A decision has yet to be made on the proposed homeless shelter in Wetaskiwin as new information continued to come across council’s desk during their regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 11.
Council felt they needed more time to gather information following an announcement by Coun. Dean Billingsley which suggested a recently created group, the Maskwacis Recovery Community Initiative, is working towards the creation of a treatment centre and transitional housing facility.
Minister of Indigenous Relations and MLA for Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin Rick Wilson said in an interview following the council meeting, his office was approached by a group with the proposal of the creation of the Maskwacis Recovery Community. The group is proposing a 75-bed facility offering a range of services, including cultural support, ceremonies, job training, medical facilities, 24-hour medical detox, transitional housing, youth support and a community garden for land-based learning.
The proposal has been endorsed by the leadership of the Cree First Nations band governments of Maskwacis through a memorandum of understanding signed by all four chiefs.
“It’s a key component — to have all four chiefs agree on an understanding and a process to move forward. It doesn’t happen very often,” said Wilson. “It’s important that we listen and that they are heard. We need to make sure everyone works together and comes up with a long term solution to a regional issue.”
Wilson stated he is aware of how hard Hope Mission has been working and that everyone appreciates all of the work they’ve done for the people experiencing homelessness in the area.
“I do think there’s room for both [the Hope Mission and the Maswacis Recovery Community],” said Wilson. “However we need to be careful we’re not overlapping on services between the two as well as with scale. We don’t want to be bringing people into the area who need services; we need to help the people who are already here.”
Hunter Baril, press secretary for the province’s Minister of Health and Addiction, said the province was aware of the Maswacis initiative’s proposed facility but that at this time the proposal is not yet being considered.
“We remain committed to working with city council to ensure those facing homelessness in Wetaskiwin are kept safe and warm,” said Baril. “That’s why funding has been put forward by the province for the building of a new shelter in the area and we are working with the city to ensure services are made available to those in need.”
“Alberta’s government is focused on the 11 recovery communities that are planned or underway across the province. Four of these facilities are being built in direct partnership with First Nations to support culturally-appropriate healing from the deadly disease of addiction. Specifically, the four facilities with First Nations are being built with the Blood Tribe, Enoch, Tsuut’ina, and Siksika.”
Other facilities are located in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Gunn, Calgary and Grande Prairie, with more locations yet to be announced in Edmonton and the North Zone. Once complete, every health zone in Alberta will have at least one recovery community offering holistic, long-term live-in treatment at no cost.
Currently, funding has been secured for Hope Mission’s proposed shelter on 37a Avenue in Wetaskiwin. The provincial government has committed $3.2 million with the rest of the funds needed coming from the Government of Canada and Hope Mission.
In May of 2023, council approved the development permit for the Hope Mission emergency shelter and transitional housing facility based on a preliminary site plan. An updated site plan and proposed amendments were presented to council in September in conjunction with a building permit application to begin construction of the building foundations. Changes to the plan included variations in site grading and proposed drainage, as well as outdoor amenity areas and smoking areas.
The changes in Hope Mission’s plan meant they were required to revisit council to have the changes approved, however, they have since indicated they would like to proceed with the originally presented plan “to promote the timely progress of the project.”
Rev. Kelly Row, director of the local Hope Mission, stated they would have liked to have begun construction on their new facility but agreed with Billingsley that exploring all options in ‘due diligence’ was the right move.
“All groups need to look at how best to meet the needs of the people they are serving,” said Row. “Hope Mission and the emergency shelter is only one piece of it — we still need a recovery centre, we still need more affordable housing and we need more transitional housing.
“The big win is that people are starting to realize there is a big need for more services in our area.”
Currently, Hope Mission is operating a temporary shelter in Wetaskiwin, which sees around 40-50 individuals utilizing the facility nightly. Row stated he expects those numbers to rise as the temperatures continue to drop in the coming months.
Mayor Tyler Gandam stated in an interview following the Dec. 11 council meeting that he and council have a great deal to work through before next month’s meeting. He added he believes the shelter is an “absolute necessity.”
“I’ve seen the fires and medical events when encampments were the only option and it is far worse than if there isn’t a shelter,” said Gandam. “The problem is rising across the province — communities who have never had a homeless issue are now facing it and those communities who have historically had homeless and social issues are now finding those problems are far worse than they’ve ever been before.”
“If we don’t do something to mitigate those issues, we’re going to be in an even worse position in 10 years when it comes to these social issues and addiction.”
Coun. Gabrielle Blatz echoed Gandam’s concerns about a need for a shelter in the city.
“I’ve seen how bad it gets when we don’t have a shelter — I’ve seen people freeze to death,” said Blatz. “I’ve seen people using the hospital as a shelter because there’s nowhere else for them to go. I do get concerned that if we have something outside of our city it won’t get utilized.”
Blatz added, “I don’t think the two projects need to be separate;they could work and operate together. How that works, I don’t know. The province is the one funding this and if they feel strongly this second option is the one we should be deciding on or be a part of then I feel that needs to be communicated and brought to the table with us.”
An open mic was held before the meeting of council on Dec. 11, in which a number of local residents spoke against the shelter. Concerns were geared towards the location of the shelter stating it was too close to businesses who are already struggling in the area and could lead to an increase in crime.
A recent petition organized by the Wake Up Wetaskiwin group in opposition of the shelter also circulated before the meeting. Founder of the group Debby Hunker, stated the petition had acquired over 1,000 signatures.
“There were only 3,442 voters in the last election, so this petition represents nearly one third of the voter’s wishes on this issue,” said Hunker in the open mic portion of the meeting.
“Why is the city pushing so hard for this homeless shelter when you have so many taxpayers and residents that are against the project — why as elected officials who have sworn an oath to listen to the people, are you pushing ahead with this project?”
Coun. Bill Elliot stated later in the meeting he felt the need to respond to those who say council is not listening. He said council directed administration to investigate options for a permanent solution to this challenge. In June 2019, Hope Mission presented to council, and during that time council received “many favourable comments regarding this proposal.”
“In that period of time, I didn’t receive any negative comments,” said Elliot. “Funding came from the province, all of the decisions from council were made in public meetings — we haven’t been trying to hide things and nothing was done in secret. Decisions made were by a majority of council.”
Elliot added he was concerned with how some citizens were approaching the matter, stating the city manager, councillors, the mayor and the mayor’s family have received threats since the protest against the shelter began.
“Threatening and swearing … has no place in a democratic society,” said Elliot.
Coun. Karen Aberle was among those who voted against the delay in the shelter during the most recent meeting.
“I have seen from multiple levels of AHS, the RCMP and mental health services talking about how an emergency shelter has helped and can help our community,” said Aberle. “I’m voting for what I have believed since I have moved to this community — something inside of our community is needed.”
“I hope that we can have multiple areas working to help the people who are struggling. Our job is to continue looking after the businesses and citizens as well as continue pushing our RCMP and ministers to continue looking at the issues Wetaskiwin has now.”
Council directed administration to investigate options to pause the building permit granted to Hope Mission for 120 days.
The issue will be revisited during the city’s next regular meeting on Jan. 8 at 9 a.m. in council chambers on the third floor of Wetaskiwin City Hall.