Call #93 asks Canada to create either an Indigenous Business Development Bank or an intermediary for Indigenous finance. The Call does not require one specific institutional model. In current Canadian practice, the most relevant terms are Indigenous Financial Institutions, Aboriginal Financial Institutions, Métis Capital Corporations, developmental lending, the Aboriginal Entrepreneurship Program, and the Indigenous Growth Fund. The strongest evidence is Indigenous-led or Canada-based. NACCA and the Indigenous Financial Institution network show national Indigenous-led coordination and a long-standing delivery system for Indigenous business lending. The Indigenous Growth Fund, managed by NACCA, shows that a dedicated Indigenous finance intermediary has been created to increase capital flowing to Indigenous entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses. The federally supported Aboriginal Entrepreneurship Program Access to Capital stream shows that this activity is funded and institutionalized, while applied research on Indigenous Financial Institutions shows measurable economic and social impacts.
The status is Active because Canada has established, funded, implemented, nationally coordinated, measured, and reported Indigenous finance-intermediary activity that directly supports Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses through Indigenous-controlled lenders. The main limitation is not the absence of activity, but the form, scale, and reach of existing activity. No single Indigenous Business Development Bank was identified.