The Saskatoon Tribal Council has opened a housing facility intended to help women recently released from Pine Grove Correction Centre.
The project is called Īkwēskīcik iskwēwak which means “turning their life around” in Cree, and is designed and led by Indigenous people. It will focus on healing, wellness, education, training, and eventually transitioning women back into the workforce. The project is centred mostly on women who commit minor offences and find themselves re-offending.
Eighteen housing units have been funded by the National Housing Strategy’s Rapid Housing Initiative which will offer up to 18 months of support for women.
The development is located at 115 Columbian Pl., in Saskatoon.
STC Chief Mark Arcand said they want to be part of a community that provides healthy and safe places for women.
“We have too many women who are missing right now, they don’t have a place to go. We see women coming to our emergency wellness centre, they are coming there, they are abused. There are so many negative words I can use to say about what’s happening to the women and it’s not right.”
“It’s about the investment of helping people so they can have a quality of life and I think when you look at all of the levels of government that are contributing to this, I think it is a good step in the right direction, but at the same time, women are being abused on the street and have nowhere to go. That is the focal point.”
Arcand said the decision as to whether or not women will be admitted to the facility after release will be decided in their case plans and evaluations at Pine Grove.
“The thing we are noticing when we go meet with the women is we have a quick turnaround time because it’s an Indigenous organization dealing with Indigenous people. We see and we understand the situations that are happening, so for us, it is really making a quick impact.”
The program will offer supports including mental health and addictions services, rehabilitation and career programs as well as medical services.
Arcand confirmed six women will be arriving on Monday and the remainder of the suites will hopefully be full by May 1.
He added there are already 100 people on the waiting list for the facility.
“We are facing a crisis in our community when it comes to homelessness and addictions,” said Mayor Charlie Clark. “A big part of that is people being released from incarceration and not having housing and plans in place to help them land in the community and stabilize.”
He recalled the tragedy of Kimberly Squirrel, who passed away in 2021 only three days after her release from Pine Grove Correctional Centre.
Staff at Pine Grove and the new facility will be working together to decide which women meet the criteria for placement. Each woman entering the program will be screened by the province and the facility before moving into one of the suites. The facility will be staffed and monitored at all times.
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“We aren’t trying to go in there and say we want this woman over that woman,” Arcand noted. “They are earning their right to come to this facility to try to improve their lives and if they aren’t coming for the right reasons, they shouldn’t be coming. At the end of the day, they will decide if they want a quality of life.”
Children and relatives will be allowed to visit the women if it aligns with their release orders.
“Kinship is a priority,” Arcand said. “Family is first. Right now, when you see family in a tough situation like that, being incarcerated, away from your children, it is hard to deal with. It is going to be good for the families to look at this and know somebody cares for them.
“Just because they were incarcerated doesn’t mean you love them any less. You may not support their behaviour or challenges, but you love them unconditionally.”
The project is in partnership with the federal government, the province, the City of Saskatoon, and the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership.
Last year Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell announced $3.6 million in funding over the next three years for the Saskatoon Tribal Council to work on the new pilot project.
After the initial three years, two additional one-year extensions will be made available.
“The STC understands and knows what the offenders in Pine Grove need, and so that’s what we’re trying to address, and we’ve got the right people at the right table having those discussions,” Tell said when the pilot was introduced last year.
Tell told media anything more than the initial three years and two years of potential extension would have to be re-visited at a later date. She said she has confidence in the STC to successfully put this plan into action.
Drew Wilby, assistant deputy minister of community engagement for the province said the government will be investing $1.2 million per year into the facility to support the operations.
He said he hopes programs like this will prevent people from repeating behaviour due to a lack of support.
“If you think about remand and you think about people coming into the system, more often than not, they have come back once, twice, three, … times and to intervene at the right point and stop that churn is what we are focused on with this facility and our partnership with Saskatoon Tribal Council.”
– with files from Global News’ Andrew Benson
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