Ottawa removed 1,100 organizations from a list of Indigenous-owned businesses that were not eligible for a multi-billion-dollar procurement program that has been criticized for lax oversight and loose rules.
The Indigenous Business Directory (IBD) is a government database intended to list First Nations, Inuit or Métis-owned businesses eligible to access “set aside” contracts only accessible to Indigenous companies.
Indigenous Services Canada Minister Patty Hajdu told MPs Tuesday that in 2022, 1,100 companies were removed from that list. Hajdu was not pressed on why the companies were removed, and gave no indication which companies were not eligible.
As of Tuesday, there were a total of 2,945 companies listed on the IBD.
“Every two years the department audits the Indigeneity of businesses, just because businesses transform quite a bit between audits,” Hajdu told a House of Commons committee Tuesday morning.
Story continues below advertisement
“In 2022, 1,100 Indigenous businesses were removed from the Indigenous Business Directory as part of a cleanup of …