A new name has been chosen for a Saskatoon street.
John A. Macdonald Road in the Confederation Park neighbourhood was given a proposed name change to miyo-wâhkôhtowin Road – which is Cree for good relationship.
"The committee did consider Cree language names as well as English language names, and since it's all about reconciliation and addressing the ongoing harms from residential schools, the advisory committee decided to move forward with a Cree language name," Celene Anger, the city's chief strategy and transformation officer, said.
Council unanimously approved a name change in June 2021 when unmarked graves were being discovered at residential schools across the country. MacDonald was Canada's first prime minister and is regarded as a key architect in the residential school system.
The city spent the last two years consulting with Indigenous leaders, residential school survivors, elders and knowledge keepers to come up with the proposed name and broke the news to residents Wednesday night during a meeting.
Longtime John A. Macdonald Road resident and Navy veteran Bob Roberts certainly didn't ask for the change.
"It's been there for over how many years?" he said. "Why now?"
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Nearby resident Laurie Cody also didn't agree with the urgency to change the name.
"It is a bit of a mouthful," she said. "It's going to be a lot of change and I don't know if people really want that."
Residents along the street say they weren't given much indication a name change was imminent, and the city is recognizing that.
"One of the lessons learned is that to keep the residents of the road itself updated on a more frequent basis was one of the takeaways that we had from that session last night," Anger said.
David Kirton, the only Indigenous city councillor, said his Canadian history textbook in university had no mention of residential schools -- but it included plenty of references to John A. Macdonald, and he thinks its time for that to change.
"There's a lot of names that have gotten a free ride in Canadian history that aren't getting a free ride any longer, and you're going to see that change," Kirton said.
"We have a long journey ahead of us towards reconciliation, but what a wonderful reminder -- good relationships. I'm hoping people will take that into context and use it."
The new street name will be before the civic naming committee on Aug.1 with councillors having the final say on Sept. 27. Street signs and maps would then begin to change following the September meeting.
With an entire neighbourhood devoted to honouring Canadian Confederation, more name changes could be coming for the legacy review committee, which is tasked with looking at renaming other streets, parks or civic facilities in the future.
The city said it will work with residents to change their addresses if the name change becomes official. Anger said the hope is to pass no costs on to residents with the budget for the street name change not expected to exceed $35,000.
