Toronto Star: Businesses aren’t exempt from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to address the ongoing, centuries-long oppression of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

The 94 calls to action cover everything from the constant removal of Indigenous children to non-Indigenous households, medical racism and the multi-generational damage done to survivors of the Canadian government’s genocidal residential school system.

In its penultimate recommendation, however, the commission called for businesses to give equitable access to jobs, training and educational opportunities in the corporate sector.

It urged businesses to commit to building good relationships and obtaining the “free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples” before proceeding with economic development projects.

That is still very much a work in progress. According to Statistics Canada, roughly eight per cent of Indigenous Peoples were unemployed in 2022, compared to 5.2 per cent for non-Indigenous people. Canadian logging, mining, oil and gas firms continue to intrude on Indigenous lands against the wishes of residents. And Indigenousowned businesses operating in a First Nation continue to run up against prohibitively expensive business loan rates.

In Keith Henry’s eyes, building vibrant Indigenous economies is the way out of these circumstances. The president and CEO of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) sees tourism as a way for Indigenous communities, from Coast Salish to Mi’kmaq territory, to showcase their cultural heritage on their own terms. But striking a balance between a sustainable tourist economy and an overburdened one is tricky, especially with the barriers Indigenous business owners continue to face.

Henry spoke to the Star five days before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 92nd call to action talks about Indigenous communities having equal access to jobs and long-term, sustainable benefits. How far along are we as a country, in that endeavour?

I’d say there’s definitely been progress, but I think we have a long ways to go. I don’t think corporate Canada fully grasps what this means yet.

Why do you think they don’t grasp that?

I honestly think it’s hard for people to shift ideology. Everyone thinks that Truth and Reconciliation is more about understanding the history of what’s happened to Indigenous Peoples, but I don’t think that they understand that. One of the important solutions does require Indigenous Peoples to create economies so we can sustain ourselves, and we can help our families from a socioeconomic perspective.

The tourism sector had a rough go over the last three years. Did Indigenous tourism face any unique problems?

We did. The way we had been building Indigenous tourism in this country was largely driven off international visitation. It’s sort of the way that the entire industry shaped how to best support Indigenous destinations.

We’ve been saying for the last few years that Indigenous tourism was the hardest of the hard-hit sectors, because we’d focused so much on promoting Indigenous destinations abroad rather than domestically. At one point, in 2021, we estimated the tourism industry lost 59 to 60 per cent of its revenues over the previous 12 months — whereas Indigenous tourism was closer to 70 per cent.

Why was the strategy mainly to promote international destinations abroad?

What we realized at the time was that international visitors were spending more money on Indigenous tourism than domestic visitors, for fair reasons. The average international visitor was spending, according to some estimates at the time, closer to $1,100 per visit to one of our destinations. Domestic visitors were only spending an average of $100 to $200 per person. It was pure economics that drove a lot of our market and our development work prior to the pandemic’s impacts.

You said earlier that Indigenous businesses were among the hardest hit during the pandemic. Your organization also says Indigenous tourism has really rebounded since then. Why is that?

What we’ve seen is, despite the infrastructure challenges and the loss of business, customers want to support Indigenous tourism. There are a variety of reasons why. No. 1, as the pandemic hit the world and our business sector very hard, residential school bodies were found in Kamloops.

That spurred a tremendous, newfound mindset, especially in Canadians. Canadians want to support reconciliation in a much more real way now. But Indigenous tourism has also remained really high interest because people want to see the true history and stories of this entire country, in a more culturally based way.

A criticism of tourism is that it tends to be very seasonal. How do you create an Indigenous tourism industry that’s not just profitable, but provides steady jobs to people in Indigenous communities?

We’re trying to create Indigenous tourism sales channels for 12 months a year. We don’t want tourism to just be a May to September season. We’ve been working with our partners to figure out what winter seasons look like and how we get the right sales partners — in Canada or other countries — to sell at different times of the year. I’m not saying we’ve got the answer. I’m saying it’s one of our top priorities.

Over-tourism is a problem for many regions in the world. How do you balance a strong Indigenous tourism industry while avoiding that?

I think that’s why we need an Indigenous-led approach to developing Indigenous tourism. That’s why ITAC and our network of Indigenous provincial and territorial partners have been so effective over the last 10 to 15 years. Before that, we didn’t have an Indigenous approach. We had non-Indigenous tourism organizations independently trying to do this work.

We must ensure that Indigenous tourism is led by Indigenous communities and Indigenous organizations for that very reason. Over the last 30 years, we’ve had a lot of growth. We’ve got about 1,900 businesses today, and we’ve got a lot of businesses in the queue to be developed. So we know the interest is there — but there are communities that don’t really want tourism, and we have to respect that.

A lot of First Nations businesses have significant problems getting financing from traditional banks. Is that something you’re trying to address?

It’s almost like people have to move off-reserve to really get reasonable financing. About 67 per cent of our businesses are not in actual reserve communities in this country. We know there are far more businesses that do want to develop on-reserve, so we continue to work with organizations like the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, and we’re trying to work with government to recommend policies for major financing.

Most of the Indigenous business loan programs in this country are very small-business oriented. We can get money for an initial feasibility business plan, and then maybe up to $250,000 for some of the entrepreneurs. And then there are some modest programs that scale up to $2 million to $5 million. But some of the Indigenous tourism developments that we know communities and entrepreneurs want to help are $50 million to $60 million. This doesn’t solve that problem.

If we want to get serious about economics, we’re going to have to continue to create incentives. No one wants free money — we’re talking about creating loan programs that actually get these businesses off the ground over three to five years. We know the market is there. We know the consumer opportunities are there, but we don’t have large enough infrastructure programs to really take Canada to the next level.

‘‘ There’s definitely been progress (on equality), but I think we have a long ways to go. I don’t think corporate Canada fully grasps what this means yet.

KEITH HENRY PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE INDIGENOUS TOURISM ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

BRENNAN DOHERTY, Toronto Star