Chris Sicotte seeks more diversity on Saskatoon council but says his Indigeneity isn't 'be all and end all'

Chris Sicotte says that shortly after he announced he was running for the Ward 3 seat on Saskatoon city council, neighbours in Fairhaven came to talk to him about their current preoccupations. 

People are worried they may not be able maintain their lifestyles, especially in the midst of COVID-19, Sicotte said. 

"Rob is right," Sicotte said of Saskatoon mayoral candidate Rob Norris. "Affordability seems to be something front and centre that people are quite concerned about."

Sicotte, 50, is the first non-incumbent after Norris to confirm his plans for the Nov. 9 municipal election and the first Indigenous person to do so. 

Sicotte tweeted his plan to run on June 29, just hours after Ann Iwanchuk, the current Ward 3 councillor, announced she had changed her mind and would not seek re-election.  

A Métis man, Sicotte grew up in Flin Flon, Man., and has family on his father's side from Cumberland House, Sask. He's a former chair of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce and works as an Indigenous liaison for AON, a professional services firm. 

Sicotte said "we haven't seen a whole lot of diversity" on city councils in general, including Saskatoon's. 

Only one current councillor, Zach Jeffries, has identified as Indigenous. Jeffries is a member of the Missanabie Cree First Nation in northern Ontario. Few minorities ran for Saskatoon council seats in 2016. 

"As far as I'm concerned, I think we need to have more Indigenous people putting their names forward for these types of positions," Sicotte said. 

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Indigeneity 'not the be all and end all': Sicotte

Having an Indigenous voice on council "would have helped move along" some priorities in recent years, including council's implementation of the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report, Sicotte said.   

"We're at a point now where I think most people understand that the Indigenous contributions to the Saskatoon economy as a whole are significant and we can't be put on the shelf or left to something that's on the side, of somebody just to deal with," Sicotte said. 

"We are a growing population that work here, live here, go to school, pay taxes." 

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But Sicotte said he's not running strictly to position himself as an Indigenous candidate. 

"That wasn't the be all and end all," he said. "I honestly feel that I have skills and leadership abilities that I can bring to the city, both on fiscal responsibility as well as on helping develop some policies."

The Rob Norris factor 

Sicotte said that while Norris is a close friend and mentor who encouraged him to enter politics, he is not running on a Rob Norris slate. 

"My personal political views have always been more left of centre," he said, contrasting himself with Norris, who served on a Sask. Party cabinet in the provincial legislature. In 2017, Sicotte sought to be the Saskatchewan NDP's candidate in a provincial byelection, losing to Vicki Mowat. 

While Norris recently criticized some groups' call for swift firings after a bystander video showed Saskatoon police officers punching and using a taser on an Indigenous man being placed under arrest, Sicotte did not go that far.

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"I would fall somewhere in between," he said, adding that he supports due process but also understands, as an Indigenous person, the emotions the incident has stirred.

"I've been followed in stores or basically been refused service because of how I dressed or how I look. This happened not too long ago. It's something that is very triggering for a lot of Indigenous people."

Glen McCallum, the president of the Métis Nation - Saskatchewan, said he welcomed Sicotte's bid for city council.

"We do need more different views in regards to how we move forward, how we develop relationships with the general public, how we [ensure] programming within the city to be inclusive of different cultures," McCallum said.

A voice for various groups

Sicotte said he wants to be a voice for other minority groups as well. He said neighbourhoods like Blairmore and Kensington are home to many new Canadians and that "we need to make sure that we're doing what we can to ensure [they] have a voice and are represented."

He said city council needs to do all it can to support businesses, including maintaining a good tax incentive "to allow businesses to thrive."

Marketing Saskatoon to the rest of the world is "another thing I'm really big on," he said. 

"I'm fairly certain international markets right now are specifically looking at how they can engage more closely with Indigenous communities. Those are the things that I really want to focus on."

"Taxes, obviously," he added. 

Issues lightning round 

Sicotte said he supports the idea of a downtown arena (citing the parking lot across from TCU Place as the ideal location) but said a new downtown library (for which city council has already approved up to $67 million in borrowing by the Saskatoon Public Library service) is a tougher sell.  

"The price tag is a bit high," he said.  

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Sicotte said city council "should have been moving more quickly" on launching curbside composting. Council voted last year to launch the service in 2023, three years behind city's original target date of 2020. 

"I think that there was probably a bit too much back and forth," Sicotte said. 

As for downtown bike lanes, Sicotte said the pilot project on Fourth Avenue was a good idea, but was not well executed nor used enough by cyclists. 

Sicotte said he supports moving the lanes to Third Avenue to make way for the bus-rapid-transit service on First Avenue.