| Summary: | Under the current government, Ottawa has significantly increased funding of basic social services (health, education, social assistance and housing) for Indigenous peoples living on-reserve. Overall, these have been worthy exercises in pursuit of reconciliation with those First Nation people wishing to live communally. According to two measures of poverty, rates of poverty among Métis and Inuit are higher than among the non-Indigenous majority, but the most severe poverty exists among those identifying as First Nation. However, census figures show that those who are eligible to live on-reserve are increasingly, choosing to migrate off-reserve and into cities. Today, among all who identify as First Nation, only a third live on-reserve. Although, on average, those who identify as Indigenous and live off-reserve fare better than those on-reserve in terms of education, employment and income, there remains a substantial gap between this group and the non-Indigenous population in all three areas. In view of these trends, reconciliation requires not just an on-reserve agenda, but also an off-reserve urban agenda. An examination of census data and a major survey of off-reserve Indigenous people this century yields three conclusions. The first is that the majority of First Nation people now live in a city; the majority of Métis now live in a large city. Moreover, most urban Indigenous people do not intend to return permanently to their original rural communities, or to reserves. The second conclusion from recent census data is that, for all identity populations, employment earnings and employment rates are positively associated with education level. Closing the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people would reduce significantly the earnings gap between the two groups. A third conclusion is the importance of the role of provincial governments in closing the earnings gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. To the extent that successful reconciliation between the two groups entails enabling the ...
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