The Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan says one seat should be reserved on city councils for Aboriginal people.
Coalition president Kim Beaudin says no concerns of Aboriginal people were brought up in last week’s civic elections.
Beaudin ran for council twice in the past, but was unsuccessful.
He says if a seat were reserved for Aboriginal people the would have the courage to run, and then their concerns would be heard:
“You have to be in the inside to actually create change. And because we’re on the outside looking in, you can see based even on the last election, Aboriginal issues were not brought to the forefront at all.”
However, North Battleford city councillor Ray Fox doesn’t agree with that.
The former Sweetgrass First Nation resident just won a fourth straight term on council without having a seat reserved for him.
Fox says if you start reserving seats for Aboriginal people, then you would have to do the same for other minorities.
He adds if that is done for city councils, then maybe the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and Assembly of First Nations should reserve seats for non-Aboriginal people.