Active measures

A sweeping federal government project designed to get young, able-bodied First Nations people off welfare and into the job market is being piloted in Saskatchewan.

The project, known as Active Measures, will offer job training and other incentives. Those unwilling to participate may find themselves cut off social assistance.

"Saskatchewan is being looked on to lead the way. All eyes are on Saskatchewan," said Riel Bellegarde, director general for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada’s (INAC) Saskatchewan region.

"Active Measures is a priority of the department. This will be a significant policy reform."

With the provincial economy requiring an estimated 120,000 new skilled labourers by 2020, mobilizing the 18,000 First Nations reserve residents currently on welfare is essential, Bellegarde said. INAC officials hope the project will end the cycle of welfare dependency that, on some reserves, stretches back six generations.

The goal is to offer improved education, job training, child care, transportation and other services for the individual or community.

"If there’s some resistance to that . . . there may not be an opportunity for you to fall back on income assistance," Bellegarde said.

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Nate Bell leans forward in his desk chair and says he can’t stand the thought of going back on welfare.

"I was on it once and I didn’t like it. I’m not that type of person," Bell, 23, said during a lunch break at the Almighty Voice Education Centre on the One Arrow First Nation 100 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

Bell is one of 11 students in Chester Martell’s adult education class, hoping a high school diploma will be a first step toward a meaningful career. Some say they want to be day-care operators. Others want to become addictions counsellors or psychologists.

Bell, who dropped out of his Saskatoon high school in Grade 11, says he’s determined to graduate and take art and business classes.

"Hopefully then I’ll open my own clothing shop — hats, sweaters and other stuff. If not, I can always go back to construction," he said.

"I get frustrated sometimes, but I have no doubt I’ll do it."

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Down the road from the school, One Arrow Chief Dwayne Paul describes the bleak economic situation. The longtime chief of this mid-sized First Nation — about half of the band’s 1,580 members live on-reserve — says the unemployment rate sits at "at least 80, maybe 90 per cent."

The band office, school, gas station and small cattle ranching operation are the only employers of note in the area. Ideas for developments on-reserve appear periodically. From its hotly disputed role in the 1885 resistance at nearby Batoche, to famous band members such as musician-actor Tom Jackson and slain fugitive Almighty Voice, One Arrow would seem a natural tourist destination. Paul said those and other ideas are being explored, but won’t create jobs on the scale needed for the population, which is growing at an estimated 14 per cent per year.

More than 75 families are waiting for social housing. There are only 14 funded day-care spaces for band and school employees, leaving prospective students with few options.

Chief Paul, like Bellegarde and others overseeing the Active Measures project, have reluctantly accepted an uncomfortable reality; to acquire job skills and find meaningful work, most One Arrow residents will have to leave their home.

Other Saskatchewan villages and towns have long lived by this principle, but reserves are a distinct legal, cultural entity. For the federal government — and even First Nations leaders — to acknowledge that reserve out-migration is necessary appears to represent a major shift.

"People have been conditioned to accepting welfare. Some families are sixth generation welfare recipients," Paul said.

"Active Measures is a good thing. I think it will be something positive, but we will need resources. They’re talking a lot, but there’s no money for supports yet."

For the time being at One Arrow, major efforts are being made to help Bell and other students get their high school diplomas before moving to Saskatoon, Prince Albert or other cities for work. In addition to Martell’s class on-reserve, 40 One Arrow adult learners attend school in nearby Wakaw. The graduation rate has improved to more than a dozen per year, Paul said.

The post-high school supports will increasingly shift to the cities. One Arrow, for example, now owns a 15-unit apartment on Avenue P and 21st Street in Saskatoon. Paul said the band will also push for increased post-secondary education funding, which is currently capped.

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One Arrow is a member of the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC), one of five Saskatchewan tribal councils working with INAC on Active Measures.

"What are we trying to accomplish here? We’re trying to improve the quality of life of our members," STC Chief Felix Thomas said.

Thomas believes major changes are possible, partly because he’s already seen it in his lifetime. He was one of only a dozen First Nations students in the University of Saskatchewan’s college of arts and science in the 1980s. There are more than 2,000 now.

"We have to keep up the momentum," said Thomas, who has two children attending the U of S and another two in high school. Thomas said he and his wife, a teacher, have tried to be good role models for their kids and the community.

Thomas, who is also soliciting private-sector links, is confident Active Measures will make a difference because the federal government is involving First Nations in the process. Off-reserve opportunities are key, but First Nations leaders must also work to improve their communities. At the Whitecap Dakota First Nation 25 kilometres south of Saskatoon, for example, a casino, golf course and future hotel are creating dozens of jobs, he noted. Whitecap has more work than residents, Chief Darcy Bear often says.

If proper support is given, Thomas believes nearly all young, able-bodied welfare recipients will jump at the chance to work.

"Nobody wants to be on social assistance. They don’t brag about it on Facebook," Thomas said.

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INAC’s Riel Bellegarde said it’s unclear how much funding will flow for Active Measures. Saskatchewan has been chosen as the testing ground and officials are working with First Nations to evaluate the most urgent needs. If successful, the project will be transplanted to other regions.

Bellegarde said INAC hopes to have some preliminary agreements in place early in the new year, and will move at a pace dictated by the affected First Nation. He said the goal is to provide support, but also to change the mentality around welfare. It needs to be seen as a "program of last resort," Bellegarde said.

"This is a program designed to ensure individuals remain on the right path."