It doesn’t make for juicy front page headlines, but Aboriginal people are quietly engaged in the hard work of growing their local economies. Canadian businesses need to understand this, embrace it and get involved.
In a recent guest column for the Sun papers, academics Ken Coates and Greg Poelzer wrote that “crises are noisy, accomplishments are quiet.” In other words, the bad news gets a lot of media attention, but the success stories go unreported. And the success stories are many.
This past week brought a reminder of those quiet accomplishments. Leaders from business and Aboriginal communities gathered in Toronto to participate in the Natural Resources Forum to discuss economic growth.
Former prime minister Paul Martin, a long-time champion of Aboriginal prosperity, told the crowd that the business community has the ability to be “indigenous Canada’s greatest allies”.
If businesses team up with First Nations communities starting at the ground floor of a project, there are many benefits for both sides.
The Aboriginal population is one of the fastest growing in Canada. A Statistics Canada report from 2011 explains that “The Aboriginal population increased by 232,385 people, or 20.1% between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2% for the non-Aboriginal population.”
For the rest of this editorial, click here: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/04/06/aboriginal-economic-growth-benefits-all