Economic Activity of the On-Reserve Aboriginal Identity Population in Canada: Gross Domestic Prodcut Estimates for Indian Reserves, 2000 and 2005 [Center for the Study of Living Standards, CSLS]

"This report develops estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for reserves in Canada by estimating total earnings for reserves and multiplying these results by the national share of total earnings in income-based GDP. Two estimation approaches are used in the analysis. The first, which is the focus of this report, is a “top-down approach” based on provincial/territorial full year, full-time and part-year/part-time employment and average earnings data for the on-reserve Aboriginal population from the 2001 and 2006 Census. Estimates are also developed using a second, “bottom-up” approach that employs community-level average earnings and employment data from the 2006 Aboriginal Population Profiles. This second approach results in the development of reserve-specific GDP estimates for those reserves which had the required data available. The most notable finding of this report is that the on-reserve Aboriginal population in Canada, despite accounting for 0.99 per cent of the general Canadian population in 2006, accounted for just 0.30 per cent of national GDP in 2005."