The Potential Contribution of Aboriginal Canadians to Labour Force, Employment, Productivity and Output Growth in Canada, 2001-2017 [Andrew Sharpe, Jean-Francois Arsenault and Simon Lapointe]

“The report is divided into seven main sections. After a brief discussion of the motivation for and the methodology of the report, the second section reviews the importance of education for an improvement in labour market outcomes, income and other social indicators. The next section draws a portrait of the Aboriginal population, and of the possible improvements they need to achieve to reach the level of the non-Aboriginal population. The fourth section discusses the population projection scenarios for 2017, both for the Aboriginal and overall populations, noting that Aboriginal women have a much higher fertility rate than non-Aboriginal women. With these data, the fifth section projects the contribution of the Aboriginal population to the labour market in 2017 under different assumptions for participation rates and employment rates. The sixth and most important section provides projections of income for Aboriginals in 2017 and its implications for Canadian output and productivity given different levels of increase in Aboriginal educational attainment. Finally, the seventh section highlights four important contributions which capture the most important policy-relevant questions related to the improvement of the educational attainment of the aboriginal population.”