Algonquin College’s Mamidosewin Centre held the fourth annual Ottawa Indigenous Student Career Fair on Jan. 28, connecting First Nations, Métis and Inuit students with job opportunities.

The career fair, which was in the C-Building, also welcomed students from Carleton University, the University of Ottawa and La Cité. The event was open to anyone despite the focus on Indigenous employment. It was the first time the Mamidosewin Centre hosted the career fair.

Indigenous people who have moved to Ottawa for their studies, often from other parts of the province or country, face various barriers to entering the job market.

Bowashgusin (full name), a carpentry apprentice at Algonquin College and member of the Hesquiaht First Nation on Vancouver Island, believes that for Indigenous students, employment and housing challenges are intricately tied.

“Having trouble with housing means you have trouble with credit. Back in my early 20s, I didn’t even have a credit score, so I didn’t have anything for someone to check. I also didn’t have a driver’s licence” she said. “So, there was no record of me. So yeah, I struggled to get an apartment. People just had to trust me even though I had two minimum-wage jobs and paid my rent every month.”

She says that being locked out of housing opportunities greatly increases the difficulty of finding work.

Summer Wabasse, the events and communications officer for the Mamidosewin Centre, cited trauma and family-related challenges as barriers to Indigenous students finding employment

“There’s also intergenerational trauma. You know all that stuff kind of trickles down and affects employment as well. A lot of our students here are also mature students, they might have kids, and a lot of employers subconsciously have a bias against that, unfortunately,” Wabasse said.

Wabasse said all the employers present at the career fair are committed to hiring Indigenous people.

Emergency and community services at the career fair included the Ottawa Paramedic Service, the Ottawa Police Service, various tribal police forces, federal agencies such as the Bank of Canada and CSIS, as well as construction companies offering blue-collar and trades-focused careers.

Corey Kinsella, who leads an all-First Nations team with Cambium Indigenous Professional Services, cited missed opportunities for First Nations in major infrastructure projects.

“All this economy and all this work is happening in our traditional territories,” Kinsella said. “It’s happening for a long time, and you know as part of reconciliation our people want to be involved and we want to benefit from these projects and create good paying jobs and set themselves and their families up for success.”

Kinsella was sharing his booth with Arup, a global consulting agency promoting the Alexandria Bridge replacement project, which includes an Indigenous action plan.

He feels that a massive infrastructure project like a bridge replacement can be a major source of employment for Indigenous people from a wide radius around Ottawa.

“Different communities have different capacities and different strengths. We’ve had lots of different conversations with lots of different communities,” Kinsella said. “Not just Algonquin, but some of the Mohawk nations to the east as well, they’re really tied to the structural steel and iron works, they’re really skilled at that.”

He says it’s about building relationships and having conversations so people know what’s coming and they’re not blindsided.

“Part of our work too is understanding what kinds of barriers exist for Indigenous people to get involved,” he said.

Kinsella believes on the individual level there is a lot of red tape that gets in the way of economic participation such as certifications, training, and union requirements to get involved in projects like the Alexandria Bridge replacement. Cambium advises the federal government on addressing regulatory hurdles for increased First Nations involvement in major infrastructure projects.

“We’re not really accustomed to these federal processes, but there’s got to be a way to have flexibility, some leeway so that we can bring in these skilled businesses to get them involved in this project,” Kinsella said.

Kinsella recognizes that housing challenges are an issue and seeks to ensure that First Nations workers who leave home to work in the city on major projects have access to adequate accommodation. He says it also helps to provide workers with transportation so that they can maintain strong ties to their home communities.

The event, which rotates between different institutions each year, continues to successfully connect Indigenous students with meaningful employment opportunities — something that Bowashgusin has experienced.

She previously worked as a labourer for a non-profit housing agency for Indigenous people. They managed to complete 60 units for people in need during the pandemic, exemplifying the value of workforce participation by Indigenous people.

“There was a lot of satisfaction in that job,” she said.