Tara Deschamps
The Canadian Press
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As she was not very busy, her business could not stay open and Mr.me Maki took the opportunity to start a chocolate and baking company, Raven Rising, but securing financial assistance proved difficult.
“I’m just one person and I didn’t have a lot of money. I used part of my Sixties Scoop payment to open my business, ”explained Mr.me Maki, who was abducted from the White Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan and adopted by a Finnish family in Ontario in the 1960s.
“Looking at all of these COVID aid (programs), I couldn’t see anything, I wasn’t eligible. ”
M’s experienceme Maki was not unusual.
A study by the National Association of Indigenous Finance Corporations, the National Council for Indigenous Economic Development and the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business shows that Indigenous businesses needed more financial assistance during the pandemic, but many between them had difficulty in accessing it.
The survey of 825 Indigenous businesses, released this week, found that 72% of them wanted more financial support, and 44% didn’t think they could operate until July without help.
More than half of the respondents, who were interviewed between December 18, 2020 and 1is February 2021, and who needed assistance, applied for at least one government assistance program.
A total of 52% qualified, but a quarter of them had difficulty meeting the eligibility criteria and almost half said financial requirements were a barrier to accessing help.
“This really indicates a missing link between the needs of Aboriginal businesses and accessibility, and also the relevance of the government supports that are available,” said Samantha Morton, research director for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.
Feeling of mistrust
Loans, salaries and rent subsidies were offered by the federal government, while provinces gave money for protective gear and to sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, such as the entertainment industry. .
However, Mme Morton found that Indigenous businesses struggled to determine which programs they qualified for, often did not meet the criteria, or were dissuaded from applying because they weren’t sure they could repay deferrals or loans.
“There is still this overwhelming sense of mistrust between a lot of Indigenous businesses and government money,” Mr.me Maki.
“If you take out a loan, you roll the dice and if you can’t pay it back, you lose your business to the government, so I think that’s a lot of distress. ”
Mme Maki was not eligible for government assistance because Raven Rising was unmanned and too young to post year-over-year losses. She was unable to get help from native organizations because she lives far from her Saskatchewan band.
“We recognize that Indigenous businesses face unique challenges and may have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic due to their unique structure,” said Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux, Director of Communications for the Minister of Indigenous Services, in an email.
Mme Cadieux detailed the millions the government recently allocated to First Nations, Inuit and Métis-owned businesses, and added that he highly values his relationships with the organizations behind the study.
“Indigenous businesses and entrepreneurs are not out of the woods yet,” she said. But we will continue to listen and respond to the needs of Indigenous partners. ”
The study of Mme Morton shows that 36% of Indigenous businesses surveyed had no lending relationships with banks, credit unions or governments, and 27% of them sought non-government help during the pandemic.
In addition, 12% took out a line of credit, 4% got support from a tribal council or Indigenous government, and 29% went to Indigenous financial institutions. The study felt that these institutions were perhaps more attractive because of their interest-free and repayable loans, lower interest rates, and their understanding of Indigenous businesses.
Lyle Isbister, president of Cree Oilfield Services in Alberta, tried the federal business loan program.
“There were just too many obstacles, too many restrictions, too many things that I didn’t qualify for and I tried twice, from two different angles,” he said.
Mr. Isbister wanted a loan for a new truck, which he likens to an office because he spends up to 14 hours a day there.
Now he is trying to get help with a site reclamation program offered by the Government of Alberta for oil and gas work.
“I don’t want handouts. It does not work. It did not work. It destroyed my people, ”he lamented. “But I certainly wouldn’t mind having a little helping hand. ”
Meanwhile, Mme Morton believes that aid programs should be easy to find and should be easy to apply, because entrepreneurs don’t have “12 hours to go through government aid, find out which ones are relevant and applicable. to their company, then go through the application process. ”
Loans intimidate many businesses and are difficult to repay, so she prefers grants or non-repayable amounts.
“As the economy recovers, with this debt burden, the time will come to pay back (the loans) and aboriginal businesses are really struggling with that. ”
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