The province needs to take homelessness seriously. That, from the Tribal Chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council with an election right around the corner. Mark Arcand attended a public information session at City Hall on Monday about the proposed new 30-bed shelter on Pacific Avenue in the old bus station. He says no provincial government representatives were there, and they are the ones funding the shelter.

Arcand believes the City is rushing into this decision, and there hasn’t been much notice to nearby residents. When speaking to reporters, Arcand introduced Penny Babbings who lives in the nearby Rumley Building. She to attended the public meeting and says no one in the area knew about the shelter until it was announced a week-and-a-half ago. Babbings questions why she is already seeing things being moved in to the building, even though the location hasn’t been approved yet by Council.

Arcand suggests for this winter, keep the funding for the 30 beds at the Emergency Wellness Centre while the City continues to look for a more appropriate suggestion and his advice to Council is to make sure people know about it and have engagement sessions with them ahead of time. The Tribal Chief would also like to see the government fund a warm-up shelter. Last year, the Salvation Army housed around 150 people a night, but so far Arcand hasn’t heard that it is happening again.

His message to the next provincial government after the election is to take homelessness more seriously and fund it appropriately. The Tribal Chief explains that the ratio of workers to clients should be one-to-five for everyone’s safety, but instead the Wellness Centre is at one-to-14 and the Salvation Army is at one-to-16. If the shelter on Pacific Avenue opens, Mustard Seed has told Arcand their funding is about one-to-10