It is important to look at the future of the labour market in the rural and northern community in Manitoba, and the Government of Manitoba is noted for its willingness to enter into partnerships and creative programs to help enhance the employment of Aboriginals. The Northern Development Strategy (Government of Manitoba, n.d.b) has a goal to create self-reliant communities in which families can prosper. The government has long-term plans in five priority areas including Employment and Training (p. 8). The government has also announced that major hydro development projects will produce significant economic and social benefits for residents of northern Manitoba (p. 2).

The following are important rural and northern labour market indicators from the Government of Manitoba’s (n.d.a) Aboriginal and Northern Profile and are

issues of access to basic community infrastructure and service, adequate housing, formal education, and skilled labour are common; 14 Northern Affairs communities are not served by all-weather roads; a large number of these residents are not served by water and sewer lines. (¶ 14–16)

To wrap up the cheerless picture, we can add one more point from Mendelson (2004), where he pointed out: “On reserve and in the west, the Aboriginal labour market is much worse than the Canadian norm” (p. 32). Mendelson also noted that, unfortunately, there has been a very poor understanding of the labour market impact based on the gender of the Aboriginal job seeker (p. 42).