Arcand finds new crime stats ‘validating’ for Emergency Wellness Centre [Video]

A day after detailed crime statistics were released for the two neighbourhoods immediately surrounding the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s Emergency Wellness Centre, Chief Mark Arcand is marking the data as a win for the community.

Arcand says although there are problems outside the 106-bed wellness centre’s property, the work happening inside is making a difference.

“The police collecting all this data is showing outcomes and results, and I know some people are disheartened by that and some people would approve of that,” Arcand said. “But at the end of the day, the Saskatoon Tribal Council is showing outcomes and results.”

Arcand says the shelter has helped find more than 60 families attain housing for the shelter that is populated 78 per cent by Indigenous people, a fact that makes Arcand proud as the leader of a First Nations organization serving Indigenous people.

“We’re proving that this model is working by moving …