Cary Tarasoff is one of five candidates running to become Saskatoon’s next mayor. He ran in the 2020 election and is often a critic of city hall, pointing out things he believes are wrong. Tarasoff is a professional planner and a draftsman with experience in civil design who has worked on large projects like mine sites and smaller projects like low-income housing, so he believes that gives him a new perspective for city development.
He believes one of Saskatoon’s biggest challenges right now is how to get homeless people off the street and get them supports, but he doesn’t believe a residential neighbourhood is the correct place for them. Tarasoff suggests instead having a set of modular buildings as a semi-permanent shelter that could be moved, if necessary, but his idea is for it to be on the northern edge of Saskatoon. He points to Red Deer’s modular addictions recovery centre as an example of what can be done.
The mayoral candidate also believes any shelter needs to be away from downtown to keep homeless people safe and away from gangs, saying, “the gangs are preying on people on the street. We have to realize that a lot of people on the street are in constant fear of the gangs. So, they are stuck between an addicted hard spot and these violent gangs that are holding them ransom, and we have to break this.” He suggests the City provide the land and develop a plan for the province to build these modular shelters in the north end.
Tarasoff agrees with the goal of bringing more activity into downtown but doesn’t believe a Downtown Event & Entertainment Centre is the answer. He says, “What we really need is probably a better convention centre downtown, and if we had something that ran seven days a week, afternoon and evening, it would add some life to downtown in an incremental way so we could slowly develop something, instead of trying to go for big, and just create everything, because that never works.”
Municipal elections are November 13th. The other four candidates are Don Atchison, Cynthia Block, Mike Harder and Gordon Wyant. If you are wondering who is running in the upcoming civic election and want to know more about them, you can now view candidate profiles online. Candidate profiles are available for Saskatoon’s next mayor, city councillors, and public and separate school board trustees.
Information on the candidate profile page was provided directly by candidates who submitted and has not been altered or edited by Elections Saskatoon staff. The Returning Officer, Elections Saskatoon, and the Saskatoon Public School and Greater Saskatoon Catholic School divisions are not responsible for verifying or investigating the accuracy of any information provided by a candidate.
