25% unemployment faced by Natives in cities

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The unemployment rate for Natives in the city is never under 25% even at the best times, says Hart Cantelon, a Public elations Consultant with Native Outreach.

Responding to recently released statistics on the unemployment rates in Edmonton, Cantelon said the at the 12% rate in Edmonton is a much larger problem for Natives in the city. He added that the unemployment rates on reserves at times reach a 90 per cent level. Cantelon also added that when the unemployment rate in the community or province increases it only accentuates the problems for Natives and it tends to push the Native employment into the casual labor level, which lacks pertinence and continuity.

Cantelon says that while the unemployment rate of Edmonton is t 12%, the Native unemployment rate is probably around the 20-35% level. He adds that he has no concrete statistics for this figure, but that statistics from Calgary show that Native unemployment in that city are at that level, and he can't guess that the Edmonton Native unemployment rate would be too far ahead or behind Calgary figures.

Cantelon says that the unemployment among Natives can be attributed to the social and economic conditions of the times. He contends that if university students are having a tough time finding themselves a job after school, then the problem is much greater for the Native people coming in from the isolated communities to join the work force in the city. Particularly so, if the Native coming into the city lacks a total education.

Cantelon says that statistics show that Natives are generally employed in the service area of the work force, securing jobs as councillors, clerical work, teachers, and all the other social and community help areas. He says that most of the Native kids in university are directly related to these fields.

Cantelon feels that this problem cannot be resolved in the immediate future, but adds that we will probably need to attack the problem with a 10-25 year program in which Natives will find their place in society, and yet maintain their culture.

He adds that in the long term it means we have to have better upgrading for Natives, and we have to institute some form of career planning, and that we have to start looking at giving the Native people an economic base to work from, in the general society.

Cantelon says that some Native people might have a base to work from, but it is often away from their homes and reserves, because there aren't a lot of reserves that have an economic base for employment.

Cantelon says that if we are going to upgrade the educational level, we have to do so in areas that would give the person some marketable skills, and those skills are in tune with what society needs. He adds that if we are to better the Native unemployment picture, the non-Native society has to be willing to employ the qualified Natives and let them fit in.

In a final statement, Cantelon said, "Peerless Lake is really a reflection of what the non-Native society has not done for the Native people."