We also recognize that we must do better at hiring Indigenous staff and we are committed to doing so. Meanwhile, attempts to measure the size and performance of the Indigenous economy in Canada are constrained by the availability and quality of data. This represents another important barrier to economic inclusion because inadequate information impairs financial management and decision making.
For example, economic data are often unavailable at the community level and are not comparable across communities or with non-Indigenous communities. But efforts are being made to fill these information gaps. For example, the Bank has partnered with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Global Affairs Canada and Big River Analytics to conduct a large-scale survey of Indigenous businesses in 2021.