OTTAWA—The latest measure of debilitating poverty in First Nations communities across Canada illustrates the need for more government action to help ease the suffering and emotional turmoil, aboriginal leader Isadore Day says.
A report released May 17 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says indigenous children in Canada are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than their non-aboriginal counterparts.
“I am not surprised [by the findings],” said Day, the Ontario regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
“I’m only surprised it has taken this long.”
Day, who is also his advocacy organization’s lead on the health portfolio, said poverty is often a big part of the reason why people flee their communities, only to end up in “gateway” centres such as Thunder Bay, Ont., where things usually get worse.
“This is all as a result of poverty,” he said. “We’ve watched Thunder Bay and how they’ve struggled.”
The study, which explored poverty rates and the territories as measured by income, also documented the dire conditions experienced by status First Nations children, including 60 percent of those who live on reserves.
Poverty rates are highest for First Nations youngsters on reserves in Manitoba at 76 percent and Saskatchewan at 69 percent, the study found.
