September 30 is a day to remember the children who were taken from their families and communities and sent to residential schools. It is also a day to listen to survivors and think about what reconciliation should mean for people living in the Northwest Territories today.
Eleven years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report, we should be asking difficult questions about our progress: Are Indigenous people in the NWT able to access quality education and meaningful employment opportunities? Are government policies working together to remove the barriers that still exist?
If reconciliation is working, we should see the results in people’s everyday lives.
Residential schools caused deep and lasting harm. Children were separated from their families, languages, cultures and communities. Many experienced abuse, neglect and poor living conditions. The effects did not end when the schools closed. The resulting trauma has affected families across generations and has contributed to challenges involving education, health, housing, income and employment.
These issues are connected.
Education is one of the most important paths to employment. Indigenous students in the NWT often face barriers that others may not. Students living in small and remote communities may have less access to education and training programs. Those who need to leave their communities for high school, trades training or post-secondary education generally have to leave their families, culture, and support networks. This geographic isolation makes it harder to access opportunities available in larger centres.
Education is only part of the picture. Even when someone has the education, skills and experience needed for a job, other barriers may remain.
For example, the NWT has policies designed to increase Indigenous employment. These policies are important because they recognize that Indigenous people have faced historic and systemic barriers to employment. But a policy alone cannot solve every barrier.
Consider an Indigenous person who has the education and skills needed for a job but also has a criminal record that isn’t related to the job applied for or may have happened years ago. A hiring policy may give preference to Indigenous applicants, while another policy or hiring practice may screen out applicants with criminal records. In that situation, the policies work against each other.
The issue is not whether employers should ignore criminal records. Some jobs have legitimate safety and trust requirements. The issue is whether hiring policies consider the life circumstances of the people they are designed to help.
This is just one example of why government policies need to examined together. Systemic barriers are system-wide , and barriers often appear across multiple areas in and between systems.
To ensure more Indigenous people can enter the workforce, we need to look at the entire picture including all the barriers to employment and how policies can remove barriers that evolved from generations of systemic racism. That means asking whether students can access the education and training they need, whether graduates can find jobs, and whether other policies create unnecessary or unequal barriers once they are ready to work.
We should ask:
- Are Indigenous students graduating from high school at rates that give them real access to further education and employment?
- Can people in smaller communities access similar education, training and career opportunities to those available in larger centres?
- What barriers continue to prevent Indigenous applicants from getting jobs and building long-term careers?
- Do criminal-record policies, hiring practices, or other rules create barriers for people who are otherwise qualified?
And most importantly, if the answer is no to any of those questions, what can we do to address the problem?
Reconciliation is not be measured by the number of policies, programs or statements employers make. It should be measured by whether those efforts improve people’s lives.
This does not mean lowering employment standards or ignoring legitimate requirements. It means looking at the whole system and asking whether policies and practices are working as intended or creating new barriers.
Eleven years after the TRC’s final report, reconciliation remains unfinished work.
The residential school system caused lasting harm to Indigenous families and communities. Reconciliation requires more than acknowledging that history. It requires action to address the inequalities that remain today.
When reconciliation works, Indigenous people in the NWT will be able to see and feel the results—in their schools, in their workplaces, in their communities and in their everyday lives. That is the standard we should use to measure results.
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