Manitoba Disabilities Issues Office
Full Citizenship:
A Manitoba Strategy on Disability
Aboriginal Persons with Disabilities
The Challenge
While the 1991 Health and Activities Limitation Survey (1991 HALS) indicates 16 per cent of Canada’s population has a disability, the 1991 Statistics Canada Aboriginal People’s Survey indicates that 31.3 per cent of Aboriginal people werepersons with disabilities. The term “Aboriginal” is used in this paper and in the Statistics Canada Survey to include First Nations (status Indian), Inuit, non- status, and Metis persons. In the 15 to 34 year old group, the disability rate for Aboriginal persons was 23.1 per cent as compared to a rate of 8 per cent in the general population. For those aged 35 to 54 years, 32.8 per cent of Aboriginal persons were disabled compared with 14 per cent of the general population.
As is the case with so many public services, the services that are provided to Aboriginal people with disabilities are often not provided in a way that is culturally appropriate. This issue has often been raised, including in the 1996 report by the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Aboriginal persons with a disability – Training and Employment Challenges. The initiatives proposed in other sections of this White Paper to improve access, income supports, disability supports, and employment will be of significant benefit to Aboriginal persons with disabilities, especially if they can be provided in a culturally appropriate manner.
These higher rates of disability among Aboriginal persons, together with the significant representation of Aboriginal peoples in the population of Manitoba underscore the importance of addressing the needs of Aboriginal persons with disabilities.
Jurisdictional Barriers to Services
Discussions with the First Nations Persons with Disabilities Working Committee of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), have underlined the need to address a major problem related to access to provincial government services.
On-reserve First Nations persons with disabilities who have status under the Indian Act have often found that their rights to government service have been ignored as a result of ongoing disputes between the federal and provincial government over which level of government is responsible for which services to persons who are status Indians.
As a consequence, non-insured provincial health services, such as wheelchair services and home-care services, the training resources of the Provincial Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program and some other provincial services and programs, have been unavailable to on-reserve First Nations persons with disabilities. At the same time, federal services provided to such First Nations persons with disabilities who are on reserve are reported to be either non-existent or inferior to provincial services.
This situation has caused many of these on-reserve First Nations persons with disabilities to be separated from their families and home communities, since it has only been possible to access vital provincial disability support services by relocating off-reserve.
Action Plan 2001
It is proposed that the need for more culturally appropriate services be addressed by:
- ensuring that provincial government disability support services provided to Aboriginal Manitobans be designed with appropriate consideration for Aboriginal culture, language, traditions and values;
- requiring the delivery of provincially funded community-based disability support services provided to Aboriginal Manitobans to be designed with appropriate consideration for Aboriginal culture, language, traditions and values; and
- providing, through the application of the Employment Equity Policy and other policies, for more of the disability support services, staff managing and delivering these services to Aboriginal persons with disabilities, to be Aboriginal persons.
To address the issues of jurisdiction, the AMC report, First Nations Persons with Disabilities; Dismantling the Roadblocks, ratified by the Chiefs in Assembly, recommended that there be multilateral discussions between First Nations governments, the federal government and the Province. We are proposing that the Manitoba government adopt this approach.
The objectives for such discussions might include:
- Identifying the specific jurisdictional issues facing on-reserve First Nations persons with disabilities who have status under the Indian Act;
- Identifying the specific gaps in service delivery to First Nations persons with disabilities and identifying which government jurisdiction and/or government department should be responsible for filling that gap; and
- Negotiating with relevant government representatives, an agreement which is committed
to:
- exploring and developing solutions for eliminating the jurisdictional barriers of particular concern to on-reserve First Nations persons with disabilities who have status under the Indian Act; and
- devising models of service delivery that may more effectively address the needs of such on-reserve First Nations persons with disabilitie
It has also been suggested that the solutions and/or service delivery models agreed to in these discussions may be developed and tested as pilot projects.
