Chief says new Saskatoon urban reserve meant to 'break that damn cycle of the residential school'

Chief Evan B.G. Taypotat of the Kahkewistahaw First Nation had just finished his pitch for a new urban reserve in Saskatoon (time limit: five minutes) when he signaled to Mayor Charlie Clark that he had more he wanted to say.

"I was interviewed by a reporter on the weekend," he said once back at the podium. "I could just kind of sense that hesitancy in their voice. They think that this is going to be an area that just First Nations people are [at]. That's absolutely not the case."

Everybody, whether they're a member of the Broadview, Sask.-area First Nation or not, will be welcome to enter and even seek jobs on the urban reserve, Taypotat said. 

"You're not even going to likely know you're on the First Nation, other than maybe some road signs," he said. "Money doesn't see any colour."

Taypotat was at city hall on Monday — Orange Shirt Day, meant to spread awareness about the legacy of Canada's residential school system — to thank city council for backing a new agreement that sets the stage for Kahkewistahaw First Nation to develop the city's next urban land reserve.

It would be the city's eighth urban reserve. 

The development is planned for 16 hectares (40 acres) of largely unserviced land in the Hampton Village Business Park, in northwest Saskatoon.

The agreement was approved unanimously by city councillors. 

'We want economic development'

Taypotat, a third-generation product of residential schools, said the reserve is about righting past wrongs. He spoke Monday while wearing an orange T-shirt under his vest (as did Clark under his suit jacket). 

"We want land on Saskatoon approved for the simple fact that we want economic development," Taypotat said.

"If we can do economic development, we can do jobs and we can make money and if we can make money we can provide opportunity to these people, and we break that damn cycle of the residential school that's left right now."

Coun. Troy Davies noted the recent openings of a Tim Hortons and Dairy Queen in the area and welcomed even further development. 

"This is an avenue to help us get there," Davies said the deal approved Monday.

Deal calls for annual payments to city 

That deal is structured similarly to pacts over previous Saskatoon urban land reserves. 

It calls for the city to provide the same services as it does to other neighbourhoods, while the First Nation agrees to pay a yearly fee in lieu of property taxes and other payments that would otherwise flow to the city. 

Given the unserviced condition of the 16 hectares, the development of the urban reserve is meant to proceed in phases. 

Clark pointed to the successes of previous urban reserves in the city. 

"Muskeg Lake urban reserve is developing a medical clinic with hundreds and hundreds of jobs that will be created and millions of dollars of investment," he said. "That will benefit the whole community.