Public policy and aboriginal peoples in Canada: taking a life-course perspective.

The health and social conditions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada remain important policy concerns. The life course has been proposed by some as a framework for analysis that could assist in the development of policies that would improve the economic and social inclusion of Aboriginal peoples. In this paper we support the goal of applying a life-course perspective to policies related to Aboriginal peoples but suggest that the framework needs to consider the unique relationship between Aboriginal peoples and public policies. We provide some illustrations using data from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey.