You’ve probably heard some of the controversy swirling around ArriveCan; how one of the contracts to help build it went to a company owned by a federal government employee. And especially how the whole thing cost $60 million to make, even though, you know, it was a pretty basic app.
But ArriveCan was also the beneficiary of a specific strategy that the federal government has been implementing for nearly three decades. It’s known as the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business.
And the idea is simple. A certain percentage of government contracts should go to businesses owned and operated by Indigenous people.
Which on paper sounds reasonable. You could think of it as reconciliation-via-contracting.
Under the Trudeau government, the strategy was expanded, with the government aiming to have 5 per cent of their contracts go to Indigenous-owned businesses.
But here’s the problem. For a very long time, nobody was really checking upfront whether or not a business was actually “Indigenous” in any meaningful way.
And there’s good reason to believe that many of them simply weren’t.
The stakes for a story like this really couldn’t be higher. It’s not only the billions of dollars in taxpayer money. But it’s the government’s ability to deliver the services that Canadians depend on. And economic reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
Featured in this episode: Patti Sonntag (Global News/The National Post)
To learn more
“Billions in federal contracts awarded to ‘Indigenous’ enterprises without verification” by Patti Sonntag, Melissa Ridgen, Hannah Sangster, Celeste Bird & Alex Boutilier in Global News
“Underneath the ArriveCan scandal, questions swirl about Ottawa’s Indigenous procurement requirements” by Bill Curry, Tom Cardoso & Kristy Kirkup in The Globe and Mail
“Liberal minister's former business questioned over 'Indigenous' claims in government contract bids” by Patti Sonntag in The National Post
“How one nursing company tapped into Ottawa’s Indigenous businesses program, despite not being Indigenous” by Bill Curry in The Globe and Mail
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Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
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