Self-funded, and created with a small team of developers, the online portal serves as a one-stop shop for tender and procurement information in the design-build sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been pushing and lobbying towards this for such a long time, but without a platform to speak on or being integrated with some of the platforms or the businesses, it’s impossible to really do anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the only way that I knew that I can get this done is by self-funding and getting this platform moving, and that’s what I’ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the gaps Antonio said he\u2019s seen, there\u2019s a lack of a visible, progressive business directory that\u2019s available across Canada. There\u2019s a need for an aggregated tender portal from major platforms that\u2019s available to Indigenous businesses, and there\u2019s a need for a workforce module that highlights Indigenous labour for specific trades.<\/p>\n
His directory incorporates all these things, and it\u2019s free to use for Indigenous businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to be accessible by everyone,\u201d said Antonio, a member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. \u201cSo this platform is free for Indigenous businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work on Turtle Island Building Trust began two years ago, after he launched BuildCode<\/a>, a technology company that solves tech problems centred on AI, software, and blockchain. With that programming experience, he saw an opportunity to build the procurement platform he wished was available.<\/p>\n Doing the programming himself gives him the ability to quickly make adjustments or changes that could take other companies weeks or months, he said. It\u2019s this agility and flexibility that Antonio believes will help the platform succeed and go nationwide, which is his goal.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re leading on the tech side, you’re leading on the industry side and you’re leading on the Indigenous side, keeping in the loop and staying alongside organizations, honestly, that’s that’s the key right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you hit all three and execute it, I think it can happen.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n \u200bWhat makes Antonio’s solution stand out is the use of AI, indexing tools and other progressive technology to aggregate and integrate data. This is a departure from more traditional platforms that use spreadsheets or imported data, he said.<\/p>\n Users of the site can search for a vendor or service and, within seconds, the directory will show on a map all the Indigenous businesses that meet their criteria. Clicking on a vendor immediately brings up contact information and list of services. Each listed vendor goes through a verification process to ensure they are a legitimate Indigenous, Inuit or M\u00e9tis business.<\/p>\n TIBT takes the database of the services of each vendor and converts it into UN codes, which is the same format used by tender and procurement sites such as MERX by SOVRA<\/a>, Biddingo<\/a> or CanadaBuys<\/a>. This ensures the data is comparing \u201capples to apples.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe get them to talk to each other a lot easier, and we make it happen very, very quickly,\u201d Antonio said.<\/p>\n The portal can then match tender opportunities with businesses operating in the project area.<\/p>\n Rather than compete with the major national or North American procurement portals, Antonio said his system is designed to work in concert with them.<\/p>\n Every city or municipality handles procurement differently, Antonio said, but TIBT aims to make the process more efficient by putting all the information into one place so vendors have the best chance at success.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, if there\u2019s 15 to 20 different procurement portals, how are people ever going to actually be able to see all this data?\u201d said Antonio, who also runs PLA<\/a>, a project planning and construction firm focused on working with Indigenous communities and organizations.<\/p>\n Antonio scored a big win for his platform in late February after signing a partnership agreement that enables Turtle Island Building Trust to host content from MERX by SOVRA\u00a0directly on its site.<\/p>\n![\"2026-02-20-turtle-island-building-trust2-screenshot\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-02-20-turtle-island-building-trust2-screenshot.jpg;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\nWith Turtle Island Building Trust, members can pinpoint on a map where Indigenous businesses are located. Turtle Island Building Trust\/Screenshot
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