National Aboriginal Day is one of those “celebrations” that few Canadians know about and fewer celebrate.

It was a proclaimed in 1996 by former governor-general Roméo Leblanc and observed on June 21 every year since then — usually with a government press release.

This year, the Toronto Dominion Bank decided to put some substance into the symbolic occasion. Its economics team put together a special report entitled Debunking Myths Surrounding Canada’s Aboriginal Population.

The authors, Derek Burleton, the bank’s deputy chief economist, and Sonya Gulati, who specializes in federal finances, wanted to set the record straight, replace stereotypes with facts and foster a more enlightened national conversation.

They chose the 10 most prevalent myths, based on the bank’s own research in the field and the findings of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business:

• Aboriginal people don’t pay taxes.

This is true only for a minority. Status Indians living on reserves (30 per cent of the aboriginal population) are tax-exempt.

Those living off reserve (30 per cent) pay taxes. So do non-status Indians (12 per cent), Metis (23 per cent) and Inuit (4 per cent).

Even the exempt group can be taxed on income earned off the reserve and purchases made off the reserve.

• Aboriginal students get free post-secondary education.

Some do, some don’t. The federal government provides money to First Nations and Inuit communities to pay for tuition, travel costs and living expenses. But not all eligible students get support because demand for higher learning outstrips the supply of funds. Non-status Indians and Metis students are excluded.

• Aboriginal peoples live in remote, undeveloped areas.

In fact, 54 per cent live in urban centres. Toronto has the highest aboriginal population of any city in Canada (although cities such as Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and Whitehorse have proportionally higher aboriginal populations).

• Aboriginal people are falling behind in the job market.

Actually, they’re catching up. Thanks to the resource boom in western Canada and the construction that accompanied it, the unemployment rate for aboriginals fell from 17.4 per cent in 2001 to 12.3 per cent in 2010. (It went down as low as 9.3 per cent in 2008 before the recession hit. Burleton and Gulati expect it will be back to that level by year-end.)

• Aboriginal people are not entrepreneurial.

That’s at odds with the evidence. Approximately 32,000 small- and medium-sized businesses are owned and operated by aboriginal citizens. Fifty-one per cent of these firms were launched by women.

• Aboriginal businesses are not very successful.

That’s wrong as well. Six out of 10 reported a profit in 2010. A third managed to boost their revenues, even though the country was still climbing out of a recession.

• Aboriginal businesses are just riding the coattails of the resource sector.

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Not according to the statistics. In a nation-wide survey, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business found that 13 per cent of aboriginal businesses were in the primary sector, which includes forestry, agriculture, mining and oil-and-gas extraction. More were in the service sector (28 per cent) and the construction sector (18 per cent).

• Most aboriginal communities are protected by treaties, which guarantee economic and political rights.

That is true in Ontario, but not in British Columbia, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

• Aboriginal people receive a huge windfall when they settle a land claim.

That is seldom the case. Governments pay out land claim settlements in a variety of ways: economic development incentives, cash that goes to the band council and is often placed in trust and direct payouts to individuals, which must be ratified by a community vote. It’s not like winning a lottery.

• There is a hiring quota for aboriginal job applicants.

Not in the private sector. In the federally regulated workforce, the Employment Equity Act requires employers to increase the representation of four designated groups: aboriginal peoples, women, members of visible minorities and individuals with disabilities.

The legislation has raised aboriginal participation to 4 per cent, whereas it remains at 1.8 per cent in the much larger private sector.

Some public perceptions remain sadly accurate. Aboriginal people have a higher poverty rate, dropout rate, substance abuse rate, suicide rate and incarceration rate than other Canadians.

But they are making progress. The old labels — lazy, dependent on the public purse, unwilling to improve their lives — no longer fit. Each generation is doing better than the last.

That is worth celebrating.

Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.