On Tuesday, September 9, 2003 in Saskatoon,the Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform held a roundtable with the business community. In attendance were the Commissioners and staff plus invited guests from a wide range of small and large businesses and government organizations. An open discussion was held throughout the day.

The attendees were presented with the following questions:

1. What are your thoughts on the relationship between socio-economics and crime?
2. What is needed to start a business?
3. Presentation from Wayne McKenzie about the Aboriginal Employment Development Program.
4. Solutions
5. Implementation

• Community development must involve economic development.
• Aboriginal communities are disproportionately dependent on social welfare income programs, and Aboriginal people are not included in the labour market the numbers that they should be.
• The lack of labour force participation amongst Aboriginal people was identified as being the result of lower education levels, geographical isolation, unfamiliarity with workplace culture, high drop out rates and preference for working for Aboriginal businesses or organizations.
• Also included as reasons for the lack of Aboriginal participation in the labour force were too many businesses/organizations paying lip-service to Aboriginal hiring, lack of employer and coworker awareness of Aboriginal peoples, lack of the preparation of the workplace for Aboriginal people and racist or discriminatory hiring policies and/or practices.

• Aboriginal inclusion in the labour force is economically vital to Saskatchewan. In the next 5-10 years thousands of workers from all sectors in Saskatchewan will be retiring. Due to out-migration and low fertility rates, there will be a labour shortage. However, there has been a baby boom in the Aboriginal population in Saskatchewan that can make up for some of this.

1. Socio-economics and Crime

• There is a correlation between crime and low socio-economic status, hence the Commission’s interest in this topic.
• Community development cannot happen independently from economic development.
• One example that was given was a comparison between Sandy Bay and Pinehouse. One community had more jobs than the other and was healthier than the other as a result. Due to automation, the jobs in the healthier community were undercut. At the same time, industry started growing in the other community. As a result, the roles were reversed. The reason given for this was that self-sufficiency through employment allows people some freedom from worrying about basic needs, and allows for them to become more creative in community development endeavors.
• In some Aboriginal communities, the majority of residents rely on social assistance income. Children growing up in these communities do not see future employment opportunities. In many communities, there is a lack of qualified teachers who can teach children math and science, and in others there is no complete Grade 12 programming.
• Children in Aboriginal communities need to be properly prepared for the workforce, particularly with the labour shortage looming in the near future.

2. Barriers to Aboriginal Employment/Business Development

• The vast majority of businesses in Saskatchewan are very small (fewer than 10 employees) and as such, they have no human resources department and no long term planning. Employment projections and the need for Aboriginal inclusion are not even on the radar screen, particularly in a business climate where a large percentage of businesses fail.
• There is not a lot of job creation and a lot of competition for qualified candidates.
• Many jobs are filled through word of mouth. Only about 14% are advertised publicly.
• In some cases, Aboriginal people have difficulty making the transition to being employed and are not successful. Part of this is also due to an unwelcome (perceived or actual) workplace; there are a lot of stereotypes about Aboriginal people. When Aboriginal employees "do not work out" businesses stop trying to include them because it seems like stereotypes are confirmed. This work transition is also evident in Aboriginal controlled and owned workplaces, but these workplaces will rehire when candidates are ready and do not give up trying to include Aboriginal employees because they are familiar with the issues. Eventually they are successful.
• Many non-Aboriginal workplaces are not prepared for Aboriginal employees, proper awareness training could help.
• Many Aboriginal candidates are skilled, but their skills are not formally credited and recognized. Some companies and educational institutions (SIAST) are doing prior learning assessments to properly assess the skills abilities of Aboriginal people.
• Aboriginal people, particularly in the North, have geographical/travel barriers and a lack of childcare services.
• It is very difficult to access capital to start a business, especially when you do not know where to start.

• There is not always a clear relationship between job openings and graduation numbers, since people filling positions are not always previously unemployed but searching for previous employment.

3. Presentation by Wayne McKenzie

Wayne McKenzie is a consultant with the Aboriginal Employment Development branch of the Department of Government Relations and Aboriginal Affairs for the Province of Saskatchewan. Mr. McKenzie discussed the Aboriginal Employment Development Program.

