Inclusive trade

^{ESG | Social | Human rights |} ^{Inclusive trade | Inclusion, diversity and equity} ^{| Our communities}

^{ESG | Social | Human rights |} ^{Inclusive trade |

Inclusion, diversity and equity} ^{| Our communities}

Support for exporters from equity-seeking groups

Exports create jobs, promote innovation and grow industries. When exporting is inclusive, it can advance the interests of groups who have faced barriers to trade to help their businesses grow and succeed, positively impacting our economy and our communities.

Championing an inclusive approach to international trade

EDC’s solutions are available to all Canadian exporters. However, we recognize that some segments of the Canadian population face unique challenges in the business world. We want to ensure all Canadians, no matter their gender, race, disability or sexual orientation, have the same opportunities to dream big, be daring and take on the world.

Through our inclusive trade efforts, we offer targeted support for companies owned and/or led by women, Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized Canadians, people with disabilities and those from the 2SLGBTQ+ community. We believe that improving access to EDC’s financial and knowledge solutions is essential to our goal of helping more Canadians realize their international growth potential.

Inclusive trade pillars

EDC’s approach to inclusive trade focuses on five pillars of action:

Awareness—working with partners to build awareness about the benefits of exporting
Education—helping to build the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to enter new markets
Connections—linking business owners to trade programs, supporting organizations and international opportunities
Financial solutions—enabling growth by providing access to the right financial tools
Community—demonstrating broad support for economic empowerment and inclusive trade

The evolution of EDC’s inclusive trade strategy

Image of Native American artist representing EDC’s inclusive trade strategy.

The scope of our support for inclusive trade has progressed from its initial focus on women, to now include businesses owned and led by Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized persons, persons with disabilities and the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Although facing unique challenges, there are many commonalities across the different equity-seeking groups. However, business owners who identify with multiple dimensions of diversity face even greater barriers. We’re committed to continually evolving our approach to ensure we are serving these businesses.

Learn more about how we’re working with business owners from equity-seeking groups to support their global ambitions.

In 2018, EDC launched our first national strategy specific to women in trade to address the underrepresentation of women among entrepreneurs currently exporting. Our strategy also supports the Canadian government's commitment to all segments of society and to champion an inclusive approach to trade.

Since then, we’ve steadily grown our efforts to support more and more women-owned and -led businesses on their exporting journey. So far, we have served almost 3,000 such businesses, facilitating $6.8 billion in business, and want to continue that growth.

A key component of our strategy is to collaborate within the ecosystem of organizations supporting women-owned and -led businesses to ensure that in addition to growth capital, they have the full wrap-around support they need to be successful in international markets.

Learn more about EDC’s Women in Trade program

EDC is dedicated to supporting Indigenous businesses as they pursue economic self-reliance and growth through exporting. Guided by respect for Indigenous history, traditions and culture, we remove barriers to growth so that Indigenous-owned and -led businesses can thrive on the world stage while creating jobs and sustainable prosperity in their communities.

The initial focus of our Indigenous business strategy was on building partnerships within the Indigenous business community to raise awareness about and to ensure relevance and accessibility of EDC’s knowledge and financial solutions.

While that work continues, we have expanded our collaboration to Indigenous and non-Indigenous financial institutions across Canada to deliver financial solutions to Indigenous businesses. Our support for Indigenous companies has steadily grown to include:

pandemic assistance
direct lending
loan guarantees
insurance and other financial products
participating in the new Indigenous Growth Fund

Despite these advances, there is much more to do as Indigenous businesses continue to face financial and market challenges. EDC will continue to partner with them respectfully and adapt our products and services to meet their unique needs, in a spirit of reconciliation.

See how EDC supports Indigenous businesses

Black-owned businesses are crucial to growing our economy, but these companies continue to face significant challenges when pursuing growth and achieving profitability.

Our national lead for Black exporters conducts research and consults with Black entrepreneurs to gain a better understanding of the tools and support they need to scale up their businesses. Collaborating with Black business-serving organizations, other government agencies and the private sector, EDC is working to create a trade ecosystem that’s responsive to the needs of Black businesses as they pursue growth through exporting.

Under the Inclusive Trade Investments Program, EDC has committed to BKR Capital, which focuses on investing in Canadian pre-seed and seed stage technology companies founded by Black entrepreneurs.

Learn more about Trade barriers for Black businesses in Canada.

We continue to engage with the 2SLGBTQ+ business community to identify opportunities to grow our support. Through our partnership with the Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC), the sole body in Canada that can certify a company as an LGBT+ enterprise, we aim to deepen our understanding of the challenges facing this business community so that we can help remove barriers and provide meaningful support.

Inclusive Trade Investments Program (ITIP)

EDC has committed $200 million to invest in companies founded or led by Canadians from equity-seeking groups.

For Canadian exporting businesses owned and led by people identifying as women, Indigenous, Black or members of other equity-seeking groups, one of the main barriers to growth is lack of equitable access to capital. This program helps address that challenge and create more opportunities for growth.

Learn more about ITIP

Supplier diversity

Buying from companies owned by members of equity-seeking groups is another way to fuel their growth. That’s why we created a Supplier Diversity Program in 2020 and continue to build it out. We partner with organizations that certify diverse-owned businesses, so we can ensure validity and share procurement opportunities more widely.

Summary Report: Trade Barriers for Black Businesses in Canada

We engaged with Black entrepreneurs and Black business-serving organizations to gain a thorough understanding of the barriers Black exporters encounter. We’re very grateful to participants who shared their personal perspectives and experiences. This summary report shares an overview of the wealth of information and insights that we gathered into the Black exporter community and some of their central concerns.

See the report