Good Morning,
Given your current work, I am reaching out to share with you the attached study, which shows non-Indigenous Canadians have recently become more supportive of Indigenous rights and more concerned about the slow pace of progress being made toward reconciliation.
Based on the Confederation of Tomorrow survey of 2021, what differentiates this study from others is the sizable portion of Indigenous respondents in the sample (775 out of the total of 5,814), and the fact that it is a part of a year-over-year analysis. Here are some of the findings:
- 48% of non-Indigenous Canadians said relations were positive, which is up from 44% in 2020.
- 47% of Indigenous people said relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians were positive, down from 53% in 2020.
- On the question of reconciliation, 60% of Indigenous people said governments have not gone far enough, while 42% of non-Indigenous Canadians said that more should be done.
- Over half of all respondents were optimistic that meaningful progress toward reconciliation would be made in the next decade.
- 70% of all respondents said that they as individuals have a role to play in advancing reconciliation — up from 55% in 2020.
The survey shows that a majority of Indigenous people feel very attached to Canada but at the same time, they are much more likely to say they have a lot or some confidence in the leaders of Indigenous organizations (66%) than in governments (42%) or political leaders (32%). We also found that most non-Indigenous Canadians support the principle that resource development in Indigenous lands requires Indigenous peoples’ consent.
The positive signs uncovered in this research do not mean we can sit back and wait for meaningful reconciliation to come about. A strong majority of non-Indigenous Canadians believe that they or their governments should be doing more to advance reconciliation.
I hope you will find this publication informative, and if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Charles Breton
Institute for Research on Public Policy
1470 Peel, Suite 200
Montréal, Québec
H3A 1T1
