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Some Indigenous business advocates say the proposed Buy Ontario Act is a missed opportunity to prioritize Indigenous procurement and fails to acknowledge the significant contributions they are making to Ontario’s economy.
The legislation tabled last week would require public-sector organizations to prioritize Ontario-made goods and services, then other Canadian suppliers, and would apply to all public-sector organizations.
Tabatha Bull, CEO of the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB), said recognition embedded in the act to prioritize purchasing from Indigenous businesses is “important because then we're there at the table when the policy is being developed instead of fighting to be included.”
While the legislation is intended to protect Ontario jobs in the face of economic challenges, including U.S. tariffs, some advocates and entrepreneurs say inclusion of Indigenous businesses would benefit all Ontarians.
In the 2021 Census, Ontario had the largest Indigenous population in Canada, 406,590 people, representing 2.9 per cent of people in the province, and 22 per cent of the Indigenous population in Canada. CCIB says Ontario had the second-largest share of Indigenous-owned businesses in Canada at 20.7 per cent, totaling 3,526 businesses.
Bull, a member of Nipissing First Nation, said the successes resulting from Indigenous businesses getting into supply chains of corporate Canada and government agencies are making an impact in community, providing an “opportunity for Indigenous individuals to create generational wealth that we haven't been able to create in the past.”
Bull said the government has the power to prioritize Indigenous businesses in the same way there’s been a push to buy Canadian.
“We need those champions in the government to ensure that the Government of Ontario has a commitment to purchase from Indigenous businesses," Bull said.
"Maybe they set that at five per cent like the federal government has.”
Bull said as Ontario and Manitoba are drafting agreements with the federal government to streamline reviews for major projects, “Indigenous businesses and communities need to be part of those projects in order for everybody in Canada to benefit, as the prime minister has said.”
Tabatha Bull, CEO of the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)The Ontario government said in a news release Nov. 20 that it's working to establish vendor lists of Ontario and Canadian suppliers for their inclusion in provincial infrastructure and procurement processes.
A spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation said in an email that its Indigenous Procurement Program has, over the last 10 years, supported over 420 Indigenous procurements valued at over $263 million.
"The Chiefs of Ontario, in partnership with the Government of Ontario, are developing the province’s first Indigenous-led and certified First Nations Business Directory to register, validate and showcase First Nations businesses for procurement and economic opportunities," read the statement.
Earlier this week, Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige said in a news release the act failed to capitalize on the economic potential of a First Nations procurement strategy, calling it "a missed opportunity to harness a significant, untapped economic resource."
"Without this strategic inclusion, Ontario risks leaving billions of dollars on the table and in the ground and perpetuating economic disparities that have long persisted for First Nations," she said in the release.
Chelsee Pettit, founder of aaniin, has a 6,000-square-foot pop-up in Toronto’s Eaton Centre open over the holiday season, featuring Indigenous-owned brands. This is its second year.
“Shopping Indigenous is shopping as Canadian as you can get,” Pettit said.
The 31-year-old entrepreneur from Aamjiwnaang First Nation in southwestern Ontario said they’re one of Ontario's biggest up and coming retail brick and mortar businesses and that aaniin has contributed substantially to Ontario's economy.
Chelsee Pettit says aaniin Retail Inc. has created 20 jobs in Ontario for youth who have struggled to find employment. (Submitted by Chelsee Pettit)But Pettit said she feels "ignored by elected officials." She said only one has ever visited her store to congratulate her efforts: Chris Glover, NDP MPP for Spadina-Fort York in Toronto.
She said she hires Ontario-based businesses exclusively and that all of the inventory in her collection is “either designed and assembled in Ontario or completely manufactured in Ontario.”
Last year Pettit said she spent $1 million on the pop-up and this year she said she's “scaled that tremendously.”