Saskatchewan First Nation buys workboots, cuts welfare rate – CBC.ca

Little Pine First Nation has slashed social assistance cases by 1/3

Sep 25, 2013

A Saskatchewan First Nation that put workboots on its members and transported them to the city says it has cut its welfare rolls by a third.

Wayne Semaganis, chief of the Little Pine First Nation, says a one-year-old program meant to get members working and off social assistance is paying off in many ways.

“Nobody likes being on welfare,” Semaganis told CBC Blue Sky host Garth Materie. “All our people have pride in themselves and they want to exercise that pride.”

Jobs found in Lloydminster

In the past month, 70 previously unemployed people have found jobs in Lloydminster, the city that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and is about 90 kilometres northwest of Little Pine.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatchewan-first-nation-buys-workboots-cuts-welfare-rate-1.1867607