SASKATOON — Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand said Tuesday, Sept. 24, that he doesn't believe the non-profit group named to operate the downtown emergency shelter knows how to adequately address the needs of the city’s homeless and other vulnerable community members.
The facility at 210 Pacific will have 30 to 40 beds and The Mustard Seed has been named as operators. It will be funded by the provincial government, which has committed $300,000 despite an estimated $1.6 million needed to operate a shelter as the weather becomes colder in the coming months.
In a media event at the STC office, Arcand said even the proposed six-feet chain-link fence around the facility, which will make the shelter accessible only from Ontario Avenue, is a bit too much as a safety measure, along with 24-hour extended security.
"It feels like a jail setting, which is unacceptable,” said Arcand.
The STC-run emergency wellness centre in Fairhaven has about a four-foot wooden fence, he pointed out.
“As a service provider, we've gained the trust of our people to understand that we're showing outcomes and results by housing 50 families and taking kids to school every day. So, we're not putting them in a cage and saying one way in, one way out.
“If The Mustard Seed is going to make those recommendations to say this is better for the community, well, in my opinion, Mustard Seed can stay in Calgary. They don't need to be in our traditional territories and treat our people like this. They didn't even talk to me when I was here, but they talked to everybody else, right? So, I don't think that First Nations people are a priority on their list, and I'm appalled by that.”
He added that, unlike the Salvation Army, Mustard Seed has yet to learn how to include and respect the cultures and traditions of Saskatchewan's First Nations peoples.
“I don't think they understand First Nations issues. They'll say, ‘Yeah, we've dealt with them [First Nations],’ but [they are] not in the trenches like we are and the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has been here for 50-plus years. They're a church organization, and I greatly respect them because they've been dealing with First Nations people for a long time. They [Salvation Army] insert our protocols and how to deal with people and their culture, their identity, that kind of stuff. Taking recommendations from us to help our people,” said Arcand.
“At our facility, we've incorporated everything, from ceremonies to all this other stuff. They [The Mustard Seed] don't know who to deal with when they come here. So, they haven't even asked me, ‘What cultural [ceremonies] do we need to use?’ What are the protocols? What are all these things? So, to me, they're coming in for that colonial perspective, which has caused many of these problems, and it won't work because I won't let it happen. I will stand up for our people because they need the proper services.”
Arcand said he is prepared to open the doors of the Emergency Wellness Centre in Fairhaven to accommodate an additional 80 people and is up to the challenge of finding the funds to help provide their basic needs.
“People need to know this. What we did in the first year when we opened up [the EWC], we had 106 people living there. We put everybody in our foyer, so we took down our tables where people had breakfast, lunch, and supper, and we put in cots during the evening to keep people warm. There are around 80 people, and we'll do the same thing because we will keep people warm. I read earlier that the city does not have a confirmed plan yet. It's alarming to me. It's almost October 1st. We're lucky we have warm weather today. In September, we’ve had a couple of cold, rainy days. You've seen people wearing blankets, not the proper shoes, everything else. We are not ready in Saskatoon, and the City Council has to snap out of it and get ready ASAP for a crisis that we have, like helping more than 30 people and moving on to helping 150-200 people based on the stats last year. We're open to using our facility and will get it done,” said Arcand.
“I'm going to keep people warm this year. ... Mustard Seed is coming to our city, which runs a shelter of 370 people in Calgary. We're at 106. To keep another 80 people safe, we'll work what we can and try to get some finances to support that. But people need to be safe 24 hours a day during the winter, and I don't see a solid plan from the city."
He suggested that funds to operate the shelter at Pacific Avenue, which can only accommodate 40 people, should be redirected to open additional warm-up shelter facilities to help more vulnerable people in the city.
