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What’s needed is more investments like the Remai. I know people say, “Oh, it’s too expensive” and all that, but once those things are built, they’re there for decades and decades and decades. And they become what people come to the city for and why they stay. People might come initially for a job, but they’ll only stay if life is good for them and their children. And what makes life good in a city are the things like parks, the quality of the schools, the quality of what you do outside of work. So, galleries, theatres, cinemas, restaurants — that’s what makes people stay here, not necessarily things that are within the purview of the city (administration). The schools should be even better.

‘Divided by racism’

There’s always that fight against racism. This remains a city tainted, divided by racism, mainly between the people of European origin and the First Nations. We have to continue making that effort of integration. And I think that has well begun. I think there is a genuine willingness to do that. We have to keep on doing it. We have to keep on doing it — speaking about diversity, welcoming diversity, whether it’s the First Nations or all the other people who are moving to the city. Welcoming difference.

Big ideas

The Remai’s a really bold idea: The largest gallery between Winnipeg and Vancouver. Who’d have thought it would be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan? So that’s the kind of bold idea I like. To me, a big thing down the line is climate change. Our climate is going to change. We have to start moving away from the carbon fuel economy. We have to find modes of living here that aren’t as energy hungry — you know, public transportation. In 13 years, I have never been on a city bus. Never. I remember one thing that struck me: Portland, Oregon. Within a certain perimeter in Portland, Oregon, public transportation is free. The downtown core, you just hop on a bus, you just hop on and it’s free and it transports you. I think we have to get really savvy about ways of transporting people that don’t demand the individual car. There’s that. There’s the kind of standards for building houses and apartment buildings and office buildings that are more energy efficient. We are the sunniest province in Canada. We should be seeing solar panels everywhere. That’s not something that’s in the purview of the city. It’s probably more provincial … I guess, changing our economy to the 21st-century post-carbon. That has to be the ideal, even if it’s going to take us 50 years to do it.