b'BUSINESS RECOVERYTHE CAPITAL QUESTIONIn 2017, BDC and the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA) commissioned the Conference Board of Canada to survey the national Indigenous business landscape. While the survey found that poor access to capital was one of the two main ongoing challenges for Indigenous businessesthe other being the need for better financial literacyJames says Indigenous entrepreneurs actu-ally werent looking for more capital in the early days of the pandemic. They didnt want to take on more debt at that point.Michael Jacobs says access to capitalable to offer interest and principal post- entrepreneurs in a specific industry, so has not been a problem for CIPS. It wasponement for 100 per cent of their clientsIm trying to connect them with as many okay for small businesses like mine. I wasfor six months. The great thing is theyresources as possible.able to access the Canada Emergencygenerally dont have any red tape. They Wage Subsidy, which helped a lot.just decided this was something theyWORKING TOGETHERAnd I was also able to get the Canadawanted to propose, they went to theirAnother avenue being explored during Emergency Business Account [an interestboard, and they made it happen. the pandemic is joint ventures. CIPS is free loan available to small businessesone example of a company that has and non-profits].James has also noticed that more non- sought to expand its market offering Last summer, BDC also contacted aIndigenousentrepreneurswanttoin this manner by teaming up with number of Aboriginal Financial Institutionsconnect with their Indigenous coun- others. In November it joined with QM to see what was changing for Indigenousterparts. When she was interviewedEnvironmental to deliver environmental business during the pandemic. Jamesfor CCABs Aboriginal Business Report,remediation for Defence Construction wasstruckbythedifferentformsshe mentioned a call she had justCanada, which manages military bases Indigenousbusinesssupporthasreceived from a department of theacross the country.been taking. She cites the example offederal government.Ulnooweg Development Group of Truro,Were getting a crash course in envi-Nova Scotia, which provides loans andThey said they had big companiesronmental remediation, Jacobs says. business services to Indigenous entre- bidding on contracts that want to includeWeve had requests from First Nations preneurs in Atlantic Canada. Indigenous entrepreneurs in their supply[in this area] in the past, and now we chain. They just dont know how to getintend to start offering those services to Theyhaveaveryuniquewayofconnected. They come to people likethem. The partnership is off to a great supporting their entrepreneurs. Theyremyself asking if we have Indigenousstart because Jacobs has had more time to work on it than he would have before the pandemic.The other joint venture is with Larrass Translations in Ottawa, an English/French translation service provider. The work involves devising useful translations of Indigenous terms and concepts that dont translate readily into English or French. We formed the joint venture in mid-January to get the right meaning for these terms and ideas in all three languages. The two companies working together are able to provide that. We think were the first to bring this to market.Everybodys been forced to do things differently than they did prior to the pandemic,saysMonicaJames. Businesses that have been able to survive and thrive during the pandemic are going to be better off than they were before it happened.44A CCAB PUBLICATION2021'