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Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
Various surveys and the Canadian census have long collected information on Indigenous peoples, but it has only been in recent years that comprehensive data has been compiled on how much Indigenous peoples contribute to the Canadian economy.
Some of those details were shared Nov. 5 during a webinar titled The contribution of Indigenous Peoples to the Canadian Economy: A Macroeconomic Perspective. The event was hosted by Statistics Canada’s Centre for Indigenous Statistics and Partnerships (CISP).
Kathleen Crowe, an advisor for CISP’s Indigenous Liaison Program, served as the moderator for the webinar. She said CISP was established in 2019. Its goal is to assist Indigenous communities and organizations to build greater statistical capacity.
“Engagement and collaboration are essential to data collection and research activities related to First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit,” she said.
Crowe said CISP’s mission is to provide Indigenous communities with the statistical tools they need for better decision making.
“Our vision is building and enhancing Indigenous statistical information and capacity through partnerships,” she said.
Eric Desjardins, the unit head responsible for the Statistics Canada’s Indigenous Peoples Economic Account (IPEA), presented information that was compiled over recent years.
IPEA is a Statistics Canada initiative that measures the economic contribution of Indigenous peoples to the Canadian economy through Gross Domestic Income (GDI).
Desjardins said talks on IPEA started in 2020 when Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) reached out with concerns about the lack of economics statistics related to Indigenous people.
ISC financed a feasibility study, which led to IPEA’s first release in August 2022, including data up to 2020. There have been a few other releases since then, including from April of this year with data up to 2022. The next release will be on Dec. 17 with data up to 2023.
Based on information in April’s release, Desjardins said there were about 886,000 jobs in Canada held by Indigenous peoples. About 827,000 of those jobs were paid worker jobs. The remainder were self-employed individuals.
“If we look at highest average annual wage by sector, the highest was in the mining, quarry and oil and gas extraction sectors at about $130,000 annually,” Desjardins said.
He said the lowest wages were in the accommodation and food services industry.
“This is not too surprising concerning the number of part-time lower paying jobs in food services, especially the fast food industry,” he said. “And it's important to know that this trend is not necessarily limited to Indigenous peoples. It's something we see in the country as a whole.”
Desjardins also said that GDI across Canada has increased every year since 2012, when stats began to be compiled. The Indigenous share of GDI has demonstrated even better gains.
“What this means is that Indigenous GDI has increased at a faster pace than the entire economy,” he said, adding Indigenous GDI increased 75 per cent, while GDI for the entire economy increased 54 per cent.
Information compiled includes data on the Indigenous economy after COVID.
“The pandemic affected jobs in some sectors more than others,” Desjardins said. “This is true for jobs held by Indigenous peoples and the Canadian population as a whole.”
To back up his point, Desjardins displayed a graph showing the change in the number of jobs held by Indigenous people between 2019 and 2022.
“On average, jobs held by Indigenous peoples increased by 3.9 per cent during those years, with the largest increases being observed in the professional, scientific and technical sector, as well as the healthcare and social assistance sector,” he said.
He said the largest declines were observed in food services, as well as the arts, entertainment and recreation sectors.
“These declines are significant, but not too surprising considering these sectors are linked closely to tourism,” he said. “And tourism was one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.”
Desjardins singled out another key stat. Paid-worker jobs held by Indigenous peoples increased 4.8 per cent between 2019 and 2022.
“The increase was pretty evenly split between men and women,” he said. “However, the number of jobs held by Indigenous peoples with college diplomas or university degrees increased the most.”
Desjardins said there are some challenges in compiling Indigenous economic statistics. One of these is the cut-off for determining what is classified as an Indigenous-owned business.
“The current methodology classifies businesses with Indigenous ownership of 50 per cent plus one as entirely Indigenous,” he said. “So, for businesses where Indigenous ownership is 51 per cent, we’re including 100 per cent of the business income, leading to overestimation. Conversely, businesses where Indigenous ownership is 49 per cent, we're not including any of business income leading to underestimation.”
Desjardins said current data is only available for First Nations, Métis and Inuit combined.
“We don't have the break down by Indigenous groups,” he said.
A priority moving forward is to provide that break down.
“The macroeconomic estimates presented in the IPEA are not and should not be considered as comprehensive measures of wellbeing for Indigenous peoples across the country,” he said.
“I think for a more encompassing portrait of wellbeing, other things need to be considered, such as health, education and sustainability. Nonetheless, these economic indicators are an important data source to provide information on the participation of Indigenous peoples on the economy.”