Initiative Overview

ABSN Background

Purpose of ABSN

The Aboriginal Business Services Network (ABSN) is part of a larger Industry Portfolio initiative called the Aboriginal Business Development Initiative that includes three components: Access to Capital, ABSN, and Enhanced Programming (also referred to as "Increasing Take-Up"). The Aboriginal Business Development Initiative was officially announced in April 1999. It grew out of the Federal Government's January 1998 Gathering Strength – Canada's Aboriginal Action Plan. This plan identified the need to provide good business opportunities, create wealth and jobs, and support the ability and capacity of Aboriginal communities to exercise their values and priorities in development. The initiative was particularly directed towards Western Canada because twice as many of the country’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples live in the West as the rest of Canada.

The Treasury Board submission in 1999 asked for approval of $6.25 million in funding for ABSN. This submission asserted that:

Aboriginal entrepreneurs need information and skills to increase their ability to access capital, grow their businesses and achieve success. The Aboriginal community generally is also less aware of and has more trouble accessing and using business information, services, and training.

The 2001 Evaluation Framework for the Increasing Take-Up Element of the Aboriginal Business Development Initiative⁴ listed three key obstacles faced by Aboriginal businesses: business environment, access to capital, and skills. This report quoted the 1997 Aboriginal Business Survey conducted by Statistics Canada that found the need to access non-financial services was as important as access to capital for Aboriginal businesses.

In 2000/ 01, each province in the West commissioned a study on Aboriginal business needs for the ABSN initiative. The January 2001 report on Aboriginal Business Needs⁵, conducted by the CED Centre at Simon Fraser University for the CBSC in British Columbia, found that there was a need to improve access to existing business information, provide new tools, and take a collaborative approach with Aboriginal service providers. In Alberta, a study by Western Management Consultants noted the need for urban aboriginal support, more networking, and increased marketing of ABSN services. The recommendations of the reports from the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology and the Manitoba CBSC were unavailable as of the writing of this report.

The Access to Capital Board for the Aboriginal Business Development Initiative developed a proposal requesting additional funding in June 2003. Their proposal, entitled Aboriginal Business Access to Capital for Growth, suggested a number of key areas for action including increased capitalization for Aboriginal Financial Institutions, capacity development, and increased coordination and controls. This report described barriers that Aboriginal businesses face that are common to all businesses: lack of a track record, limited assets, limited familiarity with accounting practices, and limited sources of business assistance. In addition, the report suggested that Aboriginals face some unique barriers such as limited access to financing (partially due to the Indian Act restrictions on security), the high cost of accessing business expertise, and high transportation costs due to remote locations.

History of ABSN

The objectives of the ABSN are as follows:

To make general business information accessible to Aboriginal people;
To customize information products;
To provide local access to information, referrals, and some services; and
To promote the development of a national network of Aboriginal business and economic service providers.

The original view of ABSN was as a national initiative to provide relevant and accessible business information to Aboriginal entrepreneurs and businesses with a strong focus on providing on-line business information. The initial plan for ABSN involved a number of players:

The Director General's Steering Committee, made up of Director Generals from the Industry Portfolio, was intended to set policy. This steering committee oversaw the entire Aboriginal Business Development Initiative, including ABSN.
The Canada Business Service Centres, mandated to provide business information to the public, were intended to provide "overall operational direction" and contribute experience providing business information. Regional Agencies, including WD in the West, were intended to "manage the resources and activities of the ABSN hubs and satellite offices".
The CBSC National Secretariat and a parallel ABSN National Secretariat were intended "to coordinate the ABSN initiative with the work of the CBSCs".
There was an ABSN Regional Coordinator in each of the four Western regions.
A series of satellite offices and outreach workers supported the Network.

Initially, the plan was to create an ABSN National Secretariat, parallel to the CBSC National Secretariat, to be responsible for developing national and regional ABSN websites; sharing best practices; developing products; coordinating regional customization, national service standards, and client tracking systems; providing coordination; and conducting program monitoring and evaluation. From its inception, some allowance for regional variation was anticipated. In Western Canada, WD planned to have four ABSN Coordinators, 90 Tier A ABSN Sites, 18 Tier B Sites, and 124 Tier C sites with public access computer terminals. Outreach workers were to report directly to WD. ABSN had a five-year budget of $6.4 million of which WD contributed a total of $3 million, with $515,000 directed toward the National Secretariat. The expected results of ABSN included increased awareness of ABSN products and services, increased utilization, and increased service and support capacity of the partnering business development organizations.

The implementation process for ABSN in the West involved two approaches: funding projects with the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) and the Alberta Indian Economic Development Officers Network (AIEDON) to provide computers and basic computer training at 450 sites; and expanding the regional access partner network through the CBSCs to include ABSN.

By September 2000, the regions had started consultations with the Aboriginal community and studies of Aboriginal business needs. There was agreement to hire ABSN Coordinators and to house them at the CBSC offices in each region. For the first two years, virtually all ABSN funds went to CANDO, AIEDON and the CBSC National Secretariat. Then, in 2000/01, various regional studies of aboriginal business needs were undertaken and in 2001/02, WD started to provide funding that was earmarked for regional ABSN coordination. By November 2002, the CBSC National Secretariat reported that 76 ABSN locations and partners had been established across Canada and that CBSC staff had received cultural training. ABSN was being implemented across the West and the CBSC National Secretariat had fulfilled its initial goals of developing a national website, expanding the resource collection and operating a functional 1-888 line. By August 2003, ABSN Coordinators had been hired in all the provinces of Western Canada.

