Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand excited about prospect of new city centre rec facility

Chief Mark Arcand says a new recreation facility in inner-city Saskatoon would be beneficial to everyone.

On Tuesday, Saskatoon city councillors are expected to talk about plans to develop an integrated school and recreation centre in the city's core neighbourhoods.

Saskatoon Public Schools has announced its plans to amalgamate three inner-city schools (Princess Alexandra, King George and Pleasant Hill) into one large school.

Now, the city is looking at developing a project that would bring the school board, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and the City of Saskatoon together to build a new recreation centre along with the school project.

The city has already partnered with the tribal council on the While Buffalo Youth Lodge.

Chief Mark Arcand says expanding that partnership just makes sense. The building is more than 20 years oldand Arcand said it needs to be replaced.

"It's kind of past the stage where we're turning kids away because there's not enough room," he said.

"We want to really enhance that opportunity because there's a big need in the city for it."

The youth lodge project is part of an almost-ten year saga in building a recreation centre in the inner-city.

In 2013, the YMCA apprached the city to look at partnering with the City of Saskatoon to create a new facility.

After years of public consultations, the city settled on two plans.

One plan would be a partnership with Saskatoon Public Schools to be located next to White Buffalo Youth Lodge. The other plan would involve the YMCA creating a second facility for the neighbourhood.

Arcand said he wants the youth lodge to have all of the tribal council's services under one roof, including employement training, family counselling and elder support, as well as after-school and evening programs.

"In the middle of winter, they have to walk down to this other facility where we have our other services," he said.

"It's not very conducive that way."

Saskatoon Public Schools estimates the new school will be built in about five years. It's still not clear when the new youth lodge program would be completed.

The school project was originally announced in the provincial government's spending report in March, as one of several other school-building projects across Saskatchewan.

The issue will be talked about at council's governance and priorities meeting on Tuesday.