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education attainment of the Aboriginal population in Canada will therefore increase the
participation rate of Aboriginal peoples and offset some, but certainly not all, of the projected
decline in labour force growth. This is particularly true in Western Canada, especially
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the share of Aboriginal peoples in the population is well
above the national average.
Raising the educational attainment of Aboriginal people in Canada is not a novel policy
objective. In fact, it has already been the center of much discussion, debate and research. Yet, the
fundamental problem remains and the topic continues to raise serious questions. In the latest
Speech From the Throne on October 16, 2007, the Government of Canada confirmed that
Aboriginal education was still the key to improving the economic condition of Aboriginal
Canadians:
—Our mining and resource sectors present extraordinary opportunities across
Canada, and our Government will help move forward by providing a single window
for major project approvals. With these increased opportunities for employment, our
Government will continue to foster partnerships that help Aboriginal people get the
skills and training to take advantage of these job prospects in the North and across
Canada.”
In the spirit of the government‘s emphasis on skills and training, this report shows the significant
potential benefits for Canada of improving the overall level of education of its Aboriginal
people.
B. Structure of the Report
This report assesses the potential of the Aboriginal population in meeting the two major
challenges facing the Canadian economy outlined above. The report focuses on the potential
labour force growth and employment growth and their impact on income and productivity given
increased educational attainment among the Aboriginal population.
The current section established the motivation for this report. The next section reviews
the importance of education for labour market performance, income, productivity and other
measures of well-being. The third section draws a portrait of Aboriginal Canadians. It focuses
primarily on education, income, unemployment, labour force participation levels and
employment, but also reviews other important indicators of well-being such as poverty, crime
and health. The fourth section examines the various population projection scenarios for the
general and the Aboriginal population from 2001 to 2017 produced by Statistics Canada. It also
reviews the forecasts for major economic indicators produced by the Institute for Policy Analysis
at the University of Toronto. The fifth section provides projections for the Aboriginal labour
force and employment in 2017 and the contribution to the total growth of labour force and
employment under a number of scenarios. The sixth section uses the labour force projections
made in the previous section to forecast potential Aboriginal employment income and output in
2017. It also examines the potential impact on employment growth, total economy GDP growth
and labour productivity growth over the 2001-2017 period. The seventh section highlights a
number of important contributions to the literature which capture the most important policy-
relevant questions related to the improvement of the educational attainment of the aboriginal
population. The last section offers directions for future research and concludes.