Canada’s resource sectors — specifically oil and gas — employ more indigenous and provide the highest paying jobs according to the latest census data collected in 2021..And for all the talk of a “just transition,” the mining sector alone employs twice as many as the federal government, according to a report by the Indigenous Resource Council (IRC)..While they represent 3.9% of the Canadian workforce overall, they are 6.9% of the oil and gas workforce, 10.8% of the mining workforce, and 9.2% of forestry. By contrast, only 5.0% of the federal government workforce is indigenous according to data from the federal government’s Labour Force Survey collected from 2019-21..Indigenous people in Canada make almost three times more working in the oil and gas extraction sector than the average indigenous worker ($140,400 vs $51,120) and almost twice as much working in mining ($93,600). Forestry also paid higher than average at $56,100 per year..Indigenous women in particular benefit economically from working in oil and gas, IRC said, earning an average of $115,4000 in oil and gas extraction versus only $43,600 in all other industries. Pipeline transportation jobs pay even more, with indigenous women earning $151,000 on average for crude oil and $113,000 for natural gas pipeline employment, it added..According to the Labour Force Survey, indigenous workers in oil and gas extraction made 2.2% more in average weekly wages than the average Canadian oil and gas worker in 2021. Across all industries in Canada, Indigenous workers made 7.6% less than the average worker..“Many indigenous workers have become involved in the oil & gas, mining and forestry sectors to benefit from the good, high paying careers they can provide,” IRC chair John Desjarlais. “These numbers show that the resource sector is valuing the skills and experience that indigenous workers bring to the table. We look forward to working with industry to continue closing the gap and creating even more opportunities for those Indigenous workers that want it.”.Despite the upbeat assessment, the Institute for Research on Public Policy asserts that native participation in labour force is disproportionately low compared to other segments of society. On its website it said “many indigenous youth and adults still do not graduate from high school, or they graduate without requisite essential literacy and numeracy skills due to chronic under-funding of quality on-reserve education, the challenge of acquiring reliable internet in remote conditions and the myriad corollary effects of growing up in households disproportionately impacted by poverty.”.A 2020 paper for Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) found that addressing the education and skills gap on reserves could potentially add more than $27 billion per year to the Canadian economy..According to Fiscal Realities, increased labour participation would also help address future Old Age Security (OAS) stemming from an aging population. In contrast to the general population, 46% of the indigenous population was under age 25 compared with 29% for the non-indigenous population. The median age of the indigenous population was 28 compared with 41 for the non-indigenous population in 2011. The report further found the number of working age (25 to 64) indigenous people increased 21% over the past decades compared with only 5% growth among the non-indigenous population..“A focus on raising the productivity of the Indigenous labour force should be an important feature of Canada’s strategy to address the rising senior dependency ratio,” it concluded.
