When it comes to indicators such as employment, income, and voter turnout, the Yukon outperformed the other territories, and in some cases Canada overall, in a study of social outcomes by the Conference Board of Canada.

But within the territory, inequality persists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

The Canadian economics and public policy think tank looked at a variety of indicators to evaluate equity and upward mobility in the territories, including poverty, gender and racial wage gaps, crime and suicide rates, and civic engagement.

The territories scored below the national average on poverty, crime and income distribution, but performed decently on life satisfaction, in the study called Social Outcomes in the Territories.

“When assessing outcomes in the territories, we need to consider the context that helps explain why average territorial performance is distinct from and, in many cases, lower than the provincial averages,” Adam Fiser, a senior research associate at the board, said in a statement.

“The territories’ geographic isolation, low educational attainment, differences in the availability of social services, and infrastructure gaps, all have significant effects on several of the society indicators in our report and help explain why they fall behind the Canadian average on social outcomes.”

The report does not explain in great detail what causes disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the territories. Indigenous populations, it says, “face distinct historical, cultural, and socio-economic challenges, including the impacts of residential schools.”

Rather than parse the root causes, this report is meant to be a “diagnostic tool,” Fiser said in an interview this morning. In other words, it can be used to pin-point areas in need of improvement.

The Yukon had among the lowest unemployment rates in Canada in 2016 at 5.6 per cent, according to the report. The national rate was seven per cent.

Still, unemployment rates “differ substantially” between Indigenous and non-Indigeous people in the Yukon.

The unemployment rate for Indigenous people with a high school diploma was 17.3 per cent, according to 2011 data used for the report.

For non-Indigenous people with the same level of education, the rate was 7.4 per cent.

The report also found vast income disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Yukoners.

While 32 per cent of Yukon residents placed in the top two (out of 10) Statistics Canada income brackets, 25 per cent of Indigenous residents are in the bottom two income brackets.

“Some research associates these differences with how prepared remote Indigenous workers versus urban non-Indigenous workers are in navigating wage economy demands,” reads the report.

“In contrast, other research points to the need for employers to be more understanding and tailor their human resource strategies to the different perspectives and needs of remote Indigenous workers.”

The report found that Indigenous men in the Yukon earned 38.7 per cent less than non-Indigenous men.

Indigenous men with a university degree, however, earned 24.6 per cent more than non-Indigenous men with the same credentials.

The wage gap is wide, but education can help narrow it.

Mary Simon is the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) minister’s special representative for Arctic Leadership.

In her 2017 report on the arctic for INAC, Simon notes that job opportunities for recent high school and university graduates are increasingly scarce in the South. This is not the case in the North, she said.

The jobs are there, but what is needed are qualified people to take those jobs.

“It has been barely a generation since residential school survivors took the brave and bold step of talking openly about the residential school era, dog slaughters, forced relocations and the subsequent abuse,” says Simon.

Education in the territories must be cognizant of this history and the healing currently underway. It must be “culturally relevant, adaptive and flexible,” she writes.

A university North of 60 could make a big difference for young people in the territories, said Fiser.

He said now is the time for the territorial governments to work together and with their federal and Indigenous counterparts to work out what a pan-territorial university could look like and how it might enhance the qualifications and expertise of young people in the North.

The Yukon Liberals have pledged to transition Yukon College into a university, but have yet to take significant steps toward that aim.

Closing gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Yukoners will take time and a concerted effort on behalf of governments and educational institutions to build up trust that was broken, in part, by the residential school system, said Fiser.

He added that expanding access to fast Internet would also expand education opportunities in northern communities.

There are innovative ideas brewing in the North, said Fiser.

“For the federal government, it’s really important for them to continue to listen, (and) really create meaningful opportunities where folks in the territories can share their ideas,” he said.

“Geography’s not going to go away, healing takes a long time, so the federal government has to be there as a partner for the territories and for the Indigenous governments in the territories to ensure that it’s listening and can make a strategic contribution at the right time.”