Jobs and Access—A Northern Dilemma

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Authors: Bone, Robert M., Green, Milford B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1983
• Subjects: History; Cultural Studies; Mackenzie Valley
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jcs.18.3.90; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jcs.18.3.90

Development strategies for northern Canada have powerful implications for native peoples and their way of life. Much of the concern about northern development has centred on the impact of the wage economy upon these peoples. While most recognized that the need for cash income to satisfy the growing needs of the urban native can best be met by wage income, opinions expressed at the public hearings of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the Norman Wells Oil Development and Pipeline Project focused on the rate of development and the capacity of native society to adjust to the social changes associated with a modern wage economy. In this paper, the importance of wage employment in 32 accessible and remote Métis communities in northern Saskatchewan is examined. These two types of settlements vary in terms of accessibility to the modern industrial economy and the traditional native economy. The authors explore the notion that wage income differs by type of community because of differences in the level of dependency upon the wage economy.