Trudeau Government Failures With Fraud In Indigenous Procurement Continue

October 17, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – The Trudeau Government officials responsible for government contracting admitted today that they are not enforcing Indigenous procurement rules. On top of this, they testified that they had no idea if those rules are being enforced.

Indigenous leaders, including the Assembly of First Nations, have testified that the vast majority of companies taking advantage of the federal government’s Indigenous contracting program are actually shell companies. Consultants and contractors are widely reported to hire one Indigenous individual in order to qualify for lucrative contracts, while the government has no ability to track if any of the contracts actually make it back to Indigenous communities.

The program is supposed to have clear rules about what percentage of subcontracts under this program go to Indigenous companies. These rules would prevent shell companies from taking advantage of the program by giving all of the work to non-Indigenous subcontractors. However, the department responsible for contracting admitted today that they do not enforce those rules.

Officials could not name a single shell company that is committing fraud and effectively stealing from Indigenous communities. As a result, there have not been any referrals to the RCMP over widespread abuse within the Indigenous procurement program. Worse still, government officials said that they might not be able to collect any taxpayer money that has been paid out to fraudsters and scamsters.

Common Sense Conservatives will continue to investigate the contracting abuse and theft taking place under the Trudeau Government. In the days ahead, Conservatives will be calling for all Trudeau Ministers responsible for this theft against Indigenous peoples to appear before the ongoing parliamentary investigation.