• The Aboriginal Employment Development Program involves the implementation of the Representative Workforce Strategy.
• The idea is to achieve a workforce where Aboriginal workers are represented at all levels of occupations in proportion to their numbers in the province’s population.
• The idea of "selective access", including employment equity initiatives, is discouraged because it can be seen as a quota, does not reflect levels of position and can come with an informal ceiling.
• The statistics provided by the provincial government are very misleading. Aboriginal people tend to occupy positions that are temporary, term, seasonal, contract or casual.
• Aboriginal people do not participate in the labour market for a variety of reasons, and employers do not hire Aboriginal people for a variety of reasons.
• AEDP set out to understand what it was that was needed to rectify the situation in order to address the employment shortages.
• The strategy includes building partnerships with organizations to:
  • Assess Aboriginal workforce for training needs and potential;
  • Communicate learning needs and available opportunities to Aboriginal workforce;
  • Develop partnership agreements that involve the employer, unions, educational institutions and Aboriginal communities;
  • Identify barriers to Aboriginal employment and seek solutions to eliminate them;
  • Development of support networks for Aboriginal employees;
  • Develop a strategy with unions to overcome the employment barriers associated with seniority rights that interfere with Aboriginal hiring;
  • Implementation of a monitoring and evaluation process involving all parties.

Roles of partnership:
Employer

• Identify employment needs and opportunities;
• Establish linkages with the Aboriginal community;
• Address workplace barriers through cultural awareness training; and
• Hire qualified Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal Community:

• Focus training efforts;
• Pursue training opportunities; and
• Compete for jobs on an equal footing.

Government:

• Facilitate the partnerships;
• Ensure programs are contemporary to promote maximum advantage for Aboriginal people; and
• Communicate opportunities to the Aboriginal community.

Wayne McKenzie noted that there is a lot of talk about the changing demographics of Saskatchewan. He warned that people should quit talking about it if it is not going to show up in public policy i.e. Union, management and Aboriginal agreements.

• Barriers need to be clearly identified so that proper solutions can be found.
• Aboriginal employment needs to be improved at every level, not just entry-level positions.
• There is a need to work harder to attract Aboriginal candidates. Often, when qualified Aboriginal candidates are found, they are hard to retain as provincial or federal governments entice them away to higher paying positions. Unfortunately, these particular employees are put in positions that they are not experienced in or prepared for and have little opportunity for mobility.
• Employers have to compete with other employers for Aboriginal candidates. The federal and provincial governments recruit aggressively on campus.
• There is a need to partner with educational institutions to better attract Aboriginal candidates.
• There needs to be better education in the NAD, and a support system for northerners who go south to further their education.
• Opportunities need to be clearly communicated publicly instead of through word of mouth or personal relationships.
• There is a need for better access to childcare.
• There should be mining technician training available in Saskatchewan.
• Employment equity policies should target a minimum number of positions instead of a number that can be misinterpreted as a maximum.
• Unions should train Aboriginal members to sit at the table and have leadership roles. There needs to be public education about the union and what it does. Collective agreements need to contain Aboriginal-relative language.
• There should be on site job training.
• There should be a joint union/management committee on Aboriginal employment.
• The business of business is staying in business. Business needs to find a new way of doing things. Business needs to see that there are social and financial rewards, and needs to be accountable to the larger public.
• There needs to be career education in the classroom, and more energy needs to be focussed on the population bulge.
• We need to encourage succession planning.

5. Implementation

• Youth need to be involved in the search for solutions, they are capable of coming up with realistic and relevant solutions for themselves.

• Implementation needs to involve more than Aboriginal leadership and business, inclusion must be widened to a diverse group of stakeholders to avoid a political "us/them" situation.
• Business development needs to be included along with the issues of governance and community development.
• We need "bigots" to feel uncomfortable about the presence and inclusion on non-Aboriginal Champions of Change in the implementation process.
• People who are fairly high profile and who are potential role models/mentors must be included.
• Implementation must be based on partnership and co-operation as opposed to turf control. Work needs to be done in joint ventures because there are not enough resources to go around.