Moving Down the Path of Economic Reconciliation: Taking Stock of the Revolution in Indigenous Business
Forty years ago, Indigenous business struggled to get past the most basic constraints: the stifling power of the Department of Indian Affairs, little access to capital, no government interest in procurement set-asides for Indigenous businesses, and commercial resistance to the very idea of Indigenous entrepreneurship. How things have changed! Indigenous equity investments have become commonplace, often in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Indigenous business is the fastest growing sector in the Canadian economy. Indigenous economic development corporations, acting on a different definition of commercial success, are transforming community and regional economies. What unleashed the entrepreneurial drive and potential of Indigenous business? How far will it move Indigenous communities along the path to prosperity and local control? This is one of the most important – and most inspiring – stories in Canada!
