A number of anti-poverty groups have banded together to push the federal government to take a more active role in dealing with the great economic disparity facing Canada’s Aboriginal population.
Aboriginal people are by far the poorest group in the country and the situation is even worse when examining First Nations reserves.
Saskatchewan also has the highest child poverty rate in Canada and this number is a staggering 64 per cent on-reserve.
Charles Plante is a policy analyst who has studied rich and poor countries.
He works with a group called Upstream whose goal is social equality.
Plante says Canada currently has a long way to go to meet this goal.
“You know a child poverty rate of 64 per cent just speaks to years of failure on the part of leadership to making the choices that need to be made,” he says.
He says on-reserve funding is the responsibility of the federal government but First Nations, the federal and provincial governments must all work together to solve a problem that has taken generations to create.
“So when we are letting whole swaths of our community fall into poverty and ultimately not be capable to have the same opportunities it is harmful for all of us.”
He estimates poverty costs the provincial economy about $3.8 billion dollars a year and would cost just over $1 billion to fix.
Plante says the province’s recent move to establish an anti-poverty strategy is a step in the right direction but adds the federal government is not doing its share.
He says as a result a lot of First Nations children are simply falling through the cracks.