous communities by coordinating efforts and funding of multiple federal partners. It also works with other orders of government and the private sector to leverage funds. In 2016/17, it provided and leveraged over $52 million towards projects in clean energy, mining and tourism, among other things and worked with 213 First Nations communities.

We've begun to work on projects with Indigenous partners to develop, for example, a housing and infrastructure challenge to encourage innovation in these areas.  There is so much opportunity for innovation in the area of housing and infrastructure on and off reserve.  I want to share with you another project that I was so impressed by, that was led by the Métis Nation of Alberta's Housing Corporation.  

So what they did was they developed a model to reunify families, save money in the process, and they funded it by going to the Child and Family Services Agencies of Alberta, looking at how much money was being spent to put children in foster care in the order of tens of thousands of dollars every single year per child. And they said what we'll do is we'll actually take less money from you than what you'd be paying to put these children in foster care.  Give us enough money that we can buy a small apartment building, an eight-unit apartment complex. We're going to renovate it, we're going to bring families together, single or double parent families who have been separated from their children, we're going to bring them back together, renovate the unit, fully furnish it; families are going to stay together with us for one to three years.  We're going to provide 24/7 on-site support of social workers, counsellors, people who will train on-the-job and give these people a new opportunity to be together, to reunify families and save money in the process.  

Why can't we do that in every city in this country?

Let me point to the third enabler that I wanted to raise with you today and that is education; so critical to success.  Our economy will not thrive, as you know, without a fully engaged workforce to drive it.  Canada overall is one of the best educated countries in the world.  We have a talented and innovative workforce, but Indigenous peoples are not fully represented.  They've suffered from both denial and neglect when it comes to participation in education and employment opportunities, and our economy is clearly weaker for it.  

Eighty-eight percent of non-Indigenous Canadians aged 18 to 24 have a high school diploma or something equivalent.  But only 44% of First Nations people on reserve in that age bracket have the same level of attainment; half the number.  And similarly, while 66% of non-Indigenous Canadians aged 25 to 64 have a post-secondary credential; only half of Indigenous Canadians in the same age bracket do.  

As a result of these challenges and educational attainment, Indigenous peoples are underrepresented across the entire workforce.  But the good news is that that is changing and it is being led by Indigenous communities.  So another great story I wanted to tell you about is the STEAM Academy of the Grand River. I was recently there in Six Nations celebrating the launch of the STEAM Academy.  It's been supported by IBM.  And they have implemented a curriculum that's based on STEAM, science, technology, engineering, arts and math, and I'll put in my pitch so that you must not forget the A.  STEM is nothing without the arts.  It has to be STEAM. So a little pet peeve of mine.  

But what this academy does is that it directly links industry on the job training and Indigenous arts and culture.  It's the first school in Canada that is offering Indigenous students both a high school diploma and a college diploma concurrently. So students start taking college course as early as grade 10.  They finish the program in five or six years, it's a competency-based curriculum, so they do it at the pace of competence.  Many of them accomplish it much faster than expected and they graduate with both an Ontario secondary school diploma and an Ontario college technician diploma.  

But my favourite part of the STEAM Academy is how they are teaching 21st century technology alongside the historic teachings of the Haudenosaunee culture.  So they have the fine arts and languages, they are revitalizing the Cayuga language, of which there are very few native speakers anymore, and they're teaching this arts and culture in one room and in the next room, they're teaching computerized assisted design and 3D printing and the very state-of-the-art 21st century technology tools.  

What they're going to unleash is the potential of Indigenous youth who will be steeped in traditional culture and they will pave the way to high-skilled jobs.  Across the country, there are multiple examples of what happens when Indigenous communities are empowered to exercise the right to self-determination and education.  A few months ago, I celebrated the opening of the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre’s First Nations School System that serves 10 First Nations communities in Manitoba.

We're currently working with First Nations across the country who are interested in establishing similar school systems for their communities.  And I can't forget to acknowledge the work that's being done in the postsecondary space by organizations like Indspire, which is an amazing not-for-profit organization led by the amazing Roberta Jamieson.  They are providing 3,700 funding awards to Indigenous students every year and they cannot keep up with the demand.  

There are so many examples of progress and much more work needs to be done to capitalize on the capacity of Indigenous communities to control the delivery of things like culturally appropriate education and work in every other sector.  We've been working with the Assembly of First Nations on a new policy framework for education that is going to provide, for the first time, “equity plus” funding in education for First Nations on reserve.  

This is something that many didn't recognize.  The Right Honourable Paul Martin was one of those who recognized that across this country, we were discriminating against First Nations students on reserve and not providing the same kind of equity in funding that they would get if they were in provincial schools.  But for the first time this year, student funding will be as good as or better than provincial funding across the country and we're looking for reforming funding methods.  

So the policy is going to emphasize flexibility in the development of education agreements.  It's going to support language and culture training, on-the-land training and it'll be amazing to see what happens when First Nations on reserve schools are funded equitably.  I suspect, as others have demonstrated, that we will see those education rates rise concurrently.  

Ultimately, in each of these areas, whether it be institutions, partnerships or education, they will help drive the full economic participation of Indigenous peoples and we will all benefit.  

In closing, I wanted just to share with you a quote that I heard about 10 years ago when I heard Bill Clinton speak at an International AIDS conference, and I've never forgotten this quote.  He said, "The longer I live, and the more I travel, the more I realize that intelligence and effort and ability and dreams are evenly distributed across all of humanity, in every country across all races, religions and cultures.  But what is not evenly distributed are the mechanisms to give life to those things.  The opportunities, the investment and the systemic capacity that establishes a link between a person's intelligence, ability, efforts and dreams and the picture of life that emerges."

That is the goal of economic reconciliation in Canada.  We want to ensure that a First Nations, Inuit or Métis child who is born in Canada in 2018 will grow up in a country that will provide the opportunities, the investment, the systemic capacity to breathe life into their dreams.  And with that, it gives me great pleasure to invite to the stage Clint Davis, Partner and Managing Director of Acasta Capital Indigenous, to join me now.  

Merci beaucoup.  Chi-miigwetch.