Canada must do more to support Indigenous youth

Canada is wrestling as never before with the legacy of residential schools and the harms inflicted on Indigenous peoples. The discovery of so many unmarked graves on the grounds of former schools has finally made it impossible to ignore the egregious wrongs of the past.

Understanding Canada’s colonial past and the impact that has had on the lives and welfare of Indigenous people is critical. But even now, amid all this commitment to do better, Canada still isn’t doing enough to help chart a better future.

Every measure we have to judge how a population is doing — poverty and child welfare, housing and clean water, education and employment — shows a gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. And now a new report from RBC is drawing attention to yet another troubling gap: digital literacy and access to the internet.

Indigenous youth are less confident in their digital literacy skills than their non-Indigenous peers, according to the report. That’s hardly a surprise given it also says only a quarter of Indigenous households have quality, high-speed internet. So yet another generation is starting from behind, and at the very time when jobs are undergoing a massive technological transformation.

Nearly two-thirds of the jobs held by Indigenous workers are at risk of disappearing or undergoing a “skills overhaul” as robotics, automation and other technologies transform the skilled trades, mining, forestry and other sectors, the report states.

Lack of access to high-speed internet, along with long-standing underfunding of education for Indigenous youth, means they’re not being prepared for the jobs of the future. This digital divide will only exacerbate the harms that come from long-standing gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people when it comes to high school graduation rates and post-secondary education.

It’s an appalling failure. Indigenous youth need access to the quality education and training, including in the digital realm, that will provide them with the opportunity to succeed in today’s job market.

Canada is headed for a serious labour shortage and, as the RBC report estimates, about 750,000 Indigenous youth will move through the education system and into the workforce in the next decade. Indigenous youth are Canada’s fastest growing cohort and it makes no sense to leave them on the sidelines.

To its credit, the Trudeau government has committed billions of dollars to connect 98 per cent of Canadians across the country to high-speed internet by 2026, with the “goal” of connecting all Canadians by 2030. The Universal Broadband Fund was announced in the 2019 budget and expanded last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hammered home just how reliant we are on the internet.

But, as we know all too well, a government commitment is a long way from a done deal. Ottawa, for example, has repeatedly set deadlines to end boilwater advisories and never once managed to meet them. So the RBC report is right to call on the government to “fulfil” that federal commitment and prioritize underserviced Indigenous communities. Its other recommendations, including directing more funding for digital devices and technology courses in schools on and off-reserve and expanding academic bridge programs at post-secondary institutions and trade programs, also make good sense.

As Murray Sinclair, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said: “We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future.”

That can’t happen until education gaps, including the digital divide, are properly addressed.