With urban Indigenous population booming in N.L., new group tackling demographic challenges

It's a stomach-dropping statistic: Inuit men die, on average, 15 years before their non-Indigenous counterparts.

That's something Justin Campbell wants to change.

"That's a huge disparity," Campbell, coalition co-ordinator at non-profit First Light, told CBC News.

"That means we've really got to start looking at, how are we delivering health services?How can we help to close that gap?"

Lower life expectancy among certain Indigenous groups is just one of an array of distinct challenges from education to stable housing the coalition wants to tackle, he said.

"We wanted to look at, what are those issues? What do they look like at a local level?"

As urban Indigenous populations rise across the country,St. John's too has seen a rapid increase in that demographic.

A Statistics Canada report from 2017 evenpegged St. John's as the epicentre of that growth, surpassing rates in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

The population has"more than doubled in the last 10 years," Campbell said.

"That's leading the entire country."

Who makes up the demographic?

There are multiple theories about reasons behind the boom, said Statistics Canada analyst Vivian O'Donnell.

The data agency defines "urban Indigenous" as anybody identifying as Indigenous, Mtisor Inuit in a census area containing more than 100,000 people.

That means an increase in people reclaiming their ancestry could be a major factor such as the explosion of applications to the Qalipu First Nation, which saw more than100,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador claiming to be band members.

If we want to make progress we need to start taking a more systematic approach.- Justin Campbell

Longer life expectancy, higher birth rates and increased urbanization may also play a role in the leap, but O'Donnell points to people "newly identifying" as Indigenous as a major contributor.

That phenomenon isn't unique to St. John's, she added.

"We call that 'response mobility,'"O'Donnell said.

"This is something we've observed over the last few censuses when an individual identifies on the census as an Indigenous person when they hadn't done so before."

What will the coalition look like?

Campbell said increasing urbanization has played a major factor in the growth, with more people moving to urban centres like St. John's.

And with the rise comes a demand for resources.

Campbell points to over 30 other coalitions across the country that began as grassroots networks and caught the attention of governments, non-profits and health agencies.

At the coalition's first meeting Wednesday, representatives from the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission, the Office for the Status of Women and Eastern Health were among those around the table.

The point is to work together, with organizations and the people using them able to share ideas and feedback at a network level, he said.

"If we want to make progress we need to start taking a more systematic approach," he said,"rather than working separately in silos."

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