Pro-Cure or Faux-Cure? A Comparative Analysis of Aboriginal Procurement Initiatives

In this paper, I seek to answer whether Aboriginal procurement initiatives are valuable to governments and Indigenous businesses. I posit that Aboriginal procurement initiatives are partially effective because they provide opportunities to some Aboriginal businesses, however they are imperfect because not all Aboriginal businesses are able to benefit from them. I present a brief literature review, a jurisdictional scan of these initiatives in Canada and Australia, and a comparative analysis. I find that these initiatives are not meeting the needs of businessowners, especially in building capacity. Aboriginal procurement initiatives are adequately providing employment and capacity-building opportunities for established Aboriginal businesses through experience and networking but are not supporting growth or development of new Aboriginal businesses that lack capacity. Future initiatives should consider working to better address the needs of Aboriginal businesspeople and their communities and addressing the underlying socioeconomic problems that create the economic disparity that necessitates these initiatives.