Indigenous Peoples make up 5% of Canada’s population but hold just 1% of the country’s tech jobs. Closing that gap is a moral imperative — and a $67-billion economic opportunity.
The barriers, named honestly
Three barriers come up again and again in the research and in conversations with Indigenous learners and professionals.
The first is *infrastructure*. About half of households in First Nations communities and roughly 58% of households in northern Canada meet the federal basic service target for high-speed internet. Broadband access in Indigenous communities is roughly 17% lower than the national average, and where service does exist, it often costs significantly more. You cannot build a career in cloud engineering, data science, or remote IT support without reliable, affordable internet. The digital divide is not a metaphor — it is a hard physical limit on opportunity.
The second is *financial access to training*. The First Nations Technology Council has documented that financial barriers are the single biggest obstacle preventing Indigenous learners from pursuing tech training. Tuition, equipment, childcare, transportation, and lost income while in training all stack up. Programs that do not address those costs end up serving the people who could already afford to get there.
The third is *cultural fit*. Mainstream tech training is often built on assumptions — about prior schooling, learning style, individual versus communal achievement, and the kind of mentorship a learner can draw on — that do not match the realities of many Indigenous learners. When training programs are designed in partnership with Indigenous communities and grounded in Indigenous culture and ways of knowing, completion rates jump significantly. The Technology Council has documented up to 35% higher completion rates in culturally grounded programs compared to non-Indigenous training pathways.
What’s at stake economically
A widely cited RBC analysis estimated that if Indigenous Peoples participated in Canada’s economy at the same rate and the same earnings level as non-Indigenous workers, the country would see roughly $67 billion in additional annual GDP. Some of the largest gains would come from sectors like technology and digital services, where the labour shortage is acute and growing. Every Indigenous person who is denied a real path into a tech career is a personal loss for that individual, and a measurable loss for the country.
The reverse is also true. Every Indigenous-led startup, every First Nations IT professional, every data scientist trained in their home community, contributes to a stronger, more resilient, more representative digital economy. This is not a zero-sum question. It is the definition of a win-win.
*Reconciliation in practice*
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action 7 and 92 are clear: governments and the corporate sector must close gaps in education, employment, and economic opportunity for Indigenous Peoples. The digital economy is one of the most important arenas where those calls are tested in practice. It is not enough to acknowledge the gap. Reconciliation requires building the pathways — culturally grounded, financially accessible, community-led — that allow Indigenous learners to enter, advance, and lead in tech.
That is the work that Maverick Gardner Pathways North (MGPN) is committed to. We exist to build those pathways — partnering with employers, training providers, and Indigenous communities to create training-to-employment pipelines that respect culture, remove financial barriers, and lead to real, well-paid jobs in the digital economy. Our participants are not statistics. They are the next generation of cybersecurity analysts, IT support professionals, software developers, and tech entrepreneurs.
Where we go from here
Closing the digital participation gap is not the work of any one organization, government, or community. It will take coordinated investment in broadband infrastructure, sustained funding for Indigenous-led training, employer commitments to Indigenous hiring and retention, and — perhaps most importantly — a shift in whose voices and stories shape the digital economy’s future.
The 1% number does not have to be permanent. With the right partnerships, the right funding, and the right respect for Indigenous leadership, Canada’s tech sector can look like the country it serves. That is the future MGPN is helping to build, one participant, one cohort, one community at a time.
If you are an employer, a partner, or a learner who wants to be part of this work, we would love to hear from you. The digital economy belongs to everyone. Let’s build it that way.