For Immediate Release: January 18, 2007
Growth raises 'social issues'
By Dave Dale
Nathan Chum was busy Tuesday working on his resume at the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre as Canadians digested the latest census data.
The Canadian Press reported the city's native population grew to 3,210 from 2,315 after comparing the data collected in 2006 and 2001.
The numbers indicate there are more native people living off reserve than in native communities and 2006 was the first census to enumerate more than one million Indians, Metis and Inuit. But Nipissing First Nation was among 22 reserves not to participate.
Chum, 18, of Moose Factory First Nation, can be counted as one of the new additions to the city as he pursues the last credits he needs for a high school diploma.
"I'm looking for part-time work," he said with 10 fresh copies of his resume sitting on a coffee table at the entrance of the centre on Cassells Street.
Chum said he's registering for a six-week program beginning in February to get two more credits and he hopes to enrol in Canadore College's police foundations or social worker program sometime soon. "There's too much drinking and drugs and I lived in an alcoholic house," he said, explaining why he left his James Bay homeland.
"It's too sad up North. You're stuck on one little place and there's nowhere to go."
Chum said there doesn't seem to be as much racism in North Bay as in other cities, adding that Thunder Bay is one of the worst.
Roland Peltier, the executive director at the centre, said there's been a definite increase in the native population in the city, "but along with that comes the social issues."
Peltier worked at the friendship centre in Sudbury before coming to North Bay a year ago.
He said the urban areas offer jobs, education and new challenges for people leaving First Nation communities.
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The non-native people, generally, lack understanding of the various native cultures, Peltier said.
"They don't understand the reasons we are the way we are and there's barriers in language . . . at the same time, we do have people who contribute and they endure the non-acceptance. We're not that drunken Indian anymore."
He said the lack of doctors and shortages in health care and social services hit native people a bit harder because they tend not to seek help when they should.
More than 20 staff work at the centre to provide a variety of services with 20 programs funded by a host of provincial and federal funds flowed through various agencies and native groups.
When it comes to health care, Peltier said a life expectancy rate about 10 years shorter than non-natives is partly attributed to suffering in silence.
"That's just the way we are . . . we live with the pain and will not seek attention and by the time we do, it will be too late," he said, referring to cancers that need to be caught early to be treated properly.
Everyone has trouble finding doctors and dentists, he said, and when it comes to treating native people they don't want to bother with the extra paperwork required by federal programs to cover benefits not insured by the province.
Peltier said he and his family must still drive back to Sudbury to see their doctor and dentist.
He said better promotion of healthy lifestyles right from the pre-natal stage is starting to help. Programs to support people trying to get out of the justice and social systems are making an impact, and events such as the 11th annual Children's Powwow March 15 and 16 help builder stronger bonds between the urban native people.
Clarence Saylors, an executive member of the Nipissing Native Housing Board, said they would have had more subsidized housing in North Bay to handle the higher demand if the province hadn't cut its support a decade ago.
"We were going to (build 25 more units) prior to (Mike) Harris coming in," Saylors said, adding they've been stuck at 61 since before 1995 and now have a waiting list of 30 families.
"And there's more people coming off the reserve now."
ddale@nugget.ca
the numbers
Census data of the aboriginal population of North Bay and nearby First Nations reserves:
Total population '06 '01
North Bay 3,210 2,315
Nipissing 10 905 N.A.
Dokis 9 185 180
