Prince George is among five B.C. communities selected to host pilot programs aimed at improving the lives of off-reserve aboriginal people, the provincial government said Tuesday.
In this city, the Prince George Native Friendship Centre will coordinate the effort which follows on a commitment announced in the October 2011 throne speech to develop a plan.
Counterparts in Vancouver, Surrey, Kamloops and Duncan have also been selected to guide the programs in their respective communities and representatives have met with bureaucrats to get a sense of what is expected.
"We talked about what the activities could look like, although each community may look different because, of course, the five communities are very unique from each other," said PGNFC executive director Barb Ward-Burkitt.
Nearly three-quarters of B.C.'s aboriginal population now lives off-reserve with about 60 per cent living in urban areas, according to Ward-Burkitt. As of the 2006 census, 8,850 people living in Prince George and the surrounding area self-identified as aboriginal, or roughly 10 per cent of the population.
"There are lots of programs and services that provide social supports to off-reserve aboriginal populations, but in spite of that, poor socio-economic conditions continue to exist in all key sectors: health, education, housing, employment, justice," Ward-Burkitt said.
Ward-Burkitt described the task as "quite big" and noted they have until March 31 - effectively three months - to complete the first phase of developing the plans.
"It will be a fair amount of work," Ward-Burkitt said.
The longer-term goal is to establish a province-wide off-reserve aboriginal action plan that aligns with the federal government's urban aboriginal strategy.
