Parliamentary committee urges Liberals to fix Indigenous procurement system

The Liberals should move “immediately” to fix eligibility rules around the federal government’s $1.6 billion annual Indigenous procurement program, a cross-partisan committee of MPs says.

In a report tabled Friday, the House of Commons’ Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee noted longstanding concerns that non-Indigenous companies are gaming the system to gain access to federal contracts meant for First Nations, Métis and Inuit companies.

Last year, Global News, in partnership with the First Nations University of Canada, revealed widespread concerns that non-Indigenous companies were finding ways to circumvent lax verification rules to convince the government they were at least 51-per cent owned by Indigenous people — opening the program up to fraud and abuse.

The alleged schemes