Aboriginal agency seeks employer support for fair deal

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The unemployment rate in Saskatchewan in November was 5.9 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. While this number was generally seen as good news, there are some who look deeper into the statistics and always find the same piece of bad news.

Wayne McKenzie, a consultant with Aboriginal Employment Development in the provincial department of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs, says if the rate of unemployment that exists in the Aboriginal community were the norm, there would be demonstrations in the streets.

McKenzie's job is to increase Aboriginal participation in the work force and he says there have to be changes within Aboriginal communities and corporations in order to make this possible.

Most Aboriginal people are working in areas of Aboriginal trouble. They get trained and return to work in friendship centres or their own band. In his view, they self-segregate because there are too many barriers.

For McKenzie, the results of these barriers are obvious. "There is not one corporation in Canada that is representative," McKenzie says about Aboriginal employees in relation to their proportion in the general population.

McKenzie says the most common complaint he hears from corporations is that Aboriginal workers are unqualified, but he is contemptuous of this evaluation. "The only time you are qualified to do the job is when you leave," he says. "You do not know the job on day one and you are not expected to come in running. You have certain foundation skills that you build on and all we are asking is to give Aboriginal people the same chance."

McKenzie seeks to change these perceptions by working with corporations and public institutions to create environments that are more receptive to Aboriginal workers.

The forestry industry in Northern Saskatchewan is already seeing the results of co-operation between Native groups and industry. The Lac La Ronge Indian Band and Zelensky Brothers are spending between $15 and $20 million to build a sawmill at La Ronge that will employ approximately 600 workers. Another 300 jobs will be created by a similar partnership between Suntech Forest Products and James Smith Cree Nation.

These sorts of partnerships are also a goal of the First Nation Forestry Program (FNFP). A national program launched in 1997, the FNFP seeks to evaluate opportunities, management issues and financing options for First Nations in the forestry sector.

There are also a number of initiatives at the post-secondary level designed to train Aboriginal people for work in high-demand areas including nursing and education.

"We are concerned that there are not more Aboriginal students in our nursing program," says Blaine Jensen, dean of students at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST).

"There is a demand for nursing across Canada and the Native population in Saskatchewan is growing dramatically, so we need more Aboriginal nurses."

SIAST and The University of Saskatchewan were recently awarded a research grant to study support networks that would encourage more Aboriginal students to enrol in nursing programs.

There is also a large demand for Aboriginal teachers. "More and more businesses and education systems in Canada and Saskatchewan are taking a look and realizing how important it is to have Aboriginal teachers in schools," says Sheila Pocha. "The cultural identity of people in the school alerts non-natives to the values of other cultures."

Pocha is the co-ordinator of the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP), a four-year bachelor of education program that focuses primarily on Metis students. She is also a graduate of the program that accepts 20 students a year and sees the vast majority graduate and find work.

Of 16 students who graduated last May, 15 are working in Northern Alberta, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.

Finding work is great, but Pocha says one of the most important achievements of graduates is that they serve as role model for others considering a career in education.

This is an assessment that McKenzie agrees with. "When one Aboriginal is hired anywhere, they act as change agents and role models."

The problem, as McKenzie sees it, is getting Aboriginal workers on a level playing field where they can compete based solely on their merits. He does not feel quotas are an effective way of increasing Aboriginal participation. "Quotas and targets have ceilings, and there should only be floors."

He has signed more than 30 corporations to agreements designed to make the workplace more inclusive. These agreements establish programs to address harassment and racism in order to increase the retention of Aboriginal employees. An audit is also conducted to determine what the future employment needs of a company are likely to be. A similar agreement will be signed with the University of Saskatchewan on Dec. 20.

"I want to know who is leaving, who is quitting, who is retiring and who is dying," McKenzie says. "Then I can take this information to Aboriginal communities and they can decide what jobs they want to compete for."

The scope of McKenzie's task is enormous, but it boils down to a simple message: "You get the workplace ready and we1ll get the community ready."