City council to vote on Saskatoon Tribal Council's controversial Montgomery Place preschool plan

A controversial plan for a preschool in Saskatoon's Montgomery Place neighbourhood could get a final stamp of approval Monday night.

Council will vote Monday on the plan proposed by the Saskatoon Tribal Council to convert a detached home along 11th Street W. into a preschool for Indigenous children.

TheMontgomery Place Community Association has opposed the preschool, andaccording to itswebsite, "aletter was sent to the City advising that the Community Association was opposed due to impact on the community."

Residents told CBC News they were concerned, among other things,about the preschool being located so close to a busy street.

STC Tribal Chief Mark Arcandhas said the preschool would accommodate a maximum of 32 children per day 16 in the morningand another 16 in the afternoon.

The children would be bused in from eight other Saskatoon neighbourhoods.

Arcand said previously that he regrets the way the information about the preschoolwas provided to area residents and that he hopes to work with the community to assuage concerns.

Notification process needs 'cleaning up': councillor

City Coun. Hilary Gough, who representsMontgomery Placeresidents, saysthe controversy around the proposed preschool has "died down" since the fall.

But she says the earliercontroversy should bea learning lesson for how the city should handle these types of requests in the future.

"I think there's been a lot of frustration with how theconcerns about the proposal have been portrayed, and I think there's been a lot of misunderstanding on all sides with respect to that," Gough said.

Gough said the city needs to "clean up" the process for informing residents about proposed zoning applications to help fight some of that confusion.

While the city does have control over zoning, she said concernsresidents have raised about the preschool being located near a busy roadway or located near a semi-industrial area are concerns for the Saskatoon Tribal Council and the people running the preschool not necessarily the city.