Saskatoon company’s online database aims to link Aboriginal job seekers with employers
- Fraser Needham | March 26, 2015
Clarence Louie says Canada needs to do away with what he calls the “rez culture” of chronic unemployment on First Nations reserves.
“What I’ve seen is if you have a household where at least somebody’s working, chances are that teenager’s going to grow up working,” he says. “But when I look at the things happening across this country, especially in B.C. where the high apprehension from the Ministry of Children and Families and the high suicide rates – all the social problems – a lot of it, when you look back into that household, unemployment was the biggest problem. It started the domino effect of all that other stuff.”
As such, the chief of the highly economically successful B.C.-based Osoyoos Indian Band says the country needs to be putting as many resources as possible into fighting high joblessness numbers on First Nations reserves.
And, Louie says a Saskatoon company may just be on the right track in terms of accomplishing this goal.
The Osoyoos band chief was the keynote speaker at an Aboriginal business conference in the city on March 25 hosted by the Saskatchewan First Nations Resource Centre of Excellence.
This company has developed an online database called Export which aims to link Indigenous job seekers, businesses and corporate Canada together which Louie says is a great idea.
“Corporate Canada through multimedia, or however it’s done, in this case it’s a website where our people can put their resumes and our people can look up companies that are looking for workers – this is awesome,” he says.
Company CEO Sheldon Wuttunee says there are currently a number of large gaps in terms of Aboriginal labour force data and information on Indigenous businesses.
For example, Statistics Canada does not track on-reserve unemployment numbers.
He says the Export online portal could go a long way in eliminating these gaps and stimulating Aboriginal employment.
“With Export, we’re going to have an opportunity to be able to generate and obtain that data and then certainly look forward to managing and marketing that data moving forward.”
About 250 people attended the Linking Industry and Community Conference at Teachers’ Credit Union Place.
The Saskatchewan First Nations Natural Resource Centre of Excellence has been in existence since 2009.
Clarence Louie has been elected chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band ten straight times dating back to 1985.
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