The C.E.O of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce says the growing aboriginal community could play a key role in addressing the biggest barrier to Saskatchewan’s competitiveness.
Steve McLellan says not enough aboriginal people are applying for jobs or getting trained to do them.
He adds the lack of skilled workers is the single biggest barrier to competitiveness for Saskatchewan.
He believes the aboriginal community could go a long way to addressing this.
“There are way more jobs in Saskatchewan than we have people, today in the province, to fill. If we had every First Nations person who was under-employed or unemployed in the workforce, we would still be looking for thousands and thousands of immigrant workers or newcomers to Saskatchewan.”
Mclellan says there are also lots of success stories, including aboriginal run businesses, which go out of their way to hire First Nations and Metis workers.
Saskatchewan has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada at 4%, however the unemployment rate in the aboriginal community is somewhere in the 15 to 20% range.