Website Would Help Natives Find Work -The Halifax Herald
by NationTalk on November 9, 20071284 Views
Halifax meeting hears that business people are in talks to get proposal off the ground
By CLARE MELLOR Business Reporter
A new aboriginal website could soon be up and running if John Paul has his way.
The website would link aboriginals to job openings in the Atlantic region and profile skills of those searching for careers, said Mr. Paul, executive director of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat Inc.Job websites like monster.com and novascotiajobs.com are not readily used by Aboriginal Peoples in the region, Mr. Paul said Wednesday at the launch of an Atlantic aboriginal economic strategy in Halifax.
“Everybody assumes everybody uses them, but I know that our people are different,” he said.
“We need to create our space such as aboriginaljobs.com that provides a supply (of workers) with the needs of the business community and the needs of the economy, so that there is a way to connect them.”
Mr. Paul said he is in talks with business people about the launch of a website but is not yet firm on a name.
“I’m calling it aboriginal-jobs.com or something like that. They’ve got monster.com. They have got novascotia-jobs.com. I’m trying to come up with something leading-edge.”
The Atlantic Policy Congress, which represents 37 native communities in the Atlantic region, including Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Innu nations, unveiled its economic strategy at a breakfast meeting for business people, government agencies and academics.
Goals of the strategy include building the net worth of aboriginal communities; strengthening business ownership, income and employment; furthering education and skill development; and providing the latest data on the aboriginal economy.
The Membertou Trade and Convention Centre in Sydney, Metepenagiag Heritage Park in Red Bank, N.B., Innu Mikun Airlines in Goose Bay and the Days Inn and Conference Centre in Oromocto, N.B., are a few examples of successful aboriginal economic projects in the region, Mr. Paul said.
There are about 35,000 aboriginal people in Atlantic Canada. While the general population in the region is declining, the native community is growing and is expected to reach 50,000 people in the next 10 years.
By 2017, the aboriginal population in Atlantic Canada is expected to be close to 80,000.
“The dilemma that we are in is that we realize in our current on-reserve scenario we can’t create that many jobs,” Mr. Paul said. “We are saying we need to look beyond the communities to the major centres to opportunities.”
The native population is also much younger than the general population. In the next 10 years, the average age of aboriginals in the Atlantic region will be 27.1 years, compared with 41.3 nationally.
“All you have to do to understand this is go to any community and drive around for five minutes and look at the number of children,” Mr. Paul said.
“We are becoming the largest percentage of growth in terms of schools, in terms of the growing population in post-secondary institutions as well. We are on the incline and everybody else is on the decline. We are trying to position ourselves so we maximize our advantage and the opportunities that are there.”
About 1,500 aboriginal people are enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions. Although the number of university graduates in First Nations communities is growing, not enough is done to profile the education and skills of the population, Mr. Paul said
“We have this big supply of potential, which is not always identified or paid attention to, and what we are trying to do is profile that group and provide tangible opportunities,” he said.
Chief Lawrence Paul of Millbrook First Nation said economic information sessions like Wednesday’s, which make links with the business community, should take place more frequently.
As well, more federal money is needed for aboriginal economic development projects across the country, he said.
“Hopefully with the new budget coming down, there will be some money for economic development.”
( cmellor@herald.ca)
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