Appendix D - Co-operatives and Communities: Some Theoretical Considerations [Canadian Co-operative Association, CCA]

It is a vast understatement to say that the current state of social and economic development within Aboriginal and First Nation communities is far from satisfactory. A recent study1 of the Aboriginal economic gap in Saskatchewan, for example, demonstrated that, compared to the non-Aboriginal community, Aboriginal people experience higher poverty rates, lower education levels, and chronic unemployment. The study showed that average Aboriginal personal income was 56 percent of average non-Aboriginal personal income; that 60.4 percent of the Saskatchewan Aboriginal population fifteen and over had not completed high school; and that the Aboriginal community as a whole has an estimated unemployment rate of 53 percent. The study’s authors predicted that the statistics would continue to grow, depriving both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities of lost economic potential and GDP, not to mention the enormous associated social costs such figures invariably imply.