Cultural Workforce Participation and Income for Indigenous Cultural Workers

The region of Ottawa-Gatineau is located on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinabeg territory and serves as a hub for urban Indigenous peoples with 38,120 residents identifying as Indigenous (note 1) in the 2016 Census. (note 2)

Indigenous cultural workers represented approximately 2.3% of the local cultural workforce, which is somewhat less than the percentage of Indigenous persons in the overall workforce of Ottawa-Gatineau (2.9%). It was also slightly less than the national average of about 2.4%. When excluding the culture occupations that likely contain large non-culture components, the percentage of Indigenous workers was a bit higher at 2.7%. (note 3) Indigenous persons made up about 2.6% of workers in artist occupations in Ottawa-Gatineau in 2016. (note 4)

Indigenous workers as a percentage of all workers, 2016

Indigenous cultural workers and income

In 2015 there was a significant gap in employment incomes between non-Indigenous and Indigenous cultural workers. This was the case in each of the eight largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA), including Ottawa-Gatineau, as well as nationally. In Ottawa-Gatineau the income gap was 14.5%, a difference of nearly $9,000, across all culture occupations. This was somewhat higher than the income gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous workers in non-culture occupations in Ottawa-Gatineau (13.4%), but it was lower than the national income gap in culture occupations of 22.4%, and also lower than most of the other large CMAs (except Winnipeg). Unfortunately, due to data suppression it was not possible to look at income gaps in subgroups of culture occupations. (note 5)

Cultural Worker Employment Incomes, 2015 ($)

Notes:

1. The term “Indigenous” is being used to refer to anyone who indicated on the Census that they have one or more Aboriginal identity, including First Nations, Inuit, and Metis.

2. The Census likely undercounts the number of Indigenous persons in Ottawa. The Census only counts each resident of Canada at their primary residence. As such, people who are in Ottawa temporarily for work, school, medical treatment, or any other reason, but who maintain their primary residence somewhere else, will not be counted in Ottawa’s Census numbers.

3. For an explanation of which occupations are excluded from this figure, see the Ottawa Culture Research Group website.

4. For a complete list of occupations, see the Ottawa Culture Research Group website.

5. Employment income data for Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers in culture and non-culture occupations from the 2016 Census was made available to the Ottawa Culture Research Group through a custom data request to Statistics Canada. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Statistics Canada staff responded to the request quickly and provided the data free of charge. We would like to express our sincere thanks.