By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Poverty, homelessness the focus of candidate Martin Heavy Head’s bid for Lethbridge mayor

Oct 3, 2017 | 1:30 PM

LETHBRIDGE – As the first indigenous candidate in Lethbridge to run for a seat on city council in the last civic election, Martin Heavy Head now says he’s also happy to be the first one to run for mayor.
 
Heavy Head says he’s lived in Lethbridge most of his life, but has also travelled and lived in the U.S. He studies psychology, philosophy and political sciences at the University of Lethbridge, along with general sciences.
 
Should he become mayor, as a person of Blackfoot and Cree descent, he wants to improve relations between the Blood and Piikani Reserves and the City of Lethbridge.
 
“Lethbridge has almost never had a relationship with them. The very first council to council meeting (Lethbridge and Blood Tribe) happened last year, after over 136/137 years”
 
As for issues he believes strongly in, Heavy Head says no one has really focused on the issue of homelessness in the city.
 
“I would actually deal with the homeless situation that we have…there’s about six million dollars in funding that’s being used within the city right now. So with that six million dollars they’re really worried about 200-300 chronically homeless people. So there is no transition home in Lethbridge and that’s what we need.
 
“We don’t need a detox centre nearly as much as we need a transition home that’s fully staffed with people who know how to deal with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder), mental illness, addiction and things like that because most of the people out there do suffer from that and they need care. And the only place they’re going to get that care is in a group-home setting, not being out there in the streets.”
 
Heavy Head says he’s running for mayor because he can “do the job.” He believes the larger platform will allow him to help build stronger relationships across the board.