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Talks are officially on between the City of Saskatoon and Muskeg Lake Cree Nation (MLCN) to “explore” a potential partnership for the Downtown Event and Entertainment District (DEED).
It comes almost exactly three months to the day, after council said “no” to Oakview Group 360’s bid to partner with the city on the same project.
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At Wednesday’s meeting, city council voted unanimously in favour of doing so, after presentations from Kelly Wolfe, Chief of the MLCN; Stephanie Pocha, Discover Saskatoon CEO; Jason Aebig, Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce CEO; and Randy Pshebylo, with the Riversdale Business District — all of whom were in favour of the talks.
Wolfe cited his First Nation’s 38-year relationship with Saskatoon that began with the establishment of an urban reserve in the Sutherland neighbourhood. He called it an opportunity to continue building with Saskatoon.
“Since then, we have demonstrated that First Nations and the city can work together in ways to strengthen local economies,” he said.
He also asked councillors to imagine what a partnership could look like in the future, calling it an “exciting opportunity.”
“Imagine Saskatoon being home to a professional hockey team. Imagine Saskatoon hosting the World Juniors, like we once did. To our existing teams, having a new home. To create more employment more career opportunities to increase the foot traffic, to feed the local businesses, to promote tourism,” he added.
Wolfe said the MLCN is collaborating with what he said was an experienced development partner, with expertise in large-scale projects, but didn’t name the company. He also suggested that if the city partnered with the First Nation, that it could open doors to federal funding for the project.
City Manager Jeff Jorgenson said administration first met with MLCN in April.
“I would describe the meeting as a wondering of what could be,” he said.
Jorgenson acknowledged, however, that the decision to come to city council and to information the public, was not normally the process that occurs, and that there had been another First Nation interested in exploring a partnership as well.
Usually, there’s an “Expression Of Interest,” or EOI that is issued to see which companies or parties may want to respond, before a choice is made to go ahead with exploratory talks.
“When we looked at potentially doing an EOI, it almost felt like it would be disingenuous because if it’s going to lead to the same end result, then it isn’t a good procurement approach,” Jorgenson explained. He added that MLCN has the support of all members of the Saskatoon Tribal Council as well.
That became a point of contention with Robert Pearce, Ward 3 Coun.
“At the end of the day we know there was another party. I know they feel like they’ve been ‘done wrong’ perhaps is the way to word it,” he said.
While not directly responding to Pearce, Troy Davies, Ward 4 Coun. said they’d received legal advice from the city solicitor and city manager, and he felt confident of their due diligence.
“I am not going to sit back and just wait. We will go back to 30 years ago when people were leaving our province to go to other cities who have downtown entertainment districts, who have convention centres, who have events going on,” Davies added.
Just ahead of the vote, Mayor Cynthia Block said it was just one step but “it could be a mighty one.”
Talks will be led by the city’s Dan Willems, who also negotiated with OVG 360). At this point, Jorgensen said no additional costs to the city will be incurred, other than staff time.
Should talks progress, then additional consultants would be brought in, however that would have to be approved by city council first, including any additional associated costs.
Administration will also report back to council every two months on the progress and direction of the talks.
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