An investment plan designed to build profitability in the province’s Indigenous communities grew in size last week with the government adding two eligible categories to a Crown corporation’s mandate.
Loan approvals from the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation can now include the technology and health care sectors, Minister of Indigenous Relations Rajan Sawhney announced.
Sawhney said Indigenous communities and industry prompted the government to act by showing an interest in the new categories.
Technology and health care join natural resources, transportation, agriculture, telecommunications and tourism as areas eligible for AIOC loan guarantees. The added sectors are “fast-moving, rapidly growing industries and the time is right for this expansion,” said the statement from Sawhney.
Since becoming operational in November 2019, the Crown corporation has provided nearly $750 million in loan guarantees to create long-term revenue streams in 43 Indigenous communities. Although the spectrum of acceptable project sectors is wide, the nine approvals so far are tied only to natural resources.
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