Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay, I'll take it. I'm the NACCA guy. Yes, and I agree with what Mr. Foss said. If there's any tool that we have that we can put on the table that somebody can try to put to use, let's do it. With respect to the indigenous loan guarantee program, we have been able to leverage as much capital as comes our way to find partners and to work with our communities to make that dollar go farther.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll go first. Thank you for the question. What I've loved about some laws that have been passed to date is the opt-in option. I've heard many communities say, “We don't like that. We don't want that here.” I say that's great. It's an opt-in option. They don't have to have it. However, those who have opted in and who have applied it seem to have done quite well with it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What I'm actually specifically talking about, for example, is the opt-in option from the First Nations Land Management Act. We started out in 1999, when there were at least 15 that went forward. After that, we said that they didn't have to change, but if they wanted to, they could opt in.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You're talking to a business guy, so obviously there's a slant there. I think that economic reconciliation is the key to reconciliation. I think that we can do better for ourselves than anybody can do for us. The biggest issue that we have is closing that economic gap. By focusing on that in terms of reconciliation, I think we all can get on board.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As I mentioned on the three that were cited in your motion—the excise, the casino and the carbon—those resources, if they were shifted over towards First Nations.... I know this first-hand. When we get control, we will be responsible. We will be very judicious in it, and we'll start thinking.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Hello, everyone. It's good to see you all today. It's a real honour to be here. I'm with the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association. We have a head office not too far from here. I'll summarize my notes that I submitted, so I'll be done in five minutes.

Agriculture committee  I think the main thing is that we need to talk with each other and be open to being flexible about what works and makes sense. You start with an idea and listen to your partners, really listen. They may say it's like this and we would work better that way and be open to that. That's for both sides.

Agriculture committee  The short answer is we could get that information and get it back to you.

Agriculture committee  That's an excellent question. I think there's an untapped market out there for all the indigenous entrepreneurs who are growing their own unique organic products. Sometimes it's been going on for many generations, and they just don't know how to market it. They're drinking it. They're consuming it.

Agriculture committee  I'll give you an example. In my community, we actually have a food security program. It's funded, by the way. It's been around for awhile. They do good work and it's really small community stuff. I think more of that is really important to developing that arena. In my experience going up to the Far North, one of the things that stands out for me is the food insecurity up there and how we might want to tackle that.

Agriculture committee  Yes, definitely. We have different types of aboriginal financial institutes. We have aboriginal capital corporations, ACCs, that are specifically in the lending business. Community Futures is a partner. I'm sure Community Futures is in your communities. It is a bit more than lending.

Agriculture committee  Rather than just dealing with each individual Community Futures, you could come to us because they're all under our umbrella. Then we could work with them to make sure that the program we're trying to create is off the ground. We'd know how to tweak it so that it actually fits as best as possible.

Agriculture committee  I think there is the possibility for it. The problem is that as soon as somebody gets control of a fund, they don't want to give it up and share it, even if it's not being used. That's the challenge we face. We have a pool of money across Canada with our different AFIs, aboriginal financial institutions.

Agriculture committee  The thing we've learned at our end is that we know our entrepreneurs better than you, with all due respect. We think that if you wanted to get better access to the aboriginal farmer or the agri-food players, you could do it through an organization like ours. We have boots on the ground.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. I think the things that have been the key to our success have been that we are indigenous, that we interface with the indigenous entrepreneurs across the country and that we know and understand them because we come from the same community. We're not one national organization based out of Ottawa that is trying to deliver across the country.