Winnipeg Stressed

Page 20

The mayor of Winnipeg, Man., Glen Murray, issued a state of the city address on Jan. 23, in which he told 600 people attending a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that "On the current track, we (the city of Winnipeg) are not sustainable."

He said the city can pay its bills but cannot provide services "at the level and quality currently desired" without "a change in funding." That can't be good news for his nearly 56,000 Native constituents. According to the mayor's own task force on diversity, the Aboriginal population of Winnipeg is projected to be 16 per cent of the total by 2016.

Highest population percentage in P.A.

Prince Albert, Sask. has the ninth highest Aboriginal population in Canada, according to the census, but at 11,640 Aboriginals out of a total population of just 38,885, that is the highest percentage of Aboriginal people living in any municipality.

Mayor Don Cody and Peggy Rubin, who is program co-ordinator of the Prince Albert Youth Council, had similar views about the increasing effectiveness of programs and services to meet urban Aboriginal needs in their city. They were also proud of progress made towards racial harmony.

The mayor said that with an Aboriginal population of more than 29 per cent, they were "certainly aware of the burgeoning population of young, Aboriginal people."

He said it presented an opportunity rather than a problem. With regard to meeting the challenges of enabling them to meet their potential he said, "We do, however, know, that you have to do things maybe a wee bit differently, but we are certainly as a city prepared to do that. And secondly, our big emphasis is on educating young people at a very early age." Helping youth get a fair start in life, he said, sometimes means "you have to understand the parents too," and provide them "an opportunity" in areas such as housing, jobs and education.

"I think once you do that, I think you'll find the younger folks will start integrating into this society."

Cody stressed that did not mean giving up Aboriginal culture, "because they should have their own culture, that's very important to them, and it should be important to all of us."

Rubin said the formation of the Prince Albert Youth Council in 1998 has led to a lot of improvements in race relations and the hopes of youth. Their activity centre offers a wide variety of sport, recreational, cultural and educational supports, even 35 free music lessons a week. She adds the demand has grown so much for youth services that the city is opening the multi-agency supported Waskagun Youth Centre in a couple of months that they hope will become a 24-hour-a-day facility.

At the street level, she says the youth council's "number one concern is resources for kids with a drug abuse problem" and they're also concerned with legislation to deal with "sex exploitation."

Cody said Prince Albert "has come a long ways" in getting past the racial divisions, and he had numerous examples at hand of how Aboriginal people were respected as contributors to the social fabric and economy of the city.

He asked what other community had elected the same First Nations person twice or three times to mainstream offices.

"Once, to a school board, and twice to city council. Where have you seen a community that has, on a holistic basis, had two-one First Nations person, one Metis person-ever Citizen of the Year? You don't find that in every community." That award, he pointed out, is granted by the Kinsmen Club and the Daily Herald newspaper, which are non-Aboriginal organizations.

Lawrence Joseph, now vice chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, previously was elected to the Saskatchewan River School Board and was elected twice to city council. Bernice Sayese was honored as Citizen of the Year on Jan. 24.

Lawrence Joseph's wife, Priscilla, was given the Woman of Distinction award by the YWCA, Cody said, which was another example of a non-Aboriginal organization that recognizes the valuabl contributions Aboriginal people are making in Prince Albert.

On the topic of youth, Cody said, "I think you have to give them the opportunity (for an education). I don't think you can force an opportunity onto people. They have to take that opportunity." He was responding to statistics contained in a report received by Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault from the national Working Group on Education, which states 35 per cent of Aboriginal students complete high school compared to 70 per cent of non-Aboriginal students.

"If you're talking about people who are not within the urban setting," Cody stated, "I think the percentage is very high, but I think you'll find the ones in the urban setting is likely not quite as high."