The member nations of the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) have voted to return Mark Arcand to the organization’s top office for a third term.
Arcand was re-elected by delegates at the tribal council’s annual assembly on Thursday at the Dakota Dunes Resort just outside Saskatoon. The vote margin was 40 to 35 in his favour.
Arcand said he wants to continue working on major social issues.
“Homelessness is a big issue, poverty, all the underfunding … we need the advocacy to build our communities up,” he said.
Addictions remain a major issue for many First Nations people, and a priority for him would be getting some sort of treatment centre set up, along with other support programs, he said.
“We need an Indigenous treatment centre to really move our work forward in Saskatoon.”
When asked about the current civic election, Arcand said he’s somewhat nervous because municipal governments have not listened to First Nations in the past. He said he’s also concerned about rising debt levels and taxes.
“I think Gord Wyant’s going to do a great job if he gets to be elected (mayor of Saskatoon),” he said.
Wyant, a former Saskatchewan Party cabinet minister, has been critical of the STC’s emergency wellness centre in the Fairhaven neighborhood. Arcand said he and Wyant agree about moving the shelter, but he stressed a new location would have to be the right one, with lots of pre-planning.
“It has to be the proper location; it has to do what’s right for the community.”
Arcand said he worries about people who are on the street as winter approaches. If provided funding, STC is ready to offer support at its emergency wellness centre, he said.
He is prepared to push on the issue of warm-up shelters as he feels more planning work should have been done already, he said.
“We should have had this in place a long time ago.”
On the current provincial election, Arcand said the two major political parties have not made homelessness a major issue, which would mean giving service providers like the STC more support in the form of trained medical staff, security and better locations.
“It’s just as important as education … it’s (just as) important as the health-care system.”
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