As many as 1,300 jobs could come out of a deal between the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Saskatoon Health Region.
The two groups signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday.
One goal is to increase the percentage of Aboriginal people in the health region’s workforce from 4% to 10%.
The health region currently employs about 13,000 people.
Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Felix Thomas says they also hope to create work for more tribal council companies:
“There’s a lot of services that the health region does that could get better served, and probably more efficiently, in the private sector. Things like laundry service, things like janitorial services — so those kind of opportunities. Also, on the construction side, we could do some of the work in building hospitals.”
Thomas says their companies may not get the contract to build the Children’s Hospital of Saskatchewan, but they might get some of the work.
He also notes hospitals will be built in outlying communities.