City council's decision to not provide the needed cash for St. Albert's Healing Garden is "almost like a slap in the face" to residential school survivors, says the chair of the project's advisory committee.
Gwen Crouse made the comment after St. Albert council hit the brakes on the proposed Healing Garden project last week after administration said it had roughly tripled its cost. The price jump was due to the high water table at the garden's location along the Sturgeon River across from St. Albert Place.
The garden is meant to educate residents about St. Albert's history with Indian residential schools and to affect reconciliation with survivors of that school system.
Council voted 4-3 to have the garden's advisory committee explore and price out alternative sites for the garden by the year's end.
The decision left committee member and First Nations elder Tony Arcand angry and frustrated, said Crouse. Arcand blessed the site earlier this year on the assumption it had been approved.
"It was hard for him to understand that the city could just wipe away the work we put into something," she said. Arcand declined an interview for this article, saying that he was too upset to speak on the matter.
Crouse also guaranteed that committee members would walk away from this project if council insisted on moving the garden.
"If we had to move (it), this will not go on.
The advisory committee decided last Thursday that it had to stick with the Sturgeon River site, as it had invested too much effort into it to start over again elsewhere, Crouse said.
"We'll make it happen."
This site was picked from amongst four along Founder's Walk due to its proximity to city hall and the old residential school, Crouse said. The nearby aboriginal sculptures and running water (seen as a symbol of healing) gave it spiritual weight.
"One of our residential school survivors broke down and cried at this spot," Crouse noted.
The Healing Garden is now on hold until administration can report back to council in August, city cultural services director Kelly Jerrott said. The committee was looking for more support from local churches and the provincial and federal governments to build it, but was having trouble finding the right funds to tap.
The committee would likely have to take local residential school survivors out on the road to raise the needed cash, Crouse said.
"It's almost like a slap in the face," Crouse said. This garden is supposed to be a place for those affected by residential schools to heal; yet we're making them go out and collect money for it, she said.
"We should be offering this to them."
Ripple effects
The garden is part of Phase Three of Founder's Walk, which is set to use the existing bike paths along the Sturgeon and feature up to 10 interpretive areas. Jerrott said those areas could run into the same soil problems as the garden, but that their design was not yet finalized.
Jerrott noted that this garden carried spiritual and symbolic weight that you don't find in other infrastructure projects. It's a recognition of the historic wrongs of the residential schools, and a commitment of the city to walk in right relations with the aboriginal community.
"It is a way for us to take a step forward and do the right thing."
Council's decision will no doubt delay the garden's opening date, which was originally set for this year, Crouse said. She said she hoped at least some initial work on it could happen before the end of the year.