By 2004/05 the ABSN was seen to be well levered from the CBSC infrastructure and had its own website, ABSN brand, and ABSN national telephone line. Regional information products had been developed, some progress had been made in setting up a network of community-based partners, and innovative outreach activities such as mobile libraries and on-site training were developing.

Issues

There were, however, some ABSN-related questions about departmental priorities, funding, and accountability. WD was unsure about the value of targeted or Aboriginal-specific programming as opposed to inclusive programming that was open to all. The Department recognized that the ABSN networks were not integrated across regions. The multi-stakeholder approach made it difficult to track activities and outcomes and to provide accountability. At the same time, however, WD approved incremental grants and contributions funding of $612,000/ year for three fiscal years, ending March 31, 2004. This funding was to extend support of regional coordination by the CBSCs.

One of the ABSN’s funding issues concerns the use of grants, contributions and O & M funding. WD was required to fund the National Secretariat from O & M sources, but preferred to fund ABSN from the grants and contributions budget. However, the department could not fund ABSN directly through grants and contributions and so must use third parties as proponents. Proponents included the provincial Community Futures Associations in BC and Manitoba, the Business Link (CBSC) in Alberta, and Visions North CFDC in Saskatchewan.

Another issue deals with the evaluation of impacts and accountability and a number of evaluation frameworks were developed for the Aboriginal Business Development Initiative (Access to Capital, ABSN, and Increasing Up-Take). However, to date, no studies have looked at the impacts of ABSN. The CBSCs and ABSN sites have been reluctant or unable to report outputs and outcomes and the complexity of the networks and the large number of network members made tracking difficult. WD saw a need for a multi-stakeholder approach and, with it, a need for coordination and information sharing.

The question of who precisely should be considered the “client group” of ABSN continued to be unanswered. In fact ABSN was designed with two client groups in mind — Aboriginal businesses and Aboriginal organizations. Much of the emphasis in the West appears to have been on building capacity in Aboriginal organizations. ABSN was seen primarily as a vehicle to provide business information over the Internet and because of this, the CBSC model was a good fit. Over time, however, the ABSN appeared to be evolving into a community economic development program with a stronger focus on capacity building and providing assistance to Aboriginal entrepreneurs.

A Management Review of the ABSN was completed in August 2003⁶ and summarized the lessons learned and resources spent over its first few years. While the Review did not assess impacts, it did suggest that few Aboriginal businesses were aware of ABSN services. The Review concluded that a separate ABSN National Secretariat was not needed and would duplicate efforts of the CBSC National Secretariat and suggested that the impact of ABSN had been greatest in the regions that had used CBSC resources.

The Review also recommended that ABSN needed an appropriate management framework, as it was not being managed from a national perspective. Implementation was inconsistent across Canada and provided variable services depending on location. The Review stated that the CBSC National Secretariat did not have, or want, managerial control of the ABSN but that the gap still needed to be filled. It recommended that national service standards, national accessibility (i.e. availability in the north), and national outcomes and performance measures be developed. In addition, the role of the CBSC National Secretariat and the regional partners needed to be clarified. Staffing was identified as a concern and the report noted that up until 2003, there were difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified ABSN Coordinators because the ABSN funding was short-term.

Although WD spent $2.1 million on computers for CANDO and AIDON offices, the Management Review suggested that computers in Aboriginal organizations were not enough to develop a good link with the ABSN. It highlighted four key lessons learned:

Regionalization of the initiative was seen as a strength;
Aboriginal entrepreneurs were most inclined to use existing aboriginal organizations, therefore ABSN needed to develop relationships with them and develop their capacity. Aboriginal organizations need to be supported through both training and infrastructure. This issue was heightened because of the high turnover rates of aboriginal Economic Development Officers;
ABSN needed multiple distribution channels to ensure Aboriginal people access to the initiative. ABSN could not rely solely on on-line information because many aboriginal businesses and entrepreneurs were either not familiar with the Internet or could not access it; and
ABSN should not aim for complete coverage because not all Aboriginal communities accepted the initiative or thought it was relevant.

In March 2004, WD agreed to extend ABSN to the end of 2004/05 and increased funding by 10% over the previous year. Part of the rationale for the funding was to encourage cooperation among ABSN Coordinators across the West. An internal document, The Road Ahead for the ABSN 2004/05, recommended that some parts of the ABSN remain national in scope, including phone support, content, and the website, but that other components should be regional, including marketing and awareness, access, and community capacity building.

4 Goss Gilroy. (2001). ABSN Evaluation Framework. Ottawa: Author.

5 Community Economic Development Centre, Simon Fraser University. (2000). Assessing the Business Information Needs of Aboriginal Entrepreneurs in British Columbia. Vancouver: Author.

6 Western Economic Diversification. (2003). Management Review: Aboriginal Business Services Network. Ottawa: Author.

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