The NDP is blasting the Harper government for failing to track on-reserve job numbers.
Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey currently does not track employment numbers on First Nations reserves citing cost as a reason.
The government department says it would simply be too expensive to do so since this would mean travelling to remote First Nations communities to conduct in person interviews rather than doing these surveys over the phone.
However, NDP Aboriginal Affairs Critic Niki Ashton says the data is already there but the government needs to work with on the ground First Nations leaders in order to access it.
“I mean a lot of the First Nations I represent, I’ll visit in the community and leaders and those working in the band office know what the unemployment rate is, they know how many people are on welfare,” she says.
She adds the government simply is not making job training and employment in First Nations communities enough of a priority.
“There’s no question that it’s time for the government to change course and take seriously the high unemployment that exists in First Nations communities across the country.”
Ashton says unemployment numbers on First Nations reserves are many times higher than they are in the non-Aboriginal community.
She was recently appointed as the NDP’s Aboriginal Affairs critic.
The northern Manitoba MP represents the riding of Churchill.