Towards inclusion and opportunity
We’ve heard a lot this week about the need to address economic opportunity and jobs for aboriginal people. Much of the discussion has come from Perry Bellegarde, the first Saskatchewan leader of the national Assembly of First Nations for almost 30 years. He has made it clear that First Nations are looking for a new deal on everything from education to resource wealth.
Perhaps a more apt expression is a “fair deal”, since aboriginal people suffer a disproportionate share of disadvantage on almost every measurable indicator, from poverty to poor health.
As Bellegarde pointed out in an interview with Postmedia News: “Canada, according to the United Nations Human Development Index, is rated sixth in terms of quality of life. You apply those same indices to indigenous peoples, we are 63rd. So there’s a gap.”
Nowhere is that gap more evident than in employment. Good jobs help people escape poverty and pay for good food and decent housing, yet the unemployment rate for aboriginal people — particularly First Nations — remains stubbornly high.
This is true even in Saskatchewan, which has had the lowest provincial unemployment rate for 24 consecutive months. In November, the jobless rate among non-aboriginal people in the province was just 2.5 per cent. It was a disturbingly high 14.7 per cent for off-reserve First Nations people.
What’s particularly troubling is that there is no shortage of jobs — employers have repeatedly complained about a labour shortage that has forced them to send recruiters to other provinces and countries to find the workers they need.
Education has been an obstacle. The province says only 32.7 per cent of aboriginal students are graduating from high school within three years of starting Grade 10, compared with 72.3 per cent of all Saskatchewan students.
High school struggles mean fewer aboriginal people make it to university. There has been some improvement, but despite almost 16 per cent of the province’s population being aboriginal, self-identified aboriginal enrolment at the University of Regina is just over 11 per cent and 10 per
TIME TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO ABORIGINAL CHALLENGES.
cent at the University of Saskatchewan.
Getting an education is one thing, getting a job a different challenge.
The City of Regina, for example, confirmed this week it has made no progress in the past year toward its goal of hiring more aboriginal workers. It currently has 7.7 per cent self-declared aboriginal employees — about half the 15.2 per cent recommended by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Though city hall has an aboriginal employees group, advertises in the aboriginal community and attends career fairs targeting that demographic, it admits “we could do more”.
That sentiment no doubt applies to other employers, too.
Hiring and supporting more aboriginal workers isn’t just a question of equity — it’s the right thing to do.
But it’s just one of the many right things that remain to be done before Canada’s first peoples will have access to the opportunities for advancement and quality of life enjoyed by their fellow Canadians.