By law, policy, and practice, Canada’s Indigenous peoples have been marginalized for generations, and isolated from meaningful participation in the economy. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s extensive work, and its resulting Calls to Action report serve not only as the minimum standard towards achieving Reconciliation, but also as a toolkit, and roadmap for a place to start.
There are 94 Calls to Action which substantiate the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report of 227 recommendations. Together these become benchmarks and evidence for the need to remove economic barriers to success (among many other barriers) for Indigenous peoples.
As a business student, now professor, and an Indigenous woman, I’ve recently reflected on Porter’s decades-old competitive strategy and Barriers to Entry. Those barriers are still relevant today and are taught in business schools the world over. But, when I consider those barriers to entry in my context, and discuss this with mid-career professional Indigenous business students, you can imagine their perplexity.
Barriers to entry? Let’s go lower on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs to find some real, human barriers to entry. While so many social, economic and political equalization efforts are needed for Indigenous peoples, my interest and efforts for 30+ years have been to focus on Indigenous economic prosperity.
It is an absolute foundational requirement for an improved – and sustained – quality of life, whether you look at it from the family, community or national level. With no means to obtain economic security, little else will have a chance to flourish.
We have made a lot progress in Canada with Indigenous business and participation in the economy, under courageous and tenacious leadership by Chiefs and leaders of First Nations, such as Westbank, Membertou, Musqueam, Osoyoos, among others. Those are a handful, we need thousands more.
The World Bank recognizes and speaks to the need for removal of institutional measures that hamper the access of ethnic (and other) minorities to the labor market and financial systems. For example, legal and policy restrictions that directly affect economic performance.
The Bank demonstrates that these barriers represent a cost for the economy: “if a sizeable percentage of the population is not given the opportunity to acquire a high-quality education, a good job, secure housing, access to services, equal representation in decision-making institutions, that human capital will be wasted.(LINK)” (https://blogs.worldbank.org/psd/economic-marginalization-minorities-do-laws-provide-needed-protections).
In Canada the tides have turned, there’s no turning back, Indigenous Canadians will settle no longer. We need to invest in our Indigenous human capital; the ROI will pay off for generations.
Thoughts….
