Nearly $300M in federal contracts went to companies later removed from Indigenous Business Directory
CBC
Over $285 million in federal government contracts for Indigenous businesses were awarded over a five-year period to companies that have since been removed from its Indigenous Business Directory, according to a response to a written question in the House of Commons.
The public directory was created to help Indigenous-owned businesses pursue opportunities, including federal contracts.
Companies must be at least 51 per cent owned and controlled by First Nations, Métis or Inuit to be eligible.
In the response, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) said 1,881 businesses were removed from the directory between 2020 and 2025. It said they were removed for being nonresponsive, not eligible, or because they asked to be removed, and that some were duplicate listings of businesses that remain in the directory.
The response was to a written question submitted by Conservative MP Billy Morin on behalf of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council (AANTC).
“Obviously the government's not doing their research or their due diligence on the people who are applying for these big contracts,” said AANTC Grand Chief Verna Polson.
Polson said she would like to see repercussions — including repayment of funds — for those who should not have received federal contracts as Indigenous businesses.
“Why aren't people being held accountable through this process,” asked Polson.
“It's very, you know, disturbing there's nothing being done. And the big question is, will they be?”
Polson said she believes only companies owned by people legally recognized as Section 35 rights holders should be able to compete for contracts.
Amir Attaran, lawyer for the AANTC, said the current eligibility criteria for the directory still casts too wide a net. By including people whose Indigenous identity has been questioned, Attaran said, “you dilute what it means to be Indigenous in Canada.”
That leads to Indigenous people being squeezed out of competition for contracts, he said.
“I see this as an effort to take away what rightly belongs to the real Indigenous people of this country, which is the ability to … have better futures for their children,” he said.
Attaran said the AANTC wasn’t even given the chance to apply on recent contracts to do work in Ottawa, despite the city being on their traditional territory.
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Nearly $300M in federal contracts went to companies later removed from Indigenous Business Directory
Over $285 million in federal government contracts for Indigenous businesses were awarded over a five-year period to companies that have since been removed from its Indigenous Business Directory, according to a response to a written question in the House of Commons.
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