A Socio-Demographic Profile - Congress of Aboriginal Peoples - Representing the rights and interests of off-reserve people living in urban, rural, and remote areas across Canada

The definitions of Aboriginal persons varies from census to census which makes it very difficult to establish socio-demographic trends -- especially for the CAP constituency which includes Aboriginal persons living away from reserves.The failure of the 1986, 1991and 1996 Census to provide accurate data on self-identification of Aboriginal peoples, along with the reserve-oriented focus of Departmental data-gathering efforts, makes it exceptionally difficult to provide a clear socio-demographic profile of the CAP's constituency.

However, by organizing the CAP's constituency in relation to the social and economic realities of urban, rural and remote locations, and taking into consideration the size of these communities in relation to non-Aboriginals, we can provide useful information to both the Federal government and Canadians, in general. The value of this approach is the resulting identification of changes needed to various social, cultural and economic support programs.

Urban:

According to the 2001 census about 80% of all persons who reported on the Aboriginal origins live away from reserves. The majority of these persons live in the larger urban centres across Canada. Once Aboriginal persons leave the reserve, Aboriginal people lose the benefits which accrue to reserve residency. Neither the the federal or provincial governments have developed programming for this group -- a situation with which CAP is very much concerned. Some 50% of all off-reserve Aboriginal people live in urban centers with populations over 10,000. CAP is interested in planning initiatives for its urban population, particularly as affiliates are engaged in a variety of program and service delivery functions that could and should be utilized to extend governmental programs to off-reserve Indians and Metis. Of particular concern are the areas of housing, health and cultural survival and to facilitate wider self-government goals (such as in education, welfare, child care). CAP has a number of national initiatives underway in these areas that strongly merit close cooperation with all federal departments to develop integrative solutions.

Rural:

CAP has traditionally been strongly representative of rural based Metis and Indians, largely because the main anchor service controlled by CAP and by our affiliates has been CMHC's Rural and Native Housing Program. This population has also been heavily affected by Bill C-31, with many having received status but few able to "re-join" the band or to view reserve-based institutions as a source for accommodation of their needs or aspirations. For some, aspirations may not extend beyond the services already provided by the affiliate concerned, backed up by whatever sense of security that membership in a near-by band may provide. In many other cases, the communities affected have strong communal ties that have not been disrupted by C-31's implementation. Affiliates are finding it increasingly difficult to address the "overlap" issues involved in coordinating self-government initiatives off-reserve with what is happening on-reserve, a fact borne out by the NCC's 1990 special study of off-reserve communities (reported at Module 3 of the Minister of Indian Affairs' Report to Parliament on the Impact of C-31).

Remote:

CAP's remote constituents include two basic sub-groups. There are families and individuals in remote areas facing specific problems such as exclusion from bands or claims groups, conflicts with the law or with service agencies, or who have expressed needs for assistance in the area of employment or economic development (harvesters, transporters, retailers etc.). There are also communities or significant sub-groups of communities that have been "left out" or "excluded" from wider processes of Aboriginal claims, treaty entitlements etc. who wish help in accessing their rights and related processes with full corporate, as well as individual, recognition. Regional groups that are particularly affected by "remote" concerns, are the Council for Yukon First Nations (CYFN) and, the Labrador Metis Nation (LMA) the and Federation of Newfoundland Indians (FNI), northern Ontario communities, the United Native Nations' (UNN) northern and interior zones, the Indian Council of First Nations of Manitoba (ICFNM)I and the Native Council of Canada of Alberta. (NCC(A)).

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