Local housing and public safety initiatives were a prime focus for Herb Sutton when he met federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale recently.
Sutton reported to council last Monday that he met with Goodale on the previous Sunday, as did members of the Battlefords Affordable Housing and Homelessness Committee. Sutton is on that committee as the city’s representative.
The discussions also included federal Liberal candidate Larry Ingram, running in the Battlefords-Lloydminster by-election, as well as some of their staff.
The main focus of the meeting with Goodale, Sutton indicated, was on housing initiatives in the community. Sutton noted that Goodale’s team had reached out to BAHA to seek their input.
“I think it was somewhat motivated by the recent federal government announcements, and they were interested with what we were doing with housing and how they might be able to connect with us,” said Sutton.
But in addition to that, it was also an opportunity for Sutton to keep up his lobbying on their SAGE Phase 2 (Safety, Acceptance, Guidance, Empowerment) initiatives.
For his meeting with Goodale, Sutton said he prepared a package to present to him with their original SAGE proposal, a letter to the federal government from March, project timelines, a flow chart showing the various government agencies they had been working with, and even the recent Maclean’s article on the city’s crime issues.
The hope is this will result in federal funding for the full scope of what they hope to do with SAGE Phase 2, which includes proposals for a regional committee consisting of federal, provincial, municipal and First Nation governments.
Earlier, it appeared as if the federal government had come through with coalition funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada towards the SAGE Phase 2 initiative. Sutton had previously announced at council they had been assured of a $50,000 commitment.
As it turned out, Sutton said that approval had only come from the regional person in Saskatoon. It still needed to go to Ottawa for the final approval.
“I did not know that, honestly I did not,” Sutton admitted at council.
He told council Monday the application is now passing through the channels in Ottawa and no “red flags” have been identified so far. While there is still optimism that the $50,000 will come through, Sutton does not expect to hear word on a final approval until early December.
