Chief Darcy Bear among Order of Canada appointees

Two more people from Saskatchewan have been appointed to the Order of Canada.

Whitecap Dakota First Nation Chief Darcy Bear and revolutionary crop scientist Dr. Alfred Slinkard were among the 114 new recipients of Canada’s highest civilian honour announced by Governor General Julie Payette Friday.

Citing “visionary leadership,” Bear was appointed to the Order of Canada for his work helping transform the First Nation south of Saskatoon.

When Bear was first named chief in 1991 as a 23-year-old, the area was under financial pressure and plenty of debt. With the unemployment rate above 60 per cent, Bear was able to leverage economic growth to spur job creation to drive down the unemployment rate to roughly five per cent 25 years later. A resort and casino complex opened in 2007. The latest advancement in the area is fibre optic cable for high-speed Internet access to every home in the community expected to arrive next summer.

Slinkard, American by birth, joins as an Honorary Member, a designation made for foreign-born recipients. Slinkard was influential in building Saskatchewan as a leading pulse crop producer in the world. After arriving at the University of Saskatchewan in the ’70s, Slinkard researched crops in the region before introducing a new lentil variety to encourage producers to add lentils to their crop rotations.

Since then, lentils have been adopted by farmers across the province to make Saskatchewan the largest producer of pulse crops in the world, which includes peas, lentils and chickpeas.

Bear and Slinkard aren’t sure when they will receive their medals due to the ceremony being postponed to a later date due to COVID-19 restrictions